I haven't made a post since the end of September, I think I was struggling with my work last week so I didn't want to make a post but now I feel pretty happy about my work as I head into the weekend after the 6th week of the residency. I seem to have written a lot so I will make a double post to stay within the word count. I spent week 6 getting new work off the ground which involved stretcher building and discovering whether or not my ideas were going to work.
After my last post, I did a one day project with 6 pupils from different year groups. I wanted it to be a drawing day, and for it to be something quite straightforward. I decided that we would be drawing pears, and hands holding pears, and I was very happy with the results. Initially the group did some quick ink sketches using sticks which they enjoyed, and idea was to spend the first few hours making lots of quick work, and then the afternoon would be devoted to making a large final piece. I was impressed with how talented the kids were, and they really took to drawing with sticks and painting without brushes. I was guiding them a lot throughout the day and was constantly on the move, but it was really enjoyable. One pupil thought she was struggling and found it hard to like her work, but eventually I think she came round, and I think she probably got the most out of the day and has been back to look at her work. All the work produced was on display during the schools open evening, and there were lots of good comments about the work from current staff and pupils. Some of the kids from the one day project even brought their parents in to show them what they'd done.
After the collaborative canvases from arts week, I've been thinking about control and how you can create a piece of work both randomly and in a controlled way. For an hour long session with some members of staff I designed a game using these ideas. Each person had a large piece of paper that was divided into 30 squares. You then had to pick 2 cards, the first had an instruction such as 'drip blue paint', 'make a rubbing of a wall' or 'draw your hand using charcoal' and the second card told you which square or squares to use for that particular instruction. It's another way to generate a starting point for a piece of work, and in that respect, it works. There were some interesting pieces of work. It's an idea that I've had for a while so it was nice to try it out on a group of people. These pieces of work will be used to initiate a more substantial piece of work next time.
