Hereford College of Arts

I’m ‘mapping’ the new college campus. Starting by taking a few pics. As you can see, from the limited pics on here – we are spoilt for space. There is so much potential in this place.
I have been concentrating on intersections where people most cross paths, this has often led to our cafe. This has led to a repeated making of papier mache cups via a meandering thought process.

The year begins!

Our tutors have given us pep talks – much like football coaches give to players before a match, to ensure we use the space the course leader has fought hard for or else loose it to another course. Make use of this great space and get out ofeach of our ‘comfort zones’. Another exciting aspect of our move is that now all of the degree courses – from Illustration, Graphic Design to Textile design and Fine Art are in the same building and so it is now easier than ever for us to collaborate across discliplines. I’m not entirely sure how I might collaborate – I’ll find out and initiate some juicy collaboration.

Our first project is to ‘consider and map in some way the buildings and the grounds’ ( of our new college building). We are to be imaginative / exploratory /inventive / experimental in our response.
What other way can you map something?

I am very excited about this – in the first year of college I wrote an essay on maps and it is a subject that appeals to me.

The first thing I need to do is explore the building and surroundings further and then consider ways to ‘map’ it.

I am now reviewing my draft project proposal for the 3rd year and found it didn’t clarify anything for me, so I need to re-write it.

I have used this time before term starts again to do practical work in my own time and see where I go without the feedback from college.

I am playing with the form of writing in 3 dimensions, this brings a fresh perspective to the writing. These may be just tools to enable thinking in a new direction, enable me to beat new paths through my writing that is restrained in 2D.

I had started this with ‘Wood for the Trees’. I am now considering that piece to be a kind of art-life meeting place. To me the piece takes on different meanings easily; for instance: the strips of writing standing up represent people, with the ones in the centre having much connecting them to the people around them, and then there are the ones at the edges who are possibly lonely and not mixing with others much through choice or not. To me, being in the centre is bliss, with self-chosen times of solitude to replenish my equilibrium.

Is this weird? Probably, but I do find I have many interpretations for this 3D piece, whereas my 2D ones have one explaination to me.

I find the story in the 3D piece captivating. Perhaps it’s the possibility of a story and relatable experiences.

The past few months have been building up to the h. Art Young Open exhibition in Hereford. Now the work is hung I can step back a little and consider my work (and the other 25 artists) while stewarding.

I’ve started painting small pieces on calico, stretched around a small circular piece of wood and I have been writing (roughly) legibly on this surface, my observations – my multi-sensory ‘listening’.

I am disappointed with the results – but then I shouldn’t believe that it would turn out any differently. I am trying to describe verbally, that which needs much more than words to get across. Words are dull, I find, when used in this way – a poor substitute for experience.

I’m finding the results dull:

– it doesn’t evoke the experience

– I am itching to add colour/ form

-using words is reductive

I want to find a more readable (in a non-verbal way) to convey listening.

I’m coming to the conclusion that my writing is more effective when illegible. Is this a cop out? I don’t think so – I reckon gestural writing has the potential to be more sensitive.

Reading the intro to ‘Vitamin P – new perspectives in painting’ and I come across questions such as:

‘Where does conceptual art leave painting?

Does painting still have specific capacities of its own to discover and exploit?

So that set me and now I’m wondering – how can my practice be a part of the contemporary art conversation?

Well my answer is to go and see exhibitions by international artists that excite me. And I am enjoying this book enormously, even though I have only read a few pages. I have looked at Suzanne Mcclelland’s work (covered in the book) and then googled her and I am very excited at what she is doing. And I think, how come I haven’t found her before? (This may just be my gushing reaction to discovering a new artist I have something in common with)

She uses overheard snippets of conversation in her work. This is something I’d done in previous work – in a landscape sketchbook where I sketched the scene and noted down my observations and overheard conversations and written record of sounds and movement – typed those notes up and cut up into strips which formed fronds, partially covering the image. (Pic will accompany)

The influence on my work now is in my writing what i can hear in my current work on the fabriano paper. (I had begun to form some recognisable words in the work, but more my thoughts than the sounds I heard. Writing what I hear gets me closer to ‘listening’ and I haven’t known how I wanted to do this before now. (It has really helped to have a whole day to do my own thing – haven’t had that for 7 weeks! It’s all been in snatched periods)

I have previously considered working in different enviroments to see how listening in paint changes and now I can see I have something to get going with.

(Another thing I am currently drawn to going for walks after dark. The sounds are more intense and this could be a time to do more practical work.)