DEGREES UNEDITED

# 1 [26 March 2010]

(I did post this the other day but I've somehow deleted it...I'm finding this website rather confusing haha)

So I've recently just finished putting some print work up for my 2nd asessment of the year. I'd say im 80% satisfied with the result but due to time restraints and me just being an unorganised fool I didn't quite get to full execute some of my ideas...

I had originally intended to make a zoetrope out of my print work...but alas it wasnt to be

woe is me...

This print work is all about me...(which you will soon discover is a common theme in ym work if you continue to read my forthcoming posts) I decided to make the prints into pyramid shapes because it cut the figure up so it was difficult to view as a whole. This make us focus on different parts of the body just as we do when we scrutinize our own bodies in the mirror...

# 2 [26 March 2010]

Book Arts

These are some books I created for my print option this term.

Once again they deal with personal identity and body image.

# 3 [22 April 2010]

I'm currently working on my piece fo my final degree show, and the past 10 days I've been quite suprisingly productive.

Since January I've been working on a large...hmm well I guess 'tapestry' is the best word I could use but its not really. It consists of large pieces of fabric stitched together, with portraits of myself in machine stitch on top of it. The fabric is textured with torn bits of paper and painted with acrylic. It really is the definition of mixed media.

the first picture is an example of what it looked like a months or so ago...

As you can see from the other pictures the piece has now become clothing. I wasnt satsified with the piece just hanging like a dead weight on the wall. So I decided I would cut it up and make it into a suit as a way of expressing the meaning behind the work more clearly.

The suit represents a layer or skin ...the surface of me. The bit that your worry about the most. The bit you always want to change. The stitched portraits of myself are delciate and have bits of torn paper and textures, representing the fragile human condition. I think the suit could lead to a really interesting video installation of me wearing it and even taking it off to shed the layer and let go of my insecurities.

(I only had my phone with me when I photographed the work..I'm going to retake the photos with my digital camera and replace them tomorrow)

# 4 [4 June 2010]

I recently had an idea for a set of prints I wanted to produce. Since my work is dealing with layers of our personality, hiding certain parts of ourself, wanting to show your true colours and how that relates to clothing. Wearing certain clothing makes us feel differently, Like a costume, our choice of clothing also says alot about us.

I decided to create some simple screen prints to put this idea forward. The bold colours are a contrast to the type of clothing (suits, trousers) - associated with business men and office work. Usually blacks & greys dominate this type of clothing. However by using bright orange and green I'm commenting on the lack of individuality this clothing forces people into, and how uniforms make us all blend in. 

When we see someone in a suit, how do we judge what type of person they are witohut any hint of their true self? whos under the suit?

# 5 [23 June 2010]

Our degree show is still open for public view for a few days, We are very lucky that we get the opportunity to display our work in a public art gallery which is a chance to get our work seen by people who wouldn't usually venture to a degree show at a campus. I'm going to just do a a review of the pieces I have on display in the gallery. It was hard to decided what to put up without it being overkill and ruining the look of the space. In the end I had 4 works up for assesment and I'm proud to say that I did really well.

I got my degree results last Friday and I got a first! Words can't describe the excitment and pride I feel. It almost a little embarassing.

I wish you could see all my sketch books and experiments and test pieces I have but all I have is a few crappy shots of the gallery because my camera is so beyond repair I just need to buy a new one.

“Torn & Tattered Series”

“Clothes Maketh The Man” - The Suit

When I started making the suit back in January, it was just a large piece of fabric with my stitched portraits on it which have become a kind of signature way of working for me. I became frustrated with my work being so flat, and 2D. For so long I had been talking about turning my work into something 3D and sculptural. I had played with the idea a couple of times, but had always been reluctant to take the plunge because I feared it wouldn't work out. However I just made the first cut and never looked back. It was a struggle to work with the fabric being so layered,

In the end I think the suit has become a really interesting piece. It obviously isn't a conventional suit to be worn everyday, but is cut and sewn like any other business suit. I see the suit as a symbol of men's lack of choice to express themselves through fashion compared to women. Even in an office environment where one is expected to dress smart, Women's fashion, as well as social acceptances, allows them to wear a larger range of options and colours to let some part of their personality shine through. Our choice of clothing says a lot about us, and we use it to send out a message to other people. I see it as an extension of our personality. Its a statement about the place where we are as people and the emotions we are currently feeling.

I had been working on the suit so long I had begun to question whether it was becoming a piece of work to be proud of or simply something that resembles Joseph's Technicolor dream coat. Now I see it in an environment where it can be viewed without distraction, I see that it truly sends the message I intended it to. I like the idea that it is tattered and torn, hence the name. It shows imperfections which we all have, and that we are not invincible.

“Dress”

The dress was an after thought idea that began to make more and more sense as the project progressed. Half way through making the suit, I looked at the left over suit patterns I had and began playing with them, I rather naively put the thin paper through the sewing machine and it jammed, making the paper screw up and become ruched. This made me instantly think of pleated dresses and long flowing skirts. I thought I would make another costume, this time a female one, a dress. My work dealt with themes of identity, and part of our identity is defined by our gender. I thought using a man's suit pattern to create a female garment was a statement on societies way of pigeon holing people into categories instead of allowing individuals to just express themselves and stand alone as one.

# 6 [23 June 2010]

Continued from previous post

“Clothes Maketh The Man 2” - Stitched drawing.

This machine drawing started life as an experiment for my sketch book when I had a spare hour. I wanted to do a visual response to my suit that was 2D, and almost like a complimenting secondary piece to the suit. This is why I chose to title them with the same name. I consider the drawing the sketch that began the suit. Like a fashion designer begins by drawing a model and garment in pencil I just decided to draw on the machine.

I didn't like the drawing at first, until I really worked into it with the colour threads. The side that is visible is actually the under side of the sewing where the threads become tangled when the tension isn't right. I preferred this side to the upper side that I could see when I was working because it was accidental. I had very limited control how the underside would look and I liked the idea of the threads tangling and breaking at different points. This was inspiration to keep the threads on my suit hanging on rather than cutting them off and neatening it up.

“Suit of Drama” – stitched drawing and screen print.

I had a silk screen already prepared with images of suit jackets and trousers leftover from when I was making printing in the studio. I was creating paper stencil backgrounds and detailed top layers. These prints were originally meant to be on display In place of this piece. However I decided to use some spare fabric and print rows of the suit, to possibly create some smaller experimental pieces for my sketch book. When I got back to my studio the sewing machine was on the desk and I just thought the fabric with the suit imagery was just asking for some figurative drawing over it. Up until this point only my suit had images of me on it. I needed to keep in mind the idea that my work has always involved images of the body, I didn't want to suddenly seem like I was becoming a fashion designer, obsessed with clothing. I had to keep the identity of myself in the work.

This piece of work took time to grow on me, but others have made me see its purpose. Its a connection between my previous figurative work and my recent work involving clothing. Its my “bridging the gap” piece of work. I have always wanted to take my work into different areas but I was always afraid of not showing natural evolution and development. I dislike when my work is erratic. I like to develop ideas, and see them developing visually. I personally feel jumping from one concept to another isn't realistic, it should be natural growth into areas that relate to your core themes.

The piece has some rather obvious inky marks where I hadn't washed my hands while screen printing. I wished I could some how wash them out without washing all the images away but I can't. So they have had to become part of the piece. I know that part of the show is to keep the work to gallery standard and to keep the look professional but my work simply is about imperfections so I think it works. The suit is tatty and isn't sewn perfectly, the stitched drawing is mostly freehand and has ink stains all over it, the dress is torn and ruched, with breaking seams and tears, just as this drawing has ink stains and frayed edges. The imperfections of the works pull them together as a body of work.

# 7 [25 October 2010]

I find it hard to blog here as I feel its more likely to be read by others than my personal blog where I quite literally bare my soul for public reading. Today I told myself I have to start doing it, If this subscripition is going to be any use to me then I obviously must start getting more involved.

However I'm currently finding it so hard to be creative in any capacity.

I've graduated. I got a first class honours in fine art and I'm finding it hard to even draw. I think its like a come down from the high of being so successful at degree level. Now I find myself unemployed and lost in the big bad world.

I think it will pass. I'm currently helping out on my degree course as part of a voluntary fellowship proghram which is really fun but I have so much freedom that I'm struggling to disicpline myself.

I'm also trying to get my work out there by looking for projects and exhibitions I can get involved in.

We all go through peaks and troughs. I'm just in a rather deep, sticky trough.

# 8 [2 November 2010]

This past week I've been trying to concentrate on a piece I'm working on for a project called Global Echo. Which is a print based project. The brief calls for an edition of 10 of one print to be sent to different universities/colleges aroudn the world to be shown. I think its a great opportunity that I can't pass up. 

I'd like to thank Richard Taylor for commenting on my last blog. His words ran through true and made me feel a little better about this place of limbo I feel I'm in after my degree. I guess I'm not the only one. I can feel my pace picking up a little alreayd so all sings are good!

I've based my print on a past project I did for my print module during y last year of my degree. I made small pyramids from digital prints of my body. (picture 1).

Creating these prisms with th efigure broke the image up and sort of fragmented the body so each area was on visible at one time. The idea was that we all have areas of our body that we critique and try to change.

For this exhibition I'm keeping the prints flat 2D prints, rather than cutting them out and making the pyramids. They are more like a blueprint, or proposal for a sculpture.

So far I've only been testing out the main image on inkjet paper but when I come to print the final ten I want to use graph paper to keep the mathematical theme, and I also want to include a scale and other elements found in blueprints.

# 9 [17 January 2011]

The screen print I'm working on has taken me into a new avenue within my work. The print (which can be seen in my previous entry) is a net shape of a pyramid or prism, which If cut out and folded makes a 3D paper sculpture. Which is what I'm now doing.

I'm in the process of screen printing hundreds of these pryramids and folding them. I want to create an installation of these works covering walls and floor space to create a space completely overwhelmed with the prisms so they feel like they are invading the viewers space.

The idea behind the image was to use the prism to cut up the figure of myself which is printed on them. Just as a glass prism cuts up light, this paper one cuts up the body so we are forced to focus on different areas much like how we focus on "problem areas" of our own bodies and often let these insecurities take over our lives.

I'm working towards an exhibition which is to be held in a small private artists studio with 3 other artist friends. I' really happy to be working towards something again.

These pas few months, post university, have been really hard. There have been times I've almost given up and just last week I almost gave up a career within the arts and was in the middle of processing a career on board a cruise ship! Then I stopped a few days ago and thought. "wait am I giving up my dream too easy?" Which sounds a little cheesy but Its how I felt. I decided to stop what I was doing and really give it my best to try and get where  want to be.

So right now I'm considering a job within all areas within the arts. Ideally I'd love to work part time behind the scenes in gallery or museum with collections while still being a practiscing artist, but I knwo all too well that doesnt come without a lot of hardwork and paying my dues first!

well thats me for now.