Charles Noanoa
Te aitanga a Hauti
Ngati Porou
Ngati Pahawera
Charles Noanoa works in the Taita community as a ‘community facing Priest’, meaning he works out of the hall as opposed to the church, connecting with the people in the local community. Charles says that this makes sense in terms of his upbringing with the idea of the ‘meeting house’, where people come together for a variety of reasons in a shared environment. For Charles, these range from work gangs and people doing community service, to vegetable gardens and lunches for the elderly. Most of the work he does beyond the hall is with prisoners and children’s groups.

Charles met The Learning Connexion staff member Carrie Burke begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting while working with Great Start and Vision Active children’s groups. Carrie facilitates art projects with the children and together they made a connection. This wasn’t the first time that Charles had heard about TLC however. He worked with people who became students when the school was in Island Bay and saw what it had done for them. He says when he heard TLC was coming to Taita he said “How long? Hurry up!”

Charles says that there is a lot of creativity to be found in the Hutt Valley and local Taita community, although it’s more hidden than it might be in Wellington. There is the weaving work happening in Waiwhetu Marae and he says he’s seen some incredible artwork coming out of the prisons.

We were honoured to have Charles welcome everyone to our Festival of Art and Creativity and he was kind enough to write us a poem about the day:

“Papatuanuku Earth Mother
wonderfully robed in her korowai of foliage and colours
washed by fresh waters of Rangi – Father Sky
touched dry by the brilliant rays of Te Ra – Brother/Sister Sun
And in this setting – Children of Te Matua i te rangi are shown.
A kaleidoscope of skin colors, age, sizes
Appetites wondrously sated by smells of food, children spinning colours
music absorbed into the symphony of The Learning Connexion
Our Brothers and Sister merging their Mothers and Fathers into our lives
Dance our Lakota Brothers, speak forever our Lakota Sister
Our mana stands proud / humbled
as our eyes touched yours
our breaths merged in intimacy with yours
our smell and touch allowed us to be one
Creative Spirit, flow gently and constantly partner us
As we continue to live ‘the festivities of impressions’ into our lives and
into the Te Ao  / the World

The Spirit of the TLC Day”

Article by Ruth Korver.

A recent issue of TIME Magazine featured ‘The Decade From Hell’.  It depends on how you look at it.  TLC’s roll steadily increased throughout the decade.  Students continue to work with dedication and optimism despite the wobbles of the global economy and relentless fretting of the news media.

The disturbing news is that what happens in America often flows on to New Zealand.  The unemployment rate in America has doubled to around 10% in the last two years (NZ has moved up to 6%).  More than thirty-six million Americans are currently receiving benefits via food stamps.  Western economies as a whole are in a mess and are dependent on what might as well be called food stamps.  Rod Oram in the Sunday Star Times (November 29, 2009) said ‘Central bank support of financial systems and government stimulus of economies equals 30% of global GDP.’

Putting it another way, the financial system is a social welfare cot case and is receiving massive support to ease the potential of a much bigger calamity.

This may look like terrible news for budding artists because state spending is getting tighter and tighter.  Our government has put a heavy lid on educational spending and we’re hearing new versions of old advice about learning to be happy with less.

On the bright side our politicians might finally wake up to the fact that money itself is a big part of the problem.  Currency trading has become a massive and essentially useless business.  Global trading in New Zealand currency went up by nearly 900% in the six years to December 2007*.  In the last half of 2009 our currency bounced 23% between the lowest and highest values against the US dollar.  Does that have any grounding in reality or is it part of a giant financial poker game?

If the poker game was taxed at a very low rate per transaction, the money could go into education and other worthy causes.  Naturally the poker game would get smaller and less profitable, which could free capital for things that actually matter.

TLC has been very conservative during the ‘decade from hell’ and we’ve kept our borrowing to a minimum.  Instead of joining the money market we’ve built capital and put it into our new Taita campus.  We have moved into the ‘Twenty-tens’ in better shape than ever.  We’ve built the best art and creativity resources in New Zealand and it is a privilege to be involved.

Despite our underlying stability we’re still vulnerable to changes in the world economy and to government policy.  The best protection is for staff and students to think of new ways in which art and creativity can be relevant to the wider community.

Two particular areas of development are especially important.  One is the relationship between hands-on art experience and general ‘problem-solving’.   This is something which is vital to education everywhere.

The other major area is well-being.  I recently heard psychiatrist Stuart Brown say that the opposite of fun is depression.  No wonder that people find that the fun of art is good for them.  It’s exciting and inspiring.  It does something for the human spirit.  It is a message to all who care to pay attention.  When the human spirit is strong, we will find ways to prosper.

* based on figures in the Sunday Star Times, 29/11/09

Catherine Sinclair certainly likes to insert her sense of humour into her work. Last time we talked with her she had just snuck her installation ‘100% SHEEP’ onto the front lawn of the Wellington City Gallery during its post refurbishment grand opening (inspired by Gregor Kregar’s live sheep installation at the 2007 ‘Prospect’ exhibition).

This time we found her in the more conservative setting of the New Zealand Portrait Gallery’s Adam Portraiture award. Catherine’s painting ‘Detail From a Five Hour Face Lift’ is one of this year’s finalists. Her work is a self-portrait of herself as a theatre nurse, from the point of view of a patient that she is working on.

She said that she was surprised when she heard that she was a finalist and was a bit nervous about how her work would stand up. Once she saw all the work up however, she stopped worrying.

Her painting took her two days to paint initially. She worked from a photograph that she got a colleague to take, but also put on a theatre hat and mask and did some work from life as well. She had the painting in her house for several months and kept tweaking it as she lived with it.

She said she wanted to play a little with the idea of self-portrait and the face. She set it up so the view is of someone changing their own face. The mask and hat covers most of her face and hair, but the eyes are often enough to recognize someone. “In theatre you meet people all covered up and it’s often a surprise when they reveal their hair or the rest of their face,” she says. “It’s interesting to think of how others see you.” She was also thinking about the idea of nurse as a saint or angel, with the light haloed around her.

Originally, she had thought of studying art but decided to get a real job – nursing. She spent some time overseas and did a lot of drawing especially of her dog and herself and when she returned, decided to go back and study art. (In between, she also did a zoology degree that involved a lot of dissection drawing). She completed a Diploma of Art and Creativity at the end of last year and has continued to nurse part time so that she can fund her art. It also provides her with a balance and she sees some parallels between the two professions. “Being a theatre nurse involves a lot of patience. You need full concentration, much like working on a painting.”

Her plans for the future include taking the sheep on an adventure, exploring combining self-portraiture and performance and using installation for social commentary. She doesn’t have financial expectations about her work. For her it’s about the ideas, the making, the process and exploring where it will take her next.

In 2009, staff and tutors at The Learning Connexion staged an exclusive art exhibition at our Taita Campus, showcasing a diverse and inspiring collection of their own artwork. We invite you to join Ruth Korver and Nic Phillipson as they take you on a video tour through the 2009 Pick ‘n’ Mix show.

I’m thrilled to invite you to attend the opening of “All in between (then and now)”. This exhibition will present a selection of works from the past four years with a number of new and previously unexhibited artworks. This will be my last exhibition in New Zealand for the foreseeable future, as I’m relocating to The Netherlands to further my art practice.

The opening is from 6pm on Friday the 26th of March at J.J. Morgan & Co (3 Cruickshank St, Kilbirnie), and the show will also be open to view on Saturday the 27th. I hope to see you there! Please feel free to forward this invitation and/or bring whoever you like to the show.

WordArt by Jules Hunt/ Written By Carrie Burke

The Learning Connexion had an awesome day here on Saturday 6th March for our Festival, despite threatening rain clouds and a couple of early brushes with drizzle!
Joining together with practicing artists from across the Hutt Valley, we had loads of fun making, playing, looking, eating and listening to some of the fantastic acts on the day.
For me personally, watching the UV glow zone fill with fluro flowers that were made in the kidzone was delicious and a thrill for adults and kids. Likewise the meandering ‘sculpture walk’ through the forest path received raving comments and was a real tribute to the 3D staff and students who got involved.
Seeing visitors lying in the sun and enjoying the wide variety of performers on stage was great, particularly the inclusive ‘round dance’ performed by everyone and lead by the Yellowhawks! When it came to performers we really did have variety -- from Taita College Barbershop, Poppy Dust, spontaneous poetry and Foundation student Benedict Quilters Art noise rock band !
I was proud to be part of the team at TLC who helped make it happen, and we extend a huge ‘thank you’ to creative communities who helped fund the day, to all those who took part, visited or helped in some way to make the day as special as it was.

Festival of Art and Creativity -- HIGHLIGHTS

Our photo slideshow from the day:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Jim and Gabe Yellowhawk

Bronze casting -- Part 1 and 2:

Leah Wynne ice-sculpting:

Jonathan Milne welcomes everyone to the festival…

By Susan Knaap

It’s gratifying (though not surprising!) to see TLC students continuing to make an impact within the art community. To our knowledge, three of the approximately 30 artists who have been chosen to create and exhibit art to commemorate New Zealand’s involvement in the 1944 Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy have TLC connections. In a separate article, graduate student Cath Sheard tells of her own intended journey to Italy to be part of the event. And in the Horowhenua town of Levin, friends Ronda Turk (graduate student) and Sharlene Schmidt (current student) are busily making preparations for the upcoming event in May.

A call for interest from the project’s Italian based Kiwi organiser Kay de Lautour Scott through the New Zealand Art Guild prompted Ronda and Sharlene to submit portfolios of work. Preference was given to those artists who had a connection or deep interest in Cassino. For Ronda, the connection is a family one. “My grandmother’s cousin’s husband, Don Hutchins, fought in Cassino in the 25th battalion. He actually lives here in Levin, so I’ve heard lots of stories directly from him,” she says. And Sharlene is looking forward to representing a number of acquaintances. “The event being what it is and being able to attend is important for me to do for those I personally know. Most are friends’ relatives, but I have the opportunity to do this for them and for me this is an honour,” she adds.

While there is no obligation for accepted artists to make the trip to Italy, both Ronda and Sharlene have committed to doing so and, having never been to Europe, are understandably excited by the prospect. “Visiting Italy is a dream come true, the whole package – history, people, culture, food and of course the art!” says Ronda. For Sharlene, the trip will also double as a honeymoon so the impetus to make the trip a reality is strong. What they need now is funding and they’ve come up with a unique strategy – raffling a collaborative art piece in the subject of the winner’s choice.

Painting in progress

While at one level it is an exciting opportunity to travel abroad and gain artistic exposure, the hope, according to Kay de Lautour Scott, is that artists can play a vital role in recording the past in order to educate and inspire future generations to opt for peace rather than war. Ronda and Sharlene have embraced this mission statement and are working on a number of artworks related to the Battle of Monte Cassino and the war in general. Says Ronda, “My first painting is of ruins in which I have placed doves (to replace flying bullets) as a symbol of peace. My second painting is still in the development stage, but will show the Peace door at the Abbey [The Abbey of Monte Cassino was destroyed during the battle and reconstructed thereafter]. The painting is split in two time-wise – one half is the door after being rebuilt, the other half is after the bombing with the rubble encroaching over into the rebuilt side. This is to symbolise how the aftermath of war is still with us even after we have rebuilt lives and buildings.”

Sharlene will be painting three or four individual paintings. The one pictured is entitled ‘Last Post’. “I wanted to paint an emotion; a picture that would reflect the importance of remembering the devastation of the war,” says Sharlene. “I felt that the bugle call music of the ‘Last Post’ and the poppies are important international symbols that carry emotion. The resting battered bugle is to represent the end of the war and the bugle music for ‘Poppies in Monte Cassino’ is to represent the location as well as soldiers lost and returned” she adds.

Kay de Lautour Scott hopes the art exhibition will become a regular and international event. “We see ANZAC Day parades growing in strength,” she says. “I believe the time is right for artists to reinforce the peace messages coming from the soldiers who fought in this battle. To share time with veterans and have them say, often in tears, that it must never happen again and then to see what is still happening all over the world, leaves me feeling that I must try to do something, however insignificant it might seem. If we all play a tiny part in a move towards peace, we must eventually reach a tipping point where we can change nations and governments,” she adds.

Our congratulations go to the artists chosen for this assignment. It’s encouraging to see TLC students adding their voice to such a worthwhile message.

Cath Sheard

by Cath Sheard

It looked interesting right from the start; the chance to exhibit in Italy in a ‘Peace and Remembrance’ exhibition at Cassino. The organiser, ex-Pat Kiwi Kay de Lautour Scott was calling for expressions of interest from people with a connection to Cassino or WWII. Should I give it a go? I didn’t want to apply until I was sure it was the right thing to do, so I waited a few days – thinking hard during the day, dreaming of Dad, war and Italy at night. Yes, I was sure I wanted to be involved, so sent off my application and some photos of my artwork. The waiting began.

Then came the email “Congratulations, you have been accepted to exhibit in May 2010 in Italy”..  and so the journey started. But first, to go back a bit, what is my connection to Cassino or WWII? My father was in the Navy; he served in the Pacific and went to Germany; my best friend’s father was in the 5^th Field Ambulance and a POW, and her uncle is buried at Rimminy, Italy. The chance to honour these three men is an incredible opportunity, especially as the exhibition also focuses on world peace, something both our fathers cared deeply about. I have since learnt of a fourth person, a sponsor’s father, and am taking his story with me as well.

The four works I am creating are deeply personal; they commemorate Alan McLeod, Roy Lehndorf, Jack Robinson and my father Mansel Barker. My process references the multi-layered and partial nature of memory, just as the images and memories I’ve gathered about these people are partial and somewhat obscured by time.

Each work is on watercolour paper loosely washed with acrylics. Copies of photos and war documents are collaged on then washed over to obscure some of the detail, in the same way that time has dulled memory and obscured details. I then work over the top in acrylics, adding layers of paint to represent stories the men told, such as the particular light in the desert of Egypt.

From there I add abstracted symbols of war and peace; the abstraction references both artistic preference and the way in which old images have often lost detail with the passage of time. Finally I add hand written text which documents their lives following the war, a tribute to the life that peace brings. Even this text is somewhat hidden, just as much of what the men went through has always been hidden from their families.

One problem remains – I can’t afford to make the trip, but don’t want my works to go without me. Once in Italy, attending artists will be taken to the Cassino Cemetery and battle sites and will have the chance to meet local veterans – all in the hope of inspiring ongoing work on the theme. The exhibition is being jointly hosted by Kay de Lautour and Cassino Comune (City Council) in the Biblioteca Comunale or city library and starts with a Gala evening hosted by the Mayor of Cassino. It just sounds too good, too inspiring, to miss.

There has to be a way for me to get there … and I think I’ve found it: I’m selling ‘shares’ in my trip. For $35 shareholders get a share certificate, a hand collaged postcard mailed back from Cassino, a full colour newsletter of the trip after the event, and a 6” x 6” original artwork commemorating the trip by December 2010. I have sold more than 30 shares so far, and hope to at least double that number. If you are interested in learning more about the exhibition, have a WWII story to tell, or would like to buy a share in my trip, contact me on cathsheard@xtra.co.nz – I’d love to hear from you.

About Cath Sheard:
I live in South Taranaki, New Zealand and have been painting seriously for the last few years. I have an Advanced Diploma of Arts & Creativity (Honours) from The Learning Connexion and am a member of the New Zealand Art Guild. As Librarian for Patea and Waverley Library Plus, I have a deep love of words; this, coupled with my interest in people and the local surrounds, all inform my work. I work mainly in watercolour and acrylic, and in a variety of styles. Much of my work leans more toward abstraction – particularly of the local landscape from which I draw much of my energy and inspiration. My artwork can be found in galleries and exhibitions throughout New Zealand and in private collections worldwide, but primarily in New Zealand and the United States.
http://www.cathsheard.com/
PS: The artwork shown is not a finished work; it is a test piece made while exploring the theme and how I wanted to tackle it.

Patea Freezing Works – On the grid

It’s been a beautiful day celebrating connecting creatively out here at Taita.

We’ve got a few videoclips below and you can see pictures on our Flickr gallery…

More videos to come….

Jim and Gabe Yellowhawk

Bronze casting – Part 1 and 2:

Leah Wynne ice-sculpting:

Jonathan Milne welcomes everyone to the festival…

We’ll be bringing you highlights of the Festival of Art and Creativity throughout the day. Check back for videos, pictures and notes about the great things going on…

You can also stay in touch with on our Twitter, Facebook and Flickr pages.