Month: June 2019

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.

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.

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.