Yaniv Janson has just turned 18 and has already exhibited more art work than many people do in a lifetime. He began painting quite suddenly in 2008 and by the end of his second year of  painting he has featured in over 23 exhibitions, sold paintings around the world, published books and won many awards. Yaniv is the youngest artist to have been selected as a finalist by both the Wallace Art Award and the Waikato Contemporary Art Award, both in 2008.

Yaniv works mainly with paint, but is also trying out some printmaking techniques as part of his study at The Learning Connexion. He keeps a regular blog where you can keep in touch with what he has been up to. He uses this as an effective marketing tool to get his artwork out into the world and to communicate his ideas to his audience.

Yaniv was born ‘outside the square’ with Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder characterized by a difficulty with communicating. Making art has given Yaniv a voice and a language with which to share his ideas with the world and challenge himself. Yaniv’s success has been supported by his parents  who have enthusiastically helped him to explore his passion for art.

His mother says that “For Yaniv art is a lifeline to life – we did not know this when we started this adventure but now that we see what doors art has opened for Yaniv we know! Art has had a significant life changing impact both internally, such as his relating to others in such meaningful ways, and externally, such as getting recognition for his work.”

We asked Yaniv a few questions about his experience at The Learning Connexion, making art and what challenges lay ahead for someone already so accomplished:

How long have you been making art?

“I did art as a young child but then stopped for a long time. I started painting again in summer 2008.”

What drew you to enrol at TLC?

“The reason why I went to that school was because I thought that it would be a good school. We searched on the internet and got in contact with TLC. Then Jonathan came to Hamilton to speak about his book (GO! The Art of Change) and my parents went to see him and thought TLC would be great for me.”

What are some highlights (either artistic or personal) that you have achieved so far?

“I love entering art competitions and selling the paintings and becoming famous! Marcel (my mentor) is focused on helping me realize my dreams and this is great.”

What is your goal with your creativity?

“My short term goal is to learn and get better. Marcel helps me hugely with this. My long term goal would be to win art competitions and sell my art for so much money, like millions of dollars.”

What has been special about the TLC experience for you?

“I get on with Marcel really well. It is great that I can live far away and still improve my art through distance learning. In February I came to TLC and did a printmaking workshop with Marcel – this was AMAZING – I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS EXPERIENCE.”

What would you say to someone thinking about enrolling at TLC?

“I would say that it is good!”

You can see Yaniv’s work at his website – www.y-artist.blogspot.com and also check out his book on Amazon.com.

After this article was published we received further good news from Yaniv:

The interest generated by Yaniv’s passion – raising awareness about Climate Change and sustainability issues is growing. We just heard that Yaniv has been awarded a ‘Variety – The Children’s Charity’ scholarship (his name will appear shortly on their page: http://www.variety.org.nz/variety-gold-heart-scholarship-fund-xidc25879.html). The $5000 will go towards buying materials to make the murals, public art for a new energy centre in building now and publication of the accompanying book about climate change.

This Sept Yaniv has a solo exhibition in Waikato Museum ArtsPost on the topic of “Visualising Climate Change”. Short description: “Media campaigns based on science have failed to create the massive action needed to mitigate climate change – let’s actually come face to face with the future images of our cities and landscapes!”

Dunedin based artist and Diploma of Art and Creativity (Honours) student Pete Keane is going animal.  ‘Pete Goes Animal’ is the name of one of his upcoming exhibitions planned for May/June this year at South Seas Gallery, Brighton, on the coast just south of Dunedin.

If you want a sneak preview of Pete Keane’s work then he has a group exhibition coming sooner, at Cafe Rue – ‘South Seas Gallery Comes To Cafe Rue’ starts on May 4th until May 30 with works by Janet Weir, Olly Crooks and Peter Keane. Another exhibition ‘Can We Come to the Policeman’s Ball?’ is planned for late in the year. Whew! Pete is a busy man.

No animals will be injured or harmed in any way in preparing for the animal show but some may be embarrassed if they see themselves the way Pete does. 
He has completed half of the 15 paintings and says he’s excited about ‘exposing’ himself to people of the south. Pete has returned to the South after 38 years living in the North Island.

Maadonna

We asked Pete some questions about his exhibitions, his artwork and his creative journey:

What have you got in store for us at your exhibitions?

A good question. Well I like to have fun and paint with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek so you can expect to be amused, you can expect to ask questions about what you see and you can expect to see unique and original work.

Mitre10

What inspired the animal exhibition? How did you set it up?

Poverty inspired me. I have been recovering from an illness and an injury which have left me with few options other than re-invent myself as an artist. Through an association with my good friend and mentor Janet Weir at South Seas Gallery in Brighton, Dunedin, the idea of my own exhibition took shape. Janet suggested at least 15 works would be required. I will fund the advertising and spend two weeks promoting the exhibition. The gallery is a wonderful space to exhibit art.

The Whanau

Is exhibiting a new experience for you?

No. Perhaps I have always been an exhibitionist, although I would describe myself as an introverted extrovert. I understand that people like to be informed and entertained. I have had work displayed and sold at a number of North Island galleries as well as selling my work through the Affordable Art Show.

The Three Amigos

Could you tell us a little bit about your creative process? How are you creating the work?

I always have ideas but not all are suitable for painting for a number of reasons. Just because an idea is great the actual depiction of the idea – translating it into pigment on a surface can be difficult. I draw my ideas and narrate the images in a visual diary. I sit in Strictly Coffee, a Dunedin café, and work away in a corner usually in ink pen whilst the staff keep me topped up with caffeine.

I first have a theme. In this case, ‘Pete Goes Animal’, and then develop a series of drawings around the theme. I enjoy painting most things but I seem to be able to paint animals easily.  I take the drawings and enlarge them on my copier and then use them as a guide to the work. A Resene paint swatch helps me to decide colours in the drawing stages and I mix paint accordingly when painting.

Biodiversity

How has studying helped with getting your creative juices flowing?

TLC’s holistic approach to developing the creative process is fabulous. I decided to finish my diploma to give myself a huge kick up the backside, you know to ‘walk the talk’ so to speak. And through the mentorship of Kat who is firm but gentle (ha) I have travelled towards my goal. I reckon if you don’t draw and paint most days then you are just poking this whole thing with a stick really.

Pete’s work will be on show at the South Sea Gallery from May 4th.
1088 Brighton Road, Brighton, Dunedin.
The gallery is open Saturdays and Sundays 1 until 5pm.

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.

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.

The Mwamuka Dance Group are based in the Hutt Valley, near Wellington and perform traditional Zimbabwean dance. The Learning Connexion is pleased to have them perform at the Festival of Art and Creativity.

We met up with them to talk why they love to dance and have a sneak preview of their performance…

TLC’s Taita co-ordinator Leah Wynne is herself a TLC graduate. She completed her Diploma of Art and Creativity (Honours) in 2001 and since then has been involved in a variety of art related projects and events.

Leah is a stone carver and has bought her skills to things as varied as children’s holiday programs, community projects and stone symposiums. She’s not always just carving, often involving herself in organizing events such as The Soft as Stone Symposium which appears regularly on Wellington’s waterfront.

Leah works in Oamaru stone, mainly creating stylized and figurative forms, although she does explore animal and marine forms as well. Leah loves sculpting, it brings her a great sense of satisfaction. She prefers hand tools because they give her the time to indulge in and enjoy the process.

On Waitangi day she had the opportunity to have a go at ice-sculpting with another TLC graduate, Aaron Frater. Together they produced a double-sided fish form. Leah says that the ice was beautiful to work with, you could shave off layers to form the shape and to sand you just rubbed it with your hands. Touch is an important part of Leah’s work and many passing people were keen to put their hands on the ice sculpture. She said there was something magical about watching it slowly melt away at the end, changing shape as it disappeared.

Leah will be working on a large ice sculpture, carved from a single block of ice, throughout the Festival of Art and Creativity. She’s thinking about pursuing the fish theme and is really excited about having another adventure with this new medium. You’ll be able to see Leah carving and talk to her about her work throughout the day.

TLC staff member Carrie Burke can usually be found running about organising many of the great events we have here at TLC. From the end of term exhibitions to the upcoming Festival of Art and Creativity she is an organisational dynamo at the centre of much chaos.

Finding a way to recharge her batteries and stay fresh at work has led her back to the process of creating. Her and ex-TLC staff member Catherine Nicolson found that working full time, even in a place as creative as TLC, often left them with little time to make their own artwork. After talking with each other about how to find their way back to their creative hearts they both started spending time in the jewellery and sculpture areas at TLC and taking some time to do the things they love.

Carrie says “Finding that balance and giving yourself some time to do what you love is really important. You can get really tied up with work and daily life and getting involved with a creative process is actually tremendously rewarding and relaxing.”

Both Carrie and Catherine work with paint, sculpture and jewellery, often crossing over and blending the mediums. Both love bold colours and found similarities and connections between each other’s styles. These connections within their work led to the idea of having an exhibition together. Carrie and Catherine made a booking at Thistle Hall in Wellington in the middle of last year, giving themselves a goal to work towards.

Carrie says that she has learned an incredible amount helping others exhibit, which means it has been a smooth process putting together her own. The only obstacle they’ve really faced was Catherine’s move to Australia late last year. The connection between their work and the drive to keep creating has helped overcome this difficulty. It’s been a lot of work, but getting creativity balanced with life has made it all worth it.

With their shared passion for colour and shape, this collection has something for everyone – from Carrie’s delicate jewellery to Catherine’s vibrant textured paintings, complimented by sculptures from each artist. So come and join Carrie and Catherine and celebrate an amazing, bright and eye-catching collection of works.

Jewellery – Sculpture – Paintings: A Collection of Works by Carrie Burke and Catherine Nicolson.

Grand Opening
Tuesday 23 February 2010, 6pm – 9pm

Wednesday 24 Feb to Saturday 27 Feb
10am – 6pm (8:30pm on Friday)

Thistle Hall Community Gallery
cnr Karo Drive & Cuba Street, Mt Cook
Wellington, New Zealand

Dane Kingi – Photo from the Upper Hutt Leader

Dane Kingi is currently studying towards the Diploma of Art and Creativity (Honours) at The Learning Connexion, but this is hardly his first introduction to creating art. Dane has been making things since he was a child and it is something he says he’ll do for ‘life’. His Mum always drew and he remembers spending time drawing with her when he was younger. This led to a passion for creating, in particular carving. Dane works mostly with bone, but also carves wood and designs tattoos.

He finds that the course allows him to work in the directions he is already exploring and his mentor supports him to take his work further. He has been doing a number of projects in and around the Wellington and Hutt valley communities. He has been creating gifts for honored guests at the Armageddon conference, a trade which allows him to meet stars such as Micheal Hearst from Hercules.

It is a hard road however, there are a lot of cheap knock off bone carvings and faux Maori art floating around which undermines work like his. Dane finds that he gets a lot of interest and commissions from people in his own community and also from word of mouth. Dane has been in Upper Hutt for the last ten years and his “Maori Bone Carving” sign outside his house gets him a lot of interest. Local iwi also contact him when they want whalebone and other special items worked on.

His most recent project happened via word of mouth, creating an archway for students at Heretaunga Kindergarten. Recently the Kindergarten decided to become bilingual and they wanted some Maori influence to be bought into the space. They approached their local Kaumatua who passed them on to Dane.

Tawhirimatea

The Kindergarten had decided that they wanted a representation of Tawhiri-Matea, because of the character of Wellington and its windy nature. Dane built and carved a Maihi, or gable above the gazebo in their courtyard. They wanted to represent the overseas students and also the New Zealand born students with kowhaiwhai pattern.Dane designed kowhaiwhai panels to represent both groups. He also included hands at the end of each kowhaiwhai panel to represent the teachers and community who hold all the children together. There was a dawn powhiri for the work and in the end the Kindergarten and community were wrapt

Dane calls himself a T. B. A, a ‘typical broke artist’, but he says it is not about the money; he wouldn’t do anything else except create.

Jewellery Students- Keri-mei and Rani

Monday night’s jewellery auction at The New Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt was a great success. TLC student Natalie Halley organised the event, and with the help of other jewellery students at TLC, they managed to get many beautiful contemporary pieces of jewellery donated, organise and promote the event, and raise money for specialty jewellery equipment.

The students were fundraising for a rolling mill, a specialty jewellery tool for flattening metal. It has a number of other uses; offering jewellery students more technical options in their craft. These include printing metal by rolling an object and metal through the mill and a Japanese technique called Mokume Gane, which creates patterns that look like wood grain.

Over forty pieces were donated to the auction and the evening made over $5000, covering the rolling mill and leaving plenty more for other specialty tools to develop the TLC jewellery department.

Organiser Natalie Halley is feeling tired, but pleased. “It was really great to see everyone come out to support the auction. We got so many more pieces from the jewellery community than I ever expected, people were generous. I’m really excited about getting my hands on the new equipment and creating some pieces of my own with the rolling mill”.

TLC receptionist, Adam Koveskali Had this to say about the night:
“For those of you who missed the event, The TLC Jewellery Charity Auction at The New Dowse was a success that words cannot describe. The evening was enjoyed by all attendees, thanks in great to the professionalism and charm of TLC’s students and staff that organised the event, which appeared to go off without a hitch.

Behind the scenes, many hours of hard work went into it, the jewellery department and their team deserve a medal, but in this case it seems they will be getting a roller mill, which was estimated to cost $3000. I am pleased to inform you, that the auction raised a grand total of $5200, with a total of $4500 after expenses. The success of this event serves as inspiration to our students, all it takes is a little hard work, combined with free wine, and people will open their wallets to a good cause, which wasn’t hard with the exceptional standard of jewellery being auctioned.

It also helps if you can get your hands on a deliciously hilarious local celebrity such as Steve Gray (TV1 Good Morning co-host), who hypnotised the audience into hysterics and inspired the bid battles to get higher as the night went on. Another event that made me proud to be a part of TLC, congratulations team!

The students would like to extend their thanks to Steve Gray the auctioneer, musician Jeremy Hunter, photographer Jules Hunt and all the generous artists who donated their work.

Steve Gray- Auctioneer

“Land Where the Spirits Fly”, a painting by Robert Franken is still available for purchase for $9000 (reduced from $12000 to support the jewellery students) with $3000 available to go to the jewellery department.

Land where the spirits fly

Dan Wilkinson

TLC tutor Dan Wilkinson has used his love of surrealism as the focal point for a group show channeling surreal feel. Drawing on the talents of friends, family and other contacts, Dan has curated an exhibition that looks at how his contemporaries are using surrealism in their work.

Earlier in the year news of the Melbourne Salvador Dali exhibition reached the ears of Dan and a family holiday was planned. At the same time he’d finished a show at Wellington’s Southern Cross bar, who were open to booking something else in the future. Surrealism was at the front of his mind so he set to organising a show that captured the feeling of surrealism somehow. Dan is a big fan of surrealism and impressionism, “ the energy and the concept in both are what I’m attracted to. I wanted to have a show with magic, vibe, spark, that summed up culture, the people, where we’re at and where we’re going”.

Dan Wilkinson

In sourcing artists he picked people who had influenced his own work, his wife Serena Maree, mum Lou Wilkinson, good mate Stefan Wahrlich and a friend from his student days, Dan Mills. “There was a definite sense of synchronicity in finding the other artists, I thought of Leon White and then he facebooked me”. People like Robin Va’auli and Doug Sehnert also came to mind. “They have an essence, & magic in their work”. One of the final additions, Jessie Watson, is an Aucklander and paints to communicate sound. His work showed up at the last minute, hand delivered by a friend who was flying down that day.

Leon White

Dan. Stefan and Leon hung the show. They had a fair idea about the arrangement but let it flow as it happened. Dan says, “you need control over a show but you can’t impose too much, things do work out if you set the scene, you can’t stress”.

Dan’s own influences are varied. He takes a lot from the world around him, his physical environment, but also the local music scene is big on his radar. Bands like Spartacus R and Fat Freddy’s Drop are inspirational and Spartacus R used to play at the Cross so it’s nice to hang the work in that space. “Influence rolls around”.

For the last ten years Dan’s themes have been rhythm and flow, but this is definitely evolving. “I’m not creating a landscape like I used to, now I’m creating a dream world, a moment, like you might glimpse in the clouds or the ocean for a second and then it’s gone. McCahon talks about stripping back the landscape, he’s also about sound, capturing the feeling, but his work was about division, I‘m more interested in the emergence of cultures and coming together”.

Dan sees his personal style settling at the moment. “It was really reassuring seeing Salvador Dali, for the first ten years he was all over the place, he almost became an abstract artist, then settled to what worked for him. You have to keep reminding yourself that it’s a journey.”

Serena Maree

Surreal Feel its Da Real Deal runs through November at The Southern Cross Bar on Abel Smith st. in Wellington.

Doug Sehnert