contextual research – Page 2 – A DEAD LETTER

Plans for developing string legs – Studio Practice

2 February 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

studio practice – plans

After I stuck the string legs to the wall, it gave me the idea of having them stuck to something you can not see. I thought of putting them on Perspex so that you can see the pieces of art from both sides, this gave me the idea of what if the leg was going thought the Perspex to use the transparency to the fullest. i have made a plan for what i want to try and do, but i have no idea if it will work well or be a mess but i am going to try it anyway.

When making these plans i had only planned for the cutting of the cast at this point even thought there is the flowers in this photo. i originally planned for the foot to go through the Perspex. when doing this plan the casting the process of applying the string and drying it worked really well.

i used my own leg and then wrapped it in cling film, then i added string to a tub of super-glue and wrapped it around my leg. i added more glue as a final layer before letting it dry. after blow drying the cast, i cut it off while it was still slightly moveable still. i cut it while it was still a little wet so i wont be able to manipulate it off my foot instead of having to cut the whole cast to get it off. i planned how i cut it off so the cut line would be how i want to glue it on the perspex, this worked really well and gave the ending a really good result.

this was the result, i am really happy with how it turned out. it gives a really good effect of going through the Perspex. i hot glue gunned the cast to the sheet as carefully as i could as i didn’t want to be able to see glue everywhere, this held the cast on really well and its really sturdy. Once i had took a step back i thought there was something missing, so i started to add flowers just to see how it would look. After adding a few i really liked it and felt it would convey my idea in a more interesting way than just having string as it gave the effect the flowers where growing through the string. below is the result of the piece.

Another thing i was playing around with while making this piece is how i could possibly present the piece. this meant trying out on how well i could drill into the Perspex so be able to hang the piece with fishing wire so that its not so easily seen. the only problem with the piece is that the Perspex has to be cleaned to get finger makes off and then kept being cleaned due to the static and dust collecting on it. i want to develop on this idea and i have made plans that i will post on the next blog.

Starting term 2 – Making A deeper meaning

31 January 20224 May 2022Dead Roses

thinking of ideas.

From getting the information back from the assessment, and discussing it on my post – mid year gallery. I have decided to take some time and research more about body modifications, society and artist research. This should help me understand how to develop a deeper connection between my art and the context it convey.

Artists i have found to research

Anthony Gormley
Orlan
Chiharu Shiota
Steve Haworth

When walking around the art shop i become interested in some string, i wanted to see how i could use it and manipulate its form to become another.The artist i am planing to research all have a connection within either my subject or material. Another thing i found in the shop was PVA glue, from this in know i want to do something involving casting, as this would link it back to my context and develop on from my first terms works.

How I Want To Make The Casts

Plans For My First Casting

When i have let the cast dry i am going to cut down one side of my leg to be able to unwrap the string from my leg, i will then be glueing them back together either with a hot glue or super glue. Im still unsure what will work the best to reattach the string so i will use this as an experiment to test what works best.

After i had completed the legs and some research

Having this planned helped a lot of it kept me on track of what i wanted to do next, i did find hot glue worked the best not only as i it would not soak unto the materials but also i felt i has more control to make it seem as though it is not there.When putting the leg back together i tired to put the string back perfectly back together. Although this is a longer process i really liked the outcome, so i will be taking the time to carry on trying to put them together perfectly. After i got the leg off my leg i jokingly put it against the wall, then decided i really liked this effect.

This gave me an idea to create a limb within a wall, this will be my next experiment to see how it would look and the feeling it would give.

Mid-year gallery

28 January 20223 May 2022Dead Roses

Printmaking

Why I’m talking about the assessment.

The formative Assessment is a period of time i put up my work as though it was in a gallery to be mark, just as an understanding of where I am within the grading system. This assessment ended up being a massive part of my project, as it helped me to consider where my project was heading and resulting in the development of how my project evolved and changed to have a deeper context and grasp within fine art.

My Work Within The Assessment.

How It Helped Me Professionally

Professionally being part of this assessment really helped me understand how to set up a gallery space, as i had never done so before. In order to have the art all at the same height, i measured the two ends of the wall and place a tight string across at the height i wanted, which was 152.4 cm. This helped me get all the art lined up.

By putting up these I have learnt skills in how to hang my work up, not only within a gallery space but also to see how it looks like without damaging the works (this is by putting clips onto the work and this is how you hang then from nails placed in the wall). This experience also helped me to consider what was my supporting work within the year, by this I mean what art work I feel worked and what didn’t work with my project.

(This experience also helped as a good example for how we should set up for the Two Queens Exhibition, as we got feedback from the assessment)

How It Helped Me Contextually

Although I got a C I felt this grade was not the best that I could achieve, but also the feedback I received really made me reconsider how deeply I’m looking into my subject, and how well I’m conveying my context. At first I was looking into how people see tattooed people, this was the subject i was greatly interested in but was not strong enough to be able to convey well. As it was subject that is not relatable to everyone.

to-use-in-blog Download

Feed Back And How It Contextually Helped Me
Contextually within the feedback are a lot of criticism, that have helped me consider where I have taken my project. This feedback helped me change my project, I understood that my technical side was alright but I needed to focus on the context, and how I show it. Part of the problem was my art was very illustrative rather than fine art. This made me take a massive risk. I have decided to change my method of materials and go from printmaking, where I could be as in control as possible, to sculpture where I feel I have less control due to not having as much experience making me have to experiment more and not know the outcome.

I was in the art shop and some string caught my eye. This really interested me as I wanted to know how I could manipulate the materials and how it would react when changed. It also reminded me of being young and casting things. Therefore this term I will be playing and experimenting with string and PVA glue. Also I was recommended the artist Anthony Gormley, due to expressing my ideas, so I will look into him.

Research Into Society – Contextual study

28 November 20213 May 2022Dead Roses

subject research

Statistics And Facts About Tattoos

I started by researching statistics of how many people have tattoos but also what type of people have them, within this image it shows that ‘tattoos seems to be more popular with people who attained higher levels of education’ I found this really interesting and against the normal stigma around tattoos.

There has always been a sense that if you have tattoos you are in a gang or the mafia, therefore I did not find it that shocking that Italy has the highest percentage. This does not mean that stigma is true, from this stigma seeing someone who has a lot of tattoo threatening. So we tend to stay away from them.

38 Tattoo Statistics: 2020/2021 Industry, Trends & Demographics | CompareCamp.com

How Fast Do Human Judge Each Other

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/how-many-seconds-to-a-first-impression

Within the website there was two psychologists called Janine Willis and Alexander who carried out some studies that determined it takes a human a 10th of a second to judge another. This is mainly from a persons face and not only the first impression but your opinion might not change from that first 10th of a second even when you know them more.

Do Tattoo Stop People Getting Jobs

The BBC new report talks about if tattoos still effect people getting a job, they speak both about people having better opportunities due to their tattoos and also how over the last 5 years (this would have been from 2014-2019) people have lost their jobs due to body art. Their is no law stating that a boss can not fire someone on the grounds of body art, but it is seen as not a viable reason to dismiss someone. Over the last few years body art has become more popular and accepted but it is still seen as a non-professional look.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48620528

How People Live Fully Covered In Tattoo

I watched video and it was really interesting as it shows how being tattooed can effect different parts of someone’s life. From love life to starting a new business, they follow them to see how people react to them but also how they have to be brave and push through the judgement.
Within this video people talk about how they feel about one of the men, how they call him scary and one even stated he should not knock on people’s door after it get dark as he will terrify them. This shows how without even knowing him they would actively stay away from him, just due to appearance.

Where You Are Not Allowed Tattoos

Though all this research it has shown that society is slowly changing to become more acceptable to change ( I know this was heavily tattoos based) but it is still far from accepting, this is not only the same for tattoos this is throughout many different groups who are all trying to be themselves.

As this website says japan is a country where it is not really acceptable to have tattoos, this is surprising due to Japanese style bring so popular. Another one that was a shock was USA, I did not think they had a problem with tattoos due to the amount of Americans that get tattoos. On the same website here is one more facts I found interesting so thought it would add them.

Is It Safe To Have A Tattoo In Turkey? – CowBoy Tattoo

History Of Tattooing pt.1- Subject Study

25 November 20213 May 2022Dead Roses

Subject Study

What Is A Tattoo?

Tattoos are a type of body modification, where a type of ink/dye/pigment is injected into the skin through needles on a tattoo machine. This is a machine that has a rotary wheel that moves a needle.

When Did Tattooing Begin

Tattooing has been around for hundreds of years, therefore it will never be truly known when tattooing first happened. Recently they have changed and become more popular in the form of modern art being placed on the body. Here is one example of tattooing in tribes.

They haven’t always meant the same thing and been ‘acceptable’ for everyone to have. The word tattoo comes from another word, this word is tatau. Tatau is an Tahitian word that means ‘ to mark something’. The Tahitians was one of the first humans to have a style of tattooing even thought some of these tattoos where not permeant. They started tattooing in 1500BC but these tattoos where in respect of their personalities and social ranks within the two tribes that where on Tahiti, this is an island within a group of islands in the pacific ocean.

Tahiti – Wikipedia

these might not be traditional tattoos form the tribs but they are examples of what have might look like.

Timeline Of Tattooing Through History And Cultures.

This is a timeline I found, I have picked out the important information. This timeline shows how tattoos have fluctuated in popularity over history. I found out some really interesting facts from this, for example new-York had a tattoo ban till 1997 and the first women who tattooed was Jessie Knight in 1922.

Tattoo History Timeline (tattoofilter.com)

Traditional Tattoos (left) VS Modern Tattoo (right)

As with mainly all traditional and modern-day tattoo differences, the traditional had thicker lines with bold block colours. Unlike the modern-day tattoo that are thinker, more delicate and a lot more detail and realism. Although modern day tattoos might be more aesthetic, traditional tattoo stands the test of time better as the thick lines wont blur as much and they will keep the art clearer for longer. below are more examples of the difference.

My Tattooing

As I have been interested in tattooing in the future I have been practicing tattooing, although some of these ARE NOT my design these are my attempts at tattooing (I did these…. just NOT my design).

These videos show the different stages of getting a tattoo, from the stencil that is just a piece of paper (like charcoal paper) so it leaves the stencil on the skin. Then the tattoo itself being finished, to the cleaning of the skin after to get all excess ink off.

putting the stencil on skin

cleaning the tattoo

I have really enjoyed exploring tattooing, and this has not only helped me contextually but professionally. Contextually i felt it helped, so i could not only understand the people who get tattoos like me but also the process of getting one. All the stages tattooing evolves is like an experience of someone becoming who they are.

Stencil – like the stencil you try out a look that you think you might like, or try out something like a hobbies you might like.

Tattooing – once you have decided its something you like, you do it and add it to your life. You become it and it becomes you.

Cleaning – you then practice and make it better. Or you forget the old you and focus on the new and happy you by being who you are.

Professionally it has helped as its my future career. this has given me the chance to start to develop my skills within tattooing and my understanding on how to tattoo and learn more about the practice itself.

Some More Tattoos

Chine-collé technique

11 November 202111 January 2022Dead Roses

Artist research

chine-collé is a technique of glueing thin paper of a different texture or colour like tissue paper is glued onto prints. When using this technique you ink up the plate, then prepare the paper as normal. Before placing the paper onto the inked plate you place the thin paper on the plate glue side up and then place the paper onto, so when it goes through the press the papers will be glue together but so well it appears to be one piece of paper.

This is a video explaining the technique and showing you how Ken Elliot did the process but I will not be using the same materials as him, but the outcome will be the same. Instead of wallpaper paste I will be using a glue stick due to using tissue paper. This adds a layer of colour underneath the print therefore it’s an easier way to add background colour. I found this video really helpful to get some ideas on how I can use this technique more.

https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/chine-colle

This is the MoMam page explaining the proses of the technique, but also about the materials used. I decided to look into the technique on MoMa as it is a more truthful scores..

the plan

I will be using the plate I have made in dry-point and etching to try this technique on. I will be using them to experiment and explore how I could use this style to bring colour into my works. I have choosen the smaller etching due to the nature with in it, the nature has various different colours within it making the colour range more That just green. The photo below is the plan on what I might do with my etching.

The main colours I want to use is red, yellow and green. I also have white to see if it will change anything but as the paper is white I feel it will just blend in. I will be putting the outcome onto another post to see what has happened and if I want to make changes or I will carry on using this way of adding colour to my prints.

Chapman brothers

8 November 20219 January 2022Dead Roses

Artist research

while I was doing primary research with nature I also thought about the chapman brothers and the work they did with someone else’s etchings, the chapman brothers used art to be very controversial and made to make people have a very strong reaction.

Jake and Dinos chapman are two know English artists who used art to bring reactions to the public in many different ways, one of Whitchurch that I’m very interested in. The main prices I am interested in was their works on some of Francisco Goya’s etchings (a total of 80) and then drew onto each of them with cartoonist and ‘funny’ characters. The original series was ‘the disasters of war’ by Goya but once changed turn into ‘the disasters of everyday life’ below are some this series.

The original series was to show people who bad the Spanish war was and the horrific events that take place, then the brother drew over them and made them into a joke, as they wants to create shocking reactions within people.

these are works are so free, these showed me how even if there are lines set and a drawing in place doesn’t mean that is what you have to stay with. The brothers took a pre-existing drawing and reinventing it. This helped me to develop my colour work as it helped me think that just cause I have created boundaries with my drawings and art doesn’t mean I have to stick with them. Therefor with my etching i am going to try and add colour in a more loose way, I have thought about a technique called chine-collé. As this would give me the opportunity to be more loose with my work and try to have a less of a detailed approach.

form thinking about being more loose / abstract within my work, I decided to try and make a really ruff plan on how I might want my work to look. But I will not be sticking with it, I want to make a plan to try an encourage myself to be more loose. So I have used Procreate on one of my etchings to just add some colour to an image.

As much as I hate this as I do not like colour I still want to go ahead and experiment so with the next prints I am doing with this plate I will be experimenting with chine-collé, but I will be setting the risk and task to use the tissue paper how ever it rips as this will give me less control of the outcome.

natural inspiration from walks

5 November 20219 January 2022Dead Roses

artist research

While exploring etchings I started to look into insperation on how I can develop my etchings and I remembered the chapman brothers, but also a massive inspiration is the world around us. I have some photos of places i went that inspired me but also about the chapman brothers.

Nature inspires alot of my work as drawings but as this year I have been exploring and descoving/ studing nature more. I started to think about and learn much more about colours and how nature uses them. Below are some photos I took while out n nature that inspired or intrested me.

These are some of the places I went and thing I saw that inspired me, all of the colours are there for a reason weather it to draw things in, to send a warning or to camouflage. When looking at this side of colour it helped me to understand on how I can use colour within my art. By this I mean how I can draw a persons eye through my works or to one section of the work before another.
The mushroom shown in the photo is a brightly coloured rare mushroom in the waxcap family ( scarlet waxcap). They are rare due to how they will only grow in grass lands that haven’t been touched by pesticides and chemicals, the bright colour makes the mushroom stand out from the grass and bring a persons eye straight to it. For art this would help people to be drawn to a section of the artwork before another this could be useful for a body off work being presented or a massive piece with a deeper meaning.

the Foxthe fox fits into the nature but also seems like it’s a random colour of orange, this shows how you can use colour more freely and have some that stand out really strong in an image it doesn’t always have to fit in, it’s more abstract.

white flowers flowers are bright and colourful and stand out to help bees find them to be pollinated, therefore the bright colours make them stand out and attract people towards them in order to help themselves. This could be used in art in a way that I’d you have a bright colour scattered around a piece of art the persons eye will scan across the whole pierce of art and make the art look more of a whole piece with the same colour linking different elements.
Trees in the Woodall thought the trees are a different colour to the ground around them, they still are harder to see. This shows how you have to take a longer look than normal to be able to see them. This could be used in art as a way of making people look deeper into the art and also making something seen but not as straight away.
Grass on the tree this shows how different things in nature can stand out and contrast against each other, this could be used well in art to make one thing stand out more than the other.

moss on tree the moss hides the tree really well but you can still see it, using this technique shows how something can be so in your face but still hidden.

𝗢𝗽-𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 + 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀.

13 October 20212 December 2021Dead Roses

𝗢𝗽-𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁
The op art movement was an optiacal – allusion movement which manipulates colours and the use of black and white. The most known arts at the time were black and white, but i will be focusing on colour. The movement first started in 1964 when Times magazine used the term ‘op art’ to describe pieces of art in a show called Optical Paintings at the Martha Jackson Gallery, by Julian StancZak.

The concept of this art was to make a design that mimics movement, flashes or an illusion (due to how the colours work and contrasting rather than the art being a moving film).Although this is when the movement was first named, it was not the first time optical illusion was brought into art. For example ‘ zebras ‘ by Victor Vasarely in 1938 and more.

Colour started to ne developed in OP art around the beginning of 1965 when a handful of artists started to experiment with colours more within the op movement styles. While researching I came across Riley Bridget who was an artist who worked closely with this movement, both in colour and black and white.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTv1biPq4Cc

The link above is a video about Riley Bridget and her work over time. This clip talks about how she developed her work and process of understanding painting. Although at first she only used black and white to understand their relationship, she then slowly started integrating colour into the works. By adding colour slowly she really reset how she thinks about painting and colour in relation to movement and human vision.

From her works, have thought more on the idea of how I can develop my use of colours within art, to establish an understanding in how I can use colour effectuality and Beneficially for my work. weather to by adding colour after the print or during will have to be explored and found out with the art itself.

I wanted to try this optical illusion in my work but first in a way that is different to these artists and use some of my prints to create a new print. So l am going to be cutting up and manipulate a print i have printed this year but designed last year. (All done in 2021)

The top photos are my original prints, to create the illusion look I played around with how they look and how people will view them. I feel I could really develop on this and I want to try and use one of my big collagraphs to make a collage, my thoughts are to use bubble wrap and experiment with it.

I’m not so keen on the colour with this piece but it was an experiment so i don’t mind I can just explore more with this. I feel with colour, want to print colour on top of colour to create an effect, more that adding colour afterwards.

𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴

12 October 20212 December 2021Dead Roses

Collagraph is a process of a printing plate that has an abundance of different textures to create a print. It was first seen in 1955 when Glen alps used it, the word ‘collagraph’ comes from a Greek word and in simple terms means to glue/ graph (to draw). Near to anything can be used, due to this being a relief printing method the only setback is the material being glue on has to have a low relife (this is when the relief patern is shallow,for example string, a leaf or mount board when cut).

a vidoe i found explaining how to make collagraphs

While researching I discovered this video on YouTube presenting a simple homemade collagraph. Due to COVID I really like this technique as it’s simple to do from home. But this is also interesting as I could involved a lot of natural resources to create my prints. The women shows how you can create simple patterns with this method and can be used for the main print or as a background.

When desinging my relife print, i decided to develop a drawing i did last year for print (made in febuary 2021). I wanted to manipulate the blossom and snake skull to keep to the theme of beauty and ugliness, the skull would represent ugliness and the blossom is beauty (i fine skulls and bones beautifull but in this project im using them in a different light).

I decided to keep it simple as this was my first time experimenting within collagraph printing, i drew out the flowers and then added the snake skull behind. This shows the concept of when looking at anyhting weather its the world, a person or a relationship you might see the beauty but if you look harder there is always some kind of ugliness with in it.

On the left side is the plate I made. I found it challenging to Get my head around what textures are needed to hold enough ink in order to a have different gradients of black at first. Once I grasped an understanding I really enjoyed making this plate. Once the plate is ready and all glue (if used) is dry then you can apply a layer of varnish, for this I used shellac. Shellac is a substance that make the plate in a sense more water proof helping It to stay strong and give a better print due to being able to wipe ink off.

The varnish is applided in a room with an air vacuum and the left to dry. Next i appiled an oil-based black ink the used some scrim to take off all the extra ink before printing.
When printing you place some news print on the etching press then place the plate facing upwards… on top of the plate lay on some dampened cartage paper and the some more news print.

Mount board	Just the normal mount board surface creates a mid-tone grey (e.g the outside grey)
cuts (with a stanley knife)	This creates black lines (e.g the lines inside the flowers)
first layer taken off the mount board	This creates a much darker tone…. Basically black (e.g around the skull and flowers)
Glue / any shiney surface	This creates highlights (e.g highlights on tge skull and flowers)

How the ink reacts to different textures (there are loads more materials you can use)

I found this process intresting, I want to develop this technique further. Therefore I am going to create a piece on a much bigger scale, my first collagraph was smaller than A5, i am now going to design an A1 collagraph. I also want to take it one step further and print onto the print that comes out from the collagraph.