And now… time for pirouettes

2nd part of today’s progresses.

When I thought it was all going to crumble, I found light and hope on the form of 13 pretty pink Victorian lampshades in a kind of market thing on my way back to pick up the Arduino from the post. The man was generous and he gave me a really good deal. They look gorgeous, some prettier than others, and some are beige and some bigger and some smaller but they look good when together. I have come across to a lampshade, a pink one, the other day and the shape ticked something on my brain. They look like hats. I did even looked at Alibaba.com to buy a big bulk of lampshades from Asia so finding those here in Brighton has been a big encounter. I keep seeing works of art that are made of repeated material or with the same object. Frieze has been an example about this and a sensente that I read a while ago: “Repetition is your friend” keeps intriguing me and I would like to explore repetition in my work. I like committing to something, to spend time on something, to be resilient. So yes, tomorrow I would be picking up these lampshades from the North Laines and then taking them to my studio. If you see a turquoise Micra full of pink and beige lampshades and a 34 years old “girl” singing loudly around 10am in that area, that’s me.

What else? I have been looking at transparent pignments for water based resins. OMG they look like jewels, pretty material. I want to cast the high heels from last year so this also in my plans, I’m just waiting to buy the right materials, but I want to get it right as the last thing I want to do it is to waste money, so decisions needs to be studied and re-studied and search the country for the best prices.

I feel like undergraduated was easy peasy, I could do it all with my eyes closed, this is more challenging, it is more like the real deal, but only for me at this stage I guess.

I must carry on… time for next task.

Oh ah, and the “Banana Dog” yesterday was another starting point for the journey…

It is all happening, or slowly getting there… AGAIN.

It is important no matter what, to keep moving and looking for opportunities in a positive way, with the same energy and vision. I say this, because I have been feeling like I have hit a bit the ground, although I’m completely aware that is part of being in a new course, new environment, new studio, new classmates, new everything. It is a bit like getting lost to find yourself, in a new way, which is exciting. But being excited 24/7 is tiring too, and that’s how I have been feeling and I still do. Excited about this opportunity (MA) to develop my practice another step further. Excited about going onwards and upwards at least for another academic year, and the question, the challenge, the personal request again of what do I need to achieve now to secure myself a chance to keep with my practice after the MA… I know I need to keep working hard, focused and then the answers will come on their own, one after another or all at the same time. I should see.

I have plans to visit Arco in Madrid next February and I’m already very excited about it. I want to see what kind of art comes from Spain, what other artists are doing there. I then would like to compare it with the work here in Britain. If I could get a grant from Santander later on this year to visit a uni there in the sculpture department I would love it so much. Are they carving stone or marble (traditional methods) or are they carving cardboard, balloons, plastic bags…. specially now that Spain has a very much suffering economy.

I have received the Arduino, exciting (again). That box smells like late nights tring to understand the whole thing. Richard T., your friend is clever, he does cool stuff, very clever. If I could move just a stick and make a LED light to switch on it will be already a success. Went to Maplins the other day and OMG it was like a puzzle with 5000 pieces of a Belgium market painting in the 18th century? A lot to take on, a lot of starting points, a lot of ending points, a lot of middle points. A LOT of everything. Although seriously intriguing and fun and the guy in the shop reassured me that I won’t get electrocuted as long as I don’t use big stuff.

Arduino is in my hands now so that’s feels real now, I just need to sit down and understand the whole thing and have a good play.

I’m starting to reconciliate with my new studio now. The problem is I don’t have many materials yet, or materials that before when I was in sculputure were very accesible to me from workshops and other colleagues. I have been crumpy about it, but this attitude won’t solve anything. Now, I’m kind of on my own and I need to bring everything along so I can make things happen without wasting time. I’m now a practising artist as per a classmate has said to me today. Seeing it that way then it makes sense.

Have I started the course in the right away? Am I wasting time by aiming to high? Should I just consider other options to create the same effects? I don’t really know, however, it feels right to have some time to think about all this, and to try at least to make ther right moves.

My work needs to move, needs to talk, needs to make sounds, or projections or something interactive. There is not doubt about it at this point. The questions is with what? I haven’t a clue about electronics and all the explanations in books seems to me like jibberish, a very conceptual way of jibberish. However, I’m going to approach the whole thing with a straighforward attitude. A “feel the fear and just do it” type of action.

The thing is that I have been suggested this (i.e. to add movement) by some people and I can also feel that some kind of interaction is needed. My work seems lifeless, they are like sleeping objects waiting to be waken up. Like the cardboard and modroc cocodrile, sleeping waiting to bite when it is touched, like when someone is been munching his/her brain away with insecurities, frustrations, doubts or fears and suddently burst into a moment of rage. Unexpected, noisy at first and quiet after. The void of feeling like the smallest person in the world.

Phew… that was intense…

Arduino, apart from having a interesting name, seems a lot of fun too! I will be ordering a a starter kit in the next few days, I have downloaded the program online and I have bought myself a soldering kit, that had a lot of stuff for a very good price. It might ended up in Gummtree but I really hope that I’m going to be persistent with this challenge and learn something from it.

Another plan a is to buy old motors toys from car boot sales (1st one this Sunday) and then use the motors and sounds and any bits and adapt them to my own work. I think this is very straightforward and it will fill my studio with some vibrant colours and I will have a lot of interesting bits and pieces to play around. Just to moan a bit, it seems a real nuisance to have the studio away from the uni building. I hope I will manage and I will be able to make things happen and don’t waste to much time up and down the road. I might even get a firmer bottom for all the walking this year… and it could be worse, as always.

Regarding the academic side of the course it is all quite full on, loads of taking notes, writing essays, and generally a lot of critical thinking. Undergraduate level seems easy peasy when compering to this. But I like the pressure and it makes me pushing myself even further, to be more organised, to think in advance, to be methodical.

My studio is big and bright and I can wait to see things happening.

I’m also doing the puppetry course at Phoenix and I already have an idea for a puppet video thing between a penis and a vagina (classic Ferrari). Has anyone done this? Well, I think I have to see it myself and to have fun with it.

3,2,1… welcome back