A DEAD LETTER – Dead Roses

Whole Body in Perspex – Studio Practice

8 February 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

Studio Practice

when in the process of making this piece, there was a lot of challenges that forced me to take risks. this meant losing control and as much as i hated it, but in the end this meant i had a lot more fun making the piece but i also treated it much more experimental and just did what i felt was right at the time. the plans really did help with the making of this piece as even thought it was experimenting it was still a big task. below is the process of making this piece.

before i started to add any casts to the perspex i planed how the shape and positions i want the limbs to be on the protecting sheets, this was a mistke as mush as it wasn’t. i forgot once i take the sheets off i wont be able to see it but it still did help. once i had learnt that taking the sheets off lost the plan i made the plans on the wall at the back so they would be there constantly just not physically on the Perspex. i messured the plan with my own body as the limbs were sized to my own body this mean i stood infront and behind the prospect messured where my limbs where when in the perstion i liked.

the way i found a position i liked was by getting another student to pull me over so i would fall, giving my body the natural positions of being pulled. he pulled me the same way i want this person to look this was the best way to get the positioned i wanted and i filmed it. below is photos to get the positions.

after i decided how i wanted the limbs taking inspiration off the photos above, i started to create the limbs using my own. how i create the limbs is i position my legs how they are in the photos and then put the cast around my legs in the positions, i then cut down one side of the legs and glue it back together as this is the easiest way to get it off. below are some photos of how i make the casts.

i also did hot glue gun the parts so far to the perspex and it has been working, so i am going o carry it on. there was a problem with using the fishing wire as the art work is slowly becoming to heavy for the wire to hold it so i am going to have to find better way to hold the art work up. this will slwoly become more of a problem but there will be a way to fix it even if i have to make a stand for it rather than hanging it.

there was so many thing i had to over come with this peiec yet it has also given me alot more ideas on how i can deveplo this more, even thought i haven’t finished i do feel the rectangle perspex is still contraiting the piece so when i am finished with this i feel i will move away from hacing a strict shape with the materials or just completely get ride of them, and possibly have the limbs free hanging. there will be a part 2 for making this piece.

Developing Foot cast with Perspex – Studio Practices

7 February 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

studio practice – plan

as the foot worked so well i wanted to take this idea feather, so i decided to try and do a whole body to see how it would look and hang, for this i needed to plan alot so below are the photos of the planning before starting. the only thing that i did before planning was to go to the workshop and get the Perspex i wanted it to be just bigger than me so around 160cm in size. I want to hot glue gun the works to the Perspex but its another thing i don’t know about as im not sure if the work will be to heavy but i am going to try and do it anyway.

these are the plans for the next experiment i want to try, i have decided to try a whole body as it gives me a change to see how i could cast all of my body and add it to the Perspex but also how i could hang the piece more.

the first page of planning was the enisle how I could show my concept, all of these ideas i would love to try and i might try and create small sculptures to recreate the ideas. i wanted to see how different positioning could change how it looks, as i really like the Perspex idea but also do see it as constricting due to it being just a rectangle, but im still going to carry on and see how it works and then develop if needed. i want to also hang this in the same way so i can see if i want to hang my work or not, i like the idea of the work being hung due to the idea of it being timeless and how society’s view on body modifications and the ‘perfect’ body is a problem stuck in time due to it not being ‘ modern’ .

For these plans i need to think about how i could cast my whole body and this included my face, therefore i needed to plan it carefully in order to not hurt myself while doing so. so i decided to number my body parts on where it would be the most suitable to make the casts but also the most appropriate way to make the full body. although this will take a long time with drying the actual process of creating the cast does not take that long to make.

DMU Local Volunteering – Session 4 (life drawing)

5 February 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

volunteering

turned up at 9:30am to help set up, they had already set up the most of the work but we added some little bits to it. the set up was a table in the middle with loads of different materials and objects for the children to draw. we then places 30 chairs around the table.

in terms of teaching children i feel this was the most boring for them, but this is equally a really important technique in art to learn as it helps you to develop the basis of observations and drawing, within the session the parents also did not help as much so we really got to see how the children where thinking and seeing the objects we where showing them.

15 mins
5 mins
3 mins
1 mins
and more

the longer times made the children a bit bored but as they sped up the children started to enjoy it a lot as it got more exiting and they felt the need to do more.

when looking around at what the children’s have and where drawing, it became apparent that they all preferred the colorful objects like the rubix’s cube. as these were more exciting and drew their attention faster than the black objects or steps. this shows how in art people tend to be drawn closer to the fun colours and things that pop out rather than nature colours, even though used well these can work just as well.

i feel out of all the sessions this one really helped me in art sense, not directly to my work but more as a aid to show me art can be more than an illustration of a realistic object. As they have a move instinct to play with the materials without worry of error this could be a good project to look into of how artist should play with the materials more.

after a while i got more use to helping the children and really started to enjoy it, this really showed me how to help people from the very beginning. when drawing the set up in a bigger form a lot of them lost focus and drew what they wanted, even thought they were not ament to but if they had drew a good amount from the set up i let them draw what they wanted as they still gave the life drawing a try.

Anthony Gormley – Artist Research

5 February 20223 May 2022Dead Roses

Artist Research

As my works is closely focusing on the ideas of humans bodies and i am creating bodies with my own, Anthony Gormley’s work is very instresing in how he uses the human figure within his art.

In Gormley’s work he investigates the human body and space, a lot of his work involves nature, I wanted to look at his work for more detailed inspiration as I had already started making casts of my own body before I found out that he makes some of his work by casting his own body. In my project I was mainly focusing on full bodies. Unlike some of Gormley’s work where he will cast parts of his body and put them together with a beam to make them seem whole.

quotes from websites

‘Increasingly, in the early 1980s Gormley was drawn to examine questions of humanity in relation to the environment. He made his first whole-body casts for Three Ways: Mould, Hole and Passage in 1981. As he continued, he varied materials and positions (crouching, standing, kneeling, lying down), sometimes distorting the human figure (as by elongating the arms) or replacing human features with other objects (as by putting a cast beam where the head should be). As gallery goers paused to examine the sculptures, they themselves seemed to be both the observers and the observed.’

Antony Gormley | Biography, Art, Sculpture, Angel of the North, & Facts | Britannica

Above is a quote I got from the Britannica about Gormley’s works and especially about his first body cast and his journey through them. Although I have been focusing on whole body it has crossed my mind to do body parts of half a body. His works is about the human body not as an object but as an experience and a place. Below is a quote about the meaning of his art found on wiki but is his words.

quotes from websites

‘Gormley describes his work as “an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live.”^[10] Many of his works are based on moulds taken from his own body, or “the closest experience of matter that I will ever have and the only part of the material world that I live inside.”^[10] His work attempts to treat the body not as an object, but as a place and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings. The work is not symbolic but indexical – a trace of a real event of a real body in time.’

This shows how he is trying to experience the human body in another way and like he is trying to understand its concept more rather than its biological presents, this could be the same for someone wanting to put art on their body or to change it in a way to make them feel more themselves. The idea on how he wants to explore the body and he uses his own makes me relate to his work about how I have tattoos to explore my body and grow myself and feel more myself.

There is a lot within this video about his works and how he makes them, I found this so interesting. Although I have made a lot of casts and I am using string, unlike how he is using mode rock, I was interested in seeing how he creates his casts as I have cut myself while making them. In all fairness he is creating them in the same way as I am. After seeing how he has used the Modroc and that it will create a much stronger sculpture I will start to experiment with using it to create a cast, I feel it will also be a quicker process.

The next step I want to take within my project is I want to look at using Modroc for parts of my body, then use these to develop my idea with having the fake flowers on the string. I might see if I can grow flowers in them as it will hold soil better but also have some holes and see if I can grow the flowers in an organic messy way to show self growth.

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.

Year 2 gallery – clothes sale

30 January 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

As part of the year 2 exhibition we have to plan and execute fundraisings to be able to make the money up to rent the room for the exhibition, therefore we have decided to plan for a second clothes sale. we have already done one clothes sale but that was a very small and fast one as it was not really planned, but it did help us raise around £150 pounds.

for this clothes sale we need to plan;

A day and time to sell clothes ( paragraph 1)
where to get clothes to sell (paragraph 1)
promotions ( paragraph 1 )
clothes racks ( paragraph 1)
whos manning the stool and timings ( paragraph 2 )
venue for a place to sell (paragraph 2)
how we can take money ( paragraph 3)
what happens to the clothes we don’t sell (paragraph 3)

Paragraph 1

The committee planned to have the clothes sale on the 27th as this gave chance for the student loan to come in, giving people the money to spend but also as its when most of the classes has restarted meaning most of the students will be back from Christmas break. Another thing we thought about was what time we wanted to start and finish, we choose 9am-5pm as this is the “school” day meaning we would have the most people passing between these times.

As soon as we had set the date, the committee started asking fellow art students for any unwanted clothes, this meant we wouldn’t be spending money to make the money we needed, and clothes would not get wasted. by the 27th we had gain a large amount of clothes and has enough to fill two racks, a box and a table.

Another student hand made a clothes rack for us to use, but we also found a table, box and another rack to use when setting up the clothes, the committee also put out loads of posters a week before the sale but also on the day. we also handed out flyers on the day and too the students within the art tower.

We managed to get a place outside the Student union at the university , we decided to host it here as its more open and a lot of people pass this building on their way to lessons. this worked out really well as we had a lot of people see us on their way to a lesson and buy clothes on their way home.

i volunteered to help with set up as this would need the most help, so i started at 8:30 to take all the equipment and clothes down to the student union. The set up did not take that long and we were ready to sell at 9am, i stayed to help for 7 and a half hours, as i really enjoyed it. at first getting the money in was a little slow but we very quickly got passed £100. Below is the committee group chat of us updating everyone on the money we had made .are first aim was to hit £150, then we moved it to £350-£400. we moved the goal as we started gaining money faster mainly by selling clothes but we did get some donations. The screenshot of payments is from the 27th and is the card reader we used.

Local DMU Volunteering – Session 3 (recycling sculptor)

29 January 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

volunteering

I helped set up at 9:30am, this included bring in loads of bags of rubbish and dumping them in the middle of the room. once all children were seated and had their books the teachers started to show them the example sheets. the sheets for this week was different artist examples for the children to look at and help them understand how they could use the rubbish to make a sculpture. this was a very hands on session for both the children and us as we had to help them alot with the process of making the sculptors.

For this activity they had the rubbish, scissors and tape to us.

There was 5 groups making different animals.

Sea turtles
elephant (my group)
shark
show leopard
tiger

I decided to go sit with the elephants, this was a group of 4-5 girls. Before we started to make the elephant they had 15 mins to draw their own design in their sketchbook and then they all came together and had a A1 sheet to combine their ideas before they would start. Once the design was finalized and the children had given them selves a task each. Starting was a little slow but as they started talking they got more inventive and we started to make a river for the elephant to drink out of and grass around it.

i really enjoyed watching and helping the children with this task and they all worked together to create something and when there was a problem like it wouldn’t stand its self up, they would work together to find a way to make it stand this involved using a pot under its feet and then to fill it with blue objects to make it look like water. Below is a photo of the elephant.

Soon after this photo was taken the elephant sadly died due to a child’s foot apparently not liking it so it was kicked over swiftly. After all the mess way made the children helped us put all the rubbish back in to bags and then they went home. This was such a fun experience and really showed me how even thought they had some what limited materials they really did well and made structures with the materials, this helped me understand that you don’t have to make something so literal for the outcome to be what you want it to.

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.

Online gallery with Peter.

23 January 202223 January 2022Dead Roses

Another students and i have decided to look into making a gallery to show case our print and sculpture work. This will be the work we created within the first term ( October- December 2021), we will be exploring how our works could complement each other’s and how to also develop an understanding on what its like to be a curator (In the concept of displaying the show). One reason we are doing an online exhibition is for safety as it’s an easy way to keep social distancing and not have any chance of covid, therefore we thought we would try a different approach to a show.

for this we will create a plan/mind map on what we need to think about and do in order to create this gallery. We will be using a website called art steps and then designing our own layout for the space itself. This will be the main challenge as we will have to find a way to show 3D sculptures through 2D photos. The mind map is below.

When doing this mindmap we found a way to show a 3D image from ever angel but also a way to present the work in the most realistic style to how it was set up in real life. Due to mine and peters stlye being similar within the subjects that we enjoy we felt that a gallery exploring printing and sculpture would be interesting and we mine learn more on how different mediums could work together for next term.

The photos above are from us trying to work out where we would need deviding walls and columns to show the 3D works, but also where we would put the collections of prints. Although most of the work would be within the same theme, the works that are not or are considered more supporting will be within another section. During the panning and creating off this we have decided to make a flyer for the exhibition, an artist statement in general but also write a little about each piece.

This is the plan and the flyer that we made to invite and advertise the exhibition, we have decided to go with a paper from due to how everything has gone online more. We feel having a actual paper invite stands out more now and is more inviting than an email. Then on;y things we need to do now is set a date we want to publish the exhibition and then hand out the flyers to teachers. I will be making another post when we do publish the exhibition to explain the website more in detail.