Follow my trials and errors in research and making new work in 2015 for our final end of year degree show. It will be a roller coaster ride.
I have just updated my website with the work from the degree show. Feel free to have a look at aligibson.com for a fuller look at the work on display at the degree show. It is open to the public until saturday the 2oth of June.
Cheers,
Well, everything is now handed in and with the examiners. It does feel strange that there is nothing to do!
Please come along and see the show at Staffordshire University. The private view is open from 6pm on friday the 12th of June and runs until saturday the 20th. I hope to see you there. I will be invigilating on the monday, tuesday and wednesday mornings if you want to pop in and have a chat.
Its been a blast. Ali.
Its been a while, sorry about that. The studio is now closed. In the time I had left I reworked some pieces and I hope improved them. I had my proposal for the degree show approved with some changes but I know its for the best. We have been painting out the studio and on monday we are allowed back in to start the install. I have been working on my portfolio document which is the last major hurdle to hand in for assessment. We are so close to finishing now.
It should all come together as the install happens this week.
I have been testing the model and I feel that by building it I have learnt another new trick yet again. Being visual people, you think you know exactly what you want as you can visualize it in your head, but when you build a mini set you realize that you encounter issues that you had not considered. By going through this stage it means I can refine my ideas and the layout and for there to be less panic on the installation stage. I will definitely add this skill to my arsenal if I have the opportunity to present at such a scale again.
I have completed all the proposal documentation and will hand this in tomorrow. I am feeling pleased with the final result. It means that next week I can finish the one painting still left to do and start work on my portfolio document that we need to hand in to complete the academic stuff.
Working on artist statements for the exhibition book and getting good quality photographs of the work have been the issues this week.
What is also pleasing is my inclusion in the degree show brochure issued by artist newsletter and my mini interview. Its all good stuff.
On friday I reworked the earlier piece using the spray painted shoes and reworked it as I felt it was not good enough for the show. That said, I knew shoes as a metaphor for what women like and consumerism was a good one so, having just been gifted some gold spray paint which I had applied to a square MDF canvas speculatively, I realized that by reversing it, I had a shelf onto which I could place a shoe. The rest just naturally came after a couple of trips to use the saw in metalworking to cut the shoes in half so that they were not wider than the 2 inch mount for the MDF board. It was quite fun to slice a shoe in half and see how they are made. After taking so much trouble to spray paint the shoes pink many times, I decided in the end, that sculpturally, they worked better gold so they were turned back into gold shoes again which is somewhat ironic. So I finally get to use the phrase ‘on sale now’ in a more appropriate way than last year. It clearly says something about woman as consumer. Quite pleased that I managed to turn this one around and taking the brave step of incorporating found objects into paintings.
Today I made a set from foam board of the exhibition area I want for the degree show. By doing such a mock up, and creating mini paintings on a scale of 1:19 of reality, it really has helped me confirm some layout ideas and raised other issues. So now I have the template, tomorrow I can play with the set design and test out some other ideas. It has really helped me visualize everything and will assist greatly when I hand in my proposal. That, and it was fun.
