This year’s New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week was bigger and better than ever! Events in NZSL were run nationwide between May 2nd–8th in an effort to encourage the use of NZSL in New Zealand. NZSL is this country’s 3rd official language and Deaf and Hearing people alike banded together to promote it.
The Learning Connexion (TLC) got involved by holding a Sample Class for students and we hosted a creative space during NZSL Week’s Fun Day. The Fun Day was held at Newlands Community Centre on Saturday 8th May. It was a family oriented event with face painting, games, a bouncy castle and a visiting fire engine. There was also the opportunity to learn some NZSL and buy artwork created by local deaf artists. TLC co-ordinated two collaborative artworks based around this year’s theme ‘Think Sign’ while deaf student, Rosie Solouota, gave a painting demonstration.
Fun Day kicked off with the presentation of this year’s NZSL ‘In Action’ Awards. These awards celebrate the efforts and successes in the Deaf community and formally recognise the contribution that many businesses, organisations and individuals have made towards the progress of New Zealand Sign Language in New Zealand.
This year six awards were presented to individuals and schools around the country and TLC was honoured to receive this year’s NZSL Accessibility Award! TLC was recognised for employing a full-time NZSL communicator, hosting free NZSL classes for students, organising TLC exhibition tours for the Deaf community, posting You Tube clips in NZSL and captioning all their videos that aren’t in NZSL.
The other award winners were:
• Alan Wendt – Interpreter of the year (Wellington)
• Bridget Fergusson – NZSL Champion of the year (Wellington)
• Lisa Shand – NZSL in Teaching Award (New Plymouth)
• Constable Deborah Leahy (NZ Police) Public Service Award (Auckland)
• Paparoa Ranges School -- NZSL in Schools Award (Greymouth)
Congratulations to the award winners and thank you to Deaf Aotearoa for organising another exciting and successful NZSL Week. See you next year!
We would like to share this ‘My Deaf Family’ pilot we found all in sign language:
MY DEAF FAMILY is the story of Jared, 15 and his family, The Firls, who live and love like any family except that Jared is hearing and communicates using sign language with his deaf family. Enjoy!
In 2008 a remarkable book about art and creativity, written by The Learning Connexion’s Founder and Director Jonathan Milne, was published. Entitled ‘Go! The Art of Change’, it is a comprehensive, practical guide to the process of creativity itself, combining philosophy and technique to inspire all those with a yearning to express their inner artist. This stunning book is given to each and every student who enrols with The Learning Connexion – it is the proverbial ‘icing on the cake’ – the surprise that awaits each student who commits to the Diploma of Art and Creativity. At least that’s the usual scenario.
For Sane-Mari Botha, it was the other way around. In 2009 Sane-Mari, an Accountant who dabbled in art, had just participated in a group exhibition that resulted in sales success for everyone but herself. Despondent and wondering whether her work was just “too different” from the norm, she ventured to the local library for inspiration and came across ‘GO! The Art of Change’. She started reading and the more she read the more excited she got. “This was exactly what I was looking for,” she says. “It was inspiring and confirmed that I have to be creative. I knew that the more I practised, the better it would work!”
Sane-Mari borrowed the book so many times that it became a permanent fixture in her home and it wasn’t long before her family got bitten by the creative bug. “My husband (Andre), son (Alexander, 7) and I are very close, probably because the rest of our family lives overseas. We tend to do a lot together,” she says. “So, it was natural that when reading ‘GO!’ I would tell my husband about it. He became so interested in the content that we decided that we would do some of the exercises together,” she adds.
Part-way into the book and inspired by the results she was achieving, Sane-Mari decided to enrol with The Learning Connexion. “I have always dreamed of doing art, but I was not fortunate enough to pursue it because of limited choices I had as a child leaving school”, she says. Half a year on, it is clear her decision was the right one. “I really like doing this programme. It gives me freedom to explore what I find interesting, but also gives me an opportunity to set tough goals through the briefs that I write. Having a tutor available to ask questions, as well as getting feedback on your work is great. It is a privilege to have such knowledgeable people on hand!”
In ‘GO! The Art of Change’ Jonathan Milne suggests that our “task is to get work that fits our passion”. Sane-Mari is taking his advice. “I want to be an art teacher,” she says. “I have always had this notion that art is not just about being able to paint, draw or reproduce. Art must mean something and therefore it has to be a creative process. We were all once children who enjoyed being creative, but the process of growing up took that uninhibited freedom of expression away from us. I want to help people (particularly those who say they are not artistic) to unlock their creativity. I want to show them the joy in being creative and to prove that you don’t need to be an ‘artist’ per se to experience this feeling,” she adds.
It’s a fair certainty that Sane-Mari will achieve her dream. She has identified her goal, researched her options and outlined a time-plan. She has even set a date to bid farewell, once and for all, to her accounting job so that she can focus on her art and teaching career full-time. But most importantly, she is driven by an inner desire to share her joy and there can be no greater motivator than that.
* If you would like to purchase a copy of Jonathan Milne’s book ‘GO! The Art of Change’, click here.
In January and February of 2010, I had the fortunate opportunity to receive an artist residency at the El Hayelo centre in Villa de Leyva, Boyaca, Colombia. How can I put into words the impression this beautiful and majestic place made upon me, both as an artist and person?
Colombia speaks to me of colour and life; alive with natural pigments and materials, deep with roots of myth and history. Some time ago, in a dream, I saw aqua blue waters set next to ochre desert sands. For months, I have been searching for that place. I found it in Villa de Leyva.
Here, time stands still. The town was founded in 1572 and looks now very much as it did then. It is preserved in its entirety and virtually no modern architecture exists. The streets, in Spanish style, are still cobble stoned and the walls whitewashed. It is located in a high altitude valley, where fossils from the ancient ocean floor have been preserved in the desert landscape. The village is framed by a branch of the Andes. Santuario De Iguaque can be reached within a day’s walk. Santuario is the creation lake of the indigenous, Muisca.
The focus of my residency was to produce a series of multi-media works and to research the group process through site-specific installation work, (a concept I began to develop in my final year at TLC). The work seeks to bridge a connection between people and the environment, the development of environmental compassion through direct experience, and the facilitation of the group process in artistic acts offering gratitude to the land.
In the production of the installation work, I had the fortunate opportunity to work with Colombian artist, Catalina Garcina, who brought a new fluidity and expressionistic quality to the work. We scouted a site for the installation and found Villa de Leyva to be the perfect setting to shift the work from the previous gallery-based spaces, to the site-specific outdoor environment. I was mystified to realise the exact setting of a dream I had experienced some 12 months earlier. A desert scape surrounding the aqua-blue lakes of the natural phenomena ‘Agua Azul’. Several days were spent gathering materials around the local area. It was hard to move our noses off the ground, the land was so vibrant with pigment. The area is a geological paradise.
At sunrise, on the day of the installation, Catalina and I began our artistic expression of gratitude to the land. We worked with the desert purples, pinks and fire ochres. We discovered the remnants of a fire by the lake. We gathered the charcoal, whose blackness articulated the depth of the universe. Maize represented the culture of the Andes. Wheat flour was utilized for the white pigment. Later we discovered its true significance. The land had once been used to grow wheat, but could no longer sustain it. So that memory was upheld for the land.
As the work and day drew to a close, toward that special hour of light, a group of local artists and writers came to participate in the completion of the work. The group response was powerful. Songs were sung, words of prayers spoken for the land and people of Colombia. The work was validated and integrated into the land.
After spending the prior 6 months in Mexico, visiting ancient Maya sites, partaking in indigenous ceremonies and traveling by horse back across the state of Oaxaca on an environmental project (see www.nomadsunited.com) and with a wealth of experience to draw upon, I was itching to get into the studio.
During the residency I produced a series of multi-media sketches, weaving themes of horses and Danza de la Luna (ceremonial dance of the moon) into landscapes of the Colombian Andes.
My experience at the El Hayelo residency was extremely positive. The residency’s support enabled me to organise a successful project in a country with many social and cultural differences. My heart was truly warmed by the reception I received. I feel compelled to mention that putting on an exhibition can be challenging enough at the best of times, try organising a show in a foreign language; it’s hilarious!
An exhibition of my work was hosted by the historic Casa Museo Antonia Narino Museum. It was titled, ’Intenciones llenas de gracia, desde la fe hacia el siguiente paso’, (Intensions of grace, from one leap of faith to the next.). The show featured the multi-media sketches, photo documentation of the desert installation and an on-site installation. The response to the work was from the heart. Being featured in the museum gave the work great accessibility to the community. It was a deeply fulfilling experience and an amazing opportunity to develop my work.
I now have a new project underway, entitled Sacra Tierra Project. The objective is to continue the development of land-based installation art and facilitate the collective responsibility and awareness of caring for the land we walk upon.
The V48 hour film competition is a national competition held once a year. In essence you have to write, shoot and edit a short film in 48 hours. The prizes are very alluring and the competition attracts over 500 teams nationwide. I think the most amazing aspect of the weekend is that after the weekend there are going to be around 500 new Kiwi short films that didn’t exist before.
The competition is hard - there are many teams who are seasoned 48 hour film-makers and there are many clever script writers, talented actors and high production values. There are also people who enter the competition for the fun of it with their mum’s handy cam and their mates from school. Upper Hutt High had entered 17 teams this year. This is the spirit of the 48 hour film competition.
Our team name was the ‘Electric Pink Company’ which is a name that we inherited from last year. Our biggest goals for this year were to make sure our film made sense and also to have loads of fun. We hand-picked our team of awesome talents from people who we knew could work together, who could make quick decisions, who have a similar aesthetic and could make the 7pm Sunday deadline.
6pm: It was Friday night; I was waiting in a crowded room at the National Dance and Drama Center, Toi Whakaari in Newtown. As I waited, I looked around at all the teams and wondered how the next 48 hours would pan out for them. It was all up to a ping pong ball in a brown paper bag.
Our team name was announced after a string of other awesome team names like Squint Eastwood, the Avatards and Abusement Park. I went to the front and picked a ping pong ball out of the brown paper. Number eight -- we had our genre which was ‘Biopic’.
‘Biopic’ is a term derived from the combination of the words ‘biography’ and ‘pictures’. These films depict the life of an important historical personage (or group) from the past or present era. It can be a short film about some-one real or imagined.
7pm: I called HQ and informed the team about the genre and the elements to include in this year’s 48 hour film.
The Elements:
Person -- Sydney Manson (A Fabricator)
The Object -- A broken toy
Line of Dialogue -- “If you look at it that way.”
The 4th element -- A ‘dolly zoom’ camera shot
By the time I got back to HQ, the main ideas had been fleshed out and Duncan Sarkies our writer had shut himself in the writer’s room to work his magic on the script.
9pm: We had dinner (yes, the whole weekend was a food fest! We even managed to feed another team with the amount of food we brought with us).
Later that night, Duncan emerged from the room with a script. “We’re going to build a machine and there are going to be cats, lots of cats!” he said. I am sure there is a reason why they say never work with animals or children.
Saturday: after 3 hours sleep
In the early hours of Saturday morning,our Art Department had the huge task of building a machine out of hunks of metal, tinfoil, LED’s and motorcycle parts. The first scene was with our main character, Sydney Manson, drawing the plans for the machine. The plans were the first thing the art department has to complete.
They drew the plans for the machine before we could start shooting the first scene. Our camera man kept himself busy shooting cutaways of cats on the street, whilst our two actors Adam Koveskali and Samantha Jukes get their hair and make-up done by Fiona Sole.
The shoot on Saturday went pretty well and late into the night, without any major hiccups, except our main actor was hit in the back of the head with a heavy piece of metal from the machine. There was a strange calm in the air all day… no-one seemed panicked or stressed. Was this the calm before the storm?
Sunday: after 4 hours sleep
The challenge of the 48 hour film is making the film with very little sleep whilst still trying to problem solve, keep your head together, make powerful decisions and make sure your team doesn’t fall apart.
We were lucky this year, as we had three computers and three editors on-site. Fiona Sole our make-up girl arrived early to transform young Sydney Manson into 70 year old Sydney Manson with her amazing make-up skills. I got a call from Sophie, our sound lady. I was late picking her up. I pulled up to her house in Lyall Bay and she was sitting on the pavement in a bear suit surrounded by sound gear. There was still loads to do! Everyone worked like busy bees in their individual hives. Brent, our voice-over actor arrived. I shoved a script and a coffee into his hand, then I kept moving gear.
4pm Still no-one was stressed out. Was something wrong? Was something going to go wrong? The sound and music went on the edit. I wouldn’t let anyone into the editing room who didn’t need to be there.
It was now 6pm on Sunday. I took the first tape down to the finishing line.
This was a strategy employed by most of the teams; you take a first tape down to the finishing line with a runner around 6pm, one hour before the deadline and then wait to see if your team turns up with a second tape just before 7pm… the anticipation is thick as you watch teams bowl up to the building with A5 envelopes in their hands and sweat on their brow… one guy rode in on his bicycle with the envelope in his mouth. I was still anxious as I waited for the second tape.
6.56pm (4 minutes until deadline) Ruth , our Director ran through the crowd and handed me the final tape. We did a quick tape swap and I signed it in….. Woop woop, we had made the deadline!! Another year, another 48 hours and another film.
Thanks to all our lovely sponsors- The Learning Connexion, the Parade Cafe and Boyles Kawasaki. Photography by Vanessa Patea
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.
Last term’s music video block class, tutored by Kate Logan, brought together a team of students with one goal -- to make a music video.
Students worked with a music track and concept by Wellington musician Little Bark. Each student took on a role in the crew, from directing to gaffing to art direction. After a day’s planning and a day’s shooting students began editing. Each student edited a scene and at the end they put everything together into a single video. This was quite an achievement for a weeks’ work. Many students hadn’t edited on a computer before, some hadn’t even made a video.
We’ve popped the final music video up on YouTube to share it with you all, enjoy!
You can find out more about TLC’s video classes here.
This Stones in the Sea is an outside installation work whose primary appreciation was timetravel. The travelling didn’t involve a fancy machine just the giant slowness of geographical changes in the land. I wanted to make a whole lot of stones with the date on them and maybe my name and take a journey on the ferry to toss them in the channel between the north and south islands. I found it exciting that someone may find them and puzzle over their origin just like I would puzzle over the finders. We would be apart but together connected by a little piece of stone with some symbols stamped in them. I grandly thought it could have significance in their time like the Rosetta stone.
Then I decided that it would be fun to be contacted within my lifetime and I threw a whole bunch of stones into Lyall Bay with the name of Lyall Bay, the project name Stones in the Sea and the word facebook. I then set up a page on facebook when people could upload photos of their stones and write about it. I got a reply and the audience was excited. The next project occurred when my friend nearly died and during the time of recovery in hospital I made the stones and stamped desiree loves warren. These I then threw in Lyall Bay. The next project was to deposit 20 stones in the 20 bays around wellington. Then Stones in the Sea proudly got a commission to commerate the death of a loved one.
Stones in the sea has many applications: time travelling, remembrance, advertising, spiritual, expression of grief and archaeological hookum. May you find some in the bays around Wellington harbour.
See the comments from people who have found stones and become a facebook fan of ‘Stones in the Sea’ here.
Erika Gajdocsi (formerly Sefton) is an emerging artist. She completed an Advanced Diploma in Art & Creativity (Level 7) at The Learning Connexion in Wellington. Erika enjoys exploring process and materiality. In this series of work, the colour white is being investigated together with the round and rectangular shapes. Connection is made between the shapes by colourful pins enhancing the purity and cleanliness of white. Simplicity is the key element. By keeping this series pure and simple, the viewer should feel balanced and connected and may realise that simplicity is calming and powerful at the same time.
Jim Yellowhawk is a Lakota artist and performer who has been recognised internationally. He works in a variety of media, often using found objects in combination with painted and drawn images of his relatives and family. He celebrates the place of Native People and also questions issues from the past. His wife Ruth Yellowhawk is Wyandot/German. She is a writer, audio producer and co-director of the Indigenous Issues Forums, which works to help families and communities work through complex issues, using art to unify.
Along with their son Gabe, they are spending six months in New Zealand, paying respects to the land and meeting new friends. The Learning Connexion was privileged to have Jim and Gabe Yellowhawk perform at our Festival of Art and Creativity on Saturday the 6th of March, 2010. TLC interviewed them on camera and found out about their stories and background.
I started quilting in 1996 with a background in garment construction. Mastering the various patch work and quilting techniques was fun but not a huge challenge for me, however I did become a workshop ‘junky’ keen to learn every technique I could. I lost count of how many methods I learnt to construct flying geese! For some time I had been feeling that I wanted to move my quilting to the next level. To do this I decided I should undertake a course of study.
It was time for the biggest challenge of all, giving my work the zing of a well executed piece. I spent three years searching for a course that would meet my needs and as I searched and procrastinated I realized that my needs were as much about fitting around work and family commitments as it was about improving my artistic skills.
I was chatting to some quilting friends and one of them mentioned The Learning Connexion. Some research quickly showed me that their programmes best fitted my needs, but I still hesitated about enrolling. I had the usual ‘jitters’ of …‘am I capable of this and… have I got the time?’ etc etc.
Another birthday rolled by which made me decide that I needed to just get on and do it!! I had read in the NANZQ newsletter that Marion Manson was awarded the 2008 NANZQ Award and decided that I would put in an application for the 2009 award to help with the course fees. I was delighted to receive the acceptance letter. Receiving this award was about more than financial help. It was also recognition of what I had already achieved and that what I was about to undertake was considered a worthwhile endeavour. I am very grateful to the NANZQ committee for their confidence in me and being prepared to ‘look outside the square’ of the usual quilting type workshops when selecting recipients for their award.
Towards the end of January 2009 a large package arrived from The Learning Connexion. I was both excited and nervous as I opened it. There was a variety of art supplies (some of which I had no idea what they were or how to use them) and a pile of DVD’s and manuals.
I put the first DVD on and was shattered to find the first exercise was to draw a self portrait. At this point my first reaction was to bundle everything up and send it back. My thoughts went to the NANZQ committee who had confidence in me, so I had to keep going. I drew my self portrait, dated it and put it aside as instructed. The DVD then gave me instructions on drawing more portraits. I kept myself going with the thought that they would have no idea how good they were because they wouldn’t see the people I was drawing, therefore, they couldn’t make comparisons. As time went on I learnt that it wasn’t about how much the drawing was a good likeness of the person, it was about how I had captured the light and shadows and the proportions of the face. At the end of this exercise I was told to compare my work with the original self portrait. I couldn’t believe how far I had come in three weeks. Don’t get me wrong, I had not become an accomplished artist over night but I had made some great steps forward.
The DVD’s were great to watch as they were set in a workshop and I felt like I was sitting in the class, but so glad I wasn’t when I was drawing those first portraits. The great advantage was, to be able to replay the DVD as many times as I wanted. No tutor would enjoy repeating themselves that often!
Every three weeks, I had to courier my work to The Learning Connexion in Wellington. As well as the exercises, I also had to keep a visual diary and a work log showing a minimum of 45 hours work every three weeks. Time was a big struggle for me. Although I had reduced my work hours to four days a week it was very difficult to balance study, work, family and some ‘me time’. Feedback also came on a DVD which was great. My mentor, Bevan, would point out areas of my work and talk about it so it was very easy to understand and I could replay it when I needed to, instead of thinking ‘what did he say about…?’.
It didn’t take many weeks for me to become a little despondent about not having the time to get to my sewing machine. I overcame this by sewing some sample ideas and when it came to the painting exercises, I did them on paper and repeated some on fabric. On seeing these, Bevan told me I could continue working more in fabric if I wished (IF I WISHED!!!) Many of the exercises are designed to help students decide which medium they want to work in, a decision I had made a long time ago!
Feedback was always a time I really enjoyed. I would shut myself in a room, sending the signal ‘do not disturb’ and watch the DVD. The thing which was really important for me was that I was receiving guidance from a mentor with a degree in fine arts whose interest in my work was about colour, depth, balance, proportion etc and not about whether the stitching was straight or the bindings had mitred corners. In other words, he was talking to me about the things I really needed to learn about. Bevan’s comments were encouraging with subtle challenges and suggestions, not telling me what to do but getting me to ask myself ‘what if………..?’.
As the year rolled on, I completed a few wall quilts and entered some of them into Quilt Aotearoa. To my astonishment I was awarded Best Innovative Wall Quilt (under 75cm). This was the first time I had won an award in this exhibition, even though I had entered most years. To add to the excitement of this win, the quilt also sold.
The year has been quite a journey for me. I have come out of it with more understanding, confidence and a hunger to learn more. I’m not afraid to pick up a pencil to jot down an idea or draw a motif for stencilling or appliquéing. They’re not always perfect but now I draw my own instead of tracing someone else’s. I am more confident about selecting my colours and planning the use of them. I also believe my work is now starting to get the zing I was wanting.
I would like to thank NANZQ for their support in selecting me as the recipient of the 2009 NANZQ Award – this has played a big part in my journey.
Where to from here? – My husband and I are off overseas until mid February and when we return I will enroll to continue my journey.
Note: Student edition contains notices relevant to TLC students only.
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