Logan McLain

“The Social Contract”

An exhibition of new work by Molly Mishkas & Logan McLain.

NCAD Gallery, 100 Thomas Street, Dublin 8.
Opening 5th June, 4.30 pm
Show runs until Friday 26th June

The individuality that fragments our society is somehow stitched together as our actions are constrained by conscience. The depth of humanity can be judged by its attempts to make minorities inalienable.

This work continues the exploration of themes of morality in Ireland through the textile medium.  The pieces themselves are a reflection on attitudes sustained in Irish society by long established stereotypes. They focus on some very raw examples of contemporary living issues that are pigeon-holed with the disadvantaged areas of Dublin. Of course, every social issue in Ireland is currently under-pinned by the economic climate or indeed the lack of one.

Samples of Irish humour and satirical phrases are collected from candid conversations, text messages and e-mails are represented through the use of stitch. The work presents, in a public space, what we as Irish people like to laugh about amongst ourselves.  

“Danger! Kids”

Logan McLain 2009

Molly Mishkas

Molly Mishkas uses life both as a medium and as a raw subject matter. Her work raises ethical issues – deep rooted perceptions of life and identity, the concept of self and the position of the human being juxtaposed against the prejudices of personal moral development.

Sacrosanct lines are being crossed by science and business everyday in the incessant pursuit of globalisation. The loss of traditional culture, ‘branding’ of social dysfunction and the ‘chemical remedy’ of it, blurs the genetic spontaneity that enriches the fabric of our society. It is our responsibility to realise that, it is only through diversity, we as humanity, can progress towards a saner, and even more, colourful future.

This sentiment can be crystallised by Carl Jung when he stated, “The main conflict lies in generally accepted notions of who is normal and who is not”.

“Helen”

Molly Mishkas, 2009

Well… this place is a mess and the image below relays my feelings about cleaning.

Stitched Bollix

Cooper is all dead chuffed with himself because he got me to stitch a cool transformers logo onto his hoodie (which the cheap git bought in Penny’s for 9 euros… “you can’t go wrong for the 9 juros love!”

Cooper's Transformers Hoodie

So my mother was rubbing my nose in the fact that Liverpool didn’t win the Premiership. The cheeky cow hung a newspaper article about the winners (We won’t mention them here) on my wall this morning.

Scum

I had to respond to this blatant defamation of my personal space so I put my creativity and my fancy PR620 machine to good use to get my revenge. I produced the image below and stitched it onto her pillow case. She is currently unaware of this little surprise, I’m sure she will sleep well tonight.

Liverpool FC Pillowcase

You'll Never Sleep Alone

Today saw me back in the Blackrock Education Centre to teach the second of two lessons, below are a few examples of the really fatastic work that was produced by participants in a very short time.

I’m the envy of many a man, I have Hilary Cahill’s phone number. The (smokin’ hot) director of the Dublin Academy of Dramatic Arts keeps my creative graphic design inclinations motoring. Here are two posters I designed for DADA productions.

The Misanthrope by Moliere

Living a decadent lifestyle. Fat basslines, rap coke lines, ecstasy and fine lines between work, play and working deadlines. Did you even sleep this weekend man?

I stitched him out onto white felt… I still have to make adjustments to the design file. Sampling, it never ends.

I was in the Blackrock Education Centre today facilitating the first of two classes on embroidery as part of Continual Professional Development for second level teachers. In the class we looked at a wide range of art and design textile images that covered many themes and techniques.

After making our own designs we explored several techniques for transferring images to fabric. We also looked at some basic hand stitches including back stitch, fly stitch, buttonhole stitch, seeding, couching, appliqué, satin stitch and padded satin stitch. Louise Allen, Education Officer from the Crafts Council of Ireland, paid a visit to the class to see the work.

Participants in the CPD Embroidery Class

Crap. I’m on a “health food” diet. I would cut you for a muffin , I swear. To try to deal with my cravings for things I am no longer allowed to eat I have designed this little bastard using PE Design software. I just updated the software with the new “Beat Vista Into Submission” patch. Great.

Hey! Fat Ass!

Wordpress Stress

Yeah all this for a blog. In typical Logan style, when I should be completely focused on one project I find my time is divided by many things. My ‘To Do’ list this weekend is work like a bitch on new pieces for the upcoming exhibition, write projects for the NCAD CEAD accredited course, prepare for CPD, submit my next bi-monthly report to the CCOI on what I’ve spent their money on and do a bit more work on my craft piece (Helen and Nigel know what that means ).

So in the midst of all this? Great idea! I’ll rearrange my website by installing Wordpress and then learn how to use the damn thing. So this is the progress so far. You’ll notice the t-shirts and research pages are ‘missing’… I’ll get to it ok? But now I have a blog! A proper blog… let’s see if I keep it up to date.

Hilary where the hell are you? You’re the blog fiend. Comment already. This is all for your benefit.

Mr. X Stitch

Wandering the web again for “contemporary cross stitch” (yes there is such a thing). And here it is! The wonderful blog of Jamie Chalmers aka. Mr. X Stitch.

I got in touch to let him know his blog rocks and he decided to publish a few images, big up representing of the Irish stitchers and bitchers. Legend.

Check me out on Mr. X Stitch by clicking here.

He publishes all things textiles and trendy in his blog which in itself is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to get a far stretching snap shot of what the heck people are doing with their needles and their threads.

He also offers some really cool cross stitch patterns at low low prices – satisfying your crafty needs and guaranteeing a slick finished piece… What more could you ask for?!
Check out www.mrxstitch.com – you’ll nay be disappointed wee laddie!

Aaron Noble

I came across this artist while browsing the web today, really interesting work. I spent a few minutes trying to make sense of the image.

I knew instantly from looking at the bright colours and dramatic shadows that the image was obviously some sort of superhero “battle in progress”. But I struggled to make sense of the forms as they led my eye around the beautifully balanced composition, i kept following what i thought was an arm only to be led to the start of another brightly colour appendage instead of finding a torso. I visited the artist’s site to read that the images are comprised of the body parts of superhero’s combined, stretched and floating in negative space.

Take a look at the website of Aaron Noble

NCAD Gallery

The Gallery Committee at NCAD has invited me to exhibit in the new NCAD Gallery to coincide with the June 2009 graduate degree shows.

The show will be a two person exhibition featuring myself and Fine Art graduate Molly Mishkas.

You're So Gay

Here’s a snap from the one day stand I had at this year’s Showcase ‘09 exhibition.

This was my first time doing Showcase and I didn’t really know what to expect because I wasn’t able to make it to the information seminars.

Overall, it was good but not the right place for what I had to show. It was a very good learning experience for me as I got to see behind the scenes of an event like this, what goes on with organisation, setup, insurance etc. It would be ideal if I were to develop a very commercial generic line of products from my work.

My current t-shirts are aimed at a very niche market and are almost novelty in nature. One designer I spoke to told me she had a “bread and butter” range of work but still took some time to produce the work she really wanted to regardless of its less commercial nature. Everyone has bills and I guess if you’re an innovative and creative person looking to pay those bills Showcase is great.

Love

Showcase 2009 opens in the RDS this weekend and I will be there on Sunday at stand number A299 for the day showing some t-shirts and embroidery work.

I’ll also have two pieces in the Home Buyers Lounge. As I said in an earlier post I wanted to respond to the pope’s comments. I’m not sure if the work really belongs in a home buyers lounge… unless you’re an anti-catholic gay rights home owner.

Here’s a wee image of what I’ve been making over Xmas – “Love”, you won’t find much of that around here.

Lisa Kokin

I’ve been working on a piece with loads of coloured dots over the past few days and while trawling the web I came across this amazing work by Lisa Kokin.

She works with buttons and mixed media in a variety of styles, it’s well worth looking through her site. I’ve added a permanent link to the links page.

I love that when you start looking at something you start seeing it everywhere… though seeing coloured dots is something you should probably have checked out. I can here my boss Philip saying, “Logan, where attention goes, energy flows!”

Muppet

Oh now he’s pissed me off. I’m in no way religious and it kind of frightens me to think that millions of people pick up a book written by men and believe that it’s the word of some higher power without ever confirming these things for themselves. The opposite of courage is not fear – it’s conformity.

Click here to read the pope’s views.

(He does look like that bad guy from Star Wars)

Dr. Helen McAllister

It was very recently announced that Dr. Helen McAllister will be taking up the role of Head of Fashion and Textiles Department in NCAD.

All your students wish you the very best in your new post.

PR-620 Digital Embroidery Machine

My Multihead Machine arrived this week! Here it is in all its shiny white molded plastic glory, special thanks to Susan O’Sullivan for sorting me out.

Getting set up in my new “Studio” this week (AKA our converted garage) so its off to Argos with me to buy some cheap shelves. I’m going to have to think of a name for my new baby.

Digital Media Prop

This week saw me back in NCAD teaching Digital Media to the 2nd Year Students who had to produce a short stop-frame animation.

One of the students presented me with a prop from their film. I was very amused.

Stoppress Magazine

I appeared in StopPress Magazine this month in an article about the winners of the CCOI awards.

Nigel said I looked sexy, then he gave out to me for posting it on my blog. The important thing is the sexy exposure of my crafty bits.

The Crafts Council of Ireland hosted the Third Level Award Ceremony on Tuesday 14th October at the Craft Gallery in Kilkenny. The Postgraduate award went to me, the undergraduate award went to Eily O’Connor and two special merit awards were given to David Withers and Nuala Ní Fhlathúin.

I was accepted into the RDS National Crafts Competition 2008 in the Traditional Embroidery category, That’s hand stitch to you and me, where I won first prize in my category and the Máirín O’Brien Flegg Memorial Award for Traditional Embroidery 2008. I was also nominated for the IACI Muriel Gahan Scholarship and Development Grant 2008.

Nigel Cheney won several prizes in the Contemporary Embroidery category and NCAD Education graduate Kate Lennon had her work on display and won a prize in the Multimedia Textiles.

Click here to view a pod cast of the RDS National Crafts Competition 2008 exhibition