Project 2......

The crit went okay on Friday. Unfortunately, my group was quite big and so we didn't get much time on each person.
I definitely feel that the previous crit was more successful and informative, whether or not this was down to the time element I am not so sure. The previous group provided me with much more critism and ideas, whereas I felt that this week I didn't get as much feedback.
One lady did come up with a couple of useful suggestions, which I have definitely taken on board.
I think that overall I have not connected with this project as much as the previous one and therefore feel quite negative about the outcome and the crit.
We have been given a mini xmas project which I am eager to put a lot of time into.
I am hoping to create my own work over Christmas as well, so that I keep my mind in the right frame and also create potential portfolio pieces?

Bring on the lassssst week before Christmassss!

Project 2- week 2.

Visited Bath and Bristol yesturday. Loved bath. Hated Bristol.
So the verdict is, I want to go to Bath Spa uni ifff possible.
I love the city- had never been before and was surprised at how genuinely beautiful it is. The university itself is fairly small, however has fantastic facilities. I like the idea of living a more laid back life as opposed to being in a large, built up city. The course at Bath Spa appeals to me as it allows students to pick a speciality, but does by no means constrain them to that single medium for the next three years. They encourage students to experiment throughout the degree.
Bristol looked shabby to me. Not the sort of place I want to live I don't think. In comparison to Bath, which is very close by, the aesthetics of Bristol are no where near as inviting.
And more importantly.. the uni is very odd. With the workshops 25 minutes away from the studio??

This week, I have worked from home a fair amount, as I have been using photoshop to contruct my ideas. I have struggled more with this topic than the previous one but it has not turned out to be a complete disaster!
I have been busy writing personal statements and looking at uni's, ontop of the fact it is only a 2 week project, I don't feel I have been able to put as much time into it as I perhaps should of.
Our crit is tomorrow, so will note down how that goes in my next post.

Project 2.

This week has already gone horribly wrong. I think my brain has given up and is ready for Christmas, ultimately due to consuming more wine than usual and the snow preventing me from doing anything other than sleep.
Firstly, I will say that the last project went very well and I was happy with the end result.
I presented my clear acrylic sculptures in a black box, and lit using UV light. This mysterious set up seemed to intrigue people and I think I might even be able to go as far to say I created "relationalist art"??!?

This week, on the other hand, hasn't gone so smoothly. I am struggling with the breif and am frustrated as I feel so close to coming up with a really good idea.. but it just aint happeninggg.
I don't enjoy the two week projects as much, as I don't think that there is enough time to get stuck in. My previous project was much more carefully thought out as I had an increased amount of time to plan my ideas before executing them.

I have booked an open day at Bath uni next Wednesday.... praying the snow doesn't prevent me from going. Also that day, I am popping into Bristol UWE for a sneeky peek of their Fine Art dept. as I very cleverly missed the open day.

Tomorrow we are going on a School Trip to Bethnal Green. Might wear my stab vest.

Fine Art- Project One.

Wow. Last week was a busy one. So busy in fact that I didn't manage to write my usual Wednesday night blog. This week, it is a Sunday night blog. Not that it even matters?
Soooo, I spent my reading week with a bunch of organs, nails, screws and a camera. Fabulous it was.
I can't possibly explain the happenings through text so will post some of the images below:

I have not killed anyone or anything personally, I promise.
The butcher very kindly sold them to me for a fair price of £7.50.

David seems pleased with what my apparently disturbed brain has come up with so, I'm a happy bunny.
I am now using these images to push my ideas further.
Last week I spent a lot of time in the workshop using what looked like a very hot hairdryer to melt plastic.
I came up with lots of very organ like sculptures. Now I am surrounded by hundreds of deformed plastic lumps and trying very hard to think of what I can actually do with them.
A few ideas have popped into mind, but it all depends whether I can get my hands onto a UV light and an enormous cardboard box. Tomorrow could be a challenge.

Oh and to add to my excitement.... I visited Chichester university on Saturday. SO INSPIRED.
Not that I don't like Chelsea, because I do, I love it. But rapidly going off the idea of living in London for the next three years. So expensive, hostile and miserable... I need a happy town. (This might well be something to do with the depressing weather so will keep my options very open for the time being!)
I thought I needed the big City to enthuse me, but, I was wrong. I need grass and trees and farm animals.

Reading Week.

This week I have begun to think about my first project "OUT OF ORDER".
I have drawn out initial ideas, begun making models and thought about the locations around me.
An idea immediately sprung to mind after being given the brief and I have experimented with this idea in many ways during this week, photographing each stage and my progress over time.
Although this idea of mine does combine organic and biomorphic forms with elements of mechanical process I am worried that perhaps it is a bit cheesy/ too much of a cliche?
I have focussed strongly on juxtaposing objects as asked and aimed to gain 'disturbed' results, as for me any controversial/ horrifying images are always an eye catcher. I want to draw the audience into my artwork.

After having my assessment, I went away and thought about what Wendy had said to me. She noticed a hidden talent within my work and seems to think I should experiment further with photography and sculpture. This idea initially terrified me as I have never been overly enthusiastic about either field of Fine Art. However, I am here to give everything a try: Hence why I have selected the more 3D based brief.
Going outside of my comfort zone has been a real challenge so far. I am still nervous when it comes to designing my structures, but I feel that over time, confidence will develop.

I am really going to push myself during this project as I want to prove to myself that I made the right decision choosing Fine Art.
So far I think I have, but. It is still early days.

Crossroads II

Over the past 8 weeks, I have been given the chance to experience four main areas within ‘art and design’. I have spent two weeks on each rotation, working in Fashion/Textiles, Fine Art, Visual Communications and 3D Spatial Design.

I feel that my least successful project was 3D spatial design. I think the reasoning behind this stems on the fact that I have never worked well in 3D before and have never felt passionate about it. Because of this I feel that I have failed to produce such exciting and spontaneous work when compared to some of the other subject areas.

In contrast, I really enjoyed the Fine Art rotation. From the very beginning of the two weeks I was excited and intrigued by the subject itself. As soon as I walked into the Fine Art studio, I faced a completely different atmosphere to what I had previously experienced in Fashion/Textiles. It was busy and fast-paced- this made me feel driven from day one.
The projects that we were set sent my mind into overdrive. I was thinking about the subject both consciously and subconsciously- pushing my thoughts further each day and letting my ideas flow from one into the next.

However, over my two week period in the fine art studio I became frustrated and angry with myself, as I knew deep down that the work I was producing was not reaching the standard I know I am capable of. I believe that this was due to not being brave enough to execute my thoughts and ideas fully in the studio.
One of the teachers in Fashion/Textiles did warn us that sometimes students do least well in the subject they want to achieve highest in, because we are prone to over thinking things and not having the courage to let go and be experimental in case we go wrong.
Looking back at my work, the material I produced in Fine Art seems fairly rigid and uncomfortable. It lacks looseness and spontaneity that the work from other areas which I was not so interested in portrays.

Regardless of this, I am still very keen to proceed forwards with Fine Art. I see it as a challenge and one that I am very eager to succeed in.
Although I was frustrated with myself at times, I feel that this was only down to my own performance. Never once was I disappointed with the actual subject itself.

I bonded well with the Fine Art teachers and after talking to David felt much more confident that this is the area in which I want to study. He has encouraged me to push my painting skills to a new level and I want to be able to take the opportunity to prove to both him and myself that this is the right decision.

As each rotation passed I began to feel more and more confident within myself. Although, at times I struggled, I never once gave up on my ideas. I have gained a much broader concept of Art and Design since being at Chelsea, as I now understand how vast the subject area is. I have never been given the opportunity to take part in subjects such as Vis Com before and have really felt that these rotations have offered me a very important experience.

Although I have always enjoyed Fine Art, I did not come to Chelsea with the preconceived idea that I would continue within that particular subject area. I have always been very open minded and given every subject the same amount of energy and interest as I have wanted to give myself the best possible chance and opportunity.

Both my work and approach have changed quite dramatically over the past 8 weeks. I have developed a much more curious and experimental mindset towards the subject and have learned that the more confident and open I am to new ideas, the better.
After listening to Dominic Wilcox’s lecture recently, I have been thoroughly influenced by him to be as creative as possible. Although most of his work falls under the Vis Com/ Illustration area, the way in which he sees the world around him is fascinating on every level and I admire his perception and views greatly.

I think the feedback given to me in crits has been very important and highly valid. Most importantly, I find the negative comments are a great help and make me think about things that hadn’t even crossed my mind until discussed. For example, in Vis Com, it was said that my layout was confusing. To me, it was clear and it was only when I thought about it from a fresh perspective that I realised it made no sense to any viewer other than myself. I learned from this, that the way in which I present my work has a substantial impact on the message I portray to others.   

I would appreciate the chance to be able to continue my foundation year specialising in Fine Art. It is something that I am extremely passionate about and will push myself as hard as I can to excel in all areas.

Blog. Pt.6.

Missed a week. Woops.
I am now on my second week in 3D spatial.
So far, it has gone well and I have enjoyed it. Last week we created an installation and drew manyyy drawings from all of the different ones.
I really enjoyed the drawing aspect of it. I think a little more than the making?
Today we got given the brief for our final project and well, although my ideas are only at a basic stage so far, I think/am hoping that it will all work out quite nicely.
Will discuss the outcome of my week later on...

Blog. Pt 5.

SO.... Week two of VisCom. Is it going well? Am I enjoying it? ... Well, yes...and no.
As I spoke about in the previous blog, project one went quite well.
Project two, also went quite well. We had to develop ideas of whatever subject/story we wanted and present these ideas as images within our sketchbooks.
At first I found this fairly challenging, because wrongly I thought It was vital to come up with a story-line before creating the actual story... And I am definitely no author.
After a chat with the lovely Fiona, I realised that I was going about this topic in a much more difficult way than necessary. So, from then on, I just went for it and took each page as it came, working quickly through my sketchbook, not over-thinking things and letting my ideas flow without forcing a narrative.
I stuck things in, reversed images, used carbon paper, mono printing, fine-liners, newspaper. etc, keeping the colours all monochrome throughout (this was actually unintentional but turned out for the best..).
Then, last Friday, it was time for the dreaded crits. In preparation for this I had worked hard at home to come up with a final set of images of which I was to present on the wall. I created these images using an ancient slide machine, ancient slides and a not so ancient camera. After projecting the 50 year old images onto an A1 sheet, I began to draw directly onto the paper using a thick marker pen. I drew the outlines of the images from the slides and then shifted them and worked with new slides- eventually creating a very muddled up looking work of art that was documented gradually through photography.
My whole idea throughout the project was 'defacing people'. This wasn't planned, but just happened. I realised as I flicked through my sketchbook that a pattern was occurring. I had in some way distorted the face of almost every figurative drawing that I created without even noticing. So anyway, quite neatly, my final outcome corresponded with my sketchbook ideas fantastically.
So... Great week really......
But.
WAS IT ALL A FLUKE?
This is the question I have been asking myself ever since we moved onto this horrendousss 3rd project. 'Audience'. It is causing me far to much stress and heartache than it should be, that's for sure.
A very difficult concept to grasp I have found. And I think that most of my peers will agree...
Although the brief has been written very well, it sends out a completely different message to what the teachers do?
Apparently... according to the brief... we have to come up with ANY sender and ANY receiver. Well false. All of our teachers have pushed US to be the senders as it will then be more personal. Fair enough I guess.
Anyway, as I am still getting to grips with the concept (this is like 4 days into the project..) I will wait and see where my quite frankly, pathetic ideas take me before broadcasting it over the Internet.

Ps. Went to an exhibition with Steph yesterday called Art London. It was fantastic and has reallllyyy inspired me to get the oils, easels and paintbrushes out again! One day I want to be able to sell my work for £38,000 a pop please?

Blog. Pt.4

Monday- First day of Vis Com complete, check.

After being paired up we were given a single word each. Mine was 'Fork'. My partners was 'Window'.

We began by working independently- drawing anything we could think of that spun off our given word.

I began by drawing different types of forks into my sketchbook, then as each page was turned my ideas began to expand and flow. I drew sketches of guy fawkes- leading to fireworks. I drew a fork leading to a knife, leading to death, leading to the grim reaper. I drew sharp shapes, such as a pin, a party hat etc and developed the idea of spiky shapes, such as a heart rate monitor pattern. This was symbolic of the fork shape.

We were then asked to link our ideas with our partners. As the words 'fork' and 'window' have no connection what so ever, we had a challenge on our hands!

I particularly liked the idea my partner had come up with of 'window in time' and she particularly liked my idea of a 'fork in the road'. After sketching out more ideas that popped into our heads, we were both drawn to the idea of a shape growing and taking off in different directions, forking outwards and onwards. The drawings began to look tree-like, and even vein-like. It brought both of our ideas together as it links with the idea of time, whereby the image develops, and the pathways, where the kind of structure takes shape.

The idea of veins was particularly strong as it shows the skin being translucent and 'window-like' as well as portraying the idea of each one forking off into a different direction.

This is a photo I took at lunchtime- Links in with the word 'fork' quite nicely.

Blog. Pt 3.



The final piece.

 It's Thursday. I'm running late with this blog business.
So, it's the last day of my fine art rotation tomorrow and I am very annoyed with myself as I don't feel like I have produced anything remotely exciting or incredible during the past two weeks.
One of the fashion/textiles tutors did tell us that some people focus extra hard on their favourite subject and therefore over-think things, resulting in crap work. This is exactly what I have done.
My ideas and general research I am happy with, for example, I began by photographing 'things that mean something to me', such as an over sized pair of sunglasses from a festival in Spain, a wooden camel given to me as a prize for doing well in maths a few years back (!?), the contents of my bag etc.
After painting and drawing from these objects/photographs, I was encouraged by my tutor to focus on the image of my exposed possessions within the handbag. So that day I continued to paint from that one image, creating large scale, energetic pieces of work.
I used my self study day to think about where I could go from there. So as well as photographing the contents of friends and families bags, I moved on to photograph the contents of bins. Although these are two completely different ideas, they link visually and with the idea that they are spaces that should not be examined, but instead ignored or left.
After printing a series of these photographs out I drew from them, experimenting with a variety of media and style. I then brought the images into class today with the hope that I would have a productive time...
I wanted to create busy abstract style pieces, however was instead directed by my tutor to paint 'proper paintings' instead (something that I have no confidence in what so ever.)
So after slapping cheap acrylics down, onto cheap paper with a cheap brush, I ended up with a gross piece of work that took me all day. Not realistic in the slightest OR in any way convincing!
Fine art is what I want to do.... yet..... I don't seem to have quite grasped it?!
ANYWAY, David came over and calmed me down. He has told me to buy decent paints, paper and brushes and have a bit of confidence. So i shall do just that.
The past two weeks haven't been a waste of time, they have made me realise that I need to believe in myself to make this work.
I have loved the atmosphere within the fine art studio and know already that this is where I want to be. All I need to do now is to convince the teachers to give me a second chance!!

Besides this super sized rant, I should really not down here how I feel about John Berger's 'ways of seeing.'
A book, which in my opinion is far more famous than it should be.
Yes he opens your mind and makes you look at paintings differently, and yes some of the things he says are true and understandable. But does nobody else agree that the book itself is a little on the overrated side?
I find that he imposes his opinions far too much onto the reader and that after seeing things how he sees things we automatically change our views. In my eyes this is totally wrong.
He does, however make a few interesting and read worthy points- chapter 2- the female form- "when women look at one another they make a judgement." Many women wouldn't admit it, but this statement is spot on.
So perhaps I am being a bit too judgemental and perhaps my bad mood is shining through a bit... who knows.
We have crits all day tomorrow. Hopefully I will come back feeling a little more cheery next time!

Blog Pt.2.

It is week three, which means my group have moved onto our Fine Art rotation.
Fine art is something that I really enjoy and can (hopefully) see myself continuing in the future.
As it is Wednesday, we have only had one studio day so far this week and during that time I have come up with yet again many more ugly drawings.
There was four installations set up around the studio and we were asked to draw all day from these. This resulted in my book looking like it belongs to a 5 year old, but never the less I have done what I was told!
So far I have received both positive and negative feedback. Enjoying the positive far more (if any of the teachers are reading this......)
Looking forward to tomorrow... making acetate flip books? Sounds like my cuppa tea.

Fashion/Textiles- Rotation 1.

It is Wednesday 15th of September 15:15. How odd.
I have been at Chelsea for a week and a half now and already feel very comfortable in my new surroundings.
We are coming to the end of our fashion/textiles rotation and I have to say, It is far from what I expected. No clothes making or shoe design was existent and much to my surprise I have enjoyed it quite a bit!
We began the rotation by filling our books with ghastly looking drawings (not looking, continuous line etc.) To my relief everyone elses sketchbook looked as ugly as mine allowing me to realise that this course isn't about creating fancy paintings or precise drawings- it is instead, all about experimentation.
Once I had grasped this concept, the work I was producing began to feel much more natural and I started to feel more confident, allowing my ideas to grow and own experimentation take place.
Our next task was to use the photos we had taken of an object expanding or compressing (the title of the project) and cut into them to create 3D objects from 2D images. We were told that 'less is more' and I completely agree!
Today I visited the Edweard Muybridge exhibition at the Tate Britain. His photographs were extremely delicate and I found it interesting how he often told stories of movement through his artwork.
I was able to relate the idea of 'compress and expand' to Muybridge's photographs. For example, a series of four pictures depicting the building process of the United States Appraisers Building. These images were taken over a series of years and show the idea of expansion, as the building grows in size and aesthetic value.
There was also a series of photographs which captured an American Eagle flying. This again, explores the idea of compress and expand as the wings of the bird open and close.

I think that is all for now.