Just a thought for YOU

By walking, I am forced to slow down. The world blurs and flattens with speed....



Interesting thought isn't it

SPARK (freedom to create)

FREEDOM TO CREATE

A PILE OF SHIT

Monday 23rd May I went into college intending to look at my portfolio.

From the last blog, Importance of Display I spoke about how I wasn't really happy with most of the work I had done. Mainly because it wasn't to a high finished standard. I really don't want to show my work that I feel shit about.

With this in mind I started a new mono-print in brown ink. I felt that by drawing some work in another colour other than black it may soften the overall look. I drew a hacksaw and was happy with it, however it still wasn't me.

Next (by chance) I looked at some old magazines that happened to be behind me. I pulled out a random page that happened to be a directory of a design-weekly book.  I looked at some of the words and started to highlight words or images that I liked... I created mono-prints on some of them using the brown ink.

Words that stood out were

• copywriters
• duplication
• creative
• foil
• apple/mac
• dummy packaging
• printing
• visual
• impact
• process.

I just went with what I felt and was just creating. Not thinking but thinking all the same.

A few days before my mum had been taking into hospital with a mild stroke (my own biggest fear since seeing the disabling effects it had on another family member) My anxiety had been high most of the weekend (as well as looking after and seeing to the kids) I somehow made it through.

Here I was somehow switched off from everything else but what I was doing.  Even though I wasn't sure what the hell I was doing. The fact I must of looked like a mad women sketching, cutting and sticking it all together. Great fun.

I wanted, No I needed to make something that was good enough to show. A book of something I wasn't sure...nor did I really care. I just wanted to switch off......I've talked/written a lot of feelings and honesty on this blogger site, about this course and my learning. my views or thoughts.... I've talked it seems A PILE OF SHIT......I've spoken about DADA and how pointless it was, how I couldn't connect of understand it. To the point I could of argued with anybody who said otherwise.

AND YET STANDING OVER MY WORK I HAD CREATED MY VERY OWN BLOODY MANIFESTO OF SORTS!

Standing back and looking over my work the signs of the past are there... My past and the vulnerable truths (exposure) the starting out, paths and questions, mental health, the sexual (mmm whatever that is...desires or empowerment not sure)  the expressions. The word copy for me also linked the artist Picasso who I have been inspired by the most this year, He once said  Good artists copy, great artists steal........ I'm no artist as such just yet, so I guess for now researching others is an important part of my learning. The blog on sexual identity and how others may struggle to "comeout" also came to mind when I read the words ....be modern.....I wrote next to it ....be gay.....as a lot of youths are more openly gay these days. Mental Health Awareness was another issue I looked at.

I've spent a lot of time in the past regretting some of the more drunken stories and things I'd done. Because of this I know too well the way I feel made me think that somehow I had to justify myself to others!  This year at college has allowed me to change the view of myself and except and take on others views but also accept and open my eyes..... This was a massive learning curve for me! To have and give an opinion, to look at myself from different view points and let go.

The next few years for me are full of the unknown but I look forward to every minute. Already the way I view my world is so different from the tiny bubble I was in... after 33 years I can finally start to find me!

The word spark was another word I liked....I liked it because it made sense to me and my course this year.  With a little effort and time the .....

                                            smallest amount of quality can give the most intense feelings

Just like a spark.....



I copied my images (onto copier) and made them doubled sided. I will now put them into a binder ready for part of my end of work show.

Importance of Display

Victoria and Albert Museum

I've been looking at the importance of creating an exhibition. 

I found this on being a curator

As well as looking at exhibitions I looked installations.... 

The Tate website is gives a good example/description..... 

Introduction to installation art

Installation artworks (also sometimes described as ‘environments’) often occupy an entire room or gallery space that the spectator invariably has to walk through in order to engage fully with the work of art. Some installations, however, are designed simply to be walked around and contemplated, or are so fragile that they can only be viewed from a doorway, or one end of a room. What makes installation art different from sculpture or other traditional art forms is that it is a complete unified experience, rather than a display of separate, individual artworks. The focus on how the viewer experiences the work and the desire to provide an intense experience for them is a dominant theme in installation art.

As artist Ilya Kabakov said:

The main actor in the total installation, the main centre toward which everything is addressed, for which everything is intended, is the viewer.

See this link ........

http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/installation-art

I feel the interaction of this installation is great. I enjoyed listening to the process the artist has took after leaving college, taking her work forward,  the progression and reinventing of her work over time....

The best art exhibitions in London

Strange and Familiar




Vogue 100






 Emotional Supply Chain


Grayson Perry..




So while most works are on a blank white background, not all are. What is it that I intend?

Show and Tell; the do's and don'ts (www.artnews.com)

• What are the expectations of the visitors? Interests and sophistication of the visitors.
• Don't treat yourself as a dead artist
• Have some work on a projector or slide show.......then a binder/folder for the more curious viewer
• Selection - less is more
•  negative feedback can have its uses. 
• gets people thinking in new ways. You go out of a conversation like that feeling energized.”
• avoid multiple images which are very similar to each other
• it never hurts to get a second (or third, or fourth!) opinion
• quality is more impressive than quantity
• each piece should represent an element of your artistic practice which is relevant

So with this been said I have to narrow down my work. My work I'm not really excited about so that should be easy. A couple of Life Drawing, Photo's either on show or on slideshow and my logs....My Deception and log work turned out to be the real connection, in the whole year I was happy with the end result. While I've learn a lot about artist's and indeed myself, The end results of most of my works weren't to a standard I was truly happy with. To exhibit any of it, well I really don't feel its good enough nor representational of me.

After watching a Tracey Emin video in college, got me thinking about my exhibition. With my lacking of self-worth in my art it had me thinking of other ways artist display works.

Ironically, The Ready-Mades of Marcel Duchamp that I didn't like or relate to in the beginning of the course are now making sense. Emin's bed started me thinking of my own morning ritual, I have a dresser that I stand in front of every morning to get ready. For the last year (longer) of doing this course my dresser has been the starting point of my day. Every college class started here. Its is as symbolic to this course and I am. Upon the dresser itself is all the stuff I use daily. (not only me but the children have also taken this space on they morning ritual). That in its self could record an interesting story/video of our life and transformation over a period of time. To actually record us getting our faces on each day!

Another interactive idea I had thought of was to install my dresser in a room.... For myself to enter the room as I do every morning, then to get ready as normal. More of a scene in a play than an actual art. To dry my hair and get my clothes on,  do my make up etc......For the viewer to participate in the moment I could stop at certain poses and have a signal for the viewer that the moment to draw. An interactive Life Drawing Class so to speak. Mapping my movements, other objects, shapes and stances.  (I know right) haha

While this isn't something that I will or could do with this exhibition, it is something that grabs my attention more.  God I hate to think of the weird and wonderful ideas I come up with in the next few years.....

For me I find the whole adventure so far is a real turning point. The art I liked at the beginning is now something that I still appreciate, like the old great artist of the renaissance, the monet's and picasso's. Now I've had the chance to question what it is that I like.  The more I see and identify with other movements the more I can relate to ideas. At the time I may not think much of the work and have in the past thought of many pieces as pointless. Oh the naivety!

My exhibtion first selection and reasoning

My Exhibtion

Looking over my own selection with an honest truth.........

These images aren't in any order as such yet, but I wanted to view and analyse my work and reasoning behind my choices. Plus it will be interesting to look back and see the changes between the selection now and the finish images.

My mono print of the work inspired/copy of Picasso's Minotaur.. This work for me shows so much detail and more than that, it was a personal excitement I felt when creating the image. The pressing and mark making you have to do when creating a mono print gives a great anticipation, the not knowing if it is working the way you intend. The accidental marks or smudges that happen just by chance that add to the finish work.

I had done my first mono -print of a bicycle right at the beginning of the course. I loved it then and I still love it now.

I loved the detail and the illustrative effect it creates. It works really well on news print which gives it an unique style all to its own. It gives a sense of old or could be made different with a light wash of colour.

 

The mono on newsprint can create a child like image but could also with a little time and patience make a really good fine art example. 

I wish I had played and gave myself more time with this, although I do think the expressive feel works great for movement and form.

This mix of wool, leaves and fabric was something I just created without researching anyone else and for me this work actually gave me an interest in mixed media approach I knew nothing about. For me when I look at a landscape I dont think or want to paint it. (1) because I know my ability is lacking and (2) I never seem to give myself much time to actually draw and paint and do a process.  (3) I'm impatient.  I want to create the texture of the things I see, The grass and bushes the clouds and depth of the landscape, The light as the shadows move across it. The solid texture of a trees bark against the softness of the leaf. the contrast in colour and the way they work together. The length or the grass and how they naturally fall and sit, resting on each other, with the morning dew sitting nestled on it. The frosty spider webs and how I can make this? to create a scene of a feeling.....That I get from it!

Next the life drawing on coloured paper in pastel was another selection.  This was the first time I'd really connected with the way I see the body in a way of perspective, angles and foreshortening. These pictures aren't great overall but they remind me that things are starting to take shape more and connecting the dots with the expressive nature I bring is working.

I do feel that I've still got so much to discover and I haven't found what really gets me. I'm in no hurry at the moment and I enjoy learning and the process behind it.

These life drawing in ink gives a good example of movement and shape.

Quick movement from a 30 second pose.

Me, myself and I

This piece was about me,  I'd wanted to create my own real life style Picasso.  His work Girl in a mirror, had really grabbed me when I was younger and going through a difficult time with my own self image. I could really relate to the work without knowing the meaning of the work. I recreated it but failed to make it a personal connection and it ended just a bright coloured picture.  See blog, Me myself and I for more info on this.

more mono printing on tissue paper

Ink drawing of a Tool

 

Ink drawing

So far that is it apart from my logs, and some photography!

Which I will look at later. I was worried that my exhibition would be all black and white but a lot of my photography has colour. I will have to think about this when selecting my images on this.

This whole thing gets very frightening looking through my photography. How to select a couple of pictures that I like. For me to distance the reason behind or the memory of, then just to select a good image for that reason with be hard.

The exhibition process should be fun and a celebration of a years worth of learning. I will try to remember this and not be to critical of myself and my work.