Painting 2D>3D>2D (Written 18-10-13)

Taking my work from 2D to 3D seemed like a very natural step for me, and is something I usually do in my practice (but more with drawings and plans than with painting). Following the crit we had, where it was suggested I think about what 3D materials my painting reminded me of, I experimented with wire, masking tape and different papers making small maquettes. I enjoyed this because it was a very quick, spontaneous process and seemed to develop very naturally.

I feel this way of working would be useful for me,  certainly it would provide me with a lot of ideas because the work is constantly eveolving and changes very rapidly. It might however be hard to decide when to stop the process, and focus on one thing to refine it.

I had not anticipated the translucency that was produced by the masking tape, which could certainly be taken forward in painting by using many thin layers of paint. It was suggested that my work has similar sensitivities in this way to that of Ian McKeever, an artist who I have looked at previously and whose work I like very much for its subtlety, exploration of light and transparent qualities. I am also drawn to McKeever's curiosity for an ambiguous solidity of form and space - I am very interested to explore this element further in my own work.

Ian McKeever - 'Day Painting', 1999

It was very interesting in this week's crit trying to guess the order in which people's work had been made... whether the drawing, or the sculpture, or the photograph came first. I was happy with the response I got to my work, and the feedback was very useful in thinking of ways forward - I am thinking about how to develop the x-ray like quality of the photographs I took of my maquette on the light box.

Painting (Written 10-10-13)

Painting has been surprisingly enjoyable this week. I was doubtful at the beginning that I would enjoy it because I haven't done any painting since AS Level, and don't feel particularly comfortable doing it. In fact, it was these things that made it enjoyable because I felt really free to experiment - I had no expectation of myself to live up to as I might in future weeks. I learnt an awful lot from the slideshow about how to look at paintings and understanding the different brush strokes.. this is something that I feel I have missed out on before, and it was really good to have the opportunity to consider painting in this way. From this, I feel myself already better able to look at paintings and understand them, and appreciate the visual language of the artist's work.

I produced a few paintings that (as relatively quick studies) I am happy with and more importantly, interested in. I am mainly interested in the shapes and the structures that they show, especially in the painting made from stencils as it has a certain geometry to it. I was wondering however, how much of the interest I see in my paintings is really about the painting or the subject in the original image. In the crit, it was pointed out that I am perhaps looking at the painting in a 3D way, thinking about what it would be like as a sculpture for instance.

However, I enjoyed it less when I was trying to make a painting using layers - I have never formally been taught how to paint in the past and really, have little knowledge of how to apply the paint (at AS Level I just did it in the manner which felt most natural and was not advised otherwise). I think I have little patience for painting 'properly' - waiting for layers to dry etc. The thing that held me back the most was that I feel I have no ability to judge whether a painting is good or not - I think this is because this medium does not interest me, maybe I have not researched it enough or am familiar enough with paintings, but I found it really off-putting to produce something and have no confidence in my opinion about it.

Unpacking the Box (Written 03-10-13)

This has been an interesting week of learning about the course and how it is to be taught. I don’t think it differs vastly from foundation in terms of going to lecture, seminars and tutorials etc, but there does seem to be a greater emphasis on crits and opportunities to analyse/talk about each others work in a group. I have found this a little daunting because I am not used to thinking about work for so long and it worries me that I can’t talk about the things I am seeing in as much detail as some of the others in the group.

In unpacking the box, I have continued to think about habitats and natural environments, but using materials that are man made or processed. It has turned out to be a little tricky to focus my ideas because I am trying to do everything quickly… I would usually spend a lot longer researching and developing ideas, but I want to have some work to show at the end of the week.

I have used my space as a sort of mood board.. I find it quite useful to have lots of images in front of me that might inform what I am doing or remind me of certain things. It was also nice to use this as a way of explaining my work to people, as we are still getting to know each other. I enjoyed seeing for the first time the type of work that the others are interested in. I can already see that the people I am on the course with will be very useful in helping my development as everyone is already discussing and sharing ideas quite a bit, in crits and otherwise.

 

I was thinking a lot about the use of cardboard this week, it seems to tie into my project in lots of different ways... Firstly, in how cardboard boxes become the environment for whatever we put into them (the brief itself is of course 'Universe in a Box - perhaps the box itself is the universe). Cardboard is associated with a certain transience, a temporality because they are often used to carry things from one place to another and house things for a short amount of time. I was reminded of London's 'cardboard city', where homeless people set up temporary shelters with cardboard - this runs parallel with how wasps make their nests, constructing it from cardboard and wood. I was also reminded of an installation work I saw at Glastonbury Festival in the summer by French artist Olivier Grossetête, who builds giant cardboard buildings as a collaborative effort. Of course, the sculptures only exist for a short time, but the buildings they replicate are grand and study monuments.

 

 

After this week, therefore, I think of cardboard as a much more poetic material.. I made a few maquettes using it but I would really like to explore it further in the future.

Week One drawing Project (Written 26-09-13)

I would just like to quickly observe how art, and specifically drawing, was used this week as  a unifier and a conversation topic… it is of course something we all have in common on our course and I am really enjoying getting to know people through their art, and through talking about their work.

The Drawing Project was really fun because none of us felt too precious about the work we were making and I think this gave us some scope for experimentation and working freely. Indeed, I really enjoyed working in a style so different from what I am used to - painting in bold colours, very stylistically and very quickly - I really would like to do this again because it was fun to do! The brief seemed so loose that we were able to follow lots of different ideas, and ended up with quite a strange, but interesting result.

 

 In re-interpreting Pierro De La Francesca’s ‘Flagellation of Christ’ (1455-1460), we mainly focused on changing the perspective, removing the depth of field and distorting the mathematical ratios and proportions that were so considered in the original.

 

 

I both enjoyed and disliked working in a group. On one hand it was exciting and spontaneous to work with other people’s ideas (that were usually very different to my own)… when we were painting together, we moved around the work so that it was truly a collaboration and areas would be worked and re-worked in different ways. On the other hand, however, I don’t think I would want to work collaboratively in my own practice because I found it hard to put across my ideas, and am not confident in enforcing my own ideas.  

Universe in a Box Reflection (Written 15-09-13)

I feel I have an interesting collection of things in my box, which I am keen to explore further. I have found that collecting materials and objects has provided me with quite a few ideas - I haven’t really done this in such a defined way before, and only did so at the suggestion of the brief but I will certainly do so again in future. I have found keeping a sketch book the most coherent way of documenting my ideas; I think this is probably because I am used to doing so. Keeping a sketch book seems to allow me a space to look at images and take them further with drawings and collage, as well as making visual associations… the juxtaposition of images I find really useful in coming up with new ideas, different concepts can be linked together in their aesthetic similarities and I find this inspiring.

From the work I have done in my sketch book, I feel that to continue this project I might want to investigate habitats. I have been looking at a lot of natural structures such as tree roots, plants and wasps nest and these have led me to consider growth in nature, and how animals and humans build things around them to live in or amongst.

 

 

'Universe in a Box' Development (written 30-07-13)

Two main things have influenced the way I have now decided to take the project. Firstly, I have been thinking about the connotations of the word 'Universe' and trying to decipher what it can mean. I always find looking up synonyms and definitions to words gives me a lot of new ideas to work from. I have been thinking about the meaning of 'Universe' as a habitat, environment or surroundings.

 

 

Secondly, I watched a documentary about British artist Cornelia Parker ('What Do Artists Do All Day?' - BBC4), in which she photographed things she encountered on her journeys through London as part of her day-to-day life. It makes more sense to me that people make art about things they have experienced, and the world around them and so I have come to define 'Universe' as the world that we encounter.

 

I have a fascination with what influences people, the things that mould someone even without their knowledge or consciosness. It is exciting that everyone's blend of encounters is different, making up a universe unique to them.

 

With these things in mind, my aim is to document my encounters by the things I collect and put in the box.

'Universe in a Box' (written 29-07-13)

This is from my written journal that I kept prior to this blog.

'Universe in a Box' - My initial reaction to the brief was that the box was the important element - that it would be necessary to install a work in the box and use it like a habitat. This was very daunting for me because I am looking to work on a large scale with 3D materials, which would look twee and craft-like if confined to a small box.

Reading over the brief slowly several times was a useful technique to understanding it in a way that I'm more comfortable with and that allows for plenty of experiment. My aim therefore for this project is to collect lots of different things e.g. objects, drawins, photos, materials and to simply store them in a box. I am not going to display them in any particular way because I don't think it is necessary.