Last week saw the growth and development of my 3D cardboard piece in the workshop. When looking at some of the shapes and paths created in the folds of the cardboard I experimented with long thin strips of wood in an attempt to extend the lines that had already been created. I hoped to bring the lines out and away from the cardboard in order to create different kinds of negative space with the spaces left unfilled. Overall I wasn't quite sure what to make of the monstrosity suspended in front of me, but after Lucy’s talk on further developments for this week, I have decided to persevere with using the sculpture to develop my project work. One idea that struck me during the construction of the piece was the use of a projector to project copies of my blind drawings onto the piece. One specific one had come to mind as I was looking at the different lines and textures of the cardboard; a blind drawing of a piece of shell. At the time I was not aware that it was a shell due to the nature of the drawing exercise and not looking at the object as we held it in our hand. But something about the marks that I had made seemed to correspond with the 3D piece. Unfortunately, despite staying late in the studio in order to use the projector in the dark, due to the colour of the cardboard the drawing didn’t show up very well when projected onto it. Spray painting the piece white helped the lines to show up a little more successfully, but still not as well as I had hoped. It is possible to see that something is on top of the sculpture but the lines aren't distinguishable enough. What I was pleasantly surprised by was the quality of the finish of the spray paint. I was very reluctant to paint it for fear that it may ruin the quality of the textures of the cardboard. However, these qualities were not lost at all. The paint has a somewhat translucent quality which has worked perfectly. The other idea which I explored tonight was long exposure photography of the sculpture moving. I have experimented with this in the past on my Foundation course and I wanted to see how it would work. The darkness with the low level of light produced by the OHP was the perfect conditions for the longer exposure. I am pleased with the outcome of these photographs. I feel that I have captured a lot of kinetic energy in these shots. I would like to look into the possibility of editing them at some point to see if I can increase the contrast between the subject and background, but I think that for now I will leave them as experimental shots.
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During this week we are being thrown into a number of exercises, working in both two and three dimensions. The drawing exercises led by Glad yesterday afternoon were extremely refreshing; allowing us to focus on the connection between brain and hands rather than the outcome of any drawings we create.
I found that the blind portraits were particularly enlightening. Despite the fact that I have done them before it still astounds me how much I have to concentrate when making those drawings. My senses become heightened to every movement of my fingertips, and the sensation of my hands exploring on my face. Every imperfection in the skin, every tiny hair, the chapped skin on my lips seem like mountains and valleys that my hands are discovering with every movement, and every movement feels different. Surfaces change, rise and fall and I try to respond to this with marks on paper. What I would like to do is extend the exercise and create a full body portrait using this technique. How this will fit into my project work however I am not too sure, so I may put this idea to one side for the time being. Cardboard and wood were the only materials available to us for the exploration of three dimensions. I found myself looking at the most tired looking pieces of cardboard, the ones that others had made a point of avoiding. Something about the organic quality of the creases and folds that had been created drew me in. without realising quite what I was doing I began to follow these paths, bending and folding along them and securing them in place. What this resulted in was a collection of twisted, crumpled pieces which I am now in the process of attaching to one another. I hope that I can continue with this piece for the rest of the week and see how I can make the piece grow and evolve. This is the first of a series of four two-week projects based around a series of studio practices, used in order to create a foundation upon which to work upon later in the year when it comes to our own individual studies. Inscription: The Poetics of Materials is a project based around drawing, sculpture and installation. It is an exploration of inscription and surface, materials and construction, objects and space. In this project we have been encouraged to explore the dynamics between mark, surface and space, and use drawing as a mode of thinking. The aim has been to focus on the visual connection between the brain and the hands, and explore the sensations of physical engagement with surface and material. We were first introduced to these ideas through the work of Richard Serra. He created a verb list, a combination of actions that can be applied to materials both in two and three dimensions. To shorten
To flow To disarrange To rotate To suspend Of tension Of gravity To support To heap To gather Of layering To enclose To bond To distill To continue Of time Of the words that Serra compiled together, these were the ones that stood out to me. But the question is how can these be applied to drawing methods, or even to existing objects? As the first post in this new blog, I feel that I should introduce myself. When sitting and writing to an unknown audience, it’s difficult to know where to begin. As you might expect I have experienced all of my past, but the tricky part is where to bring you in. I am a first year BA Hons Fine Art studying at Falmouth University, after completing my Foundation Diploma last year in my home town of Taunton, Somerset. Despite the boring and somewhat cliché starter, it’s the best way I can think of introducing you to myself and my working practice. People always ask me what sort of artist I am (in my opinion I honestly don’t think it is possible to ever wholly categorise an individual, especially an artist, into one particular ‘type’) but I always respond with some variation of an ‘eclectic practitioner’. I can’t say that I am specifically a painter, a drawer, a photographer or a sculptor because I am not. I all honesty I love to use any type of material when it comes to exploring my ideas or presenting an idea to a viewer, which to some may sound like an excuse for not having a speciality or a developed working practice. To me that’s not the case, I just choose not to restrict myself when the possibilities for experimenting and creating new work is endless. Saying this, lately I have focussed more on photography and sculpture, specifically in my Foundation Diploma where my work progressed into a series of three dimensional photographic joiners and corresponding two dimensional photographic prints, all in response to the themes of the influence of light and movement on a human form, the breaking down and re-assembly of the form, and its presentation in a space. Overall in that project I found that I expanded my existing knowledge and working practice, giving me a varied and refined body of experimental work with multiple refined pieces of a larger scale. Although I would have liked these pieces to have incorporated a wider variety of materials I feel that they embodied the themes that I wanted to visually present to a viewer. Over the summer I have been thinking about what it is that I want to explore during my studies at university. For one I want to continue and develop existing ideas from my Foundation projects, in addition to experimenting with a wider range of materials including more extensive 3D work and Printmaking. I also want to do more drawing. Bring on the sketch-a-day challenge which I will fail to keep up with (again).
For now there isn’t much more to tell. Actually, that is a lie. I have in fact already started my course at Falmouth, but wanted to start my journal with a refreshed overlook at my previous work and where I want to move forward with my studies. I feel better about my work that way; it’s not out of order and has a fairly clear beginning. So here’s to the new chapter in my artistic career. |
AuthorThird Year BA Hons Fine Art student studying at Falmouth University Archives
April 2017
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