vintage wallpaper
I’ve discovered my local charity shop sells rolls and rolls of old wallpaper. Today I decided that this will be a great medium for drawing; it’s cheap, available and some of it is vintage. Saturday I will go in and buy it all, give the old girls a bit of a shock! I’m interested in developing within the fields of conceptual and endurance drawing, I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve.
Right now I’m aiming to do a little bit of my work every evening after work-work, but sometimes it’s impossible. So drawing projects seem to be a more time accessible activity and usually they don’t depend on someone else. I have recently embarked on a few projects that require another body in some way and it is so frustrating. Not that I’m ungrateful.
This here is a shadow silloette drawing of my sister – (she’s not fat, she had her hair down at the time and would be mortified by this image, so next time I’ll get her to put her hair up) a series of pieces currently under construction.
I’ll harp on about it till the cows come home – blogging is a great substitute/ extension of the studio space post study. If you work alone, in isolation, who else do you have to talk to about your work? You still crave feedback. This is the crux of why it is so important to engage with other artist’s work.
Wrapping things up…
I’m dedicating my time to wrapping up as many projects as I can with the aim of loading the front page to my website. It’s amazing how much time I spend organising things – writing ideas down, making lists, planning how and when I can get something done. Quite often I purposely just make, similar to what Elena’s been doing recently on her blog –
www.a-n.co.uk/p/1322260/
Writing seems to be the most effective way for me to think through my work, to see what must be done and understand what it is I want to do (most of the time I don’t know myself). Sometimes this is a revelatory process. For instance, I worked out that the Stephen Fry project could be just one of many Heat re-enactments.
These are two photos from yesterday, more of just doing, instinctive making. The top image is an extension to the when I looked at the sky I saw wool project; colour – matched wool suspended in the sky. The photo below shows a handful of toy stuffing suspended with invisible thread, zoom in on the photo and you will spot it. This is what sunny days are for.
The Fear
Hoping to get onto the CargoCollective
http://cargocollective.com/
website for creatives… just as I was cooking up a page I realised I had only two completed projects. That ain’t good enough!
What an oversight. I’m working out how to finish up loose ends on a few pieces. I am the queen of the unfinished, maybe that’s my ‘thing’, leave my work unresolved like an ‘untitled’???? If I say it’s meant does that make it OK?
In quite an exciting place at the mo, planning projects, starting new ones, scouring the jobs and opps page. I haven’t entered any work for over a year (foolish girl).
Fear of failure has held me back for what seems like forever but a good mate of mine believes with his whole heart that you must take the fear on. Check out his blog, it’s like a sweety shop of creative yumminess;
http://blog.kinectricity.co/
Meanwhile I have chatted with a few creatives about the benefits of blogging, particularly on Artist Talking. It’s hard to take that initial leap, being all exposed and vunerable like a little lamby but well worth it. I hope they find the time and courage to share their work and thoughts.
360 degree King Edward
A new idea… this one developed forth from a previous idea which couldn’t be realised.
Orginally I was very interested in creating a 360 degree (where is the degree symbol on a keyboard?)photographic study of a naked man (no giggling at the back), whereby a series of photographs literally document the still body head to toe but from every angle possible. Don’t know if this has been done before, but it sounds like it possibly has.
Anyway, couldn’t find a willing man so am using a potato instead. I don’t yet really know why I’m interested in this type of documentation, maybe something to do with an interest in anthropological studies perhaps.
I plan to take lots of photos of a K.E in the round, but I don’t want to use a white space, I will include a background environment, say of the housing estate. I could shoot it in a field as well.
I had issues locating a good potato, I found that all the spuds in the supermarkets didn’t look potatoey enough if that’s possible.
re-visiting
In-between projects, having just finished when I looked at the sky it was wool, I’ve yet to embark on something new. What a great place to be… like picking out a new pair of shoes.
The feedback I’ve received has been so welcome, it must be one of the greatest assets of blogging on Artists Talking. I’m no longer working in an airless bubble away from the safety of university and the support of a shared studio. It’s truly fabulous to be in touch.
I’ve been re-visiting my MA work and research in an attempt to get back to roots set down years ago. Three amazing texts;
Contemporary Art and The Home – Painter (ed)
The Practice of Everyday Life – de Certeau
The System of Objects – Baudrillard
Now I only stumbled across Painter in the library, and what a find – (something web 2.0 lacks, the act of random discovery)– it investigates how the domestic environment affects the interpretation of an object. Considering that art is made to belong somewhere, say a home for instance, it’s worth mulling over if/ how contemporary art occupies this type of space. How does it sit in an ‘ordinary’ home?
Lots to chew over, nom nom.
