Our last Kick-About together was inspired by the orb-ish flesh and faces of Fernando Botero. This week it’s the mightier spheres and gas giants of the Hubble telescope’s mind-blowing photograph of the cosmos. Enjoy this latest showcase of new works made in a short time, and you can browse all previous editions of The Kick-About here.
Vanessa Clegg
“I rummaged around in my cupboard for seeds and grainy things, as well as a sprinkling of volcanic sand, plus a photo of a moon drawing and photographed using the X-ray mode. I especially liked the last one, which reminded me of a meteor shower or even rockets, but it’s only the shadows thrown by a rare shaft of sunlight.”
vanessaclegg.co.uk / vanillaclegg
James Randall
“The magnificence of the universe can be both humbling and inspiring. We are so insignificant yet we are composed of the same matter. It reminded me of renaissance images of the Goddess Hera and the simple shapes created by Australian artist, John Coburn, of night skies. I’ve been investigating textures, perspective and layering and decided to apply these to represent the idea of parallel universes and secondly our inclusion. Because I had a layered background image I felt compelled to slap out a simple rotating fly through as I’ve not used a camera in Adobe AfterEffects or its third dimension.”
Phil Gomm
“I wanted to begin with these ‘behind-the-scenes’ photographs; a big glass fishbowl-like vase, a wooden spoon and loads of floating sequins. My mind’s eye kept showing me the special effects sequences from Disney’s unloved 1979 live-action film The Black Hole, so I set about recreating something similar on my kitchen table. Rather awkwardly, I first produced a whirlpool inside the fishbowl with the wooden spoon, which saw the sequins sucked downwards, and then, as quickly as I could, I pulled out the spoon and photographed the vortex at various exposures. I got different results each time, with some exposures turning the spinning sequins into completely smooth, metallic rings. It was a messy, imperfect set-up, and a frustrating one because I needed more hands (not least because I always missed the best and deepest whirlpools because I was putting the spoon down and picking up the camera). All of that said, some of the resulting photographs (and there were many), I was pretty excited by and I had a lovely few hours channelling my low-budget film-maker self.”
Marion Raper
“I decided to make some abstract pictures of the Cosmos using my acrylic inks, a bit of spray oil, watercolour paper and the only card I could find, which was the back of an old cornflake packet. Then using the ink droppers I proceeded to have a bit of fun. Soon, however, I became rather despondent with my efforts and was about to consign them to the bin when, low and behold, the sun came out (very briefly!). I had a eureka moment and quickly took a few photos whilst holding my pictures up against the window while the rays of light shone through. Not quite as good as the Hubble Telescope, but it’s amazing what can be achieved with some inspiration and a cornflake packet!”
Kerfe Roig
“I had just photographed some of my life drawings from the 70s and I thought they would look good dancing among the (deep space) stars. Of course I had to collage them with stars too, and play with them on top of the new cosmic mandalas I proceeded to paint. This is just a small sampling of the results…”
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
Graeme Daly
“Instantly when looking at the image I was reminded of a Kandinsky, I think because, when I observe a Kandinsky, I think of life and all its many forms present and intertwining with each other. Recently, being reminded of my collage work, I had a yearning to dip my toes back in. I collaged images from a previous experiment for the Kick About No.48 where I experimented with household ingredients and LED lights to create a colourful concoction. I then drew over the cutouts with various brushes and shapes. I adore repurposing old artwork like this into something fresh.”
@graemedalyart / vimeo.com/graemedaly / linkedin.com/in/graeme-daly / twitter.com/Graeme_Daly / gentlegiant.blog
Charly Skilling
“This photo from the Hubble telescope is so detailed, I could zoom in enough to see some of the wonderful shapes and colours. I played about with watercolour, glue and a sprinkle of salt and came up with the following images.”
Francesca Maxwell
“Celestial bodies are often in my work. I haven’t being able to make anything new but it has been interesting and inspiring to look back at my last ten years output and actually discover how recurrent some themes have been. The sea, the universe, movement, energy, microcosm ad macrocosm. Here, I have sent you two of my celestial bodies and their movement, leaving trails in the deep sky.”
Gary Thorne
“Deep Space – what a puzzle – until I discovered the remarkable Water Bear or Tardigrade populating Deep Space and happily surviving on Earth. A creature capable of suspending metabolism for 30 years in extreme temperates, and a valued food source for many predators. Their date of origin blows you away. Said to survive complete global mass extinction. Who knew that these little Bears were once carefully packaged and labelled to join our astronauts on space missions, in the name of research. Weird and wonderful.”
Rather amazingly, The Kick-About is turning ‘100’ next time out, so that’s 100 eclectic prompts producing 100 collections of new art, craft, moving image and creative writing… That’s no small achievement, and to so mark this auspicious event, your starter for ten is, fittingly, a starter for 10×10.
Red's Kingdom 
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