Well, the lemon yellow went on and half an hour later was washed off with turps and re- glazed with a mixed rose pink. This now reverberates on top of the orange made from layers of yellow and pink.
I have had an excellent double space this year in the studio, I have loved working there and feel bereft at leaving it. The dividing walls will be taken down on Thursday for the degree show build. It too is a virtual space. The last wash of colour today is a signifier that the purpose of this blog will soon be completed.
As artists are often ‘working in advance of their understanding’ (see post no.4), the new ideas are there, incubating under the surface. I can’t yet articulate, but do anticipate.
Studio time will end tomorrow. I have one more opportunity to paint one more layer. Lemon yellow i sense.
Wednesday 10 am, is my level 5 assessment, and the end of the third year. The luxury of studying part time is the distance this can bring between, ideas and actions. I can now see patterns emerging in my choices and decision making. At the time I considered them to be either random or well thought out, for other reasons. I am seeing links and connections. Fluency developing in the language.
I am trying to prepare myself for the feelings I experience after an assessment, during the waiting period until the written feedback. Assessments are not tutorials.
Preparations for the exhibition are nearly complete, invites are on they way out. It will be a courageous act on my part to show the work if the assessment doesn’t go well! Perhaps I’ll save reading the feedback until August
Preparations of a different type are underway for Thursday…..
The order for my Professional Practice proposal, and the documentation was:
1-Organise an exhibition of my work
2-Make a website
3-Post on the a-n blog
The order that I will present tomorrow at the assessment is:
1- A-n blog
2- Make a website
3- Organise an exhibition of my work
Writing on the blog (and reflecting about it more than I have actually written), is surprisingly helpful. The act of filtering and forming thoughts into sentences alongside the painting is enabling me to position my work in relation to the world outside the studio and its internal culture.
During the process I have made several layouts for a website using Apple ‘iweb’. Gradually changing it from one full of art speak towards one that is clear, open and more of a suggestion of my activity. It was rather tight and confusing before with too much unresolved information. http://www.my-piper.com
The exhibition plans seem to have been straight forward and the work is almost ready. Good news, since we clear the studios next week. I won’t really get a proper idea of whether it is ready to exhibit until I decide how and which pieces to show on the installation day. Scary!
SUNDAY –Modern Times – Responding to Chaos exhibition at the De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill on Sea. A show curated by Lutz Becker, including works on paper by Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, Agnes Martin,Malevich, Lissitzky, Flavin, Judd, and Pollock , film by Viking Eggling, too many pieces to mention. The work was not shown chronologically but relationally, which I found energising as you could move around the work and not feel you were coming to the end of a narrative. My lasting impression is of the drawings as evidence of the artists visual thinking. A sense of ideas in the making.
Preparations are underway for Professional Practice presentations and documentation, and dissertation proposals.
I am working again on three of the canvases that are not yet resolved. I mixed, poured and glazed and feel much better. They have entered back into the dialogue.
http://www.dlwp.com/default.aspx
Richard Taylor asks on the www.a-n.co.uk/students home page ‘What’s the pace of a part-time student? Is the work more contemplative or do other commitments conflict with creativity? Marion Piper at Buckinghamshire New University takes us through her painting process: what do you have to exchange?’
Thank you Richard for asking these questions. I am just coming to the end of the third year of a part time course, which is spread over five years. Each semester seems to have whizzed by, and I am only now just beginning to reflect on some of work I did in the first level. The opportunity to take time in this process is, for me, a deeply valuable one. I can see there, the starting points of the ideas I am working with now. At the time I had no idea what I was doing or why. I have been able to spend all of level five working on one inquiry, that of pursuing my visual language in paint. Perhaps, I may have rushed with less time?
During the first level of the course I worked collage and print and have set myself the limit of paint only for this last 18months. I have a sense of all the things I want to investigate ranged up in front of me, delicious choices that lie in wait.
I have decided not to write about my other commitments in my blog, although they are immensely important to me. I want to focus on the development my critical thinking in relation to my work. I tend to keep this reflection separate, which minimises the conflict for me.
Our part time course is structured to allow us to research our dissertation over the coming semester, without any studio practice requirements, although we are allotted a studio space. We then return for three semesters to focus on our final work. I observe that the busier a part time student is, the harder they work. Focused time in the studio, for us has great value.
