Its been a really productive week. I have been doing more samples and more research. I am very aware that the more artists I look at doing text, how each one influences by judgement. So I now have a choice to make.
SUBJECT MATTER
Will this be from magazines/newspapers, word play from the environment or personal statements building in my feminism research from last year? If I am honest with myself, I think the use of magazines/newspapers has ironically turned out to be the weakest of these ideas.
SCALE OF PAINTINGS AND WHETHER TO GO SIMPLE LIKE CHRISTOPHER WOOL (only updated with feminist issues of today)
TEXT TO BE BY STENCIL OR HANDWRITTEN WITH ENERGY
Of course, that depends on the subject matter.
I have lots more samples now as below. I am at the point now that I have a strong research basis but now need to decide with more clarity the final direction I want to zoom down into. I have tested quite a few techniques with painting and I can discuss this and my own instincts tomorrow in my tutorial.
I am enjoying the use of bright neon pink on some of the samples, only on the news yesterday it was reported that Labour were doing their tour bus that highlighted womens issues in hot pink. It really does sum it all up. That colour can mean so much is so intriguing.
Also today we had Shauna MacDonald, the actress attend for our artist talk along with Bedwyn Williams. A highly engaging talk about collaboration with actors in your work, especially in video pieces, the craft of acting and how to get the best out of them. Not very relevant to my practice at present but you never know. All this information does saturate in somehow and you never know when it will be relevant.
The latest test piece is the one I am most excited about of all the testing this year but I know its in a really raw state. I was looking at it again today, there are little moments within the piece that really work, the way one word is a little see through and the underneath text is visible, these are the exciting places. As a way of working with text is it certainly interesting. Also, I don’t think it is a coincidence that is the first full on energetic test piece and quite different in tone and style to others. So there is something in it but its just a starting point. More and more I like the idea of do this on contemporary news, as a concept of compressed words I can easily defend it and if I can make it interesting to the viewer and catch a moment of contemporary time then I am doing something right. I have stapled 2 large free canvases to the wall and I want to push this idea further but this time, testing more ideas and making it more considered. I have started one from the ‘take a break’ mag. I have been using earlier but I also want to balance this with a more serious observational newspaper to see the difference in subject matter makes.
I have started on the first layer and developed little squares within the ground, using grids of sympathetic colours to the magazine, to give a representation of where the source material was lifted from. It is far too obvious to put the magazine title within the actual canvas.
As I leave it tonight it is still in its early stages. The text is so simply written. Short sentences and lots of she said this, and he said that. Not the most articulate of writing but this may actually help my case in parading the magazine and doing a similar style piece with a more highbrow content.
My tutorial is on friday so it would be quite nice to have testing this idea more by then to see if I am onto something here that needs refinement or whether there are other stronger ideas.
On saturday Sam Mace and I, as students taking part in the Artist and The City exhibition at the Potteries Museum were invited to attend an Artist Soup Kitchen where we all sat down around a table actually within the exhibition and enjoyed 2 hours of conversation and some lovely soup. The idea is a thinking show from the various organisations and people in the Stoke on Trent area on current issues. This was the first one I had attended so it was great to put names to faces from the various organisations being Let in The Light, B Arts , Airspace, and Appetite. It was a thought provoking discussion and a starting point for building another wave of connections, which, when starting out on a artistic career is no bad thing at all.
This is a quick energetic work I completed today. I was really testing the spacial depth as inspired by the Sean Landers paintings. What interested and excited me was the freehand writing he uses and the layering. I wanted to see if I could have a go at this to see how the depth worked. It was very quick and energetic and I think that was good for me, given that I can I acknowledge be quite up tight with my painting practice.
I have learned a lot by this experimentation. First I used a paint pen for the small text and then white washed over this to knock it back. Then I started by build up larger white lettering upon which was added black. This was already beginning to be chaotic and dynamic, screaming energy and personal thought. I am calling it the vomit painting – ‘rantings of an old woman’ as I needed to write anything just to text the effect and so my artist research into text art mainly came out as you can see by the headlines.
After working in monochrome, I decided, what would be the effect if I added colour, how would this work? To tested the primary and green and it certainly lifts the overall effect. I have learned something today. I need to digest it but I feel I am beginning to be onto something. I especially liked the little drawings but most have been eradicated by what has been laid down on top. It breaks up the energy of the work.
So if I have the start of a formula, I need to try this technique further and do some more sample pieces. It is the one, however erratic that I am happiest with as an area for development this year.
My artist research is coming on as well and this is grounding my ideas. I am especially taken with notes on Ed Ruscha which I have noticed are echoed by similar other artists….
Decontextualization combined with the preservation of tenuous links with recognizable and prosaic sources, generates a sense of enigma and unease that often parallels with the evocative use of verbal language
Yesterday we had a tutorial where I suggested I was interested in the Sean Landers type paintings but also using this within 4 canvas’s to create a semiotic square, considering polar opposites of newspaper, etc being Take a break, lads mag, financial time and the sun. Something to consider if I can develop this technique.
I have been having a research day as I have a powerpoint for tomorrow on the direction and influences on my practice. Of all the text artists I have been looking at so far it is Sean Landers that grabs my attention. It strikes me that these could be very painterly, large scale, and quick to generate using a free hand and the source materials that I have already been looking at in terms of ‘low’ end women magazines.
It would do no harm to test these more on paper to see how this layering of information would work.
Also, if you are to use one magazine as your source material, then why stop there? Use a different newspaper, lads mag, whatever. But something that is a pinpoint of social history?
I want to have a play at this one as it does tick some boxes and at this point all options need to be considered.
