Artist: Background
Naretha Pretorius: A Journey of Awareness
I studied at the University of Pretoria where I completed my BA in Fine Art in 1997 majoring in painting. I grew up and lived in Pretoria for over 20 years before I moved to Johannesburg working as a training manager at a Web Development company. I started at Vega the School of Brand Innovation in 2001 and in 2003 I moved to Durban to assist in the establishment of the Durban campus. I currently lecture the Honours students and act as the vice principal overseeing the academic operations and quality assurance.
I am a practicing artist working in mixed media ranging from painting, drawing, giclee prints, found objects and three dimensional media. I have participated in numerous group exhibitions in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. On 27 June 2011 I opened my first solo exhibition at artSPACE Durban, titled Onthaal Onthul. The exhibition and this blog formed part of my Masters in Fine Art journey. I recently submitted my dissertation, and am pleased to announce that I passed with distinction.
This blog is to showcase my work, but more importantly to share my thoughts and to reflect on and document my creative process… and for you to share your thoughts, ideas and helpful critique.
My Masters was an exploration of my childhood memories and my life journey, reflecting on my upbringing as a white Afrikaner woman, raised during Apartheid in a conservative Calvinistic household. My memories are both bitter, and filled with sweetness.
You will find many images of doilies, churches, teacups, and scenes of landscapes, and farming … themes ranged from childhood memories of family and domesticity, etiquette, (conservative/controlled) behaviour and mannerism/manners, Afrikaner or personal memorabilia, old photographs and images that are reminiscent and nostalgic of a time gone by… and that which continues to exist. The images are positioned in a South African context, yet in some cases it can speak to a wider audience. I comment on gender inequalities and socio-political systems and structures within a South African context.
Please comment and contribute, this will assist me in my research and continous development of my work. Constructive criticism is welcomed, and if you like the work, you can request a price.
Looking forward to your comments!
naretha pretorius
//
my doilies & other bittersweet memories 
Very interesting. But why are you referring to yourself in the third person? I think you should have used the firstperson. It is a web log and reflections. It really should use the first person singular (I).
LikeLike
Hello Alon
Valid point, especially if it was borne from a self study!
Everything else I have done was in written by the “I”… will do so from now on.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
Naretha
LikeLike
Yes, I saw. I am certainly planning to visit your blog thoroughly. I did do a very thorough ontological self-study in order to work out my applied dialectical tool and approach (a poietic and cathartic b/logging one) to the study of human existence. A crucial thing that I learned is that you need the other and co-enquiries and that dialogues with the other complements you and saves you from being wallowed into your demons and chasing your tail. I started, like Jack, with Gadamer and Collingwood’s dialectics and went back to the world using Freire’s dialectics that I really believe in.
LikeLike
Thank you Alon, I have edited my post and indeed it reads much better and more authentic. I will have a look at your references, I am very keen to continue my studies once my masters is compelted, and venture into a doctorate at some point… there is still so much I can do… a journey that can continue for very long, and a rewarding journey that is! Do you have a blog? Please send me the link.
LikeLike
Indeed. Although I would start with the third paragraph about the subject of the blog.
The website that is attached to my name is my PhD research blog. A webdesigning company is working out my b/logging electronic platform.
Here is my PhD thesis that discusses my research in relation to a critique of the living educational theory approach that I ontologised
http://www.actionresearch.net/living/serper.shtml
A problem is that when you edit your blog, is it still a blog? A blog is unedited posting.
LikeLike
Also,
Now, when people read your new post and my comment, they rightly question my lucidity and sanity.
It is very important for your own journy and learning that you keep your original posting and do the changes as new posts.
You can then analyse your own learning, your dialectical transformation as a result of your dialogue and co-enquiring with me, your critical friend, and your own dialectical transformation as a result of your auto-dialogical reflection with yourself and your dialogical interaction and enquiring with me.
My own work is about the interaction of the reflective (AUTO-dialogical) log and the dialogical (social, co-enquiries with social other/s) blog. I think the latter complements and completes the former.
You could certainly discuss it in your dissertation. But it is up to Joan, your adviser?, to agree or disagree with me.
LikeLike
I believe I applied reflection-on-action… I still have record of the previous action as we are having this conversation and it is documented and even reflected on in the comments as we are doing now. I believe there is a difference between keeping a journal for reflection and having a blog, a blog and especially the purpose of my blog was not be a journal, but rather a showcase of thoughts and my art work, and for this to be open for public scrutiny and engagement. I see updating the section as improving it. I am interested to know who suggested that a blog has to be unedited? I value your opinions, thank you, and will gladly share it with Joan. I look forward to reading your paper.
LikeLike
Dear Naretha – I’ve just been re-reading `Onthaal Onthul’ and it continues to captivate my imagination and to stimulate my thinking about how to co-operative with others in spreading the influence of the energy-flowing values that carry hope for the future of humanity. I’m circulating the url for your web-site and encouraging others to access ‘Onthaal Onthul’ as well as to respond to your blog.
LikeLike
Naretha,
I discuss blogging in my own thesis and here is an excellent reference for blogging – a special edition on blogging in Reconstruction. It describes blogging as unedited posts/logs. I, myself, make use of the unedited nature of blogging as a freefall, freeassociation form therapeurtic creative writing.
Here is the reference
http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/contents.shtml
Also, the problem is that in my first comment I ask about the third person when the post now appears in a firstperson. This makes the public dialectics invalid and questionable. It is a public domain, accessible to all, not private.
The private-public domain is very important.
LikeLike