Selfie Society!

November 21, 2013 by susanmoirmackay

My children are posing in front of me, lips flared, bottoms sticking out – with dramatic obscenity and two fingers held up in front of their faces. This, they tell me, is the new style for ‘selfies’. Selfies, in case you somehow missed it, is a self portrait (photograph) posted online. And the point of the selfies, to my cynically bemused eye, is to remind the world, if not yourself, how fabulous you look! Or an opportunity for self flagellation […]

Categories: Art, Conceptual Art, contemporary art, nudes, photography, Portraits, Self Portrait, Selfie, society • Tags: art, conceptual art, frida khalo, lucien freud, portrait, sarah lucas, self portrait, selfies, van gogh

NE6- Anthropology 2012- Human, System, Object.

January 19, 2013 by susanmoirmackay

2012 was supposed to be our end time and yet, we are still here! ‘Kingdom Come’ was the title of this year’s National Exhibition at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas. Artists were invited to explore the theme of apocalypse, personal or universal. Interestingly apocalypse ‘translated literally from Greek, is a disclosure of knowledge, hidden from humanity in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception’. (wikipedia) This quote intrigued me. And I decided to direct my approach from this […]

Categories: Art, Conceptual Art, contemporary art, National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, Portraits, society, The Bahamas • Tags: art, Bahamas, conceptual art, construct, structure

3 men.

August 7, 2011 by susanmoirmackay

O and I went to an event the other weekend.  it was ‘alternative’.  I phrase it carefully, this is a strange country. The people attending were not the ‘normal’ crowd.  Everyone fascinated me.  I wanted to paint them all, I could see so much on them, or at least I imagined I did.  Its hard to know if I was projecting.  But certainly I was inspired to portray what I imagined.  So I asked the two people we knew at the […]

Categories: Art, Conceptual Art, contemporary art, photography, Portraits • Tags: art, art projects, Bahamas, photography, portraits, process

Portrait: Friends with perspective

July 15, 2011 by susanmoirmackay

I have been struggling again with the concept of finding a commonality for all the portraits, feeling often overwhelmed by perceived cruelty.  Looking at the world after my post about fear and being given examples to disprove my theory.  Violence seeming to be a staple of being human. And I have been thinking about friends and friendships. A friend laments that we are all too busy to spend time like we did when we are school.  THis fast paced efficient […]

Categories: compassion, friends, friendship, human nature, life, musings, perspective, Portraits • Tags: Bahamas, compassion, friendship, humanity, life, portrait, questions

life keeps getting in the way of observing life

July 12, 2011 by susanmoirmackay

I have moved my work to the Atelier at L’utopia. Its exciting and scary to move…..The biggest challenge i have is getting out there, i am used to working on a whim at home. Life is hot and busy.  The kids are in Canada…..but as usual dont feel like i have had enough time to relax into the break in routine. Had a fascinating conversation with T. G. on FB tonight.  She is a recently graduated artist working in new […]

Categories: Art, Conceptual Art, musings, Portraits

process- seeds- life- chaos – growth

May 23, 2011 by susanmoirmackay

So a couple of months ago the kids and I bought some of those tiny little pre dried compost.  You have to pour water on them, and they balloon out and then in the moist earth mini towers they become you pop in the seeds.  We had tomato, basil, cucumbers, catnip for kiki our cat, sweet pea, and some other flowers.  We were super excited when they began to sprout.  It seemed so incredible that from those hard minute objects, we could witness […]

Categories: Art, Conceptual Art, musings, Portraits, product, void • Tags: art, Bahamas, conceptual art, gardening, growing, plants, process, product, society, void, zen

photo photo

May 4, 2011 by susanmoirmackay

             Easter has seemed to have been pulled into a lifetime.  It seems like an eternity since I last had a moment in the studio, alone.  The worst thing about not working, is that I loose the desire to work.  I feel spun into some muddy mire of inertia. However, all has not been insipid and uninspiring.  I had a profound meeting the other day.  Shavon, aka Csavie, who is really a friend of Omar’s but who had asked […]

Categories: Art, photography, Portraits • Tags: image, music, photography

Zoe Update

February 9, 2011 by susanmoirmackay

               Zoe is such a great character it was hard to choose which image to draw from.  I captured some really expressive moments that I found inspiring. But as much for my drawing practise and due to my desire to find the geometry of the face and correlate that to the mandala.  I chose the one below. I have worked out a slight scheme to include all the aspects I want in my portraits. personality – loose […]

Categories: Art, Conceptual Art, contemporary art, mandalas, Portraits, soul • Tags: art, drawing, geometry, inspiration, personality, portrait, sketches

good things happening

January 27, 2011 by susanmoirmackay

I demanded time in the studio today, even though it was hard to push the faces away from me.  The kids sweetness calling to me all day. But for my sanity, even though I was tired from such a full morning, I demanded myself to go in there. I was given a secret to follow after one of my long meditations. Meditations where I am searching to shift the heaviness that seems to have stuck to me.  The secret  was the answer […]

Categories: Art, Conceptual Art, contemporary art, mandalas, meditation, Portraits, Profile, spirituality • Tags: art, art projects, blue, conceptual art, mandala, portrait, pre raphaelites, spirituality

mystery – portraits of life and death

January 10, 2011 by susanmoirmackay

“Living whilst dying – Dying whilst living” is the name of one of the pieces I did for Paradox.  It fascinated me to think how we are perpetually in those two states, yet more pointed when faced with a terminal illness. Yesterday I went to Leo’s funeral.  A shocking death. As unexpected as death can be.  An elegant death, if death can ever be such a thing? The church service was full of catholic warnings of sins and hell.   I […]

Categories: church, death, god, life, musings, Portraits, soul, spirituality • Tags: church, death, funeral, God, life, Mystery, portrait, soul, spirituality