Tamar Branitzky - Artist and Designer

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. Textile art

There is a space in textiles, as in other disciplines, where art and design can play an interactive game. The singular subjectivity of fine art and the general practical requirements of design may seem to be poles apart, but anyone who has worked in both fields will know how the two share more than they sometimes wish to admit. 

Creative individuals who straddle art and design are actually relatively large in number, I myself have a design degree, as well as fine art training and sensibilities, and find it relatively easy to move between the two, understanding and empathising with the two different outlooks on creativity.

The artist and designer Tamar Branitzky is just that, an artist and a designer. Her work straddles the two worlds, with some of her output being aimed specifically at the fine art world, and some specifically at the design world. 

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. BO1 fabric

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. BO1 fabric

Interestingly, her work, both for art and design, are not instantaneously separated by look and feel. Tamar manages to a lot of crossing and weaving between the subjective and the practical, with elements of fine art coming out in her design work, and design principles being encased in her fine art work. To me that seems like the best of possible outcomes, to have an element of practicality within fine art, and a level of sensitivity within design work is what we definitely need more of!

Tamar's initial inspiration for both fine art and design, often comes from the natural environment around her. She is particularly interested in the stages of life as seen amongst flora, particularly flowers themselves, being intrigued at the processes to be found between blooming, decomposition, disintegration. She collects flowers and branches, readily combining them with free-hand drawing.

Illustration. Tamar Branitzky in her studio

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. Sketchbook

Tamar is keen to make representations in her work, to show contrast and to show passage, to detail the effect the travel of time can have over an object, such as the bloom of a flower. The detail of colour, tone, and texture that happens as part of the passage of flower from bloom to husk is an integral part of her work, and can readily be seen on many of the textile surfaces that she produces.

As far as her fine art work is concerned, she uses a range of materials, including fabrics, papers, old books, maps, stamps, watercolour drawings, and real organic materials. The combinations of the materials used give Tamar such a broad scope. The flexibility and delicacy between paper and fabric for example, inspires a near magical relationship that gives Tamar endless possibilities.

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky in the studio

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. Textile Biennale, Eretz Israel Museum

Tamar has also processed and developed her own fabric techniques, which she has called BO1. BO1 fabrics are handmade artistic surfaces created using a unique chemical process. The fabrics are made up of a combination of chiffon, silk, and cotton, and can be used as a variety of fashion and interior accessories, from scarves and clothing, to lampshades, upholstery, and co.

Tamar produces textile work, whether for fine art or design, in such beautiful combinations, where colour, tone, and texture play with and against each other in ever differing compositions. All is unique, all is beautifully complex, and as with nature, Tamar's supreme inspiration, all is forever changing.

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. Wearable art scarf

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky, 2015

More of Tamar's work can be found at her comprehensive website: www.tamarbranitzky.com, as well as on etsy: www.etsy.com/il-en/shop/TamarBranitzky. She can also be seen and followed on pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tamartextile3/, and  instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamar_branitzky_designs/

All photographs of Tamar's work were provided by: Roy Mizrachi, Gilad bar Shalev, Eretz Israel Museum.

Please also be aware that all imagery was kindly supplied by Tamar. If you wish to reproduce any of the photos please ask her for permission first. Thanks!

Illustration: Tamar Branitzky. Textile art

The Contemporary Maori Inspired Pattern Work of Mitch Manuel

Today, something a little different. I have decided to highlight some contemporary innovative expansion of the traditional Maori pattern work from New Zealand/Aotearoa. It is the work of Mitch Manuel and is based on both the Koru, the symbolic curl representing the fern, as well as the Kowhaiwhai. Some of you may remember I produced an article about Kowhaiwhai a while ago, the article can be found here.

Mitch Manuel takes the Maori decorative traditions, deconstructs them, and then reconstructs them again, producing a completely new pattern range, with seemingly infinite possibilities of the decorative formula. This is probably the best of decoration, taking tradition, understanding its formula and importance, and then reinterpreting it not only for the individual creative concerned, but for a new generation of consumers. 

Decoration should always be seen as part of the contemporary world and not one only limited to the often locked world of past traditions. That we build upon the creative pathways of our ancestors should be a given fact, but we must also add our own unique footsteps to that journey. If we only pass down the traditions of the past, without adding any new innovations and creative reimaginings, then we become invisible and non-participants in the ongoing exploration of human decoration. Mitch Manuel is clearly part of that process, a process in which decoration is, and should be seen, as being as vital to the human condition as singing and storytelling, with as long a history and as long a potential future.

The following excerpt by Mitch Manuel explains in his own words some of the leading ideas behind his own personal interpretation of the Koru and Kowhaiwhai, as well as a wealth of inter-cultural influence and creative inspiration.

SACRED GEOMETRY

From nature, our Ancestors found sacred geometry in the most fundamental of patterns. Like the fern frond, the Koru in which it takes its shape, is an expression of life. It is also an expression of Sacred Geometry. That is, mathematical proportions throughout nature which Maori have been developing for hundreds of years.

The fern frond is the symbolic metaphysical principle, which shows our relationship to the whole. It is this totality that which is subversive in geometry, a reminder of our connectivity to nature, to each other and the whole, and is the foundation of all things in the Universe.

FIBONACCI

Koru has an innate relationship to one common mathematical belief. Introduced from the East to the Europeans in the thirteenth century and is recounted in the Fibonacci and Phi or what the Greeks called the Golden Mean ratio. The ratio being (1: 1.618). This is the basis for perfect geometry by dividing any of the Fibonacci numbers by the next previous number.

This ratio is the so-called Fibonacci series where each number is the sum of the preceding number: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89,144, 233, 377 and so on. The ratio of two successive numbers equals the Golden Mean. This creates a never-ending spiral from its core or its original point. From this point are a myriad of variations but the higher the sequence the closer are the two numbers to the Golden Mean. 

Putting the mathematical equations aside, how does the basis of Fibonacci visually link to the Koru again? If you were to connect the bottom right corner of a golden rectangle and link up to each successive number sequence from each bottom corner you would create a Fibonacci Spiral. The Spiral and Koru are one and the same.

Leonardo Pisano or nicknamed Fibonacci lived from 1170 to 1240 AD and introduced these ancient principals to the West. He was considered 'the most talented mathematician in the middle ages'. In modern times Fibonacci has been used in film, art, literature, stock markets, music, knitting, mitosis, basket weaving and of course, nature. The list goes on and on. 

FIBORU

Fiboru (pronounced fe-bow-roo) are Koru and kowhaiwhai patterns, which are based on the link between Fibonacci and Koru - Fiboru.

Designed using Adobe Illustrator 6, you will find little resemblance to traditional Kowhaiwhai patterns and instead you will see an often repetitive kaleidoscope simulation. I've taken the traditional patterns of kowhaiwhai and removed a variety of shapes and patterned new shapes to create a myriad of images weaving positive and negative spaces.

I don't believe for an instant that I have miraculously discovered a new link to the beginning of time or a divine principle in which to gage divine art and linked this to Koru, instead I have embraced a conceptual artistic geometric construct that will help me seek a divine method to my illustrations. 

Ultimately, my goal is to continue to experiment and strive for shapes and patterns that hopefully illicit in the viewer a reaction, an emotion, a memory, and especially to think about and discuss the relevance and importance of a legacy, which our Tupuna have created and nurtured which continues to inspire those in the 21st Century. 

Our Tupuna have always known this ancient link. Instinctively the Artist have always known this Golden Mean.

Ka mau te wehi.

Mitchell Manuel.

The work of Mitch Manuel can be found on a number of sites online including Toi Maori Aotearoa/Maori Arts New Zealand, Coroflot and Krop - Creative Database. Please be aware that the illustrations shown in this article, plus all those to be found on the links above are the creative property of Mitch Manuel and that they are therefore fully copyrighted.

Pattern Work of Ian O'Phelan

Illustration: Ian O'Phelan. Night Flowers, 2009.

The pattern work of the American artist, designer and illustrator Ian O'Phelan is an excellent example of the continuing relevance and contemporary usage of the repeat pattern. It is often thought that the great days of pattern work, whether that be textile or wallpaper, are well behind us and that the contemporary world has nothing of relevance to add to the accumulated wealth of the past. However, as the work featured in this article shows there are still a number of excellent young designers who are aware of both the historical context of pattern work and the relevance it has, or can have, to our contemporary world.

Illustration: Ian O'Phelan. Fruit Vine II, 2009.

Repeat pattern work is not the easiest of technical processes to master. To make a pattern appear both seamless and above all effortless is another process and level of achievement altogether. Although admittedly a basic repeat pattern is relatively easy to produce, there are a number of optical rules that apply, and in order to achieve an interesting pattern without an obvious formal and optically tiring effect, skill is needed along with an intrinsic knowledge of composition, spacing, balance and harmony.

O'Phelan's decorative pattern work is both graceful and punchy. The observational details, particularly of the floral work, are within the great tradition of decorative pattern work that goes back centuries. The designers work shows a sensitive, sympathetic and indeed compatible approach to the subject matter that is truly timeless. However, twinned with this sensitivity to the floral tradition of pattern work is the ironic juxtaposition of what to many would appear to be an uncomfortable, or even inappropriate use of subject matter.

Illustration: Ian O'Phellan. Pink Paint (Beetles), 2009.

An obvious example of this juxtaposition is that of one of the examples shown here Pink Paint (Beetles). This gives a clear indication of the sentimental and traditional representation of a floral repeat pattern that appears to be superimposed by yet another repeat pattern of a very different kind. The beetles although seemingly at odds with the pink floral motifs are in fact technically and amusingly part of the same overall story. The floral and insect life of the natural world is indeed a symbiotic partnership in that world. The harmony of nature is in the detailed balance of flower and beetle.

This is by no means a misaligned pattern imposing ugly over beautiful, or distaste over graceful. It is an acute observation of the real world, rather than the posy formalised world that decorative pattern work can often take. There are many other small details and larger impositions and juxtapositions that run through much of O'Phelan's decorative pattern work. All are intriguing, thought provoking and amusing. They ask us to question what we expect of our pattern work, and perhaps what has been missing in the past.

Illuastration: Ian O'Phelan. Disporum Cantoniense, 2009.

O'Phelan's repeat pattern work, which admittedly is only part of his overall output, should be seen within the context of the history of decorative pattern work. His work is by no means a pastiche or even a messy reimagining. It is the work of a bright, clear, concise and gifted designer who both understands the relevance of historical context, but also understands the contemporary relevance that that context can take within our own world.

There are a number of links to O'Phelan's work, which can be found below in the Reference links section. There is both a website and blog as well as a Flickr account. The artist and designer can also be found on both Facebook and Twitter. He has exhibited work in both the US and the UK.

Illustration: Ian O'Phelan. Fungi I, 2009.

All images were used with the kind permission of the artist.

Reference links:
Ian O'Phelan website
Ian O'Phelan Flickr gallery
Ian O'Phelan blog