Hereford College of Arts

I’ve now added a layer of blue, cut-out words and find it is distracting away from the form. Using different colours isn’t helping me to see the gap between meaningful and random writing.

Progress…

I’m so pumped up right now! (Lego movie got to me…)

I’ve just been to see Matisse’s cut-outs at Tate Modern (see Blue Peter’s coverage of it here, skip to 12 minutes in http: //www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b041dx8c/Blue_Peter_Matisse_Elyar_
Fox_and_LifeSaving_Dogs/) Goldie has also had a private view and done a video of his favourites.

It’s an explosion of colour and curves and as it is newly open it was heaving. His output towards the end of life seemed to accererate and have such energy to it. His limited mobility and poor health focussed his work, he became more versatile through necessity. It makes me consider carefully what I’m allowing to limit my practice. What stops me making more work?

The answer is my own fear, guilt (gotta rid myself of this). Again, the question – what would I do if I wasn’t afriad? – comes up.

I’ve just been treated (belated b’day pressie) to the book Show your work by Austin Kleon author of steal like an artist http://austinkleon.com/show-your-work/

page 11 he talks of people ( artists, curators, thinkers, theorists and other tastemakers) – who make up ‘the ecology of talent’ who birth great ideas. “scenius”

Lots to be thinking about, read, and looking forward to seeing more exhibitions next week too. (During tube strike, unfortunately)

My own work, involving cutting up words. I’ve decided to make the words more personal to me and I’m cutting up the names of family (names painted in red gouache on watercolour paper). I was going to stick them onto a large peice of paper A0 size ish, but figured they would fall off as soon as I move the paper, so I am priming mdf and going to stick them on this. Then names of everyone else in my life, in a different colour. reason for different colours is to differentiate different layers of people I know.
Wondering how fragmented it’ll be – how obvious the coloured shapes were words once?

I’ve submitted work to the FAB Fridge Bath exhibition, in which fridge magnets of images of artwork are displayed on the street furniture of Bath one day in May. A very accessible exhibition for visitors.

The postcard sized work I’ve made now – tearing up the phrase ‘we can do no great things …’ and I’m not sure it is completely random yet. Parts of letters can be made out…perhaps it can be broken up further. I feel the paper I’ve been writing on gets in the way when I’m braking up the text. Perhaps there’s a way to lay acrylic words onto perspex and then peel them off and cut them up directly.

Considering the way I work – I don’t trust my own instincts much (if at all) in considering my work. I’m too neutral.

If I want to change this, how?

Continuing to brake up writing, but this time with a phrase I’ve chosen (rather than found in printed material)

‘We can do no great things, only small things with great love’ is something I’ve used before in my work and I’m using it again here as it is how I’d like to be.

Hand writing this on A4 plain paper, then I moved onto using thinner, layout paper. I then tore it up so no letters were decipherable and then stuck it onto first a couple of postage stamp sized pieces of card (the whole phrase is on each), then postcard size and iPad size. I’ll be working bigger with this as well.

The process of sticking was fairly random – I was just trying to cover the whole support with written-on paper.