How creative people find their inspiration.
I read this article on The Guardian website today and it really stuck with me, I relate to this so strongly in the way this artist works and find myself doing the same so it was reassuring and rather comforting to hear a professional say it (especially the parts about daydreaming and being messy!)
Susan Philipsz, artist
• If you have a good idea, stick to it. Especially if realising the project is a long and demanding process, try to keep true to the spirit of the initial idea.
• Daydream. Give yourself plenty of time to do nothing. Train journeys are good.
• Be open to your surroundings. I try to find inspiration in the character of the place I’m exhibiting in. It helps me if I can respond to something that is already there.
• Always have something to write with. I seldom draw these days, but I need a pen in my hand to think.
• I like reading and watching movies, but mostly I find that it’s things I have seen or read a long time ago that come back to me. The things that you found inspiring when you were starting out usually stay with you.
• Keep it simple.
• Be audacious.
• It doesn’t always have to make sense.
• I love silence. I can’t listen to music while I work and I need to be alone.
• I go through messy phases and tidy phases. Being messy during a tidy phase is never good, and vice versa.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jan/02/top-artists-creative-inspiration
January is a month of planning for me. It is the start of our final major project and is a time for me to plan and prepare before starting to put together my degree show piece.
I am spending my time sampling canvas, mixing inks to create a colour palette and sourcing fabric samples and imagery to use in the prints.
I have been reading Maura Reilley’s writings on Ghada Amer, a direct influence on my work. She begins by talking about the ecrite feminine, the idea that the woman must write herself. Female artists are not in the historical art canon and neither in the canon of literature, it is the breakthrough the women must write themselves into history, breaking into the male dominated world. They were presumed that they had nothing they wished to say, but instead they were never allowed the power to speak for themselves. Women therefore must find their voice and make themselves present by writing about women.
This stands as a very prevelant idea for me with my work. I am taking all of the cliche representations of women and how they are associated and represented and juxtaposing them with more modern associations, the less lady-like, unmoral pornographic images. Confronting our ideas of women and femininity and making people see the darker, seedy side to women using their bodies as a means of power through sex.
I am still working on putting my concept into a formal statement but every time I read books for my dissertation my idea develops and progresses, I think my statement would have to change on a daily basis to keep up.
My work last term consisted of a lot of experimentation in screen printing. I am trying to interpret the cliche representations of femininity alongside contrasting images of women in pornography. The concept behind this is that women are associated with delicate lace, pink, pastel colours, flowers and everything quaint and pretty. they always have been and always will be to some extent. The feminists fought for the right to be their own person and have women’s rights to be treated as equals to men, trying to pull away from this cliche feminine image. I’ve taken women from soft core pronography and shown how they are now using these rights and exploiting them as a means to make money, by selling their bodies to the male gaze.
I would like to question the audience on their views of this, is it acceptable for women to use their body and sexuality in this way, going against all that the femininsts fought for and giving it back to the men? Which is where bringing back the overtly feminine associations such as lace and flowers contradicts our views on women, are they delicate and sweet or are we missing the otherside which is the sexual, extrovert side that is able to use their body as sexual power?
I am still developing this concept to make it a strong message that is conveyed through the work, giving depth to the reading of the work. I aim to create a large scale screen print using these ideas to make the audience think about these issues and questions.
I am currently exploring the use of the female form and women’s sexuality in art. I am interested in the cliche representations of women, pink, flowers, lace, and how these are associated with women being delicate and feminine; contrasted with the sexual objectivity that is created through images such as pornography.
My first term of this final year I spent experimenting with printing and exploring different materials for printing onto such as canvas, along with different paints and collaged elements. Now that I enter my final project of the degree, I am preparing to create a large scale screen printed piece exploring these ideas.
My work has been largely influenced by Ghada Amer with her decorative, feminine, colourful and beautiful emrboidered canvases which camouflage hardcore pornographic images of women within them. I have also taken influence from Timorous Beasties who use wallpaper and lace to create decorative, elaborate patterns from insects or scenes of youth culture on the streets.
