The Exhibition

I think it's the YouTube video stretching it out, but the bar where the comments-count is looks a bit borked to me. Oh well. On to more important things:

EXHIBITION PHOTOS!

I didn't get a photo of everybody's, unfortunately - in fact, I only really got a fraction of Fine Art students when there was some really awesome Textiles and Design work going on in the other rooms (thanks a lot, camera batteries). However, I hope this gives blog visitors a taster of what went on. Everyone who visited had great fun and there was lots of lovely feedback (and free food).




Ah, it's my wall, all painted up and nice before I set up my piece ...



And here are all the opening times ... OH CRUD MY PIECE IS MEANT TO BE SET UP NOW.



A nice shot of the sign outside the studio door ...



... and I set up my piece in record time! Haha~ (In all seriousness, my photos had to be fixed back up after some fell down after my work was moderated, but I think they look better after they fixed them than they were when I originally put them up!)




Full length shot.



This army and war-related piece was done by Jim (he had some great postcards, too, free for people to take)



Alex's tarot cards; I want to see his take on all 22 one day.



Out in the corridor. I actually don't know who these pieces belong to, they weren't labelled up. My guess is they're (really, really lovely) examples of portfolio work.



Jess's work, in her sketchbooks she had a really nice textile approach with the use of sewing machines and the doll she'd made. ^^



Rosie's really interesting piece, with use of medical equipment and newspaper clippings.



Emily's work! I absolutely adore how she works with textures.



And last but not least, Mary's. The concept behind her work was absolutely amazing; she studied barriers and cages and their effects on our perception and feelings of sympathy.


Now ... it's all over. We took down our stuff on Friday and students loaded up their cars with their work (I took my table with Bunches and the book inside it back on the bus), and some have taken some of their work now, and left the rest in the studio until Monday, when they can pick it up. We tidied the studios and put the tables back, and it looks exactly as it did at the start of the year, when we began the course.

It's actually pretty bittersweet. Although we've only had one year there, it feels like so much longer (and at the same time, it's gone extremely quickly).

Monday is our final day, when we get our results.


Meanwhile, I got a pack of these bad boys, and am having fun with testing them all out:



It's like I'm back in primary school again!

This needs updating

I've been pretty busy.

First things first (I use that saying so much online and offline) the exhibition is now open! The opening night was last Thursday, and so many people came in to see our work and support us. There were some last-minute changes to mine involving mounting some sepia-toned photographs onto the wall behind my main piece (the table, the doll and the book) and having to re-mount my lino-cuts for the exhibition into a folder, as my original plan of mounting them onto an A1 sheet like everything else did not work (not one of my proudest moments, as lino is weighty and I should have known that, AAAARGH). But in the end, everything worked out for the best. Photos soon. *phew*


I've also been doing more in my Embodiment art/text journalling project. I've gone back to Ryman sketchbooks (I tried the lined journal, and although I like the compact nature of it I needed tougher better quality paper and A6 was a bit too small) and I think I'll stick with them as I just love working in them so much.






(You know, watching this back, I'm really heavy-handed with the gluestick. o_o)


The video only shows the making of the background; the writing and heart-stickers were applied during a train-journey on my way to visit Smaz (who is alongside me in the photographs I use). I also got the chance to use up some of the old wallpaper that I've had since last summer (and before then were on the walls of this house before my family moved in) and although it takes a lot of glue to stick down, it's quite a nice texture.


Also, I recently finished colouring a poster for Korusan's game Tita Gasman, which is featured in this year's CM Home-Cooked Games Expo. I highly, highly suggest you check out CMTV's feature on it - the gamers are talented fellows and they've put in a lot of work over the months. Check them out!




For now, I shall leave it. There's more to come - next up will most likely be the exhibition post. I'm overseeing it tomorrow and Wednesday night. :)

Little Nostalgia Box

Adding the finishing touches to my comments book and leaving it to dry (then placing it on the shelf under the table) was the last thing I needed to do for my final piece.

I'm very proud of it.


I'm tired right now (and will be sleeping shortly) but my next post should hopefully have more detail and more photographs of the lino-prints I did (as I'm very proud of those, too). For now, goodnight.

'It was a difficult but nostalgic time, being 15'.

Hello, art blog! Long time, no see!

This month has been veeeery busy. Sorting out student finance and accommodation, having a part-time job, stuff at home as well as getting college work done! I don't mind, though, it certainly keeps me occupied.

I almost went nuts yesterday, because I thought my memory card had broken. My computer was registering it (as in, it would make the 'new hardware detected' beep) but it wasn't showing up under My Computer and Windows Media Centre hadn't kicked in, so I thought my card had kicked the bucket. Apparently ... it hasn't quite as I tried again tonight and it's fine; but as it's been playing up for a while now I think I'd better start using my spare one.

These photos of my table in progress were taken ... ooh, a couple of weeks ago now, I'd think:




Ah, maybe it was later on as the bottom of the table was already papered with words. Today I managed to complete papering the table, and it's in the process of being varnished now so everything's all nice and sealed. What are the words, you ask?



They're all handwritten memories, written on crinkly brown paper towels. I love the texture of these things, and paired with written 'diary entries' or memories - it gives a really nice historical feel. As part of my final major project I'm covering - or rather, covered, as it's now done - a table in this, and in it a doll will be displayed along with battery-powered lighting. A handmade book with lino-prints will be with it, too - a fairytale story about a prince and a flower-girl.

And now for something less twee: this table's compartment was lined with green padded satin with tassels. This looked pretty tacky, in my opinion (I'm sure someone out there would have loved it, but it wasn't me). However, the appearance was nothing compared to the odour - the previous owner had left in a couple of mothballs, and the smell of them was awful. Really, really overpowering. Thankfully there's a candle shop near the college, and I ended up going down there in my afternoon break to get a wax tart (what?! That's what Yankee Candle call them!) just to freshen this thing up, and even then I had to leave the table open for a while. It's worked a huge treat in there, and also worked quite nicely on the doll I made for the exhibition too (who had to be stained and made to look less neat - this included various types of coffee, tea, asking my friends who smoked to stub their cigarettes out on her clothing after they were done, and bits of charcoal).






Aaaand some shots of my studio diary, which is a converted old photo album I had. I love sticking samples and photos into it.

(Yes, the words Lino Printing are meant to be backwards.)

The Last Day-Long Projects

Indeed, that's right. After this week, I'll be starting my final project for Foundation - fun, fun, fun stressful times ahead. I have a general idea of what I want to do, but it requires thought over Easter and discussion with my tutor.

So, I'll show you the last two I've done. I have to say not only does this exercise help with quick thinking, it also helps with inspiration as well and seeing what works best.

The one below was my first day project with an image prompt.




I'm sure many of you in the UK will have heard of the British Airways strike - and in the Metro that I grab regularly on the bus, there were a few photos and articles about it. One of the photos was my first image prompt, and this led to some printmaking.



This is my favourite print. I'd photographed two of my friends holding a sign I made (full of animal noises - the image prompt I had depicted a protester wearing a pig's head, and his/her sign read 'Willy is a greedy piggy, oink oink oink') and then took the photos to the GIMP, where I added animal heads from stock photos to each of them. After turning both photos to solely black and white (not greyscale) I blew them up to A3-size and printed them out onto two A4 sheets of acetate. If you look closely, you can see that the dog's print wasn't quite matched up, but I don't mind. It turned out nicely anyhow.


I managed to get to the screenprinting room early yesterday morning - although I adore printmaking, sometimes I can be a bit put-off by how busy it gets in there. Yesterday I had the room mostly to myself, so all was good and I managed to get the printing done quickly and nicely!


My second project didn't turn out as well because I couldn't get hold of a projector, but I worked to my best with what I had - my prompt was another image, this time an advert:



... and from that I picked up on human selfishness - do what's most convenient for you, or take measures for the environment? I had a spare sheet of acetate lying around and using some masking tape and clear-drying PVA, I made an image of the Earth. The PVA had dripped down, giving the image a 'melting' effect - this was meant to be placed on a projector, but of course - one wasn't available. The chains, made out of paper and each paper ring with a relevant word written onto it, were originally meant to hang from the ceiling but were adapted to drape around the acetate. Again - not as effective as I would have liked, but I tried my best with what I had on me.




Anyway, the photos didn't turn out too badly.


I expect what with my final project I'll either be very, very quiet (we're not hunting wabbits, though) or very, very ranty (I'm a bit unpredictable when it comes to these things, I can be either of the extremes). This goes for online, offline and this blog - so you're warned.

Posty McPostersons strikes again

Alright, last photo of the Book o' Mess for a while, I promise. Perhaps, when it comes home with me today, I should do a speed-video of working in it. I tend to improvise the pages instead of plan out what I'm doing beforehand, though.

Next Monday, I'm off to my second university interview. It's approximately four and a half hours each way on the train (I'll have my journal with me for entertainment) so it's going to be a long day but hopefully a very interesting one.

More from the Little Book o' Mess

So, this morning I prepared two pages with coffee, watered-down yellow acrylic, PVA and the odd bit of spray-paint after the PVA was laid down and still sticky (it had quite an interesting effect). I got a little impatient and aimed a hair-dryer at it afterwards.



Yesterday I picked up some coin-bags at the bank. They gave me quite a lot, so I used a couple for experimentation in weaving and trapping items - it's a very soft, stretchy plastic so I also wanted to try ironing 'em ...



... which actually worked really, really well. I want to try putting a couple of pennies or some wax-crayon shavings in one and running the iron over it now.





Sewing in the pages~ The back of the 'stamp bag' was interesting in itself, so I kept it as it was.



With the second little bag you can see on the coffee-page, I ironed some cappuccino powder onto the bag and the plastic that melted sealed it (it has a strange but nice texture to it).







A second stamp and coin-bag experiment onto the pages I prepped earlier, after it finally dried (although right now it's upstairs with tissue in between the pages just in case there is some stickiness).

The Little Book o' Mess is working quite nicely.

Day Project, Number One - "Case no. 47"

A very good piece of news is that all of my university choices have asked me for interviews - my first-choice university letting me know last weekend after I'd sent them some work of mine on a CD. One of my friends on the same course has also been invited for interview.

One of the tasks we will have to do when we're there is to complete a day-long project. Themes, briefs and details will be told to us interviewees in the morning, and it's due in late afternoon.

So, after my tutor received this news on Tuesday, he's decided to assign us day-long projects for practise. I found Tuesday's work tiring, but I felt very accomplished by the end of it.

I was handed a small clipping of text that read the following: "If people have adjusted to a society that is hell-bent on destroying itself, what does that prove about them?"


Reference.

I did a little reading-up on this quote, and found it was paraphrased from a person known only as 'Case no. 47' in a psychological study - giving this day-long project a name. The quote itself brought to mind Darwin's theory of evolution (and the whole biological side of things, in some ways contrast to psychology yet the two are so tightly entwined) so I decided to research some more upon that train of thought. The piece above, I feel, is one of the more successful pieces - all three were done with monoprint and I feel this one turned out nicely.




And finally, I tinkered in Photoshop with stock images to make one image - a man with the head of a monkey, printed out and used in monoprint. I glued the original image behind the monoprint to give it some more depth (especially as I'd used too much ink in this one ... this ended up working in my favour).

My next one will be assigned on Friday. I've found something in this project that could be taken further, so Thursday will be spent working on that.

A Little Book o' Mess

Those of you who have done a Foundation course in Art will know the importance of mark-making, especially in those first few weeks. The 'Day-to-Day' project I'm doing now involves a lot of experimentation with media, and I figured I should have a little book to accompany my large sketchbook and sheets of A1 - a little book o' mess. But a book of nice mess, I feel it draws the eye and appears interesting (I'm a sucker for tactile pieces and textures). Weaving, cappuccino powder (that smells awful, I may add), PVA, black dye, glue-gun strands, pinpricks, acetate that's been printed on, extra sheets stitched and wax all feature in this, and I'm not even a third of the way through it yet.




The first two pages of this book - the very first is weaved with newspaper and splashed with wax, PVA and coffee after having a little spray-paint applied. The wax and PVA was also there to stop it falling apart; it wasn't the most secure of weaves and it kept falling out x_X





The 'lemon' page and acetate page were both stitched to the spiral binding. One was a wrapper from a lollipop and I wanted to use it for something as I found the little drawings cute, and the acetate ... darn, I wish the PVA had dried clear but because there were a good few layers in it and I'd trapped the glue, it didn't. Still, no matter - it worked quite nicely. I used the acetate I'd previously used for screenprinting; I'd had no idea what to do with them afterwards and this seemed like a nice use of them.



I then experimented with taking parts out of pages and replacing them with other materials (in this case, another bit of acetate that was printed on). Also there you can see some weaving with receipts and carrier bags (two things I seem to collect a lot of).



Experimenting with graphite shavings, and more writing. On the opposite page you can see some glue-gun strands and pin-pricks (the latter is a bit time-consuming but it's lovely for texture 'specially if you apply coffee or tea afterwards).



More fun with spray-paint. I really like the left page on this one because you can actually see the print on the acetate and the coffee-stain on the prior pages - a nice touch. I don't think I'll be doing anything further to that page even though it's still quite plain compared to the others - the little window is nice enough.

Groceries

The one with the cardboard prints took a good long while; but I like these both equally. Little details added with fineliner, yet the backgrounds have coffee splashes, emulsion, and other mark-making mad mess :3


Also ... I turned one year older yesterday.

New project

... I'm looking forward to this one.