Uni broke up yesterday for Christmas, which whilst I find it frustrating that the studio is closed for two weeks, it has meant that this last week I managed ot get myself into gear and do some more practical work. In the last semester, I have become so preoccupied with researching for and writing the dissertation that my practical work has become somewhat neglected.
This week however, I have actually done something with the dreaded girder piece – since finding a discarded and rusty girder in the local scrapyard, I have become rather attached to it and have been reluctant in doing anything with it for fear of messing it up. After many preliminary sketches in my reflective journal, I finally decided to cover the girder in gestural print. I am still deciding however, what to do next with it to encourage it into more of a finished work.
As well as doing something with the girder I have been creating sculptural paintings, incorporating paint, print, canvas and found objects – a process which I am quite excited about and I feel it has a lot of potential.
So so happy! The head librarian who quite handily did a PhD in Research has just got in some very hard to get hold of books that I have desperately needed for my dissertation (“Is Beauty Relevant in Contemporary Art Practice?”).
So, now on my desk is:
“Reason, Morality and Beauty: Essays on the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant”
and
“Aesthetic Order: A Philosophy of Order, Beauty and Art”
I couldn’t be happier! Oh, by the way…
In researching Immanuel Kant’s ‘Critique of Judgement’ I have come across his thoughts of “how the judgement of taste is disinterested”. I’m really struggling with understanding this concept and would greatly appreciate what your understanding is of this term.
The last couple of weeks have been a blur. The pressure of the dissertation is gradually making more and more loopy and stressed out! After a couple of nights working solidly on the introduction and history of beauty since the 1800s I produced what I believed to be a bloody good piece of writing. My beliefs were later crushed rather when I received it back from my lecturers scribbled all over with EVERYTHING needing to be changed. PANTS.
So. Where am I now? Still rather stressed, staring at my computer screen not knowing where to start on progressing with this bloody dissertation.
To be honest, I probably wouldn’t be finding things quite so horrific if I wasn’t the target for absolutely everything that could possibly go wrong. This week’s highlight was finding out that some one have been fraudulantly using my identity to open a bank account and numerous pay-monthly phone contracts.
Anyway. Despite having to spend most of today at my police station, on the phone and dealing with this huge pile of poo… I have actually been able to think about my own studio practice.
So. You’ll be delighted to know that I have now (for now) finished ranting and shall move on to my realisations about my studio practice…
The biggest dilema in my work has been the rather large gap between my paintings and my sculptures. My solution to this, is to make my paintings more sculptural. I am currently trying my best to work out how it may be possible to realistically construct a gigantic frame out of cement – this is proving rather difficult so suggestions would be gratefully received! Ideally, I would like my large abstract paintings to be framed with cement and I shall then hang my glass pieces from the frame. I am still not sure how I came to this idea, but my preliminary sketches are quite positive and aesthetically I think it would successful.
VERY EXCITED! But still not sure if it is a feasible idea….
