art project – A DEAD LETTER

Finishing the full body in Perspex – Studio Practice

9 February 202211 March 2022Dead Roses

Studio Practice

from the last post and this one, there was a major shift within my insight in this project and my ideas, i am making another post to explain this. this post is very chaotic so i want to make another one to clear things up and also explain what my thoughts are right now.

When slowly adding the pieces to the Perspex it was a lot of planning and then last min just doing it instead of trying to be so controlling over it. this really helped me to take more risks and in the end gave a better result, for example last minute i decided to cut the front of the chest piece off so it could be partly though the sheet. when gluing it on i had to move the whole sheet and hold it while glueing it, this lead to the chest being put on slightly wrong but in the end made it look even more like it was being pulled. when i noticed ti was on wrong i decided to take the chance and left it on wrong and it worked really well.

i decided i wanted this piece and the foot within perspex to go into the second year galley, this really helped me develop this piece more as i knew i wouldn’t have the time to make a full body so i started to look for a way to complete the piece in a more interesting way than just a body. this led to me looking for more artist inspiration and i also thought about Greek sculptures and how they are presented in gallery’s. (when they are missing limbs).

this lead to a really interesting turn to this piece and i feel made it better in terms of fine art than my original plan. i love this piece as i feel it what’s has started my new development and what has really made my project better, but it needs work as its too heavy for itself so over time it breaks itself (although this is an interesting this that it breaks itself over time and i will possible look into this more as well). as i have looked at this work more i will be looking into more living plants but also more interesting ways to present the work other than just having a full body, this will include single limbs, smaller limbs and planting in the limbs.

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.

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.

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.

Artist CV

29 October 202129 April 2022Dead Roses

Contextual and professional Studies

Name:******* *****

Address:*************

Contact details:**********

Very brief description about your current practice ie specialism & studying FA at DMU

With in my studies I am exploring how society looks and treats other people, but also playing with the concept of the other side. The other side meaning how individuals feel about society. As a collective we don’t see how we pull people back and ideal the “perfect person”, yet there are people who don’t want to be this “perfect person” so they do what they want, this action of being who they want to be then creates the argument of are they the perfect person for being free and who they are or are they just too different that its bad? and who gets to decide this?. Therefor I am exploring how people like me, who want to be different and have art on my body but also fight with body image issues and just trying to be the best me I can, feel when society tells us we have to be a “perfect person” and hold all the creative individuals back.

Education and Awards (start from DMU go back to FAD/ND/A Levels)

Fine Art BA (Hons) Year 1

UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma in art and design (distinction)

UAL Level 3 Diploma in Art And Design (merit)

Exhibitions one person/group (start from most recent)

2 piece of my work Exhibited in the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery on the 4th December -21st January

Online exhibition with another student. ( in progress)

A group of students and I fundraised, planned and curated a gallery within Two Queens Gallery in Leicester for the second years in De Montfort University from 4th-8th march 2022

Exhibited work in the second year gallery .Two within the VJ patel building in De Montfort University 28th April-9th may 2022

Publications:

Any articles, magazines, these could be online

Commissions:

Collections (Sales):

don’t list individual sales, just mention they are in:

UK private/public collections

Europe private/public collections

etc

Volunteering with 𝙳𝙼𝚄 Local to help teach children art from 9;30-11;30 on Saturday for 10 weeks.

Made a printing edition with the class and it was given to some lecturers.

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.

𝘗𝘢𝘶𝘭 𝘑𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘴 𝘉𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘭 -𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩

2 October 20212 December 2021Dead Roses

Print

Paul Jackson is an artist I have been inspired by and research about a couple of times, due to our styles being closely related. Paul Jackson’s work mainly consits of skulls and animals. The concept behind them is the connection between the Skelton and the physical body we can see, but also to develop peoples views on animals.

https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/paul-jackson

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/938016047180466

https://www.boredpanda.com/skeleton-animal-draw.

When looking into the reasoning behind Jacksons works, I found a website by zio. A piece of text on this page has quote from Jacksons blog (Unfortunately I can not find this blog). In the quote previously mentioned Jackson explains reasoning for his works. The second paragraph Delves deeper into the photos l used as examples above. His quote discusses how he wishes to show animals in another light. His concept has a close correlation to to ‘point of view’, the project within print. Therefore this strengthens the link into why I’m looking at Jackson’s works.

Jackson adds his interests into his works, this includes the surreal and sci-fi. This is also accompanied by the hint of ‘technical faults’. From what I have learn from research is he has worked in the film industry with, 20th century fox and universal. therefore these traits have partly inspired him but also his own style within the art.

All the research I have conducted has given me ideas. The title is ‘point of view’ but I am going to develop that into how society see people and look into ugliness and beauty.therefor my Starting point is going to deveplo my snake design from my 1st year. This idea has evolved from my research into these artist, Paul Jackson and Travis Bedel, but also from my own intrestes (with in biology, animals and bones).

Beauty and uglyiness is a major choice we all make and can easly express,i have always been interested in the concept of how people act/treat others but also them selves. There for I am going to do research into how humans act within society and how different things might effect out view on a person.

I really visibly enjoy these works and find them very inspiring. The way in which he can bring a realistic nature style into art, is a skill I have been practicing and trying to bring to my own work. Travis Bedel is another artist i have research into. Bellow is a quote from Travis talking about his work and how he develops it. The way in Whitchurch he execute his works is interesting due to how he uses very simple materials, nevertheless the result has such detail. This is a skill that is very important within print making, due to not being able to acheve a mass amount of detail within a print unless it’s on a very large scale. Therefore being able to experiment with materials to make an illusion of details is a more developed way of making the print.

Conducting this studies of Travis Bedel and Paul Jackson has really inspired and helped me to develop ideas to start this project off. Alternatively there is another aspect of my work I want to grow, this is my relationship with colour. Throughout my practice I am very restrictive with my use of colour, within this project I will study the use of colour and find different ways to integrate it into my work.