Sending my blog off

I am sending my blog of today because it takes around 3 weeks to be printed. So I am going to write my essay ideas and research in a sketchbook along-side my blog. Also I am producing another sketchbook with all of my pictures of the journey I am taking for the creation of my final piece. 

Also I am going to make a book with all of the pictures I have gathered within this semester.

Brought some materials!

I've brought some materials for book making which should be fun! I'm definitely going to make a book and print my catalogue in it for the other module!

New piece!

The idea of creating a final piece of a homeless person curled up in the corner for my final piece has gave me another idea around the same area to go towards my coursework part.

The idea is taking the surface pattern canvas I have originally made and cut some of the squares out which will be expanded into small rooms where I can create and place little models of the homeless man. 

This seems really confusing to me but i'm just going to go with it and see what it turns out like!

This is the start where I have stretched my canvas around a wooden frame and cut out some of the coloured squares where I will make my rooms:

I will continue working on this while I am producing my final piece for the exhibition.

Trying to cut down my artist statement!

I have been trying to cut down my artist statement as it was a tad too long. Its been difficult as its hard to cut certain parts out as it is very descriptive.

Ive managed to take certain sentences out where I am rambling.

This is what the statement looks like after a few alterations:

(I was walking around the town and heard a young girl speaking to her parents 'I want this!' with the quick reply being 'Do you really need that?'. This initially stemmed my thoughts about consumerism, whether we need the things we buy plus how it could easily lead to mass consumption.

I produced a painting shortly after this experience having being inspired by an artist named 'Sarah Key'. The main aspect of Key's work I really liked was replacing a human head with that of an animal. I used a similar approach replacing a person’s head with a shopping bag taking away their identity mirroring what consumerism does. The materials I used were acrylic on canvas. After a few tutorials and experimenting, I realized that there were some aspects to my painting style that could be improved. I thought this could also seem too forceful focusing on consumerism being bad, therefore I needed look into identity further.

I also explored identity through my exhibiting and curating module where we worked collaboratively. We all produced a piece and then exchanged it only spending max an hour to adapt it. This movement is similar to what advertisement companies do themselves, one person having the original idea, then passing it on ending with a collective identity rather than a single.

Before this module I made a series of squared blocks which I produced from various sized cuts of wood. They were each painted in a certain colour, representing a certain shop. On one of the largest surfaces, I transferred the image of the chosen store. When all produced, it looked like a miniature shopping outlet. They also reminded me of children’s playing blocks which highlights innocence, totally opposite to consumerism as it doesn’t display purity, it shows the opposite which is corruption. Being toy-like translates to something being controlled by another.

I wanted to reveal less to my audience allowing them to interpret it themselves. I was really interested in how painting and photography are related, how both sources enable a connection with the audience. I played around taking pictures in different locations relating to my theme. I produced a tri of photos, these images were taken in a small public park close to the town centre. The first image was of a woman carrying a shopping bag, the second and third image the bags duplicated but in a way that wasn’t obvious to the viewer. This piece was a slight illusion, allowing the viewer to spend a bit more time picking out differences in these images. But, the main importance in this piece was maybe not the content, however the location and time/awareness I believed to be most successful.

At this point, I began to think about how people are always in a rush to buy and get places, how we haven’t got 'time' to stop and think before doing. This is where I changed the direction of my practice realizing that I had been doing what everyone else in the public do, rush around and not being aware! I wanted to focus my attention to those who we do forget, people who may want to get involved with this rush, who may want to mass consume which we take for granted, people like the homeless.

The change in direction I found hard to begin with, at present time I am continuing the research further into this area so that I can develop a deeper understanding on how consumerism effects those less fortunate.

I was walking home one night after being in the studio, there was a homeless guy sitting in the town centre and I tried to think about what it is like to be in his shoes. This inspired me to create a poster using the photoshop software. The poster displayed a street where a homeless man is sitting in the center and people are just walking past him, ignoring him. When I was playing around with the software I used an emboss tool, it allowed me to offset the image of the homeless man from the original one. This reminded me of early 3D cinema because the distortion makes it look 3D like. Also, 3D was related to superheros, people we want to be and look up to as children. This was interesting because it was displaying the homeless as this positive force, whereas we see it as being a negative/a sad thing. Working with software like Photoshop, it was as if I was using their tools against them.

Consumerism is a strong force that does affect our living environment  I have just started transferring images onto canvas and then pushing colour from the back through the fabric. The colour travelling through creates this bleeding/penetrating notion. Looking at consumerism, it has this penetrating force, it is like a voice that is clearly heard over all other sounds.

I am working to create a human sized model of a homeless man crunched up in a corner of a room. The reason behind this is to generate a big impact on the viewer. Putting this model in an exhibition format makes me question, would an audience be more aware and feel different towards the homeless man here compared to if he was outside on the street?

I am still going to cut some bits out as its just over a page and need it to be 1 side of A4.

First part of my essay

Ive been concentrating of parts of my essay to make sure that it connects well with my question I am asking.

This is the introduction to my essay:

How successful is collaborative art compared with solitary practice?

Fig 1. John Wood Paul Harrison, UK 1997, Performance art, 3 minutes 39 seconds, colour, sound, video

 

The idea of collaboration is working in the format of a team, sharing ideas and gathering understanding to generate a well structured and thematic composition. In this essay I will highlight comparisons between working as an individual and collaborating with others and whether each display successful traits.

(Fig 1) is a performance piece of art choreographed by John Wood and Paul Harrison which throughout they worked together to dodge the tennis balls launched at them. This collaborative source allowed them to channel each other’s thoughts directing them towards an action (e.g. moving side to side). 

An online newspaper named ‘Art Daily’ states ‘Answers to Questions provides insight into the way the pair’s work has developed throughout their career’ (artdaily 2012). There are numerous problems and questions that practicing artists encounter in the studio. Wood and Harrison engage with such inquiries and through controlled fun investigations reveal the answer of which they produce art. When questions arise, in many cases an additional point of view helps to resolve any queries, therefore this could be seen as a successful trait in a collaborative situation. 

Collaborative art is an interesting element as it is producing something that goes beyond the ability of a solitary practice. 

I will now do some more research and see how I can connect collaborative artists with solitary practices!

Charcoal drawing!

Ive decided to go back and revisit my charcoal drawings from at the beginning of the first semester. With me redirecting my concentration on homeless people, I think charcoal is really effective in bringing out feelings and atmosphere.

Plus I have been thinking of my final piece and the picture that I have drawn of a homeless man curled up on the street in charcoal, I might turn into a sculpture!

This is the charcoal drawing that I have produced:

It was difficult in some areas to get back into charcoal as I haven't used it for a year but after revisiting it, I definatly want to explore deeper into this medium and play around with some experiments over the summer.

Essay research!

I have been researching into artists that collaborate and have found some really interesting people! Some of the artists have been to the university to do an artist lecture which I can remember being really interesting! 

The artists that I am looking at are:

1. Mally Mallinson & Shaun Doyle
2. John Wood & Paul Harrison
3. Doug Fishbone

I have had a go at putting an introduction together, this is what it reads so far:

The idea of collaboration is working in the format of a team, sharing ideas and gathering understanding to generate a well structured and thematic composition. In this essay I will highlight comparisons between working as an individual and collaborating with others and whether each display successful traits.

Essay question?

I have been thinking of essay questions that I would like to write the subject on. As I have been looking at language from artists like Barbara Kruger, I emailed Graham to see if he could help me with putting a question together. He was really helpful and gave me loads of names of artists that I could compare to my work to. But, as I started to write this essay I was also doing some reading for my exhibiting and curating modual on 'Collaborations'. I found this really interesting so I have decided to switch the route of my essay and as I have been working collaboratively with my peers during the exhibiting and curating modual, I think it will be a really interesting essay subject!  

So..... I think this would be a interesting question to write an essay on:


How successful is collaborative art compared with solitary practice?

I am going to do some research into this to get a good introduction together!

Feedback from second draft of artist statement

After speaking to Anna about my artist statement. She said that it is very descriptive which is good but it is a little too long. Therefore she suggested to cut out the bits that aren't as important so that it is compressed to a page. 

New draft of my Artist statement

After having the feedback from the first draft of my Artist Statement, I have gone back and changed a few elements from the feedback I was given.
This is my new artist statement draft:

At the beginning of the year I was walking around the town and heard a young girl speaking to her parents saying 'I want this!' with the quick reply being 'Do you really need that?'. This initially stemmed my thoughts about consumerism and whether we need the things we buy plus how it could easily lead to mass consumption.

I produced a painting shortly after this experience having being inspired by an artist named 'Sarah Key'. The main aspect of Key's work to me that I really liked was replacing a human head with one of an animal form. I used a similar approach but replaced a persons head with a shopping bag which takes away their identity mirroring what consumerism does. The materials I used were acrylic on canvas. This was the piece that after a few tutorials and experimenting, I realized that there were some aspects to my painting style that could be adapted/improved. I thought this could also could seem too forceful towards consumerism being bad, therefore I needed look into identity further and do some deeper reading.

I also explored identity through my exhibiting and curating modual where we performed a collaboration. We all produced a piece of art and then passed it around the group only spending maximum an hour to adapt it. This created a similar movement to what advertisement companies do themselves. One person may have the original idea of the advertisement, then it is passed on and eventually the ideas from the first creator has changed totally, their identity has been lost.

Just before the exhibiting and curating I made a series of squared blocks which I produced from various sized cuts of wood. They were each painted in a certain colour that represented a certain shop. Also, on one of the largest surfaces, I transferred the image of the chosen store. When all made and coupled together, it looked like a miniature shopping outlet. They also reminded me of children s playing blocks. Relating these pieces to children s playing toys highlights innocence which is totally opposite to consumerism as it doesn't display purity but does the opposite which is corruption. Plus, being toy-like translates to something being controlled by another.

I wanted to experiment and reveal less to my audience allowing them to interpret it themselves. I was really interested in how painting and photography are related also how they both are great sources enabling a connection with the audience. I played around with various pictures, taking them in different locations in relation to my consumerism theme. After doing so, I later produced a tri of photos, these images were taken in a small public park very close to the town center  The first image was of a woman carrying a shopping bag, then the second and third image the bags duplicated but in a way that wasn't obvious to the viewer. This piece of photography was a slight illusion, allowing the viewer to spend a bit more time picking out differences in these images. But, the main importance in this piece was maybe not the content, however the location and time/awareness I believed to be most successful.

At this point, I began to think about how people are always in a rush to buy things and to get places, how we haven't got 'time' to stop and think before doing. This is where I changed the direction of my practice as I realized that I had been doing what everyone else in the public do, rushing around and not being aware! I wanted to focus my attention to those who we do forget, people who may want to get involved with this rush, who may want to mass consume which we take for granted, people like the homeless.

The change in direction I found hard to begin with, at present time I am continuing the research further into this area so that I can develop a deeper understanding on how consumerism effects those less fortunate.

I was walking home one night after being in the studio, there was a homeless guy sitting in the town center and I tried to think about what it is like to be in his shoes. This inspired me to create a poster using the Photoshop software. The poster displayed a street where a homeless man is sitting in the center and people are just walking past him, ignoring him. When I was playing around with the software I used an emboss tool, it allowed me to offset the image of the homeless man from the original one. This reminded me of early 3D cinema because the distortion makes it look 3D like. Also, 3D was related to superheros, people we want to be and look up to as children. This was interesting because it was displaying the homeless as this positive force, whereas we see it as being a negative/a sad thing. Working with software like Photoshop, it was as if I was using their tools against them.

Consumerism is a strong force that does affect our living environment  I have just started transferring images onto canvas and then pushing colour from the back through the fabric. The colour travelling through creates this bleeding/penetrating notion. Looking at consumerism, it has this penetrating force, it is like a voice that is clearly heard over all other sounds.

I am working to create a human sized model of a homeless man crunched up in a corner of a room. The reason behind this is to generate a big impact on the viewer. Putting this model in an exhibition format makes me question, would an audience be more aware and feel different towards the homeless man here compared to if he was outside on the street? 

I have a meeting later with Anna to discuss if I need to make further changes to this.

Artist Statement Feedback

Here are some of the bits of feedback I was given from my first draft of the artist statement:

1. (On the 3rd paragraph down) maybe I could start with the 'I want this!' and the 'Do you really need that?' because it is a strong opening.
2. Mention something about how advertising relates to our desires, we feel complete when we have purchased something.
3. (To do with the transfer art I did in surface pattern) I could say something about when I push the colour through the cotton fabric it is like a bleeding/penetrating notion. Relate the bleeding etc. to consumerism.
4. Include the exhibiting and curating collaboration I had done as that is what advertisement companies do. Not knowing identity.
5. (Looking at the poster I made of the homeless man sitting distorted in the street) I could relate that to early 3D cinema because the distortion makes it look 3D like. 3D can be related to super hero's but putting a homeless man in 3D could say something else.
6. (The blocks that are shops but painted) Could mention that they are like children s playing blocks as they are really small but does have a deeper meaning behind it.
7. (My Photoshoped images) Photoshop is what advertisers use, I have been using their tools against them. 
8. (Illusion mirror eye) relate this to the 3D posters, how they both generate a slight illusion.
9. At the end of the statement when I talk about what I will do in the future, I can be specific because I know what I want to do for the final piece in the exhibition! be specific!  

Artist Statement Seminar

The artist statement seminar was really good! I got some really good feedback from my peers and Stephen Boyd about how I can change my statement. 
For the artists statement, the objective was to create a piece of text that gave a viewer a summery of our practices throughout the year. 
I found it really hard to talk about my practice at the start.

This was my first draft of the Artist Statement:

                                                                                                                                                                     


How are people connected with consumerism? Does mass consumption play a big part within our lives? Do we forget those not seen to be affected by this?
These are a few of the questions that I have asked myself within my practice. My projects have centered around painting, sculpture, photography, language and mixed media. 
At the beginning of the year I was walking around the town and heard a young girl speaking to her parents saying 'I want this!' with the quick reply being 'Do you really need that?'. This initially stemmed my thoughts about consumerism and whether we need the things we buy plus how it could easily lead to mass consumption. 
I produced a painting shortly after this experience having being inspired by an artist named 'Sarah Key'. The main aspect of Key's work to me that I really liked was the idea of altering a persons identity by replacing their head with one of an animal form. I used a similar approach but replaced a persons head with a shopping bag, the materials I used were acrylic on canvas. This was the piece that after a few tutorials and experimenting, I realized that there were some aspects to my painting style that could be adapted/improved, also I was being too forceful with my approach to the theme, I was presenting consumerism as this bad source that controls our life. 
After realizing this I started to reveal less to my audience allowing them to interpret it themselves. I was really interested in how painting and photography are related also how they both are great sources enabling a connection with the audience. I played around with various pictures, taking them in different locations in relation to my consumerism theme. After doing so, I later produced a tri of photos, these images were taken in a small public park very close to the town center  The first image was of a woman carrying a shopping bag, then the second and third image the bags duplicated but in a way that wasn't obvious to the viewer. This piece of photography was a slight illusion, allowing the viewer to spend a bit more time picking out differences in these images. But, the main importance in this piece was maybe not the content, however the location and time/awareness I believed to be most successful.
At this point, I began to think about how people are always in a rush to buy things and to get places, how we haven't got 'time' to stop and think before doing. This is where I changed the direction of my practice as I realized that I had been doing what everyone else in the public do, rushing around and not being aware! I wanted to focus my attention to those who we do forget, people who may want to get involved with this rush, who may want to mass consume which we take for granted, people like the homeless.
The change in direction I found hard to begin with, at present time I am continuing the research further into this area so that I can develop a deeper understanding on how consumerism effects those less fortunate. I have recently produced two posters and using software such as Photoshop I have been able to direct concentration to certain areas. One of the posters ideas came from when I was walking home one night after being in the studio, there was a homeless guy sitting in the town center and I tried to think about what it is like to be in his shoes. At that time I was researching into an artist named 'Barbara Kruger' who used language within her work, this inspired me to look further at other sources and I found a quote that said 'There must be more to life than having everything!' this is when I realized this could be a thought running through this mans mind. The poster displays a homeless man holding a cardboard sign with crowds of people walking past him, using Photoshop I decided to distort the man which generated a contrast with the rest of the picture. I placed the phrase 'There must be more to life than having everything' on the cardboard he was holding. To me language is an interesting element to add to a piece of art and there are many ways it could be used.
My main concern after having a tutorial with my tutor was whether the image needed language or not? by distorting just the homeless man and nothing else, does it speak for itself? by adding language would it be giving too much away to the viewer?. These are the aspects that I am continually experimenting with, whether or not an image could speak for itself and how much information should I provide the viewer with. 
Now and in the future I am working on different ways to develop my theme and continue improving the mediums I work with. I have just started playing around with canvas and colour transfers which is really interesting and an area that I will explore more.

                                                                                                                                                                         

Transfer experiment

Along side doing this painting that I have produced the outline for, I was in the surface design department and started playing around with different colours and shapes on a canvas material. Today has been really fun because I don't know exactly where i am going to go with this piece but im finding it a really fun process!

Ive also brought something from the art shop that allows me to transfer images onto material without the use of the surface design place which would be good if im at home and wanting to do some transferring.

This is the experiment that I have been working on:

What I am going to do is add a few more coloured squares and the mount it on a wooden frame so that the canvas is stretched!

Not sure what to do after but im sure it will be fun!

Consumerism? Really?

When I got home last night I was thinking about the transfer printing I did of that homeless man. I  realized that we forget about the people that cant afford or even worry about fitting in and keeping up with the standard of living in a modern day society. This is why I want to concentrate on the people who are less affected and maybe want all of the modern antics and stress of having to keep up with everyone and keep up with a certain living standard.

I have started to produce a painting solely of a portrait of a homeless mans face. The reason being is because the image that I had chosen gives so much emotion through it and as ive been working with language in art, i believe this certain image doesn't need language to back it up, it says everything the viewer may need to know. 

This is the outline of the homeless mans face that I will now start to incorporate paint with.

Should be fun!

Surface pattern 'Image transfer'

We went to the second part of the surface pattern workshop! What we had to do is take with us a drawing drawn onto acetate using a black paint pen (the reason why we needed to use a paint pen is because if the marker is too light and the light will shine through and wont produce the image properly). When we took our drawing in, we placed it on a big UV light box and it transferred the image. This was really really fun because we got to transfer our images after this onto our pieces of fabric we had made previously. 

The image that I had chosen to draw (homeless guy) was the one from the poster that I had made previously. As I have been focusing previously on people affected by consumerism, I wanted to turn my concentration to the people that aren't affected by it and don't have the privileges we have to go out and buy items to fit in with modern day living. 

This is what the image looks like on my wall of the studio!

Definatly something that I will want to experiment with!

Surface pattern

Today we went into the surface pattern workshop and they showed us how to apply different mixes of colour onto a certain material. This was really fun! it wasn't too hard as well which is good.
First we had to wash the desk with just soapy water and then we had to apply this gel onto when it was dry (it smelled really bad like cheese). Once it had all dried, we could place our bit of material on top and then if we rubbed an iron over it, it sticked to the table! 
After sticking the fabric to the table we had to start mixing the colours. It was really interesting because we only had to use a tiny bit of the ink to make the colour form. 
After mixing our colours we could apply them to the fabric using the pieces of wood/stencil and dragging the colour through!
This was a really good session, we have got to go back on Friday and we will be taught how to print our chosen images onto the fabric too!

Cant wait!!!

Book making session!

The book making session was really really good!!! 
We got to make 3 different types of books, it was hard in some places like the sewing part, but it was really interesting to make our own books. I think it would be really nice to make a book for the catalog in the exhibiting and curating modual and also one for photographs in this modual! 

This was the first book we made, its like a flip out book which would be really good for displaying pictures in:

This is the second book that I made which I thought would be really good for sketches and information etc: 

The last book that we made was a Chinese one which looks like it would be really good for a note book or a jotter:

The book workshop overall was really good, I cant wait for the next workshop!

Michaels reading session (Richard Wentworth)

Michael Day's reading session was really good! We read though a interview with an artist named 'Richard Wentworth'. During the interview he talked about his son going to oxford and he made a quote saying 'hes very very smart but hes smart like artists are smart', I thought this was a really interesting quote as we all questioned whether he was on about being academic compared to more of a practical source.
Michael went through the interview step by step to make sure we totally understood the text. As we went through there were certain words that confused us but we discussed what we think they meant and Micheal Day clarified the meaning behind them.
I really liked the part in this interview where Richard Wentworth said 'Im quite interested in the image of a handrail, you don't need it but its good to have it there if you fall. Part of civilized intelligence is it notice it before you trip, not to be looking around for it mid-fall'. I like to think that the handrail is a part in our practice that we feel most comfortable perusing and as long as we know the handrail is there we can experiment always knowing that we have that to fall back on!
I have really enjoyed going to these reading sessions as I have started to understand how important it is to break down the text so that it is easier to understand.

Grahams reading (Death of the Author)

We had a reading session with Graham, the text was called 'The death of the author'. When I read it before I found it really hard to understand. We started the session and Graham asked who didn't understand the text and most of us put our hands up but what I did like about the reading lesson was that the text did become clear as Graham started to explain what each section is about. 
I have kept the copy of the reading as i want to have another look over it just to gather a bit more understanding of what each section is on about. It was a really interesting read but some of the large words were hard to understand.

New piece of art!

I was looking at this artist called 'Ghada Amer', she uses different sewing techniques and paint to create her artwork.

This is a piece of art called 'Red drips-Coulures Rouges', she used a mix of acrylic, embroidery and gel medium on canvas:

This is a close up of the stitching she has done.

This is the full view of the piece of art, she has used red drips of paint before applying the thread.

I wanted to explore the idea of using thread in my work because the way the thread is placed over paint looks really interesting!

This is a piece of art/poster that I previously made:

I thought it would be really interesting to take the main element of the picture which is the homeless person and duplicate him a few times on a canvas but use thread to highlight the outline of him.
I wanted to experiment with different types of mediums like paint and posters and thread etc.

I started with getting a canvas, I didn't want to get a big one because I just wanted to experiment to see if the idea worked to start off with. First I gave the canvas a coat of Gesso to form a protective layer from the acrylic:

After giving the canvas a protective coat I applied red paint in the same style as 'Ghada Amer'. It was really good because it started to form layers as I put different tones of red on top of each other:

This effect was really good because some of the paint started to drip and created an interesting element to the canvas. It was like the paint had a mind of its own! I let the paint fully dry before trying to add the thread. When it was dry I formed a template of the homeless guy from my poster and placed out where I want them on the canvas. After, I started to place the thread on the canvas in the shape of the template using gel medium:

This is a close-up of the thread being used on the canvas:

This is what it looks like now, I still need to put more thread on the canvas:

The main reason why I wanted to take the picture of the homeless man and duplicate it on a canvas is because as I am still looking at consumerism and language, I didn't want to make the theme too obvious to the viewer but allow them to interpret it themselves. The canvas represents the world of consumerism, and the homeless man duplicated represents those that are forgotten in that world. I have used the colour green thread as it is a natural/economical colour which some aspects of consumerism aren't  also red is connected with things being bad etc. so the idea of there being homeless people in the world of consumerism and mass consumption is wrong!

Anna's reading session (Adam Chodzko)

Yesterday we had a reading with Anna in the AirSpace Museum. I was a really good afternoon because we didn't just read through the piece of text we also went out to the Hanley bus station!
Before we went to the reading group with Anna, we were asked to read the text from Adam Chodzko and also bring along a text that relates or opposes it.
When reading the text from Chodzko, it was interesting because he was exploring the ideas of public spaces and how people interact within them etc. So, when I started looking for an artist or text that could either relate or oppose to the Chodzko text, I thought back to the first semester when I was looking at Micheal Landy. The piece of text that I chose which relates to the Chodzko text is a overview of an exhibition from Landy called 'Breakdown'. 'Breakdown' was where he was situated in a major shopping part in London and occupied a shop and started to destroy all of his things (including other artists artworks). This was a relation because Chodzko talked about there's looking and then there's looking for something, I believe that Landy was looking for that something which would change thought processes of his viewers.
We started to discuss that people are becoming so unaware of things out in open spaces because everyone is always in a rush!
The second part of the session was going out and seeing the old Hanley bus station. Anna had shown us a few pictures beforehand highlighting what it looked like before when it was built in the 60's. When we got down there I realized that alot can change over a few years and some places can become neglected and people do walk past oblivious because they are always in a rush.
Here are a few pictures of what the bus station looks like now and also what the new bus station will be like:

Each section of the old bus station now looks abandoned and grotty where at one time it would have been lively and a god place to be!

This is the new bus station which is being built:

This new bus stop is being made and looks like a very modern building.

Once we had a walk around the bus station we were set a task, the task was to use a picture that you have taken from the walk to the bus station and draw on top of it something that will make the place look more interesting or inviting.

This was a really good reading session! Very fun!

Brought Vitamin P Book

Today I have just got my Vitamin P book which was recomended to ys by Stephen. It looks really good! im going to have a good look through it see what is has inside!

Visiting artist lecture: Doug Fishbone

When fishbone started to explain his practice he began it by showing us a picture of 2 pieces of art. Both pieces displayed a joint of ham but one had a bottle of wine next to it and the other didn't, he started to explain that the audience will all go for the one with the wine because it is more appealing! This was an introduction saying that we can control audiences reactions to art in different ways.
Doug Fishbone work on alot of performance work, he uses a very strange way to interact with his audience and that is through hypnosis!
His main aim when producing the artwork was to see if he could convince people using visual gestures.
Using the motion of hypnosis, he wanted to see if he could control peoples reactions instead of them being uncontrollable which is a natural thing for us to do. When he looked at the responses from the audiences he said it was very strange.
Once he did this experiment then he created a 2 screen installation, 1 of the screens was of the audience being filmed from the experiment and the other which was opposite was the actual film that was being watched (This means that there would be 2 audiences one on the screen and one viewing the installation piece).
He wanted to find the answer to this question, how do we perceive things?

He said something towards the end of the power point that was really interesting and that I could use for my practice, he said that most art is a juxtaposition, another words if you see something like a naked woman on a tractor, it doesn't mean that if you buy the tractor you'll get the naked woman!

Thought of the day!

When I walked into the studio today I looked at some of the previous pieces of work that I have 

done and saw this one:

When I looked closer at the picture I thought it would be really interesting to incorporate a painting with the picture. So, as I have been working on a painting previously I realized that it connects with this image very well. Using this idea, I think it would be really good to add a canvas onto a poster!

Instead of the guy holding a board with the piece of language on, it would be interesting to experiment with replacing it with a very small canvas showing an image of beauty. 

This will make a big contrast as the guy is a homeless guy holding something that is displaying such beauty!

Im going to do a few experiments with this idea as it will become more clear!

Visit to Hanley Park

Just before dinner and our artist lecture today I decided to have a walk around Hanley Park to see if there was anything interesting that caught my eye. I saw a few things that was really eye catching while walking around, this was what they were:

I thought this poster was funny/interesting because it is alerting everyone of something that isnt there! This sign is highlighting that there is a danger of thin ice whereas if you look into the background, the water isn't frozen over.

This second photo that I took when walking around highlighted beauty! The way the sun was shining down onto the water created some unexpected speckles of light which was really nice to see.

In the center of the park where the water is there was a small boat house. It had been all boarded up except it left a few gaps in the boards so I put my camera in to see what was in the building and it produced these images. It was like a derelict building, a bit dark and dingy. But the way it looked as if I was looking through a spy hole was really interesting!

I went around the other side of the boar house and took a picture from a different angle. This was a really nice image because you can just about make out that there is a wall on the left but the main focus is on the light appearing at the end of the tunnel like building. When I went back and looked at these images, this picture does relate to the term 'light at the end of the tunnel' which is also a religious element.

This is a similar picture to the previous one, the only difference in this picture that I like is that because there is a chair in the right corner and has bars on the windows, it gives the impression of a jail or someone who lives in a run down place!

This was the entrance to the boat house which does look run down and un-cared for.

This is another angle of the neglected boat house!

Addition to painting

When I got in uni today and looked at the perivious painting that I did I realized that I hadnt painting around the edges so they were still white. So Ive just finnished applying colour around the edges of the painting to make it look more professional and also so it doesnt look like ive stuck the image on the front.