I have been concentrating today on the large scale painting now called Guilty Pleasure and also doing a number of samples on spray paint text on a union jack background and a painterly ground.
I have by testing improved the way I have laid down the text but this has really been by trial and error and many errors have been made. But yet, little things learnt, like laying black down by stencil and then adding another colour directly on top staight away brings another layer of depth and energy to the finished design. Also, due to the nature of the spray paint and the process itself it creates cracking as it dries and this creates a useful effect.
So I am getting more sophisticated but whilst as a step in the right direction I am pleased overall with GET YOUR COAT as a painting my concerns for development are:
The painting of the woman is far from perfect – left eye is not right but for now I am happy to present at a reasonable standard and move on, as it is more important to develop ideas than spend too long on a vanity project.
The union jack, text and image together remind me of a photoshop layering exercise, mimicking magazine language so on that level it is successful.
The GET YOUR COAT text was all going okay until I managed to get a line of spray paint between GET and YOUR which I had to remove as best I could with turps but it left a stain and as such, I decided to messy up all the other areas around this text to hide by mistake. I additionally dripped red paint using turps down the image, adding to the metaphorical staining of the image and its connotations.
I added the earlier used stencils for REVIEW and ON SALE NOW as they have feminist issues I want to discuss and by putting them on their side instead of horizontally like the main text I wanted them to not compete with the main words. I have spray painted those letters much better so my next attempts I hope will be better polished.
I am a little unsure how this will be read by an audience so I have put 3 works up in the exhibition area to test audience response. I can then consider this before making the next large work. Also, only one of the 3 includes a figurative image. Is it necessary at all or shall I move onto large text paintings instead, although my instinct is to resist this.
Time to stand back now and let this filter through a little and consider audience response.
Some extracts from our group crit have got me seriously thinking. I may know what I intend to do but how will they be interpreted by the viewer, may their message be lost…………
Discussion on post feminism or not-so-post feminism and my current line of inquiry using the language of magazines and advertising to poke fun at our society and the construct in which we are all complicit of having guilty pleasure, seduced by the perfect image either as a literal 2d form of aesthetic or as a life style choice.
Having explained my research and what I aim to do, I need to be very careful of not being complicit and not falling into the same trap of being seduced by the image and not saying anything new. I have to be careful how the work is interpreted by the viewer. DON’T PUNISH THE WOMEN AGAIN.
…not as keen on the union jack as it carries so many connotations and the obvious flaw was an image of Scarlett Johanssan on a union jack would be confusing as she is American. Good point. What am I trying to achieve? Discussion about moving away from the literal attempt at a magazine cover in paint and using the language of the strap lines only. Also discussed that the portraiture may become redundant as the text takes over. I know that I have already identified this as a possible result. If I do text only paintings make sure they are big in scale as there-in lies their power.
Discussion about text only paintings and my love/need of portraiture, which I am not really sure I want to give up. Try doing 2 paintings side by side but in conversation with each other. One with portraiture and one with the text. A juxtaposition of text and the image could be interesting.
Work on my grounds. Layer thinly various coats and sandpaper back. I do need to try this more. You can also add washes ontop of sanded down areas to generate exciting images.
THE TEXT IS THE HOTTEST AREA – so test it and get more sophisticated.
My next step is to text some of the strap lines in paint to see how these can best be applied beyond my initial testings. This will be by development area for this week.
I have started another painting progressing the ideas from the earlier REVIEW painting. This time my improvements/experiments are:
Get away from the literal idea of the magazine cover but just use the language of magazines/marketing.
Use the strap lines instead – found statements – soundbite society
Use an image of a model, as the female gauze staring out at the female viewer
Union jack background to symbolize Cool Britannia and modern day culture.
This time the scale is about 3 times the size of the earlier REVIEW painting.
Improve my use of stencil and text as the last one was a little crude and could do with refinement.
Artist Talk today with Emma Price who’s introduction was:
Emma has worked as an independent art consultant for many works, enabling artists such as previous visitors Mark S. Gubb and Heather and Ivan Morison to deliver ambitious and exciting artworks in the public realm.
Emma is a also a Board Member of Ffotogallery Wales and is a co-founder of Goat Major Projects in Cardiff.
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My thoughts:
How refreshing to hear someone from the commercial reality of the art world who was willing to give some hard earned advice and lessons in experience for us to consider in developing our own artistic careers beyond the comfort of university. She was engaging and put us all at ease as she bounded her way through the pitfalls of a professional career in the arts. Emma now deals with curating and commissioning contemporary art in the public realm and she talked through her current projects.
She energized me in terms of residency opportunities after university as I start to develop my CV and networking at every possible opportunity as it is through those connections that you have already established and future ones that you forge that help develop your career.
I would have really enjoyed one to one tutorial time with her but I had to go due to other commitments.
Firstly I need to apologize to anyone reading the student blogs. I was accidentally creating a new blog every time I posted an update, I totally got this wrong so today I have had to reconfigure by blog and do a lot of copying and pasting. I am not technologically minded and I am embarrassed by bombarding everyone with too many new blogs with my name on!
I have been over the last week spending time on the Cargo Collective website and building the website required to be operational for hand in at the end of December. I have learning as I go and having bought the domain name, now have a strong platform on which to present myself as a credible artist going forward after the university experience. S0, as a learning curve and as part of my professional practice I am pleased with the result. I have added a connection to the blog within the site.
Check it out at www.aligibson.com
