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Gleaning Paris for Art Materials video. From the streets of Paris I collect stuff,junk to create with, plus other inspirations behind my ideas. Works in progress from my studio’s in Paris, Spain and Australia. Photos taken in Paris, Spain and Australia.
All artwork copyright to Jenny Davis
Latest news!
I’ve just been featured at Artsy Shark. Thank you! Carolyn Edlund for all your hard work and for doing such a great job promoting artists and getting their work seen.
Featured Artist Jenny Davis
Artsy Shark presents Australian artist Jenny Davis. Her mixed media work uses recycled and reclaimed materials. Enjoy her portfolio and see more about Jenny here.
Jenny Davis is an Australian artist, working from studios in Victoria, Australia and Paris, France, where she sometimes lives. As an artist, she enjoys working in many disciplines including: painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video, collage, recycled design, sound and virtual worlds. Jenny has shown her work in many countries, including Australia, Germany, Spain, France and USA. Her work is in private and public collections across Australia, UK, Europe and the U.S.A.
Starting out primarily as an abstract painter and sculptor, Jenny’s arts practice has evolved and crosses over into many areas and disciplines. Recycling and reusing items in her work is very important. Stuff that usually goes into landfills and gleaned from the streets of Melbourne and Paris, or wherever she travels. Street litter, food packaging, advertising materials, advertising materials and all kind of paper ephemera are collected and saved for this purpose.
“All this wonderful stuff I reclaim and use in my collage and sculpture.”
“My source of creativity is spontaneous. It can mean spending days even weeks in the studio and strange places contemplating and “collecting energy”. Once I focus and sit with that energy it can take off in all areas. I then definitely need to put down a feeling or emotion, with colour, marks, words, assembled objects, or digital images still and moving. Whatever it takes to get it out! I use various techniques, materials and tools to realize my ideas.
The same goes with my photography. It’s spontaneous and unrehearsed. I like to tell strange stories with my photography and will put myself in uncomfortable spaces to achieve this. I have a wonderful space I found in Paris, I call the dungeon. I can spend hours down there waiting for something to take off. “
At the moment, I am fascinated by the narrative we tell ourselves, when placed in unfamiliar situations. Our mind seems to fly into “spontaneous imagination” and not focus in the moment. I want to seize those imaginary stories and create something with it.
I love spaces underground. There’s a life underneath the earth, and people don’t know about it, but it’s very busy and living, I have taken photos of the Eiffel Tower but I go under it, and look at closer fragments. I’m inspired by many things: Creative minds, Science as art, varies art movements and artists, Ernst, Miro, Tapies, Surrealism, Dada, Abstract Expressionists’, Natural history, Psychology, de-construction , Chaos theory, collecting found- objects and street litter, graffiti, street art, books, vintage and antique, travel and more.
My French son-in-law can be so much fun. When I go over to Paris we both go out and glean stuff off the streets. We do it on foot as we don’t have a car. Usually we leave my daughter at home as she is not as keen as us, to collect what we like. Once we are back at the apartment with our stash, I sift through it and set aside a little to play with and then I send the rest back home to Australia.
I haven’t been to France for over a year now and today I received a mysterious brown box in the post from Paris.I wasn’t expecting anything so, I was very excited to open it.
I eagerly opened the box and inside was a gorgeous pile of stuff. When I say stuff, I don’t mean glamorous things from Paris, like Loreal , Chanel or Louis Vuitton hand bags. I mean, the box was a treasure trove of French ‘detritus” litter, junk, rubbish. Stuff that usually goes into landfill, stuff gleaned from the streets of Paris. Food packaging, pretty boxes, champagne bottle tops, clothing tags, fabric scraps, glow in the dark bits of plastic, advertising and all kind of paper ephemera plus a replenish supply of baguette bags for my handmade books ….
All this wonderful stuff I reclaim and use in my collage and sculpture.
Merci, Merci , Merci ! Davidx
View my video on “Gleaning Paris for Art Materials”
SPIRIT OF THE VALLEY
An abstract feeling ….In this painting I wanted to capture the “Spirit of the Valley” in an abstract way. The colours connect to the mood of Yarra Valley’s lively communities, rich in it’s, various cultures. The arts, food and wine intermingled with the tranquillity and soul of the surrounding landscape
To see all my work please go to my ‘Gallery”
Funny how things seem to workout. Recently I had a fall and broke my arm.
I have been wanting for ages to update my” Gallery” but, always find it too hard to drag myself away from the studio. Since breaking my arm though, I’ve had too slow down and take it easy. Over the past few weeks I have managed to use the computer with my left hand to upload more paintings, drawings and sculpture for you to browse.
I offer all my art at studio prices, eliminating huge gallery and agent fees.
Saving you $100’s…
Please see Buyer Info
If you have any questions or would like to see a high resolution photo of a piece, please contact me at Outlook8studio and I will do my best to help you.
Hope you enjoy !
“Stimulate your senses.Suggestive and powerful abstract art with a spark, to generate new ways of thinking, to move and inspire us. Jenny Davis award winning, Australian Contemporary artist , paint’s what she feels. Bold and stunningly colorful abstract paintings, that reveals the power and brightness of color, through the different effects of form and texture which spring from the canvas.”
Paula Trevisan, International Art,Ferrara , Italy in 2010
DIARY ENTRY 2005“Surfaces tell the stories of History’s children. I travelled the surface of the battles. Napoleon and Hitler’s slaughter. The senseless bloodshed of scores of the Holy wars. As I entered the borders it invaded my skin, then, seeping into my soul, I saw where it happened over and over again. It clings to me and will stay.
In England I saw a ghost in nave at Canterbury Cathedral and visited the wonderful sea side village of Rye. Nearby the weird, bizarre but wonderful Dungeness. And the fantastic museum in Maidstone where I was the only one, creeping through the old corridors. I loved its ancientness.
In Spain, I felt the genius of Dali, Gaudi , Miro, Picasso and Antoni Tapies.The magic of Don Quixote, Flamenco, the dance and Catalan language.
I had fun with Tarrentino’s, Pulp Fiction in France and the beautiful city of Paris with its beautiful goldness, but no toilets. I fell in love with Venice , Florence and the Renaissance. The architecture cathedrals and more.”
Letters from the Border Jenny Davis
The flower rose from the desert floor
Pushing its way through the dry hard crust like a white rag flapping its surrender into the dust
Time slowed to a halt for one soldier he clicked the camera.
An interruption to the vile slaughter he had witnessed earlier that morning
The image arrived penetrating the depths of her soul for she knew the little desert flower from the border would change the fragility of humanity forever
Finally after all the fires in Victoria I’m starting to create again and catch up with my work in the studio. Pictures above show images of the hubcap I created for the Landfillart project in US.
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
LETTERS FROM THE BORDER is actually a series of many pieces I have been working on for years…..This piece is a collage of images taken from my collections.
A copy of an original Imperial letter from Berlin I own dated early 1900’s
A piece of writing I created in 2003 in connection to Iraq Photos and emails I received from a US soldier when he was on the border in Kuwait waiting to invade Iraq.He described to me what happened to his troops on that day and night.
They were bombed 30 times as they crossed the border.
We conversed with emails for a few months then nothing .I don’t know what happened to him I haven’t been able to find out.
The bomb like image is a photo of a plastic toy I have that sits inside one of my box sculptures.The soldier images are from the photos he sent me of himself and his crew. I had made a few zines out of these images then I tore one up for this work. It was all originally on stretched canvas but I cut it out for the hubcap and sealed it….
The desert flower refers to a photo he sent me as he was entering over the border into Iraq…a little flower a glimmer of hope in the dry dusty desert
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Landfillart is an international effort encompassing one-thousand-forty-one (1,041) artists to claim a piece of rusted metal garbage and create fine art.
The ultimate goals of this project are twofold. The first is to compile a book with the story and photos of the evolution of http://www.landfillart.org and the coming together of 1041 artists worldwide for a common cause, making great art out of rusted refuse. Only artists could lead such a charge. The other goal is to select 200 of these metal canvases to travel and inspire other such movement
VIDEO OF A PAINTING CREATED LAST WEEK plus other projects on the go I don’t sleep much at night as ideas keep cramming my head. I have to get up and go to the studio. If Ive been up all night like the mad professor in the lab creating monsters……you may catch me in bed during the day sleeping.
MY LATEST CHALLENGES….. No one can do everything but everyone can do something ….Sustainable Dave
THE ONE WEEK TRASH CHALLENGE
Collecting all my personal rubbish for 1 week I will make an installation from it and post here as well as send to Daves website.
Its amazing what we toss away without noticing.
To try the challenge yourself Go to Sustainable Daves website.
http://sustainabledave.squarespace.com/ THE LANDFILL PROJECT
Ive been invited to create art from a used metal hubcap and send it to Landfillart in US.
Landfillart is an international effort encompassing one-thousand-forty-one (1,041) artists to claim a piece of rusted metal garbage and create fine art.
www.landfillart.org
PARISGRIT VIDEO & SOUND INSTALLATION
Photography – Painting – Collage
In Paris there is beauty everywhere. So where did my ‘head-down’ inspiration for Parisgrit come from?
Probably my contrary view that beauty is what we make it. So I explored the underground spaces, surfaces, corners, crevices, signage, graffiti and even discarded packaging of Paris, finding as much interest there as a tourist sees in the classic art and architecture.
It’s all street art – digital images, street litter and objects for collage – that I impulsively, obsessively collected from the Paris under my feet. Parisgrit is the other beauty of Paris, the ignored and neglected surprises and symbols, filtered through the mischief in my heart and grit in my eyes! Amusez vous …Jenny Davis 2007
In May 2007 ,I traveled to Paris and was part of an exhibition in Berlin with 4 other Melbourne artists, After a few hitches the artists finally enjoyed an opening at the Bob Curtiz Contemporary Movement gallery in Berlin ,which included the attendance of dignitaries’ from the Australian embassy in Germany.
I also spent 3 months in Asnieres-Sur-Seine in Paris, the once home of 18th century painter, Georges Seurat who painted the famous “Une Baignade a`Asnieres”
Living amongst the local, ethnic communities I was able to breathe in the essence of life and culture of Paris. Time was spent strolling through the museums, Louvre, D’orsay and the Pompidou, and the not so touristy areas, to network with the artists & galleries to see what their local artists were up to. I observed the spirit of the “French Café” noticing much of it remains as, it was in the earlier days with its red districts, brothels and porno joints, all still colorfully alive.
I explored areas like Mont Martre and places where legendary artists and writers once frequented. Where art movements, such as, Dadaism, Impressionism and Surrealism were argued and created. I loaded myself with camera, video, paintbrush and rubbish bags and explored underground spaces, surfaces, corners, crevices, signage, the Metro and Graffiti. I collected discarded, street litter and consumer packaging and bought it back to Australia to create with back in my studio.
