The Learning Connexion’s programme for Deaf and Hearing Impaired students has been running for nearly four years and we’re celebrating with an exhibition showcasing work from students studying towards their Diploma in Art and Creativity (Honours).

It’s the third time we’ve presented our Deaf and Hearing Impaired students’ work in Wellington City and this time is bigger and better than ever. “Breaking the Sound Barrier” is on at ROAR! Gallery for three weeks and includes work by nine students.

There is an eclectic mix on show, spanning a range of media, reflecting the diverse nature of the students studying with us. Hendrik Groot’s paintings consist of beautifully layered colour fields with suggestions of shapes and spaces; Rosie Solouta has a bronze cast of a face which wears a hearing aid; Charlie Stouts’ digital prints include references to animation and popular culture and Alesha Hudson has made wearable art entirely from neck ties.

The opening night was a packed out success, with speeches given by Rachel Noble, CEO of Deaf Aotearoa New Zealand (formerly, the Deaf Association) and Stefan Hall, a tutor with the Deaf Programme at The Learning Connexion. There were also two New Zealand Sign Language interpreters present to allow hearing and Deaf to communicate about the art work and generally have a fantastic time.

The exhibition is on until October 24^th at ROAR! Gallery, 55 Abel Smith St. Open Wed – Sat 11 – 5pm. The show was made possible with help from Wellington City Council.

If you have any questions regarding the art and creativity program for those who are Deaf or Hearing Impaired, please contact Ann at thedteam@tlc.ac.nz

Watch highlights of the opening:

Pick ‘N’ Mix is a group exhibition showcasing the diverse and exceptional talent of staff and tutors at The Learning Connexion School of Art and Creativity, the Hutt Valley’s newest art school.

While our regular exhibitions generally showcase students’ work, this is a rare chance to see what TLC staff and tutors get up to in their artistic lives. You’ll see artwork from a diverse collection of staff including not only the art tutors themselves, but personnel from areas as wide-ranging as administration, reception, audio visual, student support and marketing.

Dan Wilkinson - "Illumination"

With thirty three staff participating, this show promises something for everyone – from bronze casting, to painting, installation and jewellery. Some well-known Wellington favourites are participating – Kapiti jeweller Hanne Eriksen-Mapp has produced some stunning contemporary jewellery, printmaker Lucy Adams is exhibiting screen-printing and filmmaker Kate Logan is branching out with a collection of mono-prints. Dan Wilkinson, who is based at Nautilus studios in Owhiro bay, is curating the exhibition, an experience he is looking forward to. “It is so exciting and inspiring to work with so many creative people. Hanging their work will be challenging, but it’s awesome to see how everyone expresses themselves in their artwork.”

Pick ‘N’ Mix opens at The Learning Connexion’s new campus in Taita on Thursday, October 22nd from 7.00pm. The campus is alongside Taita College at 182 Eastern Hutt Road and is covered in one of the largest, most colourful murals in the Southern Hemisphere – hard to miss!

The exhibition runs until Monday October 26th and is open from 10.00am–4.00pm daily. We’ll see you there!

Hanne Eriksen-Mapp

Hanne Eriksen-Mapp

21st Century Nudes
New paintings from Yen Comer-Hudson

July 16th (from 6pm) to August 6th
The Paramount (foyer)
25 Courtenay Place
Another Spokes Monkey Incorporated presentation 2009

TLC graduate Yen Comer-Hudson presents his latest work, a series of nudes. Yen has been planning this exhibition for a year and has had the luxury of time to get his images how he wants them.

Building on life-drawings he worked on while a student, he has explored the nude figure in six works which are on display in Wellington’s Paramount theatre.

Yen was inspired by renaissance style paintings of nudes reclining and has sourced second-hand ornate gilt frames which three of the paintings are presented in. His other three works are less traditional approaches to the nude, exploring unusual compositions and adding in some experimental techniques.

We had a chat with him just before the show opened, about the work, his inspirations and living as an artist.

Watch Yen Comer Hudson -- 21st Century Nudes:

TLC tutor and artist-in-residence, Robert Franken returned from his artist residency in China on Monday. HE’s been staying in Xiamen with another New Zealand artist, John Walsh. He says “Back in Wellington and reflecting on a journey to the Middle Kingdom. It all went pretty smoothly and the preconceived ideas one has about places were pleasantly altered . China is not a country , but a concept.”

Robert tried to keep a blog of his journey, which was hindered a bit by access to blogs and facebook being restricted. He managed to send text out by email and we’ve been posting it to his blog during his stay. Now that he’s back he’s adding in photos of the experience. It’s probably best to go and read about his journey in his own words and look at the images he’s returned with – you can view it here at www.robertsjourneys.blogspot.com

Robert plans to continue blogging about his artistic process and fabulous travels. Keep in touch with him!!!

TLC had another successful student exhibition this term, with over 250 works, ranging from sculpture, jewellery, painting, to photography and video, all areas of student achievement were on show. Opening night was filled to the brim with well over 100 people coming out on what was a dark wintry night, to view the artwork. A steady stream of day visitors followed, keeping the exhibition helpers busy all weekend. This term there was an open studio in Dan Wilkinson’s drawing class and art work up in the Stage 3 area by students who are reaching the end of their course.

Photograph by Jules Hunt

The exhibition is a great thing to participate in. Even if you are studying from a distance, getting your work out to the public is an important part of being an artist and while it might seem daunting at first, the exhibition has a long history of positive feedback and support for student work.

Helping with the exhibition is also an important part of the TLC experience. There is an enormous amount to learn about putting on a show and the organization and marketing side of art is something which all artists need to think about. Helping with the exhibition can be signed off as independent study hours for all students, or as small starts for those in stage 2. Even if you are busy, it’s worth trying to make it onsite for this part of the program, or just come in for the opening, we’d love to see you.

If you can’t just drop by you can view examples of what was on at the exhibition in our Flickr slideshow:

There were also a number of student video works this term, including some lovely animations:
Worlds apart by Christine Luiten

Bird and Worm by Asher Flatt

Guts! by A. Mackay Esq.

TLC is hosting a Deaf tour this Thursday 7pm at our Taita campus.

Come and see our fantastic student exhibition, and look around the campus.

All Welcome!!

When: 7pm Thursday 18th June
Where: 182 Eastern Hutt Rd, Taita, Wellington
RSVP: a.eves@tlc.ac.nz

TLC tutor and artist in residence Robert Franken is about to take up another residence on the other side of the world. He is off this very minute to Xiamen, Wellington’s sister City in China, for a three week artist residency. Six artists have been selected to participate and are all expected to create and show work, and do a short talk while there.

We stopped by Robert’s studio to have a quick chat with him before he left. He showed us around his space which is filled with paintings by his family and fabulous objects he has collected in his travels. Robert is a sixth generation artist so he is surrounded by works by his forebears which provide inspiration to his practice.

Robert is primarily a painter but also works on glass engravings which mirror the marks he uses on his canvas. You can view his work on his website at www.robertfranken.co.nz.

He describes his work as dealing with the space between -- “When one looks on a sunny day on the surface of the water, one can see suggested characters . I took the numbers 1 till 10 and threw them on that surface . I don’t want my works to be read , but yet the characters suggest a language. The effect is that it can travel between the floor boards of cultures . it give also the works a sense of motion and timelessness.”

Robert explained that he had three possible plans for his process in China: Plan 1 is to take paints and a canvas, plan 2 is to take engraving equipment and find glass or a mirror over there, and plan 3 is to take nothing and scrounge around in markets for materials when he arrives.

You can follow Robert’s progress as he works in Xiamen -- he is keeping a blog at -- www.robertsjourneys.blogspot.com

Stage two student Fiona Sole has just finished work for her first solo show, opening at Deluxe café, this Monday, May 25th, at 6pm.

While Fiona has focussed on both painting and sculpture during her studies at The Learning Connexion, this show is all about her beautiful paintings. She has created a series of nine large scale portraits of characters from movies of the Eighties. Fiona worked in the film industry before she became a student and has always loved film, so working with these images made sense. She usually doesn’t work from posters, instead she prefers to play the films through and select individual frames to paint from.

She says she selected the films from favourites she has continued to love over the years, and there are many there which will be familiar. We all remember films like Ghostbusters, Bladerunner, and Star Wars, eagerly watched on the big screen if you were old enough, or in super hifi VHS if you weren’t. Actors like Kevin Costner, Sigourney Weaver, and Harrison Ford are some she has painted, in character, as the heroes that many of us would have dreamt of growing up to be.

That is what is so captivating about Fiona’s images, they are filled with nostalgia for the films themselves, but also for the time when you were watching them. Looking at her paintings I am reminded of watching Dances With Wolves with my sister, or how much I wanted an Ewok or when I finally saw the director’s cut of Bladerunner.

Fiona’s show is up for two weeks at Deluxe Cafe, Kent Terrace Wellington, or if you can’t make it, you can see her work online at
www.fionasole.wordpress.com.

You can watch a short interview with her here:

Distance delivery tutor Anne-Marie Jean answered a few of our questions about her own creative process:

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I moved to Christchurch from Australia in 2000. I fell in love with the landscape and the people down there. We moved to Wellington a few years ago so I could work at TLC. Teaching and mentoring has been fantastic. It brings wonderful energy into my life and art practice and it is great to share my passion for art and creativity with others.

What do you do at TLC?
I mostly work as an EM mentor, but also run onsite classes in things like oil painting, installation and performance art, and abstract women painters.

What kind of art do you make?
Mostly I make big abstract landscapes in oils. Working at TLC has inspired me to branch out a little into other areas too. I’m especially interested in the art/craft boundaries at the moment.

What is your favourite medium?
Absolutely, positively, oil paint.

How does your creative process work?
I work a lot on intuition. I had a student in last week’s block class say the canvas was her muse and I really related to that. I have a couch in my studio and I just love to paint then run back and sit on the couch and wait for the painting to tell me what comes next. I go tramping a lot which really inspires me and my work.

Who is your most inspiring person of the year and why?
I think fellow tutor Marci Tackett is really inspiring. She has so much energy for exploration and experimentation and I just love her mark making. She just bought a new printing press and is so following her dreams. I’m inspired!

Who is your favourite artist and why?
Oh it is such a toss up between Cy Twombly and Joan Mitchell. They both have a love affair with paint and mark making and seem to be emotionally intelligent and expressive. I also discovered installation artist Jessica Stockholder last year and adore the materials she uses and the huge space she engages with.

What is the coolest thing you ever learnt?

Either that bad painting leads to good painting or admitting I can’t do something generally leads to me being able to do it.

What did you want to be when you grow up?
I remember a conversation with my best friend where we decided I would be an artist and she would be a journalist and write a book about my great aunts who I thought were so amazing (I still think that). She is a lawyer now, but it is never to late to start writing!

You can check out her work at: http://annemariejean.googlepages.com/

AV staff Ruth Korver and Vanessa Patea are doing the 48 hour film competition this weekend. You have 48 hours to make a film and we’re going to blog it!!!

Follow our creative process this weekend at:
http://electricpinkcompany.blogspot.com/

Read more about the competition at:
http://www.48hours.co.nz/2009/