After a few walks and many photographs later, I put a selection of them together into a folder and looking through them, I have been inspired to temporarily go back to paint and make an interpretation of a few of those images.
This is an A3 size acrylic painting.
As well as using the lights from outside, I bought a pack of glow sticks that I then started to experiment with and document. These images have been added to my folder also and edited to brighten the colours as some were quite dim.
The image on the left is of two coloured glow sticks; the colours have been heightened, while on the right I then interpreted the image into an A3 piece of work, using acrylic, crayon and ink. I don’t find this painting successful as I found the crayon infuriating to work with and it did not work out how I hoped but I like the original photograph, so I edited the photograph, trying to create other outcomes and this particular edit below reminded me of the front cover of the band; Muse whose album is called 2nd Law. The album cover is taken from The Human Connectome Project; it maps out brain pathways, following the circuits in our heads and showing how we process information with bright colours.
I was originally interested in designing album covers (music related work) when beginning the Fine art course as I am a big music fan and love the works of Storm Thorgerson (designer of the notable cover of Pink Floyd’s album; Dark side of the moon) However, I did not stick to this influence strictly although it has motivated me to produce work and glimpses can be seen in my work. I am going to see Muse in April and their shows are full of lights and wonderful spectacles that will carry on motivating me!
I also have used sparklers as a way of drawing with light, and one of my images reminded me of Muse’s EP Dead Star/In your world.
Going back to the lights, I have thought more about the idea of projecting my images, not just limiting the lights to paper but displaying them in a different way rather than keeping them to a flat surface. Here are a few artists I have looked at ensuing this idea:
Diane Thater
Diana Thater, Oo Fifi, Five Days in Claude Monet’s Garden, Part 1, 1992, installation view at 1301PE, Los Angeles, 2012, © Diana Thater; photo © Fredrik Nilsen, courtesy 1301PE, Los Angeles.
The link below contains a video of this piece of work by Thater.
I like how the colours have been separated into different components and then put back together, but out of sync so there is a layer of red, blue and green.
James Welling
Welling’s work above are from one of his (colour) projects called Glass House (2006-2009). This particular series are mainly photographs, taken from outside of buildings with coloured filters laid over the top, which gives the area of subject an unfamiliar feel; the surrounding becomes subtly distorted and ambiguously playful. They can be found on Welling’s website here:
Looking through the different projects on this website Welling has used different light sources and there are many of his works, that I feel can relate to my own practice and I feel very inspired by. With the colours ones, I have been experimenting with various filters on photographs I have taken myself.
Tim Maguire
A lot of Maguire’s works are focused on paintings of flowers but there are a few of these works that he has produced from 2010. The series Light and Water are shown to viewers by duratran light boxes and video.
Coming from a seaside town (and cancer being my star sign), I feel a connection with water; as well as using Echeleman as a source of inspiration earlier, with her use of fishing nets. I would like to fit in some element of the sea possibly into my work. I am thinking about using video in the last stages of my work and using brighter colours.
James Clark
James Clark is a well known light artist and his balloon piece reminds me of parties as a child and working with my brother; who does balloon modelling.
Thinking more deeply into this piece called ‘The Luminiferous Aether’ (1995 -2011) the extra depth that is given using clear balloons where the lights reflect off, but also look trapped or encased within. I thought about my mum’s fear of balloons (Globophobia) and knowing how anxious she gets being near them, the fear of them popping at any given time. I looked more into this fear and how it can start from a young age by a bad experience, from balloons exploding to social gatherings like parties.
Most of my immediate family are not very sociable and I personally feel very anxious in daily situations and events (such as parties). I have realised that from creating these posts and reflecting on my work, that I have been able to confront myself with my own struggles and it is this, that is entwined within my current practice. I do not like to be in the limelight and prefer to hide at the back; I find it very hard to talk in front of people, so although my work thus far uses lights and there are human elements, they are trying hard to hide amongst everything else that is going on.
Catherine Yass
Catherine Yass illuminates empty corridors of hospitals. This is an interesting way to use lights; a negative image projected within a space.
