A'isha Dollie

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
THE VOICE OF THE CAPE
Event photographer and graphic designer

IZIKO NATIONAL GALLERY
Volunteer Art guide and photographer

VANSA
Designed branding and board profiles for their annual AGM

THUPELO CAPE TOWN, Cape Town
Participating artist

GREATMORE MENTORING MONTH, Cape Town
Participating artist



TECHNOSPECT
Freelance Graphic Designer
- Designed the corporate image of the company

FUSION DESIGN
Junior Design Trainee


EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH
BA Fine Art, specializing in Visual Communication

COLLEGE OF CAPE TOWN, Cape Town
Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship , 2002










FRANK JOUBERT ART SCHOOL, Cape Town, 2002

SANS SOUCI GIRLS' HIGH, Cape Town, 2002

RELEVANT DESIGN SKILLS
Typography, illustration, concept design, marketing and branding, clay-animation, stop frame animation, corporate identity, planning campaigns, painting, photography, printmaking

SOFTWARE LITERACY
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Indesign, Freehand MX, Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power point, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Final Cut Pro (limited knowledge)

THUPELO 'FOUND OBJECTS' WORKSHOP at GREATMORE STUDIOS in WOODSTOCK




OTHER EXAMPLES






EXAMPLES OF A'ISHA'S PHOTOGRAPHY

Luciano de Nobrega

Luciano was born in Worcester, Western Cape

and currently lives in Protea Valley, Bellville, South Africa

EDUCATION:
2004 Matriculated at Curro Private School, Durbanville

2005-2007 Ruth Prowse School of Art, Woodstock, Cape Town

DISTINCTION:
2007 Awarded a Distinction for his practical work of 2007
EXHIBITIONS:
Selected for an exhibition at the AVA showing best graduate work from Michaelis, Stellenbosch University and the Ruth Prowse. (29 January 2008)

Selected to take part as an Emerging Creative at the Design Indaba (23-2 feb)

Exhibition at ArtVark (Feb 2008)



Open studio exhibition at Greatmore Art Studio (24 April)

WORKSHOPS:
Mentoring workshop at Greatmore Art Studios (31 MARCH - 24 April 2008)

Take part in an art business workshop at Greatmore Art Studios (May 2008)

Chosen to take part in International Thupelo Found Object Work at Greatmore Art Studios (26 Sept – 11 Oct 2008)

2008 was chosen to take part in an Internship programme at the Good Hope Art Studios (from 13 Oct 2008 )

STUDIO:
2008 was chosen to work at the Good Hope Art Studio. (from 4 March 2008)

PUBLICITY:
- Appeared in the Art Times issue October 2007
- Appeared in the Art Times issue December 2007

SHOOT:
Artwork selected for the Plascon brochure for 2009 (26 March 2008) (Photo shoot)

Two artworks was documented by Summit Film crew on (11 April 2008) (Film Shoot)


SHOWCASE:
2008 Artwork displayed at Truworths headquarters (28 July-12 August 2008)

COLLABORATIONS:)

Collaboration with Arthro Lindsley for Torture (July 2008)

Collaboration with Ronald Muchatuta, Vivien Kohler, Robyn-Leigh Cedras for Poverty (Aug 2008)

Collaboration with Ley for an exhibition (Dec 2008)

What Luciano says about his work
Luciano says about his art that when he is in the creative process "anything goes" and he switches off the logical mind. When you tune into a painting all expereinces meet at a certain point in our mind and all is as one. "It is a place of no words", and when you look at it "you see what you see and feel what you feel".

Anyone who looks at his work will know that it is saying something about some aspect of ourselves.

When asked how he knows when it is "done" is when it has a feeling of completeness.

Ruth Carneson

Ruth Carneson was born in Cape Town and grew up there.

She went into exile when she was 14 and lived in Britain for 24 years where she obtained a BA Honours in Visual Arts. She exhibited extensively in Britain as well as producing cards, calendars and posters of her work.

She worked as a visiting artist in schools where she used art as means of exploring human rights issues.

For a short period she taught at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania.

In 1991 she returned home to South Africa and in 1997 she went to live on Robben Island, initially as an Artist in Residence. She continued to live and work on the Island for the following ten years.

IN 2007 she moved back to the mainland and has a studio in Muizenberg, located on the False Bay side of Cape Town.

The ANC used her “struggle art” for marketing on T-shirts, posters, and cards.

Her recent works have been autobiographical installations where she has combined text with visual images, artefacts and sound. These were exhibited at the Nelson Mandela Gateway at the Waterfront and at the Scalabrini Centre in Cape Town as part of the Voyage Ensemble Exhibition.

In May 2008, Ruth Carneson, as part of Voyage Ensemble, represented South Africa at the HIFA Festival of Determination in Harare, Zimbabwe.


She also held a very successful exhibition in March 2008 at the Lindbergh Arts Foundation.

In October 2008 she was part of a Thupelo “Found Objects” workshop and group exhibition at Greatmore studios in Woodstock, Cape Town.


She says: “Art is as natural as breathing."

"The creative process is a healing one and has helped me through difficult times. It is a magical space where unexpected things happen, where I play with shape, colours and surprising images. It is a place where I do not have to prove anything, where things unfold naturally, exploring without judgment.

The themes in my work are intensely personal as well as social and political. It is trying to make sense of the horror that we perpetrate against each other, the contradictory images media feed us about war, how we cope with it, and the absurdity of it all.

Often it is what is most personal and specific that speaks most to what is universal. It is those small, private experiences that contain valuable information that cut across generalizations. It is important to me that my work speaks to what is human in people.”

Ruth Carneson’s Art history:

• Practicing Freelance Artist since 1975


• Art and Design in a Social Context at Dartington College of Arts, Devon, U.K. Sep 79 to Aug 81.


• Diploma in Higher Education : Art and Design at Newham College, London, Sep 88 to Jun 89


• B. A. Honours in Fine Art, Art History, Art In The Community at Middlesex University, London, Sep 89 to Jun 91


• Postgraduate Diploma in Museum and Heritage Studies, Jul 98 to Oct 99


• Artist in Residence at Robben Island Museum, Cape Town, Sep and Oct 97


• The Artrepeneur, Business partnership, printing and marketing artwork since 2004
  

If you'd like more information about the artist’s work, or to schedule an interview with the artist, please send me an email.

Thupelo Found Objects Workshop at Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, September 2008

Greatmore studios hosted the Thupelo Found Objects workshop in their newly completed workspace in Woodstock, Cape Town, in September 2008.

Thupelo is a Sotho word meaning to teach/learn by example
There were 12 artists from various parts of Africa and further abroad that came together for 2 weeks of intensive creative art making from found objects. The concentration of so much energy into a short period of time encourages risk taking and experimentation that might not happen in the artist's own studio. See below for some photos.

The exchange process often has a long term effect on the practice and even sometimes lives of the participants.

There is a strong emphasis on process rather than product which means that the work exhibited at the open days may be works in progress or unfinished.

The workshop format is based on the triangle workshops established by Anthony Caro and Robert Lader in New York in 1982.

We picked up what most would consider rubbish, stuff that even vagrants discarded, and transformed it into functional and beautiful pieces of art.

Click here to view the Web Album Photos - Early days at Thupelo Found Objects Workshop

At the end of the 2 weeks we had a group exhibition on the 11th of October 2008.

Click here to view the Web Album Photos - Thupelo Found Objects Exhibition

Click here to view more pics of the exhibition

I only heard complimentary comments about the standard and innovativeness of the art works. One person said she has never laughed so much at an exhibition. I am assuming it was because of the fun way things were used.


About the artists participating in the Thupelo Found Objects Workshop 2008

Zavick aka Superdog

Zavick works with jeans what he calls man's best friend.

In the 2 weeks we were at the workshop he picked up 28 pairs of jeans and 2 jackets on dumps, in the street and gutters, and transformed a few of them into works of art.

His motto: Find it. It's out there.

His website: http://www.zavick.com/

Ruth Carneson

Her comments: To begin with I worked with solid, familiar images, but then discovered that what was happening behind the images with the light shining through was a lot more interesting than what I had constructed consciously in the front., I broke away from what was familiar and played with the light and how the light created its own images.

Ruth worked on paper similar to the paper that patterns for garments are printed on. The food coloring she used to stain the paper had a wonderful luminosity to it. She punched hundreds of holes in the paper, then hung it to create a dynamic piece of work.

A'isha Dollie

Graphic designer, illustrator, photographer and painter with a BA in Fine Arts specializing in graphic Design from Stellenbosch university.

She says: Having experimented with new materials and formats I walk away from the Thupelo workshop daring and bold.

Suzanne Duncan

Suzanne graduated from Michaelis in 2006. She works with hair.

She was one of the top 10 award winners at the 2008 ABSA L'Atelier competition. Her main areas of exploration are corporeality, materiality, catharsis and compulsion.

She says the Thupelo workshop gave her the push to explore other materials and processes.

Mbuta Henriques

He says: In my work I want to strongly advise people against doing or thinking bad things through exploring dimensions of personality from human science. The Thupelo workshop has given me the opportunity to experiment with different mixed media and I have discovered a new style and technique which I am excited to explore as soon as possible.

Luciano De Nobrega

He says: I consider myself as an exploration artist. No thought or understanding goes into the the placement of objects or paint, it is just what feels right in the moment, the process of creating and building up of layers. Each artwork has a charm and simplicity, expressing a language of its own.

Penny

Penelope says: At the workshop none of us were in a comfort zone, it was like jazz, we learn to syncopate using each other's energies.

Lionel Davis

He says: I am very much stimulated by interacting with other artists and thus Thupelo is for me a most stimulating environment to be working in.

The energy to create the right ingredients for a successful workshop comes from the drive and passion of its participants.

I have once again been lucky to be working alongside some very inspiring and hardworking artists.

Nothando

Nothando is a B tech student at Durban Institute of Technology.

She says: My work is an interpretation of my immediate surroundings, using the found objects as a tool in documenting human conditions within the urban construct. I aim to create objects that suggest an array of issues rooted in the city with particular interest on informal trade.

Kathy Coates

Kathy has a Bachelor of fine Arts degree at UCT and Master of Technology (Fine Art) from Durban University of Technology.

She has spent many years dedicated to education in formal and community arts programmes and is currently working at Iziko National Gallery as Art educator.

She is a member of Voyage Ensemble, an art collective of migrating South African artists who address issues of Xenophobia, and other human rights issues.

She has curated many exhibitions and published several books and articles on artists.

Sonja Wilker

Sonja has been making her mark for the past 20 years.

She does creative coaching. See her coaching website.

Her art has been used for covers of SA Literary Journal (New Contrast) and used as examples in various "Process Art" publications.

She had a group exhibition at Nova Constantia in March 2008.

I have moved from mark making materials, paper, canvas and sculpture into a new world of creation using whatever I find in my environment and changing it into something virtually unrecognisable from the source.

The Thupelo Found Objects workshop has suprised, fascinated and inspired me with the variety of mark making and transforming rubbish, discarded by humanity (even hobos), into functional and/or pieces of beauty and art.

Gareth Nyandoro

Gary studied Fine Art at Harare Polytechnic and graduated with an honors degree in creative art and design at Chinhoyi University of technology.

He says it is like when you are learning to play drums, and you are just getting into it, you get so excited and then you try to follow the person drumming next to you, but that makes you lose your own rhythm. The challenge is to make exciting ..... out of these different rhythms.

Important person in our lives during the workshop

Auntie Yvonne - keeper of the gate, makes sure everything runs smoothly.

Group Art Exhibition at Nova Constantia

The Exhibition at Nova Constantia is a great success. There were many people at the opening night and the comments I heard were very complimentary. To view a sample of the pictures that were taken click on the link below. More will follow soon.

March 2008 Art Exhibition at Nova Constantia

The exhibition is on from Saturday the 8th March till Saturday the 15th March from 10:00 till 17:00 every day except Sunday

Have a great weekend!