Project 7 – Critical essay

Project 7 Critical essay for Ideas and processes

Exterior influences: What lessons and influences have I gained from the study of other practitioners and how have I implemented these into my own work? What impact has doing this course had on my working practices?

Introduction

As the title Ideas and Processes suggests, this is a course about ideas. By using the course materials as guidance I should be better able understand the creative process, and how using research can broaden my knowledge and understanding.

External influences can be from exploring themes as suggested in the De Waal article – Writing, music, place – or by looking at the work of other artists, investigating the well spring of their ideas and themes.

Reflecting upon how artists use these ideas and themes to stimulate, promote and develop new work, can then inform my own working practices.

Contextual research adds to my web of understanding so I am undoubtedly influenced by the wide array of artists that I have studied or seen In galleries. For the purpose of this essay I will be focussing mainly on the artists referred to or led to by the course notes as these are my recent layer of influence.

In particular the creative thinking of Martin Creed has had a big impact, I use the term ‘creative thinking’ rather than ‘work’ very deliberately here. I will elaborate further in the main body of the essay.

What lessons and influences have I gained from the study of other practitioners?

The biggest leap for me in Ideas and Processes has been to focus my research on artist philosophies, rather than specific artworks. Previously my contextual thinking has been about my response to an artist work – looking at the visual impact and the use of materials and the way these have been combined.

In the catalogue for Entangled -Threads and making – an exhibition at theTurner contemporary in Margate , Ann Coxon talked about The essay “Making something for nothing’ which dared to question the differences between amateur and high art. In it she describes a hobby book titled How to make something from nothing, encouraging women in the 1960’s to make something from various found materials as a thrifty way of crafting. She observed that this sounds very much like fine or high art. The exhibition itself contained work by many women artists whose work I admire and have since studied a little more , so they have bound to have been some influence. Artists included Eva Hesse, Christians Lohr( uses horse hair), Sonia Gomes, Louise Bougeois. All using found materials in some way in their art.

This led me to research found materials on the Tate website where I discovered that that Picasso used found objects in his work from as early as 1912, and his works along with ready-mades by Marcel Duchamp, paintings by Francis Picabia , acquired the title Objet Trouve, The movement Arte Provera in Italy, and Mono Ha in Japan also comprised of artists using found objects.


ISSN 1753-9854

The Handsome Pork-Butcher c.1924–6, c.1929–35 by Francis Picabia – using combs for hair seems similar thinking to me choosing collage materials that were linked to the object that was being portrayed eg trees for pencils.

An artist we were encouraged to research is Martin Creed. I wasn’t massively drawn Creeds artwork specifically, however watching his video interviews has had quite a big impact. Particularly in the video series Poet of the every day- brilliant ideas. Creed talks about how seeing things through new eyes presents thoughts/questions(feelings) he makes art to feel okay, it’s a drive to communicate, a yearning for understanding. ‘Thoughts are used to deal with feelings, feelings don’t have shape – how things make you feel is the important thing’. My understanding of what he was communicating gave me permission to make work in a way that is processing my thoughts and feelings from walking in the landscape and being me, here and now, rather than making work that I feel will please anyone else, using the course materials to guide this journey has given starting points and a scaffold of ideas to investigate and inspire thoughts and processes – to get the ball rolling.

Creative thinking is realised in many different forms, similar design thinking is expressed in many different ways for example Polly Binns makes work about her response to the Norfolk Coast, rather than representation of the north Norfolk coast,

Close up

‘Intimacy and space blend in the immensity of the landscape. The whole is imbued with the memories of my body within the landscape; my step, pace and sight-line.’

Polly Binns, Serial Shimmers and Shades, 1996 Acrylic paint and thread on linen canvas 185 x 125 cm, collection of Nottingham Castle museum

Similarly Jessica Warboys makes art in a completely different way, using pigments dispersed by the sea as a response to the landscape, Barbara Hepworth walked the moors of South Cornwall and made work as a response to the landscape rather than of the landscape, all using very different ways of working, and different materials and processes. Intimacy and space blend in the immensity of the landscape. The whole is imbued with the memories of my body within the landscape; my step, pace and sight-line.Similarly Robert Rauschenberg and Alice folks both use found materials but from very different locations and they use them in a very different way.

How have I implemented these into my own work?

I’ve been quite influenced by the work of Robert Rauschenberg, another artist using found materials, Rauschenberg used walks from his apartment to gather materials, and used them to create art work. In following this philosophy in my new town I came back only with a cup lis and some sheet plastic from a builders skip that I incorporated into my first piece of work for this unit. I continued to gather and use both natural and manufactured materials throughout the coursework, feeling more empowered to use them as found.

A Strength in my work is responding to and experimenting with materials to create 3D forms. I think my enjoyment of the investigative process stems right back to childhood, I have a deeply rooted relationship with materials which naturally gives me a very haptic approach in my work. In the book art_textiles from the exhibition of the same name at the Whitworth Gallery, Jennifer Harris discusses the haptic in relation to textiles, the idea that can evoke the idea of both physical as well as emotional comfort or protection. Cloth bears witness to lived experiences and carries the traces of those who wore handled it. I believe this to be true of all materials/objects and certainly in the found objects used for assignment 5 and the bed sheet used for the rust drawing. This could be my projection onto the materials but one of the things I understand from the Martin Creed videos is that the work is for me to make …….

Moving back to wild landscape I have developed a deeper connection with the natural world, I feel a connection with artists like Barbara Hepworth and Polly Binns who walked repeatedly in the same landscape, developing a deep respect for the land and being sustained by not just the nature around them but the very sense of place. In the BBC documentary Barbara Hepworth talked about the closeness of living things in nature, to human spirit, she said that “the form and texture of a pebble in our hand is a symbol of continuity – the silent desire for peace and security, relates to the past, gives a sense of universal force. Hepworth‘s work follows nature not imitating it. Poly bins wrote a thesis ‘vision and process in textile art – a personal response to a particular landscape through textile art.’

I have being taking sustenance from the landscape and my work has developed into being a response to the land around me both in the present day, visual and environmental, and also has an almost archaeological response.

What impact has doing this course had on my working practices?

I visualise the process of making art as a gathering of metaphorical threads, strands of ideas woven into a solid object.

The main thing I have learnt is not to pre judge. The process of immersion in a task , being inquisitive, questioning and ready to experiment can yield results I couldn’t dream of – dreaming up ideas is a bit of a fallacy perhaps! It is a skill that can be honed’

I discovered that sometimes the creative thinking of an artist can have be a profound influence even if the work doesn’t have the same personal impact this is really widened my sphere of research, it’s also has caused me to look wider to where and how I found my research, it’s really important not to be dismissive of any information that you come across because everything becomes a point of reference and something that you can learn from. Information, for instance watching videos has really piqued my interest, and has caused me to look deeper into my own practice than looking at specific pieces of work has. It’s been a surprise to me But I’ve learnt more from what I don’t like than what I do like.

In ex5.2 I visualise the process as a gathering of metaphorical threads, strands of ideas woven into a solid objects, the body of work is of the hills of my home yet reflective of the wider world. It is strongly of this place in time and yet unequivocally has come from the past, the strongest area of my work has been is responding to and experimenting with materials to create 3D forms, however after completing this course my work is now also informed by an underlying narrative, a really strong response to the landscape both visually and almost archaeologically. This is a concept that I came across when researching Elise Engler, she sees herself as an anthropologist or archaeologist. I think my enjoyment of the investigative process give this work a freshness and feeling of playfulness.

Work based on a poem or song lyrics in ass2 had me completely floored, however a particular refrain ‘said the crow on the cradle’ added context to the found rusted military buckle. My response, was to the found object, and the landscape – I could not have taken the refrain and decided to find those objects to work with.(this would seem more like shopping than making art)

The completed piece may not induce an observer to think ‘crow on a cradle’ yet it was an inherent part of my journey to create the work.

In conclusion the course has led me deeper into the creative process and my understanding of how I can work. I have learned to take risks and follow my own thoughts and feelings to make work that is honest to myself. It is clear to me that a very strong response to place feed my work while still working with curiosity to investigate materials.

Anne Coxon, Entangled – Threads and making, pg31

Jennifer Harris, Art-textiles, pg15

Martin Creed, Poet of the Everyday | Brilliant Ideas Ep. 36

Light and Line – An exhibition of works by Anne Morrell & Polly Binns

Serial Shimmers and Shades, 1996 Acrylic paint and thread on linen canvas 185 x 125 cm, collection of Nottingham Castle museum

http://modernistaesthetic.blogspot.com/2011/09/polly-binns.html

https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/28/picabia-handsome-pork-butcher

https://www.roberthenrycontemporary.com/artists/elise-engler/statement

Refinement and further developments following final feedback ex 3.3 – bicycle chain

In ex 3.3 I came up the the idea of using crochet which is essentially a chain stitch into a bicycle chain. I’ve used the chain here with tea, to rust stain the shape of the hills I see from my garden. While reviewing my work for assessment, I felt that I would like to take this further as I hadn’t time to develop it while refining work at exercise 5.

This found object has layers of meaning for me. The impact of bicycle tracks eroding the landscape (a bike path runs across this hill), the chains of the industrial past in the area, many metaphors like chained down, chained to the past etc.

I used the rust drawing as a rough guide and crochet chains of varying lengths to make the bike chain drape in a hill top route. The wire it hangs off is a little soft but the flexibility aided the process. I’m really excited by the form of this, it’s as if the sky is holding up the hills! Many of my photos for the gathered drawing exercise focussed on edges and this fractal is patern can be found from skyline and cloud shapes to the edges of lichen or water fall ripples.

Refinement and further developments following final feedback – ex 5.1

This piece didn’t stand the test of time, the fabric pods had held really sharp forms that got a bit bashed in the post and gently relaxed over time. I cut them away from the base form , you can see that the sub frame for the pods is quite corset like and it hadn’t given a strong enough support. I replaced it with covered wire that actually gives more of a rib cage. The pods didn’t hang well so I experimented with little strips of weathered cloth, like you see hanging on trees near natural springs, representative of lost souls , t

I quite like this effect but experimented further by stitching some of the pods in different ways to make them hold the shape more, I felt that the seed pod / fortune cookie held more of the idea of the lyrics from crow on the cradle of ‘somebody’s baby is not coming back’ . Tying one of the pods inside the cage like rib structure felt intrinsically right. I think that a little pool of the dishevelled pods in a pool underneath the hanging form like dropped leaves could be quite powerful.

Refinement and further developments following final feedback – ex 1.2

It’s obvious that having to work so quickly through the assignments that some areas would be rushed so I knew that I would be wanting to revisit some projects when preparing for final assessment.

I started by reviewing the complete course and rereading all my assignment feedbacks.

I had considered that I would go back and ‘patch things up’ however looking at my work as a whole I realised that this seemed like hoop jumping, so what I chose to develop some of my pieces further, to build on my learning rather than going backwards.

This exercise from assignment one based on place. I mapped a journey walking from my home up into the hills. The twig that I found mirrored the shape of the route and is wrapped with the colours of my observations from the brown brick houses, Tudor black and white buildings then past the green valley through the rocks following a narrowing path to the waterfall. The journey from modern society , moving back in time.

My thoughts on the organdie fabric was to portrait the growing feeling of lightness as I rose in elevation and left the depression of the modern world behind. I saw the square sections as a disassembled map – moving from ordered grid to volcanically up heaved hills. From feedback at the textiles Meetup in Bristol and from my tutor this was quite tenuous and difficult to read.

The map under the twig shows my route with a cross at the start and end.

The fabric has a black cross at the starting point in the moody dark fabric and a white cross to represent the lighter, relaxed joy of being in the wildness on the white top square, this has been distressed to represent the dissolving of my worries. The map squares are stitched with ordinance survey orange and have been cut and stitched just off square to emulate the uneven ground. It’s convenient but very non representative to draw a rigid grid over a rolling landscape.

Assessment 5 feedback

Summary of tutorial discussion

Demonstration of technical and visual skills, quality of outcome, demonstration of creativity –

You have a very interesting body if work here Linda. Well done for this, you have been focused in your approach and yet produced some exciting experimental pieces. 

You have analysed your previous assignments and considered a new idea to move your sampling forward. The ideas are held together by music ( something you found hard to respond to in an earlier assignment) and some of your samples reflect your responses to the track. 

Your large fabric rust piece is very interesting, the scale is exciting and the way you have drawn with found objects , leaving a ghost of an image.

Please consider how you show your samples for assessment. We discussed labels or small tags to identify the sample or to explain how the sample should be viewed. 

Consider why you have left some sample with threads, ribbon, cord unfinished and hanging. Please explain your reasons or rectify this. 

You have documented your sampling well with drawings, rubbing, collages. Make sure that these observations are helpful for you. Please consider how you can use them to move your ideas forward rather than them being a “tick box” exercise. Are they helping you to understand the scale/ composition/ texture of the sample …… Can you do more to trail out your ideas before going into 3d.

I feel there is a part of the assignment missing where you are developing your trials working towards your final piece/ trial. We discussed doing more work on the fabric pieces on the iron work. Can you try different shapes, colours, materials….. Could they be attached in different ways. Should they be white against the hard metal? Could you use a distressed fabric or do you prefer the sharp clean white ?  If so why……. They feel a little too decorative for me , maybe a little too unconsidered and controlled in application? What if each link of the chain had a module/ shape how could each one be attached thoughtfully? These are just ideas and questions it is for you to really work this out, you have time for this and you might come up with a better result, or maybe not …. But it would be interesting to see your journey.

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis – 

You are reflecting on your work much better well done. Do still keep asking questions though (I have suggest some above)

Please add a link to the music track if you have not already done.

Add an image of the crochet chain.

Decide how we should view the orange ties on the wire, maybe suggest this in a photograph with the piece.

You have explained your work well in 5.2

Rejig the part where you are responding to the criteria, things could be placed under better headings. 

I have really enjoyed working with you. All the best for your assessment.

 

Tutor name

Jenny Udale

Date

24 august 2019

Next assignment due

 

Assignment 5 final reflection projects 5 and 6

Part Five of the course gives you the opportunity to review all your work from the previous four parts and to produce in response a new portfolio of textile samples together with a written statement. Together, these will represent the summation and refinement of your study so far.

The body of work you produce in this part of the course should:

  • articulate your growing awareness of the areas of textile practice that you feel are your strengths and have potential for further development

I’m confident that my work in project 5 has built on my strengths. It was really valuable to look at my work as a whole, interesting that it hung together well as a body of work, however it was very evident to me that the strongest area of my work is responding to and experimenting with materials to create 3D forms. I think my enjoyment of the investigative process give this work a freshness and feeling of playfulness.

  • identify how you’ll tackle any weaknesses

I’m comfortable that I have developed a much stronger process in developing my work and although it looks to me to follow a very clear development process , I could be more detailed and eloquent in my self critique. This is something that has been clarified in this module that I can act on in subsequent projects. Planning written work will help with the overwhelming feeling of having to say so much and feeling the need to write everything at once. I need more clarity in my written responses.

  • evidence a growing ability to articulate in writing the concerns of your work and the areas of research and practice you wish to pursue at your next level of study
  • demonstrate your growing understanding of how critical reflection supports making as part of the creative process.

…perfectly illustrated here – I seem to have addressed part of this response as part of the previous response… At my next level of study I am keen to develop further the exploration of context, I have a need to work in a logical fashion , making decisions based on clear reasoning. I initially found the process of responding to different themes such as music, words quite restrictive and it stopped me thinking creatively. Having reflected on the results I now understand how starting points can inform my creative process.

    • We want you to go for quality over quantity in your final portfolio submission, i.e. toproduce a succinct body of work that evidences and clearly articulates your learning.

It was only after experiencing all the assignments that any of them fell into place. Reflecting wholistically I can see how patterns and connections started forming in my brain and when working on project 5 these threads wove together into a very coherent piece.

Tales from the landscape. This is how I now understand the work of Polly bins, Barbara Hepworth, et al. Informed by the place they have chosen in the world, landscape as muse?

Work based on a poem or song lyrics in ass2 had me completely floored, however a particular refrain ‘said the crow on the cradle’ added context to the found rusted military buckle. My response, was to the found object, and the landscape – I could not have taken the refrain and decided to find those objects to work with.(this would seem more like shopping than making art)

The completed piece may not induce an observer to think ‘crow on a cradle’ yet it was an inherent part of the journey.

Does it answer what is being asked of you? Crow was a clear development of earlier samples. Also a culmination of the other sample developments in project 5 that worked to lead me into the development process. Although visually different the orange murmuration/wing was of the landscape – I’d quite like to do some drawing with it – perhaps using black ink on huge paper to create abstract flight images. The rust drawings also led me towards flight and all pieces alluded to tension in someway, physically within the shapes but also the tension in the balance of human v nature.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills: Materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.

I have demonstrated a range of visual skills, a range of drawings in different media, good understanding and use of colour, clear photography , interesting collage techniques.

Quality of outcome: Content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts and communication of ideas.

I feel that I’ve really started to understand my own creative process and towards the end of this course was able to apply new ideas to the development of an interesting body of work that clearly built on the learning of earlier tasks. My realisation of ideas is stronger than my communication of the underlying thought processes.

Demonstration of creativity: Imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.

I have taken risks with materials enabling the production of an interesting body of work. I took on board the production of quality rather than quantity allowing time for reflection of specific details .

Context: Reflection, research and critical thinking.

I feel that actually my critical thinking skills are growing stronger, ability to analyse, and synthesis of information is clear in the way my work is developing. Communicating this less so. It was interesting been directed to use mind maps, this suits my way of thinking perfectly, it is a struggle to transcribe this wider thinking into a linear form.

Review and refine – ex5.2 written statement

500 words About my work

My body of work for ass5 shows the story of of the piece I find myself calling ‘crow’.

Looking back, I visualise the process as a gathering of metaphorical threads, strands of ideas woven into a solid object. I have previously been very material led. In response to an exercise I will select materials from my collection and go on a gathering mission to reclaim and reuse materials from my local environment. In this case the gathering seemed complete and the reassembling of concepts played through my mind like the solving of an equation. I am as a detective solving the mystery of my mind. Like grasping for words , only visually.

Linda Baker

‘Crow’ 2019 – iron, cotton, linen

This work is a response to ‘Crow in the cradle’ a folk song that can be traced back to the 16thCentury, that has been rewritten and performed across the years as the message questions the tipping point between personal liberty and what government might dictate as being for the common good. Pertinent. I hadn’t found myself able in a previous task to interpret the words as images, never one to give up my subconscious has been processing it and combined with elements learned from subsequent tasks, the idea came to fruition.

The iron skeleton had a military function.Discarded, it has rusted and would eventually return to earth. The flaccid strap brittle and worn hangs in a slight curve, showing slightly less tension than the heavy chain that has been drawn in slightly to form a waist.

The textile element of vintage cotton, a functional stiffener for lighter fabrics is folded ,creased and stitched with linen thread into elements that could be translated as feathers, seed pods or souls, or represent people or creatures, are different in scale but have the same form. Hanging collectively.

Crow is of the hills of my home yet reflective of the wider world. It is strongly of this place in time and yet unequivocally has come from the past.

Review and refine ex5.1 – further development

Using examples from my samples in ass3 was an interesting and really useful exercise in developing new iterations of a concept. I had gathered a number of rusted artefacts and became quite intrigued by a particular piece.

I picked it up fascinated, hefted the weight of it and enjoyed the jangle, I then discovered that it is probably a military strap for holding a gun shell and was repulsed. A challenging object, clearly full of story, it sang a refrain from an ear worm that keeps returning – The Crow on the Cradle A version by Karine Polwart, a sad lament that can be traced to the 16th century.

The song questions the balance between personal liberty and what the Government might dictate as being for the common good – ultimately the people that must decide what is true, fair and right. First voiced four hundred years ago – and so it goes on today.

I had tried to work with it in ass2 but really struggled with the amount of imagery. Perhaps I could use music as an inspiration?

I took some time to investigate the artefact with drawings and photos.

A detailed drawing made me really observe the construction, a frottage was more a representation of the history and texture.

Using rust to draw the artefact I got a little carried away with objects and a bird appeared, Phoenix rising?the crow on the cradle?

When rust dying previously I have wrapped object quite tightly to get good contact with the fabric. The mossy lawn has a lot of spring so I layed down the much washed sheet and placed objects on the surface. I then used a ladle to add a vinegar solution for a few hours, followed by strong tea, left overnight for the dew and a rainfall gave marks time to develop.

Fascinatingly I observed texture that seems to be from the individual grass blades.

It feels macabre, but then guns are a dark subject matter. It is totally out of my comfort zone working with this subject matter but it feels compelling to follow it through.

taking photos of the object it was immediately evident that hanging would be obvious to use the tension in the chains and to control the form, slumped could be interesting however in ass 4 I observed a new awareness of hoe a piece of work can be viewed and for this exercise hanging seems right.

adding a rib cage ?

make love not war!

it was difficult not to anthromorphisize the object, however I was keen not to make this too obvious.

I also spent some time combining the artefact with various combinations of elements from earlier samples through photos and drawings.

The final iteration was a result of then experimenting with size and layers of the little – pods/shrouds . I needed to remove a restring a couple of times, adding a structure of tape to hang the pods and also hanging them in groups rather than singly helped to create fullness at the top and a taper towards the bottom, as did stitching pods of a range of sizes.During my development work they resonated most and came to represent the thousands of souls affected by war. Empty shells, missed opportunities, unpatched dreams… I think that the simplicity of the forms enables a wider interpretation by a viewer, it is a little shrine like , a piece for reflection.

It could be named Crow on the cradle. An abstract reference to the song that I found so difficult to represent in ass 2.

Review and refine – ex5.1 samples

further exploring the properties and qualities of binding twine and wire, inspired by observing knotted twine on a fence mesh I manipulated a fringe of twine, it has the feel of a starling murmeration , birds in flight, movement of wings.

Some interesting images, dynamic and fluid. Similar to the issue with the woven spring that I chose to refine in ass4 , this piece is very flexible so difficult to ensure a defined form and placement of strands. This is an interesting observation, not previously considered befor the placement exercise in ass4.

It will be interesting to observe the fluidity of artworks and how the issue is dealt with in future exhibition visits.

The woven cylindrical form naturally sits flat, To refine I approached with an intent to make a stable 3d structure.

The mesh can easily be twisted into a tetrahedron, however more difficult to line up the mesh to create a grid that lines up.

I think that the mesh may be created as a spiral rather than a grid. I stitched it in place with orange telephone wire that may be removed later.

I needed to unwavering the tape a couple of times before I was happy with the effect

Although I achieved the objective of creating a stable shape, I am less interested with the result than the original weave.the patterning happened naturally in the first sampl, in the new iteration I had to fight it into shape and it looks clumsy, this could perhaps be developed further with more of the mesh to play with. I believe that it is from rolls of carpet. It could be interesting to cut. Sections to rejoin into different structural forms.

I have been interested in edges, I revisited a book called nature n design by Alan powers whilst investigating the Fibonacci spiral , I gather ‘found drawings of edges’ in ass 1

I laid some calico on the ground, doused in a vinegar solution and drew the hills on the horizon using the bicycle chain as a drawing tool, the iron in the chain transferred to the cloth.

Using crochet I intended to investigate tension , one of the points I found particularly interesting in ass4.

I have crocheted a chain of white tape into the bike chain, it feels like a really interesting juxtaposition of materials. Industrial v craft, hard v soft. I started with four chain stitches between links, then swapped to three, interestingly the three chain created enough tension to start curving the chain. Soft resilient material affecting the hard strong steel. I started to work crochet chains to suspend the bicycle chain in the form of the rust drawing – needs some more thought into the technical aspect of this.

Project 8 – review and refine ex5.1 – Review

I laid out work in two parts in the garden on a huge linen sheet.

Flat artwork – mostly in sketch books so I spent a good a of time reviewing and then laid out a selection to consider further.

Although I have come to embrace drawing more as an idea generator and development tool it was immediately obvious that The 3D works proved more of a focus for refinement.

I could see a range of options for groupings

Circular forms

Linear forms

Warm colours

Cool colours

Neutral colours

Found materials

I can also group according to the themes I have been investigating- inspired by Place, identity, music, writing, personal experience.

The final edit of my review of the body of work, combining an evaluation of what I found most interesting with my refined piece for ass4 and a selection of pieces from my body of work that I feel we’re most interesting and are cohesive as a collection.

Assignment 4 feedback

Summary of tutorial discussion

Demonstration of technical and visual skills, quality of outcome, demonstration of creativity –

This assignment is not complete but you have some lovely ideas within it. You are demonstrating technical skills in the development of your samples and visual skills placing them in different environments. However both of these could be developed further, see below:

Your altered sample is very well constructed, using the weave to hold the two pieces together. Please think about this idea when you decide on how the 2 arcs should finally be fixed in the second sample ( don’t use the rubber bands) . You could also consider different weave patterns.

Your photos show some interesting locations but now think more about the lighting and interesting shadows that this piece casts. Think also about a crisper image of the “perfect “ gallery shot. 

Consider the decisions you made when you created the arc on the small curve, what were you trying to achieve? You said you didn’t want it to be symmetrical you felt it balanced too well, so you chose an asymmetric un-balance composition. We wonder if it will tip over ? There is tension in this piece which relates to the tension in the spring itself. Think about this with the development of your other spring sample. Also consider this when you are displaying the sample. We discussed placing it on a plinth so it overhangs it, which will add to the idea of tipping and tension.

Please document your ideas and the development of your samples, include drawings, collages etc to show your thought processes. 

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis – 

You are creating innovative work here, but please make sure you include the rest of the work that supports your ideas. Also go through the assignment and make sure you have answered what is asked of you fully. 

Add links to the summer exhibition and Tracy Emin in relation to displaying work in a gallery space. 

Add image of the Caro sculpture you were talking about.

You need more reflection on the Grayson Perry tapestry, looking at the use of colour, how the artwork makes us feel etc ( refer to the course work )  

Your reflections on the Van Gogh and your own artwork could be better presented and you could include more information on the composition. Especially how you changed your work, explain this in more detail please. If you had other ideas of how you were going to change it then also include this. 

Please reorganise your blog so that you have your initial sample in a “perfect place” first then you need to show the altered sample and other places that you have put it.

Well done for producing what you have in the short time frame, I look forward to your next assignment.

Ex4.3 refinement stage – Reconfiguring-woven spring

Antony Caro deliberately constructed some of his sculptures to flow off the plinth. I understood this more when placing my work in the gallery and hanging it on the wall and placing it on the shelf. It is a nice piece to handle, however doesn’t have an obvious way to sit.

I reconfigured by weaving in another element of rusted iron. I experimented with various positionings.

I preferred an off cente composition with the woven spring curving upwards, this seemed more dynamic the down.

Off center forms more of a question, with the spring centrally placed it seemed very calm and zen, the off center placement introduces a tension, gravity adds gravity to the form, I feel it makes a viewer wonder more about what the context may be.

For me this says more about the balance of nature and humans.

It does not now encourage handling like the simple woven spring – I do like an invitation to learn about an object by interacting with it

The piece now has 2possible obvious ways to place it. Standing on the Base – with an upward curve showing hope or downward showing decline. or possibly wall hanging.

The next stage in the iterative cycle could be to expand the range of found artefacts and consider final placement as part of the development.

Assignment 4 -Project 6 – Context

Bringing academic rigour to my practice by using critical reflection.

Golden section

I love a bit of mathematics! The Fibonacci series is a mathematical progression, where the next number is calculated by adding the previous two numbers so 1+1=2. 2+1=3. 3+2=5………….34+21=55 etc I have a beautiful book of mathematical patterns in nature

4.1 Research point – yarn bombing

Yarn bombing is part of a wider movement referred to as Guirilla art, people taking upon themselves to add visual improvements to their neighbourhoods.

Gardening, planting wild flowers, trees, vegetables for the benefit of locals and the environment.

Graffiti – not mindless tags but beautiful artworks often with a political or social message.

Yarn bombing – lots of images on Pinterest of imaginative and amusing installations. Site specific, sometimes event specific. Individual or community installations

Ann Eunson for example has knitted a lace pattern fence around her garden using a traditional Shetland design. This I love for its delicacy and tenacity. Art in unusual places always sparks a though stream, maybe because it takes you unawares during a time of contemplation.

Outsider art as opposed to incredible installations by Sheila Hicks or Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam http://www.knitjapan.co.uk/features/c_zone/horiuchi/profile.htm?utm_medium=website&utm_source=archdaily.com Thttps://www.archdaily.com/297941/meet-the-artist-behind-those-amazing-hand-knitted-playgrounds

In the fine art world

Ex 4.1 Placing work

Considering the selection of a piece of work from part Three to experiment with placement in varied locations.

While making work I have not considered where the ideal location is for it to be placed. In MMT after I had made pieces I did find it clear to myself that they should be photographed on the sea shore or on a rocky crag as I felt the added context was important. I’m wondering now about how a piece of work should perhaps have a strong enough narrative to stand alone .

Considering exhibitions, choice of colour, lighting, relative placement to other works is clearly made; for example when Grayson Perry hung the Summer Exhibition there was an excellent documentary interview of the choices of gallery wall colour etc. I watched a video of Tracey Emin talking about the effects of a gallery space on how her work is chosen and indeed made , for commissioned exhibitions.

Stage one – ideas/concept

Selection of a piece of my work is slightly stymied by my focus on exploring materials – it is really difficult to ‘ state what I initially wanted the (original) sample to do or say‘ . I was considering the idea of place in my choice of colour and materials and made some visual reference to drawings of texture and shapes and marks. Was I necessarily saying anything?

Further unorthodox placing

The piece sits really well in the landscape, the curve of the hills and rock forms and iron in the rocks, reflect the form of the weaving.

The industrial revolution starts here and is woven into the story of the place.

Sttage 2 – practical response/action

Stage 3 – critical reflection

Stage 4 – syntheses/refinement

Part 4 – personal research methodology- project 5 -context

Reading about Table Piece xxv111 by Caro parts of the description that particularly struck me are;

a quote ‘all sculpture takes its bearings from the fact that we live inside our bodies and that our size and stretch and strength is what it is’ (quoted in Moorhouse, p.25).  I haven’t previously considered the physical realationship of the work I make to myself, my size my strength, apart from references to the resilience of the material or physical difficulty of a process so this is another point of context to consider when making. Part of Identity.

I admire the inventiveness of creating the little foot – almost invisible that alongside the overhanging structure dictates how the piece stands to be observed – very ingenious. I recognise that this is a trait I take into consideration alongside narrative and visual qualities of work.

Using colour to create visual unity – I have felt visual unity when looking at his sculptures elsewhere but hadn’t realised this ‘technique ‘of using colour to unify – seems obvious now it is explained!

Contexts for textiles- I have mind mapped some ideas of textiles use, both obvious and perhaps slightly overlooked with broad categories including clothing, protection, communication, barriers, interiors, storage, sports, medical, construction, leisure. I will illustrate with photos as I observe particularly interesting applications.

Yarn bombing

Is perhaps a way of creating visual unity by enclosing an object in colour. Its certainly a way of drawing attention when used on specific statues for example. Statues often just become part of the scenery and yarn bombing is sometimes used to draw attention back to an heroic or political cause.

Yarn bombing is part of a wider Guirilla art movement people taking upon themselves to add visual improvements to their neighbourhoods.

Gardening, planting wild flowers, trees, vegetables for the benefit of locals and the environment.

Graffiti – not mindless tags but beautiful artworks often with a political or social message.

Yarn bombing – lots of images on Pinterest of imaginative and amusing installations. Site specific, sometimes event specific. Individual or community installations

Ann Eunson for example has knitted a lace pattern fence around her garden using a traditional Shetland design. This I love for its delicacy and tenacity. Art in unusual places always sparks a though stream, maybe because it takes you unawares during a time of contemplation.

Outsider art as opposed to incredible installations by Sheila Hicks or Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam http://www.knitjapan.co.uk/features/c_zone/horiuchi/profile.htm?utm_medium=website&utm_source=archdaily.com Thttps://www.archdaily.com/297941/meet-the-artist-behind-those-amazing-hand-knitted-

An interesting article in the Guardian titled A stitch in time: how craftivists found their radical voice with examples of collectives of people using textiles as campaign tool – to convince M&S to pay a living wage and protect migrating birds from dredging nets.

Historically textiles have been used as communication, the Bayeaux tapestry, union banners etc Perhaps this craftivism is enabled through the resurgence of craft hobbies, people turning to making as a meditative response to dissatisfaction with happenings in the wider world , naturally using comfortable techniques to have a voice. Subtle and subversive.

Tied in as well to collective happenings like Migration blanket in Birmingham or Alice Kettles Stitch a tree project. the fine art world

I think that the political edge has strongly embedded craft in today’s zeitgeist, the air of cool has completely blown away associations with the fusty or old fashioned notions and granted permission to create with soft materials. Edgier magazines to mainstream newspapers like an interesting inch of column space to break up the tedium of daily news. Craftivism fits the bill nicely.

Really interesting read . Strange Materials, by Leanne Prain. Chapter 4 Textiles of Protest, politics and power.

Assignment 3

Fabric manipulation based on words – I had a much stronger response to this than drawings based on words, I am currently much more inquisitive with playing with fabrics and working in 3D.

Knitting and crochet – unconventional tools

Arm knitting was a reflective, mind full process . I enjoyed the rhythm, the comfort of becoming enveloped in luxurious yarn and the scale. It didn’t seem a productive or useful process otherwise – just clumsy. I would be more than happy to make tools to solve a problem of working with a material . But using them gratuitously seemed egotistical (like knitting with diggers) Doing it for a dare, or just for the sake of it is not my mindset.

Knitting and crochet – unconventional materials.

Any material is up for grabs if it suits a purpose. I naturally eye up skips for example for possible resources, often use found materials ,and often like Rauschenberg will use them as a starting point for a piece of work.

I’m more than happy to experiment, however this exercise reinforced ny dislike of packaging plastics, it’s almost becoming an aversion, it seems chemically and politically tainted. Taking it out of the waste stream could be a positive but I don’t like the texture or visual appearance much. I enjoyed the resilience and linear quality of the telephone wire though and its communication context.

Weaving

Oh my word! I don’t remember ever weaving anything. I could really immerse myself in this process, I had a similar response to wrapping in MMT . It is totally immersive. I had forgotten that space that I go to when transfixed and focussed on a creative task. Pure contentment. And so needed. I hadn’t realised how little time I’ve had for making for months now.

Self assessment:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills: Materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.

My strength here was certainly weaving, my samples have clear links to the drawings and mark making from parts onset and two, I have investigated techniques using a range of materials and noted further investigations I have realised the role of sampling in developing ideas further by using drawings and reflection of successful and more importantly less successful samples.

Quality of outcome: Content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts and communication of ideas.

despite the disaster of my failing of my technology

This happened I learnt a lot from artist research in ex 3.1. Particularly from watching video interviews of Polly Binns and Tracey Emin.

Demonstration of creativity: Imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice – I’m happiest when experimenting and can be inventive with materials, for this assignment I did feel more informed by my research and was able to be less literal with interpretation of my drawings , when making samples that I feel , had a strong sense of place while also working with a colour palate developed from exploring future trends.

Context: Reflection, research and critical thinking.

Again I have reflected more than communication my ideas, however I am developing strategies to remedy this.

Research and practice – 3.5 constructing a cloth

Strata- cut, stitched, recut. Pieced together. Considering the action of time on place. I’m living an area of geological wealth- I believe the landscape around me contains over 90% of rocks found in the UK . A treasure ground for a pebble gatherer such as myself. I’m as yet undecided which side I prefer, im leaning slightly towards the side with unfinished edges as it alludes more to timeworn rock surfaces.j

I crocheted

the like lichen centres whilst walking in the countryside. I hadn’t realised how desperately I needed to be out and about in nature. I thought about the way that Barbara Hepworth and Polly Binns

Relate to landscape, the act of crochet was an act of marking steps, a form of communication with the place, a measure of being – like a hour glass. I joined the pieces at home, crocheting with silk like a Louise Bourgeois spider, i had in my mind a remembrance of Womb Room, a crocheted environment by Faith Wildling, I know little about her work apart from she was key part of the feminist art movement in the 70’s- very high on my list of artists to research further.

I thought to join the circles using a disorderly , lacy mesh-like lichen on rock. I realise that a larger hook would have given a more spacious effect,

This was the first constructed cloth, I thought that layering may give that soft definition between lichen and rock. The transition between things is and interesting place, day – night, hill-mountain, beach -sea . The piece looks very clumsy and unrefined. I tried to cut some layers in a reverse appliqué fashion, so had included different transparencies of fabric, it may work in other iterations, perhaps a much larger scale would help,

Fraying , and unfinished edges are pleasing though.

Research and practice 3.4 – weaving

60cm of telephone cable, split half way and the inner wires woven into a bug. Telephone is bugged? The way bees communicate is incredible, we could do it better even with all our technology we fail. Insects are undeniably part of place, they are part of the circle of make and maintain.

Willow twigs and wool, and deep contemplation.

I think that this wooden strip is for edging birch ply to make it look solid. It was gleaned from my local scrap store. As a continuous strip used as a warp, it formed an awkward cylinder, by overlapping the strip at the join and merging the weft it forms an elegant almost basket. Using an ombré yarn has produced a very pleasing colour transition, I’m particularly pleased with this piece. I feel that it has a gravitas whereas some of the other experiments seem very forced and gratuitous.

I need to find a source for more of the strip but could play with creating more forms based on exploring this technique endlessly perhaps. I am put a little in mind of some works I saw in Turner Contemporary gallery by Eva Hesse.

A dumped couch was disassembled to rescue a spring warp, simply woven with a cotton weft. I was tempted to wet it and encourage rust emphasising the discarded element. This would perhaps feel too much borrowed from Alice Fox who works extensively with rust in her work. I do like rust though, I enjoy the richness of iron stains on rock faces and river pebbles.

Packaging plastic mesh from a carpet shop, with a binding tape weft. I’m really liking weaving- even simple materials seem elevated into elegance. An d the process is so engaging. I have been feeling very stressed and the weaving process is so therapeutic. In and out , round and round. Like time ticking, earth turning, it is present moment and strongly linked to the past.

Gathering. I used a food produce bag to gather things from nature. A foraging . Fragility of nature. A nod to plastic waste polluting the countryside. Some interesting metaphors to be found here.

using willow twigs as a warp and willowish tones from my theme as a weft. It may be interesting to use measured lengths of weft according to distance or time walking trails. I could look for proportions of colour in a landscape and use in colour block. The elegance of willow branches is well represented in this linear form. I could also soak in water for a day and this would make the willow flexible enough to bend into a circular form – with the opposite ends woven together..

3.3 Research and practice – knitting and crochet

I watched the video of Dave Cole knotting with the aid of diggers with very mixed feelings. First thoughts ‘knitting with man tools?what a gimmick. Would I have been happier with women in the diggers – I think perhaps not. I’m not a fan of gimmicky techniques to look at. Perhaps experiencing unusual tools with give me further insight into this .

Knit/crochet with unusual materials.

telephone wire and the cellophane that wrapped itin it’s black plastic casing – a handy tool to use later!

Crochet, very large hook. Incredibly thick felted yarn (not spun ) with incredibly thin industrial waste thread – I was thinking water splashing and listened to Kingfisher by Kris Drever. I will try felting this to flatten the knots and accentuate the holes.

Knitting with unconventional tools

Arm knitting. I have made a scarf essentially! Learnt things though.

I find such contemplative tasks soothing. There was a great sense of connecting with materials. Contemplated measuring. Time 1hr, loop size equivalent to my wrist – no one else’s..

Knitting a plastic bottle

P.E.T – fabric

Crochet with mod rock – far easier to crochet and then dip in plaster, a messy process has created a bone like structure- unintentional but often sheep bones are found on the Long Mynd and other hill areas- bones of the landscape…

Large scale knitting – plastic waste

I’m trying to source a bike tyre to use with bin liners to make a dream catcher – much hay bail covering ends up shredded in the hedgerows.

Based on that thought I made this hoop of broken dreams from a hula hoop and ripped leggings. It has a very different feel from the idea of the discarded farm waste. I find the narrative behind materials really interesting.

Crochet fence panel – washing line

Clearly not a fence panel! Like the plastic bottle this washing line is very springy and difficult to work with. Without taking it further this brings up the interesting considerations – when to stop a sample, how much do I need to learn from a process – is completion necessary? It feels that this assignment is about experimenting with materials rather than making complete products. In this case then the material has shown to be difficult to work with, adds to my dislike of unnatural materials and has taught me is properties. When I need a flexible resilient material I will know where to go!

hula hoop of broken dreams. Hula hooping ,referencing that energy and optimism of youthful festivaling, knotted with ripped and discarded leggings. This is a place in time rather than the original concept – I wanted to use black bin liners with a bicycle tyre, as a sad reflection of the amount of plastic from hay bale wrapping that around roadside fences – inevitably making its way towards the oceans.it would look similar however the material choice defines the context.

comparing the same technique, finger knitting with very different materials. Soft fluid silk, and hard crispy plastic. Both have a soft visual sheen and quite an energetic appearance. a very different drape.

Experimenting with unconventional materials and tools, my brain slid laterally into this combination of a tangled fishing line with knitting tools.

Nothing need be conventional. It felt quite forced , a little gratuitous using unconventional tools for the sake of using them. However I have learned that experience is far mor valuable that merely considering techniques or tools. The process of making, its repetition and time spent in that meditative state is where thought expands and ideas and understanding happen. Each decision made during the making process , from stitch to stitch, which way to wind a yarn around the twig etc is feeding into the mind bank of creativity.

Knitting – drift wood and river stick – river to the sea

Research and practice 3.2 fabric manipulation

Gathering. I kept the proportions of fabric and stitch size the same so there was a clear comparison between fabrics ranging from thick vintage linen to almost transparent manufactured fabric .

The translucency of this is fascinating, water-like yet also captures the etherial quality of the reflected light photos in found drawings.

In comparison this cotton weave sample is quite lifeless.

A stack of samples to build up. The volume.

I love the undulating lines of the side view of the vintage linen.

experimenting with parallel gathers, asymmetric, and sine wave, the asymmetric sample folds into a 3 sided pyramid, this may have scope for further investigation. I have a fascination with 3D forms.

Folding

Pleated fan, simple and obvious ,however the cotton organdie holds such a sharp crease , the motif folding heavy linen with the transparent fabric creates a meandering rhythmic form

This form actually was inspired by a fortune cookie. I saw in the shape the curved marks from the lichen drawings, the fennel seeds in my tea, I enjoyed the process of folding and curving the fabric. I find the transition from flat disc to curved 3D form fascination, a germination.

Layers

Organdie and transparent layers with a like tension inserted which stitches to encourage the layers apart.very effective shadows, this piece works better standing so that the light can pass through it.

Layering the dots from the first piece, I would have preferred to use invisible thread, this is a very light and airy piece – or perhaps soft and bubbling like a crisp cool stream tumbling down a rocky valley. The combination of fabrics works well, the composition is suitably un uniform, it has flexibility to be flat or more 3D

Rolling

Stretch fabric stretched forms a roll. Folded and stitched like rock styrations. Heavy – I guess this is suitable. I could experiment with lighter fabrics to compare, it is very representational but does not say much to me. Lacking narrative when in fact those buckled layers have immense history.

cut and rolled, this is incredibly delicate, like a spider leg hair under a microscope, I may be a bit fascinated by this fabric. The sample is simple in essence but quite lovely. I often have expectations that a sample needs to be complex, however it’s what is left out sometimes that makes ab effective piece.

Tolling- varying sizes of ripstop nylon- like foaming water

Crumple

organdie folded and cut, crumpled to crinkle , lichen like.

This makes a fantastic crinkle noise when crumpled. Laminated plastic and mesh (ironed)

cut and distorted

Cut and restitched

Both rock like, textural cliff face

knots work to create texture and shadows, adjust effects by experimenting with fabric and tightness of knot.

Macrame with ripped cotton makes nice hole shapesknotted farmers binding twine- often tangled in hedgerows individual strands joined to wire circle – a complete circle would be nice- I need to find more discarded string- this is a dilemma as I would rather not find string littering the countryside.

I enjoyed looking at the work of Rowan Mersh and appreciate his intuitive use of materials, also his seeming simple and muted colour palette which gives the beautiful intricate textures your complete focus, his works are complex structural surfaces with a sense of harmony, I’d love to invert then close up.

This little fan element – which hearkens to the ginkgo frottage were perfect to experiment with the scale, in terms of material the organdie is perfect as a sculptural material as it holds a sharp crease. The half size sample is a success but terribly fiddley to make, the twice size not quite as sharp , so less charming.

I chose a simple curved mark to make multiples. This unit uses tension created by creasing and stretching a stiff cotton interfacing circle. I created several successful iterations.

Research and practice ex 3.1 mind maps, colour palettes and theme boards

I’m sure that the Pantone app used to enable you ton select parts of a photo to colour match but it is no longer useful in that it chooses by volume of colour. Real colours app is slightly better , but for example I would have liked to choose the green from the bottom photo and was unable to. If I w going to use it more I would invest in photo shop , I’m sure there must be a technological application that I haven’t found yet.

I matched theses colours using a pixel choosing tool in Procreate, it was a faff and there must be a better way.

Through my research , particularly the video conversation with Polly Binns, I have realised that place and personal experience are so interlink as to be the same theme for me. My connection to place is stronger than other connections. Landscape feeds my mind and emotional self.

My Theme boards. From ancient hills to rugged coast. These are the places where my heart sings.

Neo mint evident in the sea and lichen. Barbara Hepworth walked the land here, verdigris in weathered bronze and ancient rocks in shades of grey. Muted orange brown picked in the rocks adds warmth to balance the cool blues. Earth tones .

Picking another strong trend of mellow yellows, late afternoon sun on the hillside and creeping lichen. Deep blue sky, granite of the standing stone. Heartening back to simpler times. I’ve included a turmeric print silk and colourgraph print of nettle. Colour from nature.

Research and practice -research point 3.1

In Part Three you’ll start by using critical reflection skills to review your work so far. This process will lead you to identify a theme which you’ll use as the basis for your exploration of some different and perhaps new ways of working with textiles. You’ll create a varied range of experimental fabric samples, which you’ll have the opportunity to refine in Part Five. You’ll extend your knowledge of the work of other contemporary artists and designers through focused research into their ideas and working practices as well as continuing to carry out independent research, which you should evidence in your learning log.

As an example look at Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, then at Picasso’s body of works based upon this, from paintings to sculptures.

Research the following artists:

• Polly Binns

https://youtu.be/VakrWlKh5F8 this interview with Polly Binns and Anne Morrell at the time of their joint exhibition. At Nottingham castle in 2013.

Uses stitch as structure and mark making components in her work. Observes light and texture in the landscape.

ttt

Serial Shimmers and Shades(detail) 1996, acrylic paint and thread on linen 185x125cm .

sparse, clean , airy, minimal

• Tracey Emin

• Hew Locke

ark 1994 papier-mâché, wood, steel, mixed media 4.57×3.35×1.83m

I love the scale of this, it’s the sort of thing I built from cereal boxes as a child – but huge, fantastical, escapist.

Hemmed in two

Cardboardfound objects, paint,wood. 2000, architectural escapist, fantastical.

• Matthew Harris and Howard Skempton

Colourful ,patchwork, lines, exuberant

https://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/articles/field-notes/

Field note is a collaboration with composer Howard Skempton. I appreciate the colour palate, the never boundary reminds me of how as people we don’t have defined boundaries but overlap with others in different ways

Motifs, lines, dots – rhythmic

• Michael Brennand- Wood

• Louise Bourgeois.

For each one, select four images that inspire or challenge you and put these in your learning log together with a short sentence explaining why you have chosen them. You may not like their work at all; if this is the case, try to explain why.

Do any of the works you’ve chosen share any of the themes from Parts One and Two? Are there any themes in the artist’s work that you share? Which works do you find most inspiring and most challenging? Record your findings in your learning log.

Now try to find out about the artists’ working methods. How do they ‘make’? How do they develop their ideas? Is it through drawing or some other means? Write around 200 words for each artist in your learning log.

Finally, select an artist who inspires you and who you feel is similar to your way of thinking and creating. This doesn’t have to be one of the artists listed above. Think about what impact this artist has upon you and your work. How might they influence your work in future? Write up your findings as a 500-word reflection with images in your learning log.

where has it gone ?

I’m so depressed it’s taken 2 days to do this and the content has disappeared, it was a real struggle and now it’s gone , there’s no time to do it again.

 

Research and practice- project 4 -exploring textile processes – research point 3.2

Trend forecasting – a wealth of information about trend forecasting is available, however colour trend information is a commodity that fashion and interior design companies pay for. It seems to be a huge self driven industry.Trend forecasting is at the forefront of driving the ever quickening fashion season. Creating a demand for new stuff.

At the cutting edge artists, musicians, travellers and probably the Instagram ‘influencers ‘ are where trend forecasters find fresh ideas.

Looking back at the history of Pantone colour of the year colour trend also seem quite cyclic. The hot trends are obviously going to have to be part of a colour group.

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/05/11/neo-mint-colour-2020-wgsn-trends-design/. Following a trail of focussed search terms I found this palate on the Dezeen website that seems to summarise my findings elsewhere. Obviously there is a trickle down effect from couture fashion down to high street chain stores , and also through cutting edge niche magazines through to newspaper supplements. I had a flick through Elle decoration and Bazaar (cheap twin pack- I don’t generally indulge!) and indeed these are the colours that are being pushed to the consumers of fashionable stuff. Changes in fashion keep the economy turning.

https://store.pantone.com/uk/en/pantoneview-colour-planner-spring-summer-2020.html

https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/home/neo-mint-interior-colour-trend/ https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/the-color-trends-well-be-seeing-in-2020-according-to-sherwin-williams

https://int.coloro.com/key-colors-2020

Research and practice – Project 3 critical reflection

 

Before you embark on any practical work, write a critical self-appraisal of the work you submitted for Parts One and Two. You submitted a reflective account as part of Assignment Two but you now you have the opportunity to review Parts One and Two in response to your tutor’s feedback and to reflect upon the outcomes as a whole. You’ll also use the appraisal to help you identify what you feel were the strongest themes that emerged for you in Part One.

My responsive mark making is becoming more free, I created a range of subtle and sensitive marks relating to photos of place. My photos of found marks were very successful – feedback comments were positive. I can use my observational and composition skills moving forward to develop my work.

 

I identified elements in my drawings, experimented with iterations and the final outcome collage was successful in its composition and use of colour, I particularly feel that the frottaged elements of old lace that were cut and placed play a good homage to the age and texture of lichens that other elements were abstracted from. I keep coming back to this relationship/contrast between old and contemporary, for example in the piece relating to place in assignment one.

Stitched words relating to place resulted in a visually interesting surface, that was successfully frottaged. This way of embedding words in an abstract way is of great interest and something to develop further – combined with the idea of responding to words/feelings visually in the found drawings exercise perhaps.

My collage relating to the work of Marcelo Montreal is one of my strongest pieces. It works well visually however I feel that the success is more to do with the visual metaphors, looking at the image again I see a split between ancestral inherited traits/emotional baggage and self moving forward. Perceived and self awareness, there’s actually a lot of potentially powerful stuff to explore here….

Drawing does not need to be complicated. I’ve just removed my waffling justification . This is just a simple yet important learning. Don’t over complicate.

This collage may be clumsy however , I am interested in the layering and overlaying of landscape, archaeological layers, humanity vs nature, here I like the translucence of the trees and the bedrock of words. Strata is the concept that I could take from this sketch. My understanding of part one and two is that we were not to create completed works but to experiment with ideas . Some of the idea generating was painful, the hindsight that it gives is the important learning to take away here. Already with only a short period of reflection I can see how neural pathways are being formed. When I made this collage a very few weeks ago it seemed like hoop jumping, the reflective process is powerful. I am learning that I must just do stuff that can be reflected upon to find the juiciness.

I find monoprints give a really interesting surface, a fragility of line that is atmospheric and evocative – more so than drawing the same in pencil for example.

I am excited by this drawing of place described by capturing the paths of birds in my back garden. It has a great energy from the dynamism of the marks.

This representation of a journey is unresolved and I didn’t fully explain the concept of the branch from the place representing the route that I took. With the addition of the extension loop it is the same shape as the route on the os map. The route is way marked with totem poles, banded with colours for different walks, the stick is wrapped in bands of colour representing the ordered houses at the beginning, The Tudor period and then slowly becomes less uniform following the stream up the valley and back in time. The dyed cloth represents the valley in a more abstract way. My sketch book explains the feeling of peace the higher up the valley I climbed. The cloth will be grid like and dark like an OS map slowly loosing its formation and becoming lighter, airier and free.

work inspired by research into artists that cross boundaries . I produced this work very much based on place, using found materials.

 

This task is your opportunity to demonstrate, in a piece of succinct and focused writing,

both your learning and your self-awareness of your achievements. Ordering your thoughts in a structured way will help you start to develop a personal language that can sit alongside your practical work. This will enhance the writing in your learning log and build through the following projects to prepare you for writing your critical essay in Part Four. In your critical self-appraisal, as well as general comments upon your performance, ask yourself some specific questions:

• Which of the themes extracted from the de Waal article had the most personal resonance for you, and why?

I feel that in part one And two the works based on place were where I felt most comfortable, even gravitating naturally towards place in the first task. Reflecting back to MMT this is a theme that I kept returning to. I am fed by landscape.

• Was this also the theme that produced the best outcomes?

I certainly feel that these were the most engaging outcomes, although I had fun with the exercise with words in part one and my last outcomes working with text in part two were also pleasing. My most exciting piece was mapping bird flight in the garden, clearly place related and the concept I would like to take further.

• Which body of work stretched you most in terms of thinking?

I was flummoxed responding to music. I found Parts one and two quite frustrating. On reflection I can understand how elements will be invaluable moving forward however in places it felt like those times as a small child when you were asked for an impromptu performance of something, awkward and (that word that means you feel turned to stone) for example, work in response to music – in my research for 3.1 I found that Micheal Brennand-Wood chooses a sound track for the day to work to and be inspired by. This is what I often naturally do, I have a huge collection of widely different musical genres that I choose to suit my mood or task, how ever in the context of the task it felt forced, and atrophied my mind. I have often noted sounds as I walk and gather , I expect now I will note these things more. In terms of an exercise though, my work was severely lacking, my reflective outcome is richer and more useful.

• Which body of work stretched you most in terms of making?

I was most stretched working out how to respond to a personal routine, I not done much manipulating of photos before, I was reasonably successful with this task.

 

• Which body of work did you enjoy creating the most?

I would be torn here between the Work based on identity and labels collage work in part 2, boundary crossing piece in part one and the works based on place- particularly the bird piece and wrapped twig.

 

 

Finally, select one of the themes from Part One for further development in Project 4, together with what you feel were the key pieces of visual research from Part Two. Explain your reasons for these choices.

My reflections on artist research, point me to an investigation of my place in the landscape – I wouldn’t be able to clearly define where we separate, my being is spun from tiny everyday connections to my environment. identity is place, investigating where I am now compared to where I’m from – both physically and ancestoraly . My key pieces of visual research will be the found drawings and frottage combined with further investigation of mapping. I’m interested in the interview with Polly Binns her work is site specific but is more about her response to the Norfolk coast, than of the coast, this is similar to Jessica Warboys work with the sea and also of Barbara Hepworth walking of the landscape, their investigations of materials are fed by place but not dictated by it.

 

Feedback assignment 2

Summary of tutorial discussion

Demonstration of technical and visual skills, quality of outcome, demonstration of creativity –

You did well to produce this body of work in a short time. You have approached each exercise with thought and tried iterations of ideas. There could however be further investigation in the exercises , the body of work feels a little bit light but i am sure this is due to a lack of time and not a lack of ideas.

It might be that you should separate out some of your more resolved or successful pieces and mount simply on cartridge for assessment. For example your self portrait, the rubbing of your letter, the rubbing of the leaves in your environment. I shall confirm from Sandra if this is a good idea.

You experimented well with a variety of materials and processes. You handled line well in the initial drawing exercise. You produced a strong graphic composition.

The photos of the found marks were very successful. You observed very interesting textures, colours and compositions in these images. Think about how you instinctively did this with the camera frame and how this could be applied to samples you are creating.

The end of the sketchbook felt a bit rushed and scrappy. Please make sure papers are either in the book attached, out in a separate book or just placed in a simple fold of clean white paper acting as a sleeve. For assessment put details of the exercise neatly on the corner of the sleeve.

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis –

You presented your work well on your blog. It would however be helpful to have a paragraph of reflection after each exercise. ( you started to do this in the last couple of exercises)

Please give more detail in your reflection for example you say that you were underwhelmed by a certain assignment, explain why you think this is.

You mentioned Tracy Emin and Elise Englar were important artists for you in this assignment, please explain why. What did you connect with in their work? Do you feel that your work was a response to this, if yes why, if not then why not ?

Please include the rest of the research artist analysis in the final assessment.

Well done, I look forward to your next assignment.

Assignment two

In Part Two you’ve produced a body of written and visual research and drawing exploring the themes identified in Part One. You should now conclude your work by reflecting on what you’ve learnt in Parts One and Two. Write about the development of both your research and creative skills, and identify what you think you’ve learnt from undertaking these exercises. Discuss how research has broadened your understanding of the creative process, and how exploring a range of different creative approaches to drawing and mark-making can help you to generate ideas

in response to a theme. Highlight areas of strength and any areas that you think require further development. You should aim to write approximately 500 words, and include this in your learning log.

This was a tricky journey that I have taken very quickly. merely dipping my toes into a range of processes and concepts for generating ideas has whetted my appetite for researching ways of developing thought processes.

I was particularly struck by the Martin Creed video

The main thing I have learnt is not to pre judge. The process of immersion in a task , being inquisitive, questioning and ready to experiment can yield results I couldn’t dream of – dreaming up ideas is a bit of a fallacy perhaps! It is a skill that can be honed,

I have quite a good understanding of critical reflection , my research for this assignment is not complete, currently a collection af annotated images and rough notes from many open tabs on my computer. I did not approach the research systematically but all at once and it blew my mind, brain fog, my short term memory just couldn’t cope I need to develop a strategy to cope with this. Currently I’m Using Microsoft notes as a swipe file to gather information, make notes and gather images but collation is proving complicated. It Is my priority for moving forward. It is clear that the research I have managed has been key to unlocking concepts and revelations so not committing enough focus to this will be a barrier to fully realising my progress.

My creative journey falls between , Tracey Emin strongly expressive of personal journey, highly emotional. Vs documentary/archaeological approach of Elise Engler.

After really enjoying MMT I felt very materials and process led but now see that the ideas and process led approaches have generated thought processes in ways I haven’t really considered. The pieces of work using collage resonated more , I guess this was more to do with manipulation of materials, also very colour and composition based. Words weren’t for me but actually the frottaged stitch sample was a favourite piece due the interesting surface texture, I wish I’d frottaged in white on a light background to further investigate the the shapes found.

project 2 -visual research ex2.6 – works based on place – Collage outcome

Researching the work of Lucy Freeman I found an artist statement on artsthread.com

‘Portfolio Lucy Freeman

Summer 2016 Collection ‘Wish I was there’

‘Wish I was there’ is an interiors collection exploring escapism and child-like optimism, creating bold, vibrant imagery evocative of tropical holiday destinations, but in surreal dreamlike compositions, creating only an abstract, unattainable visualisation of a joyful and playful place we dream to escape to.’

This statement could be a basis for the way I decided to approach this final task.

But , without the tropical holidays, think more verdant fairly rocky geological wonderland with layers of history, quietly crumbling beneath the surface…..

I think that my printer tends to tone down colours as the photos I printed out aren’t as vibrant as on the iPad, however my found drawings tended towards neutrals with lots of greys and browns. I used a colour identifying app on a couple of the photos to see if I could pick out key colours and got more neutrals than the colour pops that had drawn my eye, as they formed the largest proportion of the images. I wanted to work with some more vibrant shades so picked two photos to work from,

a natural lichen and a distressed man made surface. Within ares of the photos it’s difficult to observe a specific colour because of shadows and highlights.

I observed that the same grey was very noticeable in both photos.

I referred to a colour mixing exercise from ATV to match the colours , a really pleasing process and I was very happy with accuracy.

Looking for these shapes and feeling in the frottage and found drawings collection. I drew some bold forms based on all the found drawing pictures.

From this I cut a number of elements and arranged them loosely in different configurations on different backgrounds.

I also printed these out in monotone , the grey background almost swallowed up the collage pieces as the colours were tonally similar. I felt the white background worked reasonably well, the colours appear very pastel , against the black background they are more vibrant.

Final iteration on A2 black card, the top image is quiet and calm.

With additional colour pop of red circles the energy is completely changed, the image is much more dynamic.

Does it answer what is being asked of you?

This piece responds strongly to the brief. The process, followed systematically worked well for me in this project.

how can you develop your ideas ?

I could work with colour selection, although I carefully matched colours to my found drawings, the resulting palate is a little whimsical and not particularly sophisticated, probably not a combination I would have instinctively work with. Obviously colour choice depends on purpose. This piece is quite strongly commercial I think, it’s quite Scandinavian I would like to think Marimeko but perhaps more IKEA!

how can you revisit the work to improve

I was careful to experiment with placement of individual motifs, and relied on gut feeling, I would like to develop a better understanding of the language of composition.

project 2 -visual research ex2.6 – works based on place

This assignment feels very much like working backwards. I’m very much an observer of my environment, the minutiae more so than the mighty. I got completely engrossed in gathering photos of found drawings. My first edit got them down to 93. I hesitated to make a quicker decision to narrow down to 10 as I couldn’t really understand the process I was supposed to be going through.

I printed out 16 photos at a more observable size “to use them as a basis of drawings and image development.”

I unravelled at what using adjectives to describe physical (this is fine) and emotional characteristics means? I had to find some words to use to steer away from being repetitive. In my sketch book I observed the similarities or groupings in the chosen images. Had I pre planned I would probably have taken different images –

Another way to approach this would be to choose emotional/physical words and go in search of images that fulfill the description.

This felt like cheating somehow ( I’m still very much stuck in the rut of taking the course notes too literally.

One by one I selected images that I could choose adjectives for, I made some very quick marks and drawings and found that this process of choosing media and drawing what I saw actually inspired more words to respond to. Ha! Result.

Dappled

Bumpy, encrusted

Meandering

radial, radiatingFlowing

Having identified many words… I intend to respond to a variety rather than all at this time. However I feel that this process can become part of my independent sketch book work as I’m clearly seeing the value in this approach. The process of seeing an interesting shape is a starting point, attaching emotional/descriptive words demands more inquiry, mark making in response to deeper enquiry is the start of a dialogue.

Perhaps I should be less anxious about the course notes. These exercises are a starting point and will inevitably lead each of us on a slightly different journey, there may be no right or wrong. Splendid.

Elements to consider-

1) surface texture

2) pattern and shape

3) colour

Does it answer what is being asked of you?

I have responded to the brief by observing my environment and photographing found drawings. I have observed the emotional/descriptive qualities and responded with mark making.

how can you develop your ideas ?

Continuing to develop skills of forming a dialogue , understanding the narrative that is formed from my personal response, investigating that response with material investigation and experimentation.

What are you trying to achieve in your samples/ art ?

This is very profound!!! – the answer to life itself? Self understanding?probably acceptance?

have you achieved it? if not why?

I’m obviously still searching for what I’m trying to achieve, I’m working towards finding a personal voice. I’m very much in toddlerhood, riding the creative wave looking for answers. My understanding is that achieving a goal is possibly not the goal I’m searching for…. ever learning and looking is the creative process.

how can you revisit the work to improve

Practice. I think that improvement may not be cyclic , more spiralling application of learning to future works, working with a theme is a strong pattern for artists in art movements through history, Monets’ Lilly ponds for example.

project 2 -visual research ex2.5 – Works based on music

I responded to Alison Carlier in my sketch book.

A photocopier has a very personal sound, they are all so different!! I have honestly been compelled to dance to rhythm of a large school copier- perhaps choreography would be an interesting way to record sound?

I found too many parts to the noise to make individual marks and the resulting up and down lines are just the same as noise/time graphs. I found making rows of marks broke my concentration so cut lengths of paper from a roll to make continuous drawings.

I stalked a chainsaw, a sad sound, the death of a tree. It seemed less regular than I would expect, just being held still was a steady sound, engaged with the wood not so steady and obviously the starting and stopping were different again, a very linear story and I was compelled to record it in a linear fashion, first with a very broad marker – harsh and precise and then a graphite stick , softer and closer to nature.

An attempt to record more accurately I used oilpastel , drafting film has a smooth surface so the oil would smudge, a lovely quality to this line, combined with colour, fresh blue, I think more representative of boiling water. Still very graph like.

We are all machines, if not mechanical. Whilst listening out for machine noises I found nature sounds creeping into my awareness. I videoed an overflowing stream observing the repeat splash of a branch being pulled down stream and springing back, perhaps the most regular sound I heard, and then other patterns of the stream started to punctuate, my mind would be drawn away for a while and then the branch would again intervene, a crow cawed…. a true symphony. The stream overflowed because of endless rain. I will revisit and contemplate how best to capture the feeling.

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With closed eyes a waterfall sounded exactly like a steam engine (rather than a steam train) which made me wonder about how we engage all of our senses when we engage with an art work.

recording sound is very different to representing sound. If representing sound I could break away from a linear format .

Using a hammer and mark making tools.

Using more gestural marks

Using more dynamic marks.

This would be a more reflective than recording process.

project 2 -visual research ex2.4 – New ways of thinking inspired by writing

I diligently got my mom and sister to write over the top of letters and photocopied and enlarged, rotated , overlapped by photocopying onto photocopied paper to arrive at a range of papers. I didn’t become excited by this process.

these manipulation s in an app called MegaPhoto are an excellent example of getting carried away!!!

I feel that there is a not so fine balance here of artistic intent and very clever technical wizardry that leads you down a path of distraction. I’m guessing that , if avoiding those dangers a spark of an idea could be created.

I imported one of the images that I had manipulated into the Procreate app and block coloured the background, then created a tiled pattern. Nothing spectacular, however I can see that with some experience there is scope for using digital manipulation as a useful tool. As I noted in the collage project there is also a danger of getting lost and carried away.

Cutting holes and reassembling , I haven’t investigated very thoroughly, for example the holes could be circular. Different sizes, random, I could weave , rip , shred – actually veryfine shred rearranged appeals- this is an example of the process of experimentation working!

I chose a section of the overwritten letter to explore further by stitching over the top onto a piece of cotton voile. The reverse of the stitched piece has much more textural interest than the electronic manipulation, the loose threads and dots of black thread pulled through to the back are much more interesting than pixels to me. Using frottage to rotate, offset and repeat in a different colour has given an interesting set of drawings.

I needed to soak the photocopy paper to remove sections, with thinner paper I could remove this more easily and achieve a wider selection of negative shapes, texturally this reminds me of the bark of a plane tree.

Reflecting on the creation of further letters, I had considered writing to my younger and older self, this ties in with links to ancestors in the collage project. Asking myself the question of who am I?- we are a sum of many parts. This collage is of me with the combined letter from my mother, my sister, myself.

I got more from this exercise than I expected as to be honest I just wasn’t inspired at all by the brief and went through the stages quite mechanically. There is some real strength in the stitched and frottaged piece and I certainly wouldn’t have got there without the earlier processes.

For me the textile related pieces are more interesting visually, they have more gravitas and feel more intentional. The graphic pieces have more of a feeling of accidental design, more contrived and less interesting.

some of the difficulty here was the personnel nature of using a letter, this felt too intimate and exposing of self. The ability to do this, is part of the success of many artists, Tracey Emin is a clear example of not holding anything back. Art can be cathartic in this way.

project 2 -visual research ex2.3 – Personal experience

This exercise was mind mapped before I recorded any daily routines, I don’t really have any obvious daily routines so there was no really strong contender. I thought perhaps something I do regularly may work as a source of images, purple cabbage is a remarkable colour to play with so I recorded making sauerkraut, this didn’t seem to fit the bill however.

Neither did eating breakfast, this just seemed contrived and a bit embarrassing as well as really awkward to take photos of.

I settled on making a cup of tea, this is probably the closest I get to a routine, actually it almost approves ritual, I have recorded the process in my sketchbook in more detail.

I eventually settled on a concertina book format for the images, I tried to use a range of papers that would tell the story of the process and evoke something of an air of calm and relaxation. I used a combination of handmade papers relating to the tea ingredients, these were quite heavy so I added some airiness with drafting film, also some sections of a monoprint of a teapot and flowers . My intention is to put it in a mesh bag -like a teabag would be to stop it unravelling and to add something of the tea ritual to opening and reading it.

I do feel that actually the end product is a little clunky, using a square viewfinder to crop the images abstracts them a little and I would stick with square images but simplify the pages .

I was underwhelmed by this body of work, I was a little bit stymied by finding a routine to use, I think that this just made the work a bit forced, deciding to use a cup of tea making was the best choice for me – perhaps it’s a bit more ritual than routine, however it still seemed like hoop a jumping exercise even though I managed to find some interesting shapes in the photos that are sketched . I could enlarge and abstract the images further to find elements to pursue further.

project 2 -visual research ex2.2 identity/labels – collage

My research led me to an interview with Marcelo Montreal

https://www.photographize.co/interviews/marcelomonreal/.

He talks of the inspiration for his collages being a conversation with his mother who told him that people are made of flowers.

His work is about inner beauty. Cut outs in portraits reveal beautiful blooms beneath the public face of celebrates that he often works in collaboration with. It takes two days to produce a piece of work. In the interview he would spend much longer as he worked out what photo angles and cut marks worked.

Working with collage , I feel the tentativeness of Montreal’s early work. I enjoyed the process and can envisage using it more.

I made a decision to only use one magazine as source material along with a folder of papers that I started collecting for collage project in ATV – it pays to hoard art materials.

During the selection of images to use, I started by looking for colours but soon observed that my bigger interest was in making connections with the object I was collating, for example

-using images of hair to make the hair slides

-trees became pencils

– a tiger became sharpener

-the pen knife blade is a flower – only to be used peacefully

– key to ancestors -bone

– key to the universe =stars

– key to living in a capitalist society =gold

I found the selection process very meditative, there seemed to be a clear dialogue between me, the object, and the medium.

I documented my bag as I found it that day and was surprised more by what it lacked. The resulting drawing felt quite anonymous, different to other bags , however not particularly telling a full story, some clues to me but not a clear identity. I guess this is actually a fairly accurate summary of how we see people or situations, our own eyes cause our brains to form impressions however what is missing is a large part of the picture. We can present an image that we would like people to interpret but we can’t control what they will see. It is the same for an art work. Artistic intention may not be the same as people’s perception and this is probably ok. Before committing to glue, I played with placement of the collage pieces, this felt very cluttered, the purse hat kind of suits me though. I thought it quite clever that My sharp eyes are a sharpener made of tiger – eye of the tiger! I enjoy word play. I have a Victorinox smile. A transforming multi tool, sharp and cutting, I can open bottles with my teeth ( not really – that’s artistic license) speech is key, a key to open doors, to be understood you need to talk…..

In this orientation the knives are like little figures, whimsical, not dangerous. Bonkers!!! This clearly shows the importance of careful placement, I moved swiftly onto crazy head dress/hairwhile making the larger iteration of the owl – the universal /ancestral owl I cut a shape from a wolf image, I noticed that serendipitously fitted my face, I became wolf girl!what a fierce transformation. I think it looks quite complete as a simple collage of two shapes.e

I played some more and then committed the shapes with glue to produce this portrait.

Having selected the items from my bag that I resonated with most I think that this probably says more about me than the contents of my bag drawing which contained mostly utilitarian objects, a penknife shows my preparedness for every opportunity, my just in case spirit of girl guide, trying to do my best.

I love that a pen knife (it is a tiny 40mm) that transforms can be transformed to wolf or human or owl depending on the rotation. in my sketch book I wrote a little about owls and ancestry. A relative used to raise birds of prey for wildlife parks and I got to hand feed them so there is another link there. Making multiples of owls of varying sizes to show a succession of ovum’s passed through the generations was the line of thought here. I was so absorbed by this process I think I got a little mad!

The final collage image reflects the work of Marcelo Montreal. One eye to the future , one to the past. There are some really interesting repeating shapes and smooth transitions – the beak/nose for example. I’m pleased with the hand/claws holding the keys. The wing echos my face shape on the left while the owl face sits well with the right eye socket.

https://www.textileartist.org/melissa-zexter-interview-embroidered-photography

i played around a little with digital manipulation of my completed wolf girl collage

Obviously in the early days of collage computer manipulation wasn’t possible. This is crossing the boundaries into photography/graphic design/computer graphics and many artists are working successfully with these mediums. I definitely engage more with a hands on process.

project 2 -visual research ex2.1

Ex 2.1 Identity/labels – line drawing

Continuous line drawing is unnerving, however I think that the quality of drawing is really interesting.

The first couple of drawings are of the whole drinking bottle, I felt that the top half was more interesting so I just focused on the lid. Not retracing lines forced me to decide which part of the object to draw next, this decision really informs which bit of the drawing is recognisable! I found some interesting shapes in the two overlapping drawings bottom middle

There’s something about the cylindrical pencil sharpener drawings that reminds me of Picasso. Cubists portraits!

The teabag drawing is more interesting to me, perhaps I was getting more in tune to the process. I took it out of the sachet to get a more interesting object to draw. I hit on an object that really suited the process. The last one I drew resembles a wire drawing. I am reminded of the wire sculptures by Jeanette Orrell. I would like to make two wire teabags, one 3D and one as a flat drawing to compare them, I find the juxtaposition of flat drawings representing objects interesting related too wire sculptures representing a drawing….

I realise that I’ve used a biro for all drawings (suggested in the coursenotes)

I made a wire drawing based , flat and linear rather than a 3D sculptural shape. Mounted on teabag paper.

I would like to experiment with scale – it seemed natural to work sort of to scale but I should try a large drawing or a tiny version to explore that eye – through brain – to drawing implement connection.

Using a chunky graphite pencil will be fun, I’m also interested to use charcoal -I think that it will inevitably smudge which may make interesting marks.

I am reminded of the wire sculptures by Jeanette Orrell

I approached this task in a very straight forward way, I felt that the little penknife with the implements extended would work well. It gives many possible rotation points. I like the analogous colour scheme, obviously this has endless possibilities. Perhaps the nail file and bottle opener makes the image quite busy. The paper was a little absorbent for the pens, I sort of like the slight fuzziness, I am reminded of the multi coloured shadows at a well lit gig..

There’s a lot of stuff in my bag, it came as some surprise that’s there’re no bits of nature as generally when I empty my bag it’s full of twigs and leaves – I’m not sure what this collection says about me. It’s got a lot of useful stuff in it though! I used a roll of paper so that I wouldn’t run out of room. The objects a loosely grouped with similar items together. If you play spot the difference it will be observed that my phone is missing from the photo as it is also my camera!

Elise Engler Everything in my bag. Is an account , a snapshot of what Engler had in her bag on a particular day. From that we can presume to sleuth like read something about her. A sharing. I’m not sure.

I documented my bag as I found it that day and was surprised more by what it lacked. The resulting drawing felt quite anonymous, different to other bags , however not particularly telling a full story, some clues to me but not a clear identity. I guess this is actually a fairly accurate summary of how we see people or situations, our own eyes cause our brains to form impressions however what is missing is a large part of the picture. We can present an image that we would like people to interpret but we can’t control what they will see. It is the same for an art work. Artistic intention may not be the same as people’s perception and this is probably ok.

Research point 2.1

This research task is quite a leap from previous research tasks.

I’m happy with the critical evaluation of a painting or piece of artists work, however struggled with the structure of juggling so many many artists and themes.

Artists inspired by music https://www.wqxr.org/story/200394-top-five-musically-inspired-paintings-new-york/

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gyxq73/melissa-mccracken-synesthesia-painter-interview

http://magazine.art21.org/2010/12/07/music-and-art/#.XP7OkIrTWfA

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=sheldonpubs

Martin Creed https://youtu.be/aG41M6lYNRM

It is clear that Pinterest is a really accessible way of searching for visual references, however it takes more time than you realise to follow links to dead ends repeatedly. ‘Fact checking’ and referencing is an issue, it is actually better use of time to research via artist websites , or gallery websites – which tend to have more useful background information than artist statements on websites – these are often not available.

Pinterest is really useful to get an overview images of artists work, information links about techniques, and researching to a theme, following links to artists work/techniques that are similar.

I found watching videos of artist interviews a really accessible way of learning about artists. I haven’t yet found the best way for me to deal with the technicalities of recording and presenting information. For this research task I have used Microsoft office notes app to gather images, information and website links. I have printed them out to annotate and analyse in my sketch book to see if it is quicker for me than working directly into the WordPress app – my computer seems to be dramatically slowing down unfortunately, I have a problem with adding images from the internet. There’s a ghost in the machine, or a gremlin or an age related break down

Elise Engler

Drawing as documentary. I felt her work was very whimsical. Drawings of everything in her bag, contents of women’s handbags, contents of fire trucks, etc

https://www.roberthenrycontemporary.com/artists/elise-engler/statement

In her artist statement I found that she also documents fallen soldiers (killed – why do we say fallen?) and ‘Collateral Damage documents civilian casualties, mainly Iraqi. Pencil silhouettes are filled in with white pencil, many identified by name/ age. Over 21,000 figures have been drawn so far, a tiny fraction of the reality‘

This is a far more serious endeavour, Engler sees herself as an anthropologist or archaeologist. Observing humanity.

Claude Heath

https://drawingroom.org.uk/events/workshop-3-drawing-making-making-drawing-with-claude-heath

Tracey Emin- identity/personal experience

Cy Twombly –

Jenny Saville

Michael Craig-Martin – based on place

Claude Heath

Fred Sandback

Jan Dibbets

Feedback assignment 1

 

Summary of tutorial discussion

 

Demonstration of technical and visual skills, quality of outcome, demonstration of creativity –

 

Techniques to help you complete on time:

I understand that parts of this assignment were difficult for you to start. You need to have a way to make decisions and just get on with it . We discussed using the decision making as an interesting maybe conceptual way of working rather seeing it as a problem. So choosing things blind, tossing a die. As you are pushed for time it is important that you can crack on with your work. Obviously there still needs to be time for reflection but not procrastination!

It’s interesting, this feeling of being frozen by a looming deadline is a state that I feel could be a really interesting line of inquiry – if I had the time ……. my procrastination is partly full on procrastination but a large amount is brain chemicals, shifting hormones and sadness, my brain processing internal and external change, it’s been a s**t year all in all.

However the wrk needs doing and I’m determined -just need to get the momentum going…

 

It is important that you answer what is being asked of you, make sure that you complete all the tasks. It felt a little thin in parts and there was one part missing 1.4.

1.4 was a sticking point, I’m now waiting for the release of The Lost Words: Spell Songs

Macfarlane, Robert . This is a cd of songs inspired by Macfarlanes investigation into 50 nature words that are removed from the children’s Oxford English Dictionary.
I think that I took the tasks too literally and will try to achieve more depth in future exercises. My recording of ideas needs to be clearer, a balance between analysing all my sketch book notes whilst avoiding repetition on the blog and not getting too sidetracked.

 

Really consider your research and what it can provide for each assignment. If you get stuck within an assignment you might need to revise the research and expand on ideas or go deeper.

This idea of back tracking to provide more inspiring research to use in the project tasks is really important – it will stop me wasting time agonising about how to make thing fit, and will save time in the long run.

 

Your work could be more conceptual? You enjoyed the method of working in mixed media which is not theme based. Working with materials and developing processes. You could push this method of working more, maybe developing a narrative more than a theme. For example on the journey you could be walking and recording materials, picking up materials as you go. Looking at what materials lay with each other, can they be broken as you walk on them, do they change form. Do they change from morning to evening, do other people interact with them …….( I just looked at 1.1 it is clear to me that you really enjoy materials, the work you have analysed from mixed media is stronger than your new sample for this assignment. This is because you are not trying to create a “picture” but you are simply working with materials and forms and then documenting them. In this new piece you are trying to make the materials represent a landscape / picture which is not so honest or exciting.  We can discuss this next time we talk but please reflect on this point for your next assignment. )

This is excellent – really clarifying. I loved MMT and found the materials led approach really suited my inquisitive nature. Project one of I&P felt quite forced but thanks to this feedback I think that I’m understanding how to move forward and approach it in a way that is more natural to me. Narrative and context are important to me.

 

Your bird sample was very interesting ( and works as a narrative / conceptual idea) but how could this have been developed further?

I also felt that mapping the bird flight paths in my garden was more exciting, when I get my sketch book back I will see if I can implement some of the ideas that I noted. I’m particularly interested in exploring how I can invoke my crow friends in a ark making exercise using a back drawing process and peanuts. If it works it would be interesting to produce a series with some consistent approach combined with random elements, time of day, number of peanuts etc

 

Experimentation and developing your own personal voice:

You work could be more experimental. You could be using a larger variety of materials. All your work is a similar shape and size. Go bigger or much smaller.

This excites me, I felt constricted by size for example on the interpretation of music Woking on A3 but felt compelled to follow the instructions! This will be part o f my rewinding process. I will refine my inner grrr and run free!!!

 

We discussed  that you could be thinking about how you bring your own interests and skills into each assignment. I think you would then enjoy the assignments more? For example you really enjoyed mixed media, you enjoy working with materials so when you completed the last task you could have drawn or printed on wooden veneers to see what effect that gave.

 

Context, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis –

 

I found your Blog difficult to navigate i didn’t realise i had to start at the bottom of page 2 and work my way up. Is it possible to have it so the first page opening up is the first part of the assignment etc…..

I’m not sure what happened there! I have worked out how to put more posts on each page so that issue should be dealt with. I have set up draft posts for the entire course so they should appear in order I think. I’ve also worked out the categories so hopefully my blog will read more clearly. Currently I’m not sure if I need to (or how to)change theme to improve clarity. WordPress still keeps its secrets well

 

There needs to be more reflection on what you are doing and also what you have chosen not to do and why.

I suggest once you have finished the piece you are working on stand back from it and critique it. What is working and what could you improve on. What were you trying to achieve and have you succeeded. Note down your comments.

 You could record your reflections verbally and then write down the key points.

 I’m going to try using voice memos to help me . My typing is getting quicker slowly. I’ve made a prompt card to refer to when self evaluating based on critical thinking skills workshop.

You need to present your work more clearly for assessment. Labels with assignment points on each.

This was lazy of me as I literally threw assignment one in the post and then found the how to send work to your tutor for assessment. I can see how feedback will be helped by clearer labelling of work.

 

Well done, I look forward to your next assignment.

I&P Assignment one

Demonstration of technical and visual skills – I think that within the context of responding to a brief with ideas rather than completed pieces of work that my technical and visual skills have been competent in representing ideas I have used a range it firmly obvious techniques, I was really pleased with the outcome using found materials joined using stitch to represent the landscape and also with the way this work linked so well with my research.

Quality of outcome – apart from ex 1.4 which caused a complete blank I have responded well to the tasks and have hopefully shown some interesting concepts that are well communicated. I feel that I got o a real roll with MMT and have stumbled my way somewhat through assignment one. I think that I got used to being far more process led and am coming round to a different way of thinking for I&P

Demonstration of creativity – mixed responses to the exercises, I felt that my response to 1.1 was quite strong – it being process led helped, 1.2 personal experience was engaging and with a lot more time I think that I would find a lot to develop her, also 1.7 I respond far more to place than the exercises responding to words – it’s just occurred to me that the drawing of bird paths could be titled ‘flight’ , words can perhaps be a trigger for my ideas – I have a feeling that all of these stands will start coming together with further practice.

Context – I can see an improvement in the communication of my thoughts over the last two courses but I can see also that this is an area that I need to develop. My understanding is growing thanks mostly to the critical thinking skills course with Rebecca Fairley but I need to record my thought process in more detail.

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Ex 1.7 Place

I don’t know the place that I live particularly well , I have however been fascinated with the constant change of my garden view, by month, by day, by hour, by minute.

South facing so during the course of the day tha shadows reverse completely. Surrounding hills cast shadows, causing different parts of the far landscape become illuminated. I’ve been a city dweller and it’s a complete treat to observe the changing seasons. I am changing season.

I’ve made a few disappointing forays into capturing the view as drawing practice and photographs. For this exercise I made an incredibly bad representation in watercolour. It did enable me to observe the horizontal layers and placement of oval shapes.

Collage – found paper textures.

I used Different papers that represented parts of the landscape, inside of envelopes for the sky (airmail?) – tenuous?) I used crumpled paper hills, newspaper for trees on the distant hills, crumpled and ripped water meadow as opposed to the flat lawn, squared paper block paving, pleated plants. I used translucent paper for the tree foliage to emulate the way you can see the landscape behind it, creased to represent branches.

Not a sophisticated collage, I like the sky and plants create a good sense of depth, the creased branches work well. Collage was a suitable technique to represent the range of textures in the landscape. I kept it simple as I didn’t want to make it too busy, it could work well in only textures of white paper, or using different fabrics and joining them in different ways (developing the outcome in ex 1.1) I enjoy the shadows cast by the creased plants , I’m not aware of too much 3D collage – this is something that I can research further.

Back drawing using inked plate and mixed mark making tools.

I enjoyed experiments with print on MMT. I tried a few monoprints before the above back drawing. The ink wasn’t lifting well off the metal plate and then I remembered the back drawing technique so reined and used my fingers and other implements to draw. This drawing is a little dark, there was shadow on the hilll tops but a much narrower and subtle band. The paving slabs form a great stage to observe the rest of the landscape. I find the tree and bush in the foreground quite effective, particularly the landscape showing through the tree foliage, the fence mid distance is too big and bold. In the accompanying ghost print I feel that the sky and hills are very atmospheric. There is a fabulous edge at the bottom of the lawn. Back drawing is a suitable technique for the landscape as it evokes atmosphere and adds textural interest to the main components of the drawing.

Bird paths – ink on drafting film.

This drawing excites me more than the others. Whilst drawing the landscape ,different birds visited the garden and flew overhead. It struck me that as a key part of the eco system they were sort of stitching the land together. For one of my final samples for MMT I carved a representation of a journey onto a plaster egg. I developed this theme for representing place by laying drawing film over the collage and mapped the path of birds coming and going. This drawing is quite messy to look at, however It is very energetic. I feel that there is a lot of scope for further exploration. I have jotted some ideas in my sketch book.

Building on this idea I set up a feeding station for the birds using paper and carbon paper – I had a fancy that they might make marks with their feet and beaks while eating, not successful on this occasion but I’m still intrigued by the process

I realise that I’ve used a portrait composition rather than a more obvious landscape, it’s the view framed by my doorway rather than the wide view from my garden. This was practical as I could work from life. I think it give my drawings a feeling of withdrawing, definitely an observer of the landscape rather than a participant in it. This is interesting because it is I realise an accurate impression of how I feel. Unintentional as I was trying to capture the beauty of the place.

I could have chosen a smaller place, the cocoon of my hammock, the space around my meditation chair but I felt that ‘place’ was big, I did the same with the personal experience task in ex1.2 taking a whole valley – this is an interesting observation, I may be missing opportunities by always looking at the macro rather than micro. This is something to consider moving forward through the course.

Ex1.6 music part two

That’s the best hour I’ve spent for a long time.

I’m not hugely impressed with my first outcome as a painting but I think that’s to be expected as I’m not a painter or well practised with water colours.

I’m listening to The soundtrack to the film The Fountain by Clint Mansel It’s my go to classical album, I’d like you to imagine driving through Norway for example, eating up the miles of mountain road and rugged empty coastline, glacial and majestic. The music is moody, dramatic double bass, cello and violins with a deep thumping bass drum. This morning the fog has closed in and the day is damp and somber.

I chose watercolour as I thought that watercolours might give a moody ethereal effect.

The still life started grey, not black and white grey but purplish and greenish, fascinatingly, a ray of yellow appeared and then a bright rust occurred. It was really interesting how the music drew me in away from distracting thoughts and then instructed my choice of colour with sudden bright moments.

I certainly felt influenced by the music, the background was wetted and then I flowed the purple grey onto the page like a conductor. Colour accents were instructed by changes in musical mood, I worked really quickly to the rhythm of the piece.

I could have stopped sooner, there was a point when the colours were suitably morose but not to muddied.

Second interpretation to Once in my life from The Decemberists album I’ll be your girl, the track starts quite gently then an optimistic string orchestra kicks in, the vocals are quiet melancholic the music triumphant. It got very colourful and quite ——-.

I felt like I needed a much larger piece of paper – it’s not often that I’ve felt constrained by page size. I need a big empty room with massive canvases and lots of paint and powder that I could use with my hands. I was put in mind of Jessica Warboys huge canvases that she makes with the sea.

Third interpretation Fast car by Tracy Chapman da da da daaaa. … An old favourite that often returns for a visit. Music is so very powerful and interpretation incredibly linked to current emotional states. I was searching my music collection for something uplifting yet calm. I used oil pastels, as it felt like a smudging sort of groove, warm and mellow, the background of yellow and blue is really uplifting , there is a halo effect like the resonating acoustic guitar ringing, the vessels particularly the jug are strong and clear. Some melancholic shadows crept in and I was moved to add strong outlines – not entirely sure what drove that!

I worked from a simple sharpie drawing. Without added colour or shade. I became more confident at drawing the shapes and also more relaxed about the exact placement so my 3 interpretations are slightly different.

I think that the music influenced colour more than the movement of applying the media. Movement was influenced more by the type of medium. This exercise really highlighted my inexperience with handling different mediums. I think that my observational drawing is becoming more confident and clearly experience and practice will improve confidence with choosing and handling different techniques.

Ex 1.6 Music – part one – A2 sketches

I looked at the still life drawing s and paintings of Giorgio Morandi

I appreciated the way he used simple objects as a mechanism to study colour and composition. It seems similar to the way Rachel Whiteread used simple everyday items to investigate surface.

I selected a jug,bowl,bottle and two cups, cleared the table and stuck an a2 pierce of paper on the window as I don’t have a large drawing board. Studying the composition I found it difficult to work out the composition so made a viewing window to help place the objects on the paper.

As the paper was larger than I’m used to working I chose a chunky 6B graphite pencil, I feel that this drawing was reasonably successful as an experiment in composition, as I was standing up and looking down on the still life the ellipses were quite a prominent part of the drawing. I squinted to work out the highlights, shadows and mid tones. The objects are slightly floating on the page but it’s not a bad first attempt.

It was awkward leaning on the window and looking to the left at the still life so for the second drawing I taped the paper to the drop leaf of the table – landscape this time – by sitting on a stool I had lower viewpoint and this change the proportion of the composition. The top of the bottle is flat, the bowl elliptical and the cups have a little eclipse. I chose charcoal to create more tone areas. I haven’t used charcoal for ages , I enjoyed the process of smudging and worked quite quickly to cover the page. More successful to lay I think and less busy with less eclipses.

An even lower viewpoint – no eclipse at all on the cups, almost looking up at the objects , a mouse eye views

The birds were singing so loudly! I just had to respond to their joyful sound.i was drawn to use pastels and blend them with my fingers.warm rich tones.sunkissed.

I think that this is the composition that I will use, it is clean, familiar in that it is the height I would normally view the objects at – I hadn’t considered before that ones height would affect how an object is seen, but it’s obvious really!

I find this composition very busy, your eye has to travel up and down with no clear pathway around the picture.I like the transparency of the bottle and the more confident clean lines. I think that the cup ellipses are too much like two eyes. I wanted to try a portrait rather than landscape, I can’t say what but I prefer the landscape orientation, I think that it works better with the proportions of the shapes.

Review – Does it answer what is being asked of you? how can you develop your ideas ? What are you trying to achieve in your samples/ art ? have you achieved it? if not why? how can you revisit the work to improve.

Ex1.5 Action

I am much more comfortable with this doing task, the thought of manipulating paper in many different ways is comfortable and appealing.

Dissolve – not strictly manipulating paper I now realise, but using the properties of paper to manipulate ink. I expected the tissue paper to dissolve in water ore than it did. I could experiment with use of detergents or temperature of water perhaps.crumple – a positive and negative image using a corrugated card template and thin crumpled tissue paper.

creasing paper and folding it into letter shapes.

Creasing letters into paper – I’ve recorded these in my sketchbook.

I especially like the idea of peeling away layers of bill board to create words…

1.4 Poetry,prose,lyrics

This was excruciatingly difficult, my mind was blown by the choice, my brain worked overtime – it was like that annoying endlessly spinning icon on the computer uploading but not uploading. Every now and again a pause, an option, then decision paralysis.

Some options – an endless trawling through my many many cds, lots of snips of songs, reminiscing…. some great ideas for techniques though – collage, woodblock prints, collage, photography, abstracts, typography……..

A favourite book? Where to start?

Song lyrics – there are some really dodgy lyrics in the Folk world – I almost worked with a song about Leda – the images I googled were out of my comfort zone!

So many images rushed through my mind about different songs it was really hard to pin down – many I was put off by the very thought of including figures – terrifying to draw!!!

The drawings for this exercise are now in my sketchbook

Ex1.2 Personal experience – outcome

I chose to use a stick as a representation of measurement of the journey. It reflects the colour banded way posts of the valley walk, a totemic staff.

The wrappings represent stages of the journey. Even surburban houses, historic Tudor buildings, a little touch of industrial building and then the slow wilding of the route up the valley, branching off to the waterfall wildness. I attached and wrapped wire for the return journey through the woods. The twig and wire are the same shape as the route on the os map.

I experimented slightly with using dyed ripped squares of cotton voile to represent the ruggedness of the valley. My moody lifted as I got higher from the valley floor so the fabric is lighter. The squares are not even like a map but wild and untamed.

Does it answer what is being asked of you? how can you develop your ideas ? What are you trying to achieve in your samples/ art ? have you achieved it? if not why? how can you revisit the work to improve.

I&P 1.2 personal experience

Adventuring is one of my favourite things. Bag packed, takes me back to childhood when I would often fill a bag with essentials – paper, pencils, novel, sweets – and retire to the willow tree or the garage roof for some peace.

It was in this spirit that I set out to discover. I tried not to plan ahead too much (but took sweets) this , with hindsight not planning can be both a benefit and a hindrance.

I thought to wander and collect along the way to where I wasn’t deliberately aiming to see where I got too. However I was not inspired to hang around the quiet home road and as walked through the late 60’s surburban street , moving towards the high street, passing a Tudor house I felt drawn back in time and moved inevitably towards the call off the hills.

In a couple of hours I covered several millennia.

Lesson 1 – it’s all very well taking a range of media and papers but stopping to remove from my rucksack was a pain. Particularly in the manufactured environment I found my phone camera and a5 sketchbook were all I used for the first part of the journey. I made more effort to stop at chosen points that caught my eye in the valley.

Lesson 2 – on returning from the walk I realised that many of my ideas for recording were time or distance based, neither of which I measured. I’m interested in sampling from specific points on a journey – this could be time, distance, height, at every bird call, every yellow , or purple. I could record at every footprint – the benefit of this would be to act as a filter for collecting. A hinderance would , I can imagine selecting a filter would be a difficult decision for my rambling mind.

Lesson 3 – if I know that I may want to collate sketches and gatherings , it would be best to use loose leaves of paper – I photocopied pencil sketches rather than rip them out of a5 sketch book and this does not give a satisfactory result.

I embraced the idea of collecting sounds , making marks in my notebook of bird sounds and water running, and captured video clips of water falling and the accompanying sounds, loved this but have yet to edit them together.

There is a predominance of grey in my photograph of the narrative of my journey, most of my sketches and mark making were black media on white paper.

The collective words/phrases that I could use to describe groupings are:

Fissures, timeworn/weathered, cloaked by nature, layers, patterns in nature, linear forms, borders/boundaries, surface,

Background colours of nature, a myriad of greys and browns, none uniform but mottled or reflecting – no smooth flat panels of colour. Pops of colour caught my eye, Berry red, moss, emerald, ochre, many shades of green.

1.1 Identity and labels – A new piece of work

An analysis of my new piece of work. Looking south. Based on the landscape view from my kitchen window. I have started a sketchbook that I can leave on my table with the intention of becoming more free with sketching. I’m not at all pleased with my first sketches but it has meant that I have observed the changing light and colours of the trees, currently it is a little stand of larches turning golden that are catching my eye,as we fall towards winter.

The composition of the hill sloping downwards and the sun( or blood moon) low and heading west, half and half sky and land – a balance of the seasons.

Back lit – letting the light in

Materials Church Stretton is virtually litter free, which is a great joy to me. I have previously worked quite a lot with found objects . Inspired by Richard Rauschenberg’s walks around a city block to gather materials for his collage/assemblage/painting pieces. As I walked around my new neighbourhood I found an orange rimmed clear plastic lid that appears to be from a disposable cup, on the way back I fished a bit of builders plastic waste from a skip.

Slim pickings – rare treasure. I used very thin plywood for the joining exercises in MMT and have a little left. I selected it for this piece for the stiffness, the wood grain – like contours in the landscape, and its direct representation of the wooded slope.

Cotton perle thread is strong and has enough volume to be visually obvious without being too bulky to obscure the holes in themplywood.

The slope of the hill has become a mass of autumn browns, dead bracken, tree bark and dried heathers . Apart from a stand of larch, mostly green, turning to gold.

Nicholas Hlobo uses this slip stitch as a joining technique . By cutting out a stand of individual larch trees and using slip stitch to rejoin them, I have created a block that is slightly larger than the original hole, I think that the resulting corrugation gives movement and focus. The cast shadows gives visual interest. The shadows move with the moving light – like the turning of the day.

Similarly the cup cover – late sun or blood moon? Can cast shadows across the sky and depending on viewpoint can appear in different stages of fullness.

Viewing the constantly changing landscape of the distant hill from the bottom of my kitchen window I have observed how the sky folds behind the skyline, a line of silver that seems neither land or sky, the stitches are angled towards the west, encouraging the passage of the moon rather than hindering it.

I have really enjoyed the impulsiveness of this piece of work. I didn’t overthink it or seem to plan it too much. Material selection was a little serendipitous and a little of what was close to hand.

This shows me the value of focussed research and the critical reflection process

1.1 Identity and Labels – Analysis of my own work

Analysis of my own work – with regard to identifying a crossing of boundaries between disciplines.

It is already becoming clearer to me from the first part of this exercise that the boundaries between disciplines are movable and faint.

I loved the MMT course and most of the work produced crossed some boundaries that took it out of the purely textile realm.

Hatchlings which was my final piece is photographed here as a temporary instillation on an outcrop of rock that I can see far in the distance from my window. I used textile processes to experiment with surface and colour, casting to produce the forms, the twigs were gathered on the walk to the rock and loosely woven into a nest. Egg like, though they can’t hatch , inspiration that formed ideas was taken from the landscape ‘hatching’in my mind. It felt a risk to submit as my final piece , It felt as though I may be crossing a boundary to far, risk taking , it was a conscious decision to pursue the idea as it was so strong in my mind. Returning to the place of conception gave me a profound sense of completion.

I experimented with stitching textiles together to form a surface for casting and was really pleased with the resulting textures, then I broke it! Stitching it back together with wire gave it a more sculptural feel, I was pleased with the effect of using a hard material to stitch the hard surface of the resin. The back of the piece I find more interesting than the cast surface, I like the abstract surface , the intersection of lines and the green ink contrasting with the blue fishing line. The design on the front was based on the chalk cliffs, the reverse speaks of the chalk seabed.

I have mended this rock by using stitch, because the blanket stitch has not penetrated the stone it is as though the stone is wrapped in a blanket of air. It has an air of Japanese Kintsugi about it. Elevating found stone to sculpture using a textile technique, rather than chiselling or taking away material it is more of an additive process. It encourages reflection on the permanence of our natural world.

making this was an interesting process, I saw the rock broken on a path and was immediately drawn to mend it. Wrapping randomly didn’t feel quite the right approach so I considered a stitch that would work and naturally fell upon blanket stitch. This was an impulsive act rather than planned. A response to the landscape. Land art, sculpture, textile.

The task to join edges was fascinating and I indulged my need to peel fruit in one strand and reassembling it by stitching it back together, i then found some leaves and wondered how many segments would make a sphere, combining paper segments with a spiral stitched join completed this trio which I consider to be textile pieces. I then joined 6 squares to make a cubes using pine needles threaded diagonally, I would consider this piece more of a sculpture. It seems further removed from a textile piece.