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The Daily Art challenge

 The Daily Art Challenge


I'm not even sure why I feel compelled to create a daily art challenge, and in my head it somehow feels like the right thing to do.  Will I be able to create an art work daily?  I pretty much doubt it, but today, as the sun is shining in Melbourne I am confident that I just might be able to create 365 art works.  One a day. Nope, actually, impossible to do it.  I work slower than that.  I contemplate my work and whilst I like working quickly, the output will not be extraordinary, and I'm fussy and a perfectionist.

Today I explored Joy Hester, and feel somewhat inspired.  The verve of her works has made me want to focus on my art more.   I have always admired her work for the energy, power and enigma that is ever so present in every one of her strokes.  I like that the works are created impulsively and quickly which in some ways does not allow room for too much thinking, as a result Hester's works have a lightness of being that are weighted with her psychology and at times cruel events of her life.

I don't have a favourite art work of hers, but the way she depicts eyes, hair, heads that are contorted at an angle, delve at every instant into the psyche of her subject.  It is pure emotion; an expression only founded by her strokes and materials.

Lovers II, 1956, brush and ink, watercolour-Joy Hester. 

The eyes say so much, contentment and bliss and a comfort only known to lovers.  The tilt of the head could be designed as a response to ecstasy.  The male is behind her, obscured.  She is at the forefront, and the audience connects with her first.

I sought out some literature that I already had, Joy Hester, by Janine Burke, The catalogue, Joy Hester and her friends, from the exhibition at the National Gallery, Canberra- 1 September 2001- 28 October 2001. I sat and watched the documentary, Joy Hester: The Good Looker, directed by Claire Jager, 1995.  For an important artist, there is not a great deal of information on Joy Hester, and I wonder if female artists of Modern Australian art are still widely overlooked.

With a lack of emphasis on female artists, I'm adamant that  I don't want my art to be discussed posthumously, so here it goes.

Mother I.  Ink on Paper, May 23, 2023. Stella Grammenos-Dimadis

Mother 1 shows the hopelessness and anguish of being a mother and the inherent pain of trying to keep children safe, regardless of their age.  

The all knowing mother stands and watches her child, tries to buoy up her child, even though the child is skeletal, losing energy, stamina and strength.  At times, mothering can be overwhelming, it is not all pink, fluffy slippers and a bunch of roses with breakfast in bed.  It is hard work, can be alienating and typically at the same time rewarding, complete opposite ends of the pole meshed into one.  

'Gesthsemane' was described as inherent in Joy Hester's work.  It refers to the intense press of olives for the extraction of olive oil, only to have the oil come out of the pores in blood red droplets.  Her works showed the pain and torment of being. Mother 1 is it's own Gesthsemane.

The use of inks does not really allow the development of the layers as would be the case with oils and acrylics so the immediacy of the art work and the emotion is somewhat final, and cannot be changed at a later date.  It has been a while since I made art and the experience today was liberating. I await on what tomorrow will bring.

Stella Grammenos-Dimadis







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