I am blogging these because it was cool to do.
I was learning about dick frizzle and his art
I was learning about dick frizzle and his art
WALT locate and summarise ideas
Art icon
By Dick Frizzell 
Dick Frizzell has made an icon of himself...
Dick Frizzell is always on the hunt. He’s keeping his eyes open for the next ‘Frizzell’—a fish-tin label, a kink in a rural road, a cluster of sale signs on a fruit stall. A cultural magpie at large, Frizzell has carved a niche by painting icons of New Zealand life—overlooked motifs that, once identified, instantly become part of what we all recognise as Kiwiana.
Now 69, Frizzell has painted still lifes, pop culture, landscapes, children’s books—a seemingly haphazard collection of media and subjects that he insists has a central theme. By identifying cultural icons from the clutter of our everyday life, Frizzell says his work sparks a relationship with the viewer.
“I like that little flash of recognition. It’s that connection that people want; they want to feel connected. And they want the connection to be personal and real,” he says. “They see some kind of cheerful affirmation of their environment, where they live. They think, ‘Oh yeah, New Zealand’s cool’, and I’m happy with that.”
Frizzell grew up barefoot in Hawke’s Bay, cycling between haunts in Hastings—the swimming pool, the sawmill, out to the river and the picture theatre.
“My father was an engineer at the freezing works and would bring home meat, and take me rabbit shooting in the weekends,” he says. “As I grew up and read Kiwi literature, you begin to realise that you have had this kind of iconic upbringing. I think it puts you in a position where you feel comfortable to comment.”
By the time he left art school at Canterbury University, he and his wife, Jude, had a daughter, so Frizzell began his art career determined to make a living from it. First in advertising, for seven years, then painting. He began with a series of successful exhibitions, painting humorous self-portraits, and everyday objects such as fish-tin labels.
At the age of 44, Frizzell experienced a sort of mid-life painter’s block. In desperation, he turned to the New Zealand landscape—in particular, to the scenes of his boyhood. The works he produced over the next four years proved as popular with the public as they were in the art world, “working in effect exactly as I’d hoped they would”, says Frizzell, “helping a new generation re-see their world”.
In 1990, he turned to New Zealand’s cultural landscape, producing a series of works around the Maori adornment, hei tiki. His exhibition included 29 paintings, 25 works on paper and three sculptural pieces, all riffing on the well-known symbol in Frizzell’s bold colours and stark, graphical style.
“I think part of what an artist is meant to do is awaken people’s awareness of their environment. It’s like keeping people’s eyes open,” he says.
“I paint to succeed, I hate to tell you, I don’t paint to fail,” he says. “I’m a serious painter.”
In his perpetual quest to identify icons that New Zealanders can relate to, he has created an iconic status for himself as well.
WALT Locate and Summarise Ideas
- Select 5 keywords from this article:
- hei tiki
- painter’s block
- Canterbury University
- haphazard
- rural road
Success criteria: key words sum up the meaning. They are often nouns (but not always)
- Explain why you chose to learn about Dick Frizzell in three or four sentences. What made you interested in him?
- I choose dick frizzell because when i sow that he is a visual artist and my favorite thing is art i chose him.
- I also choose him because on the images of his art i thought that he would be a cool person to learn about.
- I chose dick frizzell because of me seeing the mickey to tiki art.
- Vocabulary: for these words, share a meaning in your own words and find a dictionary meaning
Word
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My Meaning
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Dictionary Meaning
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art
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art means like sketching,drawing,painting all those things.
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the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aestheticprinciples, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinarysignificance.
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icon
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icon means a real story
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a picture, image, or other representation.
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Kiwiana
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Kiwiana is a name of an island
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(Austral & NZ) collectable objects, ornaments, etc, esp dating from the 1950s or 1960s, relating to the history or popular culture of New Zealand
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- Find one artwork that you really like by Dick Frizzell (“Mickey to Tiki Tu Meke” is one example at the top of the reading) and paste it into this document. Use
Google - but make sure the artwork is definitely by Dick Frizzell.
- Write five adjectives which describe this artwork.
- creepy clown in picture 2
- awesome dinosaur in picture 2
- weird alien in picture 2
- funny marshmallow in pictue 3
- weird rocket hands in pitcher 3
