Almost There

I have to say that, at the end of a very busy six week period, I'm really pleased with what I've produced.

During that time I've learnt to do the basics of some of the following:
- modelling with Mud Roc and casting a face in plaster
- using Photoshop: blurring, superimposing, layering, colour matching, cutting and pasting...
- gold-leafing
- the composition of a painting
- mounting
- making contact sheets
- painting and removing the paint (and an important night of experimentation)
- painting on plaster with water colour and acrylic
- picking thorns off a rose bush without hurting yourself (tricky)
- drilling with a industrial drill. (NB: If you don't have three hands, turn the machine on before you start. Simple when someone more intelligent points it out to you!)
- and, most exciting of all, distressing a photograph to make it look like an old wall

It's interesting how much other influences I was exposed to during this period have also helped me. The Jo Whately exhibition at Lacock helped with the Psyche piece. Looking at Sue's Pinterest boards gave me the idea for the lace eyelashes. Jenny Saville influenced my original decision to try and paint the face in a series of tonal flesh colours. (And I must say that all that I do will probably continue to be influenced by things I hear on Radio 4 on a daily basis).

Today day began with deciding on the backgrounds for the faces. With my improved ability of Photoshop I realised that my attempt at cloning on the rose background just wasn't going to cut it. Sue suggested putting the rose on roses, which I thought was a great idea (although nothing like as good an idea as her distress the paper one!)

I am really pleased with how all the backgrounds work together, something I always wanted to achieve. I'm also pleased with how the black and white of the cow has provided a good balance to the four other faces. Finally, I'm delighted that I still went ahead with doing different backgrounds for each face. A/ it compliments the amount of work that's gone into the project as a whole, adding substance (substantial substance) to the work and b/ there's thought in some of them (ok, one of them): the psyche = butterfly = psychology of the mind. But I also managed to blag the expensive wallpaper and took most of the photos myself, so that's also good.

I particularly like the Psyche background as the butterfly wings also represent the fragility of life - and the chances of always taking it in positive directions. This is one reason why I wanted at least one wing painted on a rather more fragile looking paper.

Individually as well, I'm very pleased with the heads. Funnily enough, the weird Cow Face was most popular at college today. Unexpected but still oddly pleasing.

So, with their names below, the final pieces are:

Nude Lace Face

Psyche

Cow Face

Optimist Versus Pessimist

Vacuity

Of the titles, the names are probably all pretty self explanatory, apart from Optimist Versus Pessimist. I did consider writing the Kahlil Gibran quote somewhere on the board, but it didn't feel right:

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose

I love the quote and it means something to me. But overall I think I'd prefer people to look at each piece and come to their own conclusions about what they think they mean.

Do The Faces Have Meaning?

No, not really. The evolution of the piece was that I began by wanting to look (quite literally, what a surprise) at the face value of each face, embellished in different ways. After discussion with Chris I then began to think about doing something a bit more interesting. That was how the Psyche Face began. 

Nude Lace was an accident, and for that reason I'm really pleased with it. I think it has the most artistic integrity as it's entirely original, evolved through a process of experimentation. And it was so exciting, seeing a flat photograph be transformed into something else entirely, through really simple methods. Aesthetically, I like it best as a whole piece as it has subtlety and charm.

The Optimist versus Pessimist work would probably have more meaning if I included the quote, as people could then think about which they saw first. But maybe they'll work out the meaning of the title anyway.

I was delighted to come across the word Vacuity in one of Duncan's discussions as I think it works perfectly for this piece. When I did it I was struck by how the application of the gold leaf made the face look really banal, and I like the additional inference of 'idolotry' which again links in with this piece. 

(The word was in the Guardian in relation to Hirst's Pregnant Woman: 'Hirst's statue in Devon revives the ugly vacuities of art in the age of the dictators.')

And finally Cow Face, for which I have a real fondness. It's odd. It's slightly disturbing. But it's fun, quirky and it works. 

Now I just need to see which face Annie likes best. 

How To Distress A Photo to Represent an Old Wall

 1. Make yourself a collage of different textures of paper.

2. Stick your photograph over the top.

3. Paint watered down (very well watered down) white emulsion over the top.

4. Remove most of it with paper towel.

5. Get sandpaper and sand away at paper to reveal some of the layers beneath.

6. Get really irritated that you can't locate the piece of map you included as a tribute to Annie (she of the original face).

7. Jump up and down with glee at the thrillingness of what you've just created.

8. Wash your brush.

(NB: below was a work in progress. It looks much better now it's dried).

And so, another long day over...

Cow Face

Well. If Art Foundation requires experimentation, I think this fits the brief.

So weird, it's kind of cool (although obviously not in a Kate Moss way).

Wonder what Chris will think...

The Fine Art of Composition

Oh dear. You know a session isn't going to go very well when your tutor starts by accidentally screwing up one of your test pieces and throwing it in the bin. Followed, pretty quickly, by suggesting you might want to jigsaw your painting into parts!

But no worries.

Chris was fantastic today and spent probably almost an hour with me, going through things I might have done, scale, composition etc. And I learnt so much.

I quite pride myself on my creative imagination. But that man's a genius! We talked about scanning girls faces onto dollar bills. Doing a series of five paintings (as opposed to trying to mesh all elements together in one). Making casts out of face cream pots (although I said I wasn't prepared to attempt making a coffee pot, so maybe that idea wouldn't work).

As well as scale, composition is also really important and my lack of success in both was why the painting wasn't working; why it just didn't feel finished.

After I'd politely refused to a/ cut it up b/ repaint it c/ start again, he nicely looked at how I might improve upon what I had. (Given that two of the elements were stuck onto the board).

We talked about the simplest of devices, the rule of thirds. And I immediately saw how that helped. And how wrong I'd been to put everything in the middle.

Life both before and after my consultation with Chris

It's still not ideal, I see that now. But it's a lot better than it was.

We photocopied and enlarged the coffee pot in order to give it more dramatic scale. At first I didn't like the fact it wasn't hand painted, but then realised that the fact it was photocopied was a good expression of the fact that, originally, it was a mass produced item. 

I did a more representational copy of the stamp - helping to enhance the ridiculous value of this tiny piece of paper. And I removed the string from the labels to again make things neater.

I like the 'hierachy' of scales on the left hand side now. Including the fact that the girls end up at the bottom. (Chris hated the bed!)  It would be better if the cream pot and the bed were further to the left. But, overall, it is much more structured, coherent and hopefully easier to read. (Although I suspect that the original on the left is still a better expression of inside my mind!)

Chris also made an interesting point about the fact that art isn't about shoving a message in people's faces. It's much more subtle than that. Although I'm not sure subtlety is particularly my forte. And I might well be one of those people's who walks away from a piece, not having got the message. So we'll see.

So, what have I learnt from this project? Well, composition and the value of thirds is suddenly a lot clearer. (In fact, it was no less than a bit of an epiphany yesterday).  I've learnt that I need to 'make with my hands' along the way, rather than just thinking about things (really hard) for five weeks and then doing something quite fast in the final week. (Maybe I'm more of a conceptual artist, with all of my amazing concepts being on show in my brain alone!)

I've learnt the immense value of discussing things with the tutors. In fact, every time I do I am so impressed with their ideas. Although I have also quickly learnt that 'no, I'm not doing that, i've worked hard enough already' is sometimes a necessary response.

And I've learnt to try and not be so literal. (Yep. Still smarting a little from that one). 

Did the first 'draft' of all four photos (which again, my photography tutor hates), need to paint a cow on Annie's face this evening, and then we're in the home straight.

I sure am looking forward to the weekend.

The Evolution of a Painting

 

The blank Rothko-esque canvas

The original idea of putting kids faces on the coffee pot.

However, I decided this erodes the 'integrity' of the pot.

Trying to decide how to place the children.

Can't get the dollar bill to work.

Solving the 'explanation' problem by placing actual price tags on the piece

It's a messy business!

The finished coffee pot (with an accidental rip now added).

Seeing whether blue will work in the picture

Looking at how to incorporate the face cream

The finished hand painted face cream

Deciding to use less children

Random price tags

Thinking that making the price tags more ordered works better

Looking to Van Gogh's bed for inspiration

Placing the children on a deliberately crudely painted bed

It is certainly a bit 'literal'. But actually I think the ideas

behind it are so important that I don't really care. (Can

literal still have value as art? There's an interesting question).

So far so good, but it feels a bit flat

Looking at whether a border works. I think so, done like this

in machine embroidery but on a thinner, more see through fabric. 

(The only thing is it's a shame to lose the top brown strip of paint).

The 'maelstrom' swirls are meant to represent the madness of the world.

I wondered about putting them on a map background, but think it would 

make it too fussy. And I like the simplicity of the black and white.

I'm also thinking of incorporating some newspaper headlines into 

the border, but will discuss at college tomorrow.

NB: the children in this work are real children, which is important for the work. They are NOT abused, trafficked children but are simply being used as 'models' in this work. The important point is that they represent the kinds of real kids (polite, happy, gorgeous ones) who could be at risk from trafficking and abuse. 

This is why the message is worth giving

http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/news/diary-escaped-sex-slave

And nothing else needs to be said.

Psyche

An Ancient Greek word meaning butterfly or the human psyche (as in pyschology).

So, for the backing to my 'human mind map' face, I've painted some butterfly wings. On greaseproof paper. Which I really like.

Enough creativity for now.