at the beach…

Taking advantage of the TEENY bit of Scottish sun!

day in the sun

And some misty ones…

misty day in la

IMAGINARY CITY

I havn’t had much of chance to put my thoughts on the new project up here they’re mostly in my sketchbook but I’ve taken a lot of photos and spent as much time as possible down at my chosen site (without freezing to death). I think the space under the Calton bridge has quite a powerful presence and I think it has a lot of personality. The walls have years and years of marks, scars, stickers, washed off graffiti and these aren’t immedietly apparent but there’s still a sense of them when your down there. I’ve taken pictures of all the abnormalities I can find in or on the walls and I really want to bring them together to show that this isn’t just a dank lifeless space, it’s full of interesting sometimes vibrant marks, shapes and colours. I’ve been playing around with collaging them together then painting some of the marks on top in layer.
I think the space lends itself really well to a projection of some sort, projectors could be easily hidden in the girders and the walls are pale enough to hold an image quite well. Not sure how I could go try htat out but it’d be fun if I could!

Reflections

Have added some of the edited reflection pics to flickr —>

Have taken loads and picked out the ones that feel the best representations of me and have the best composition etc. Still not too sure where they’re going…

Did notice that the images are quite strong when they’re together.  Might try printing them out in thumbnails as well as on their own.

The return of Smudgman

Have been continuing to play around with the sheet metal and block printing ink. Running a really slow stream of water over the inked up plate gradually pulls away the ink and you can even draw into the plate by wiping at certain parts you want to be lighter. The shapes created by this make really vague figurative shapes. I discovered today though that once these are blotted and dried off you can draw into the plate further. I’ve been using a little wooden stick to pick up some of the ink from the plate and then scratch lines and suggestions of the figure into the smudgeman. I’ve tried to kinda abstractly represent myself in these and in a couple I’ve tried to give the impression of a figure wearing a baggy hoodie, I think this might be because in the drawings I’ve been making of myself I’ve been trying to draw myself really honestly and this is quite a vulnerable process. I think if I’m feeling particularly vulnerable I semi-consciously dress differently. If I’m feeling vulnerable I wear darker, looser clothes with a hood or high neck so I can hide in them and feel more comforted and if I’m feeling more confident I dress in tighter, brighter things. These drawings are in no way meant to be about the clothes that I wear I think I’m just aware that I’m depicting myself in a certain way.

Anyway, here’s a few photos of the recent ones:

Go figure progess

I’m not so stressed about the Go Figure project now, I think I’ve managed to channel all that worried energy into trying various materials and exploring their relationship with my body and visuals that they create. I’ve been reading quite a bit about Gormley and his philosophies about his art. I relate to the way that he’s trying to represent the space that he as a person inhabits both physically and mentally. A lot of his writings are quite hard to get your head around but I can still relate to it. I’ve been experimenting with different ways of visually representing the spaces that I inhabit, I’ve started to take photos of my shadowy reflection in black sticky block printing ink on metal and I’ve also made a few casts of the negative space I can create with my hands. I’ve spend quite a lot of time drawing my hands and head, I think because these are the most easily recognisable parts of me so they bare the most weight in a sense when I try to represent myself.  A couple of the photos are below and the rest or on flickr.

  

Biennale

Have added some photos that I took while at the Biennale.  They’re on flickr so they can be seen by the link on the right.  Will add more details of the artists etc shortly.

Struggle in the library

I’ve been finding this new brief really hard which is strange because I always think the figure is my favourite subject matter so this should be ideal. It’s been really difficult to get started though, I’ve been drawing the figure quite a lot thinking that would lead me to where I wanted to be research-wise but it hasn’t really. I’ve been very much stuck in my own head with this one, maybe cos it’s been a shit couple of weeks. Most of the work I do is based on myself and I’ve been having a hard time allowing that to happen again. It seems a bit repetitive or conceited to me at points but why should I force myself to make art ‘outrospectively’ when all I want to do is work introspectively? I’ve been reading through a lot of Tracey Emin’s writings and looking at her work and I find it comforting that her work is so self analytical. The process of looking and thinking about Emin’s work and documenting my thoughts as I go has been an interesting piece of art in itself, my research so far has been about me struggling with myself. Maybe that’s what this project is going to be about. Why do I have to make it about much more than that? Just because it’s difficult to explain in words doesn’t make it any less valid than researching a project about a ‘flowers relationship with its vase’. Here’s a few photo from my struggle in the library-

Inside/Outside

It may be a little literal for everyones liking at this stage but for the new brief I’ve been playing around with written words for various parts of my body. I started off by typing them all out and printing them in various forms and I’ve moved on to handwriting some of them onto labels. Toying with the idea of literally labelling my body and photographing it… Anyway got some photo’s from this stage in the proceedings

Justitia

Have spent a bit of time researching Justitia now and found out quite a lot of interesting stuff about her. Not all of it relevant but Greek mythology is really interesting stuff. Lots of really fascinating imagery and it’s all a bit dark and eiry which I like. Found out quite a lot of information on my name too, some of which I knew anyway, but turns out Rea comes from ‘Rhea’ who was one of the twelve Titans. Daughter of Uranus and Gaia and wife to her brother Cronos (!). She had 6 children; Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus. In art Rhea is usually depicted seated in a throne flanked by 2 lions or a chariot drawn by 2 lions. After Cronos castrated their father Uranus (!) he and Rhea took over the throne as King and Queen of the God’s during The Golden Age. Mental! Anyway – back to Justitia. She is the Roman Goddess of Justice who comes from the Greek goddess Themis. She is usually depicted blindfolded, holding a sword and a set of scales. These represent that justice should be blind and balance the interests of both parties and that the law should weild power to uphold justice. I have started to consider the materials that are symbolic to Justitia: the metal of the scales and sword and the cloth of the blindfold and her flowing robes. I have started a few sketches of a cloth and wire sculpture possibly in the abstract shape of a woman…

Holligan, Woods and Holligan

New brief: Restrictive Commissions Project. Love getting a new brief This one’s a bit tricky tho… We need to make- or propose at least a piece of artwork for the foyer of Holligan, Woods and Holligan, a family law firm in the Westend. Can’t hang it on the walls or from fixtures so I imagine it will end up being a £dimensional piece although it doesn’t have to be. Only got a budget of 100squid so the marble sculpture or Justitia’s out the window. I am quite interested in finding out more about Justitia tho. That seems to be my starting point.  Below is a pic of the Lady Justice statue that sits outside the Old Bailey in London.