Pattern in Art

Deconstruct/Reconstruct has been handed in (I created Richard Prince inspired collages aiming to disrupt voyeuristic viewing pleasures) and our new brief is Pattern in Art.

Mixed Media Work

We've been brainstorming physical and conceptual patterns and been looking at various use of pattern in art history, especially Abstract Expressionist and billboard artists who use ripping and tearing in their work. In response to these works, we spent a day reacting to materials and creating interesting mixed-media works by collaging, printing, ripping and painting. I created two works, on mirrored backgrounds.

I used old screen and monograph prints, tissue paper, crepe paper and black acrylic paint to print on top with egg cartons and coffee sticks. I also stuck coffee sticks on top in various places to give the work some low relief, all of this on top of a mirror paper background. As I stuck things on and ripped them off again, I enjoyed the small glimmers of my reflection and the light on the surface of the mirror, it added an interesting new element to the work and provided depth. To me, these works provoke a nostalgic feeling; the simple colour scheme and varying shapes and textures remind me of old photographs, while the egg-carton prints look like toys and trinkets. I am extremely pleased with these works, having been interesting in Abstract Expressionism for a long time and rarely having the opportunity to respond to this period in art history. I enjoyed the technique of ripping and tearing and will explore these in my future work for the brief.

Photograms

In a workshop with a photography technician, we embarks on learning about and creating photograms; camera-less photos, made my exposing light-sensitive photographic paper to light with objects placed on top. The technique was developed by Man Ray, whose work I have researched and have come to adore. I used a huge variety of things such as glass cubes, foliage, netting, glass gravel, linear things such as coffee sticks, my own hair, wire, pom poms and teabags. At the end of the day I had created a large number of these prints and developed my own style. I returned the next day to compose thought out images of flowers and planets using items I had collected. I will upload images when I have chosen a small number to photograph.

Cuttings and Collages

Today we have been folding, slicing and pasting images and paper to create work. Our first task was to fold and cut patterns into paper.

I chose to create quite a structured pattern by folding the paper in half longways twice and carving long and short slits in different directions, but mainly down the page instead of across. The results were quite floral and intricate. Paired with different coloured backgrounds I felt they were strong pieces of work. 

For these fun images I found pictures of Queen Elizabeth in a magazine and cut out a sort of Basquiat/Keith Haring crown above her head in each one, putting yellow behind it. I then pasted cut out slices from other peoples work that were left over around her to fill the space. The results are fun and made use of off-cuts of paper and magazines. 

For this image, I found large HD images of the Antarctic in a magazine and stapled four together on top of each other. I then sliced an image of a polar bear into the top one, removing the layers underneath that had been cut by the blade. I was hoping to comment on the decline in polar bears and on global warming, by removing the pieces and camouflaging the creature, this provokes the feeling of loss and disappearance, which is what is happening to the population of polar bears.

Nelle

Cubist Painting

After a lecture about colour theory and mixing and looking at examples in cubist art history,  were asked to create cubist-inspired paintings using acrylic paint and a design made from objects we either made or found.
I chose to draw a design from a headless, armless, torso mannequin of a woman I found at the back of the classroom. The object was white and had interesting angles. I chose to copy the technique I used to draw a design for a sculpture and overlay drawings of the torso from different angle to create spaces and shapes in the image. I am pleased with how the initial drawing came out and was worrying about ruining it with acrylic paint.

My initial pencil drawings/design

After I'd created my base design, I decided to block in vibrant warm colours; reds, oranges, pinks and yellows after picking out definite shapes. I hope to paint the entire image in this way and create an abstract, jumble of shapes and colour. When the painting is finished I will upload an image

The mannequin I was drawing from at different angles

EDIT: I finished painting the piece, purposely leaving middle areas white to pull focus to the centre and to not over-do the painting. 

Nelle

Glazing Ceramics

Yesterday we had another ceramic session with the technician, Fran, where we glazed our small hand-built pieces and turned some of our thrown pieces on the wheel. I have turned pots before and it has never turned out well and yesterday's session was no different; I turned one of my leather-heard pots but the glaze ring was far too large and the pot didn't look great.
When glazing my slab, pinch and coil pieces, I found a beautiful turquoise-green bucket glaze which I covered all three in, with plans to draw on-top in a Jean-Michel Basquiat inspired way with ceramic crayons. Upon discovering that the crayons wouldn't work on top of the glaze, I scratched and indented the thick layer of turquoise with Basquiat qualities in the hope it would create some interesting textures. I left my slab pot plain turquoise on advice from the technician and scratched lines into the pinch pot similar to the lines left in the clay underneath.
When coming up with Basquiat-inspired designs I jotted down words that came to mind when looking at it to scratch into the surface which I didn't end up using but found to be an interesting thought-generating technique.

EDIT: The works have all been fired and the turquoise colour I used on all three looks fantastic. Deep, smooth and unique on each form.

Nelle

Deconstruct/Reconstruct

This week we received our first official brief, the theme is Deconstruct/Reconstruct. A lot of the base ideas our tutor Pam wanted us to research revolved around cubism, the artists involved in the historical movement and cubism's effect on art since and today. Our outcomes don't have to be directly linked to cubism, just the very wide subject of deconstructing and reconstructing something. There are many different paths to go down, possible subjects and themes to explore and a lot of research, historical and contemporary, to be done.
Before we received the brief, we had an art history lecture about cubism and the importance of the movement and were asked to produce collages with a 'cubist approach' out of photocopied images, magazine pages, old screen-print textures etc.

I made three collages with different themes (will upload photos once I have taken more). I was extremely happy with all three of them. It was exciting to see themes and ideas unfold from the placement of collage pieces and building on those themes. I do think I slightly swayed from the 'cubist approach' but my ideas and processes were definitely within the deconstruct/reconstruct theme.

I am a huge fan of collage and appropriating images and will definitely be using the techniques in this exciting new brief

EDIT:

The images of the other two collages I completed in class. I used similar images plus my own cut out pieces from the fashion magazine Peacocks and Pigeons

Nelle

Throwing and Cubist Sculptures

Last week we started our Monday sessions in the ceramics department. We created slab pots (inspired by cubism), pinch pots and a slab-coil pot (will upload photos when I have them). I spent a lot of time in ceramics over my the duration of my last course so knew how to make these shapes, but it was extremely helpful to be re-taught the techniques by a new, better technician.

This week we were in the throwing room, something which again I have done many times before. I hadn't thrown in a long time and was extremely rusty to begin with but the technician, Fran, helped a lot and got better as the day went on.

After we had thrown (I created three pieces I was happy with), we were asked to create a design for a plaster sculpture inspired by cubism (to do with our brief we were let to receive). To come up with the designs we gathered random objects in the studio, arranged them and draw the shapes from many different angles, layering the drawings on top of each other.

I chose to draw each layer in a different colour do I could easily differentiate between the shapes and layers. I was pleased with how the drawing turned out and enjoyed making it; I would like to develop this technique in the future. The sculptures were to be made from card, plastic, wire etc. and covered in plaster. I didn't get round to making the sculpture itself but will do so when I get some free time at college and will upload pictures once it's been built

Nelle

Inktober

After in increase in my use of ink recently I though I'd try to attempt Inktober this year, after I completely failed last year and did about three drawings for the whole month. I'm not hopeful this year with my workload but I've already done better than last year so you never know! I only have four pictures to post now but will do a big post in the future if I manage to complete this

I have mostly been doing these quick inky faces, which I enjoy and remind me of Marlene Dumas's work (which I adore) but I have tried to branch out on my subject matter since I completed these. Hopefully more to follow.

Nelle

Ink Work

During class, my tutor often organises small activities to do during the day. A while ago we were getting into ink, firstly exploring different tools and mark-making, before getting us to push ourselves to do giant ink drawings of panoramic photographs we'd taken of our bedrooms and houses. I really enjoy working with ink, it's something I do in my spare time a lot and having Pam teach us ways to use different weird and wonderful tools further emphasised my love for inks. The mark-making was quick and spontaneous and the drawing were expressive and messy. I wasn't happy with my drawing and wanted to give up but Pam was extremely encouraging and I felt confident enough to push myself to finish.

Ink drawings in progress

Ink drawings in progress

Mark-making experiments using salt and strange tools such as sticks, cardboard etc

I chose to draw chairs over some background experiments because I often draw chairs from old furniture books in my free time. I'm really happy how these ones came out. I'm looking forward to further using ink in my work to come, and thoroughly enjoyed the session in class.

Nelle

St. Paul's and Tate Modern Trip

On the 26th September, me and my classmates went on a trip to St. Paul's Cathedral to watch a video installation by Bill Viola. The videos were moving and spiritual and the setting within the building emphasised this. There were two videos; one entitled Mary, featuring a number of interlocking short videos of life on Earth and in nature, the other called Martyrs, a series of 4 screens each showing a person being subjected to each element - earth, wind, fire and water. I personally found Martyrs to be more moving; the energy and power behind each video was exceptional. After researching Bill Viola and falling in love with his work, I found out what he had said about Martyrs:

"As the work opens, four individuals are shown in stasis, a pause from their suffering. Gradually there is movement in each scene as an element of nature begins to disturb their stillness. Flames rain down, winds begin to lash, water cascades, and earth flies up. As the elements rage, each martyr’s resolve remains unchanged. In their most violent assault, the elements represent the darkest hour of the martyr’s passage through death into the light."


His films are like spiritual, visual poems, captivating and moving.
After viewing these works, we walked over to the Tate Modern to visit the new extension The Switch  House. I had been to the new part twice before this trip so I knew what kind of artworks were inside, but it was helpful to go with a group to get a new perspective on some of the work I'd previously seen on my own. We were asked to chose 4+ pieces we liked and produce a presentation on each work and why we liked them/answer some questions about the work. I chose 6 pieces and the presentations the following week went very well. I have since been back to the Switch House a further two times to further look at some of the work I'd liked.

I chose 6 rather different pieces at the Tate to write about and made the PowerPoint Presentation in a day, answering the necessary questions and talking about why I liked that particular piece.

I have my opinions on the new Switch House extension which I will make a separate blog post about another day, however I do believe there is some fantastic new work to see and explore. For now, I will be finding articles and reviews for the work I've selected and putting together my research.

Nelle

First day of Fine Art HND

Today was the first day of my new degree level course at the college I've been attending for the last two years. It felt good to be back, despite some anxious feelings about throwing myself back into another quite intense course.
The course leader, Pam, is very up to date with contemporary art and artists especially in and around London which is what I've been looking forward to the most. Her knowledge and passion for the subject of fine art and it's history is something I find inspiring and was a joy to listen to today. We went over the course basics and materials and were given a small starter project as part of a competition called the Diversity Arts Award; we have been asked to create a small or large work of art exploring diversity in subjects such at gender, sexuality, race etc..
I decided to touch on my experience with sexuality in my work, having had many friends come out as gay, lesbian, bisexual and also many transgender friends all of whom have shared their experiences with me. I am honoured to be a part of all their journeys and decided to start work on a big collage that celebrated good overcoming evil in the situation of homophobia. I plan to have negative images of anti-gay protesters such as the West-Borough Baptist Church in America and anti-gay protests around the world at the bottom of my large work in black and white to show the lack of life and personality these people have and their negative impact on society and it's growth. I will play around with these images at the bottom of the work, photography and photocopy different positions and edit the images in Photoshop to come up with my final results. Above these images, most of the work will comprise of bright, bold and colourful images of pride celebrations around the world, the happy people involved in the marches and rainbow banners/floats. These images will my collaged around a colourful screen print or drawing of a brain scan with the text "Love will always conquer hate" written above the brain. I am yet to play around with the images properly and plan to draw over the top, use tissue paper, string etc but have started by doing a small drawing and laying all the collected images out to get a rough feel of what I want.

I enjoyed working in this way; quickly and roughly to get a feel for the images and idea. I do not know how much time will be spent on this project but I hope to have a colourful, positive image to hand in on the 14th October and a decent amount of research into pride and protests as well as a small number of collage artists. 

Nelle

Some sketchbook stuff

A plan of mine for the Summer was to fill at least two sketchbooks and for once it's looking like I will actually achieve this! I've forced myself to sit down and do shitty work in a couple of sketchbooks and I am making myself upload the awful scans. I feel like I'll always feel like my own work is awful and the only thing to do about it is just upload it and not think about it. If I want to do this for the rest of my life then I need to show my work (thank you Austin Kleon). Here's a small selection of work from 3 of my sketchbooks.

Don't really know what I'm doing right now, I'm just drawing and writing what pops into my head, sometimes as fast as possible with no care for the end product and sometimes I take time to get it right. I'm enjoying what's happening right now and looking forward to the future.

Nelle