University Campus Suffolk

Quite recently I have been thinking about artists that I can add my themed blog posts. I thought about why I like certain artists work and how they have influenced my work over the past few years. Before I came to university I sparsely researched artists, this meant that all the artworks I saw were in galleries, on websites or in magazines. In my own art work prior to university I was more inspired by literature, particularly First World War poetry and classical fiction. I think that these influences still run strong in my current works mainly because I think that’s where my need for strong narrative comes from. What I’m trying to say is; to understand my work you have to fundamentally understand that my mind comes from a historical literature background. I was always inspired by books to use my imagination and through reading ideas and concepts grew in the back of my mind. I still look to books for inspiration, even if I don’t quite realise it.

Art can start from anything; from a word in a book, a conversation you had recently, a picture you saw in a magazine… I find this quite a fascinating way to think about art. Do we create all of our own ideas or are we silently influenced by things that we have experienced before? Like a film or a song?

Personally I’d say that I’m a bit of both, the creative process can start by something you see or something you think of (an observation) and then you can discover things that other people have thought of before. Though their thoughts do resonate with you and your ideas inevitably they are your ideas and it’s up to you to make the art you want to make. I hope that makes sense, at the minute I’m finding these blog posts very reflective and it’s quite liberating to let your thoughts out into the world.

So I think the point of this post is to let you know that in my artist’s posts I will no longer just be posting about artists, I’ll also post about anything that has inspired me be it a particular colour in the sky or a book I read ten years ago. If you guys have any more books recommendations or really anything that has inspired you let me know and we can be inspired together!



Presentation: A happy disaster!

So this week I wanted to write a little about what I’ve been up to for the past couple of weeks, seeing as I haven’t posted for a while. This week I was completely preoccupied by my presentation which I did on Monday, since then I’ve not done a lot to be honest – apart from sorting out my sketchbook and ideas.

I have to say that my presentation was a happy disaster. To put this into context I need to explain the idea that I had for the presentation. Basically, I wanted to make a PowerPoint presentation but I wanted to convert it into a video which would have a running narration said by yours truly instead of having your bog standard PP with loads of writing on the slides.

However, I couldn’t get the technology to work when I wanted it too and converting the video over to a different computer just did not work. Luckily though I was able to just save the presentation as a PP and in the end I just improvised the narration, totally making it up from head as I went along.

Now that I’m able to look back I think that this might have worked in my favour. Usually I hate speaking in public mainly because I just freeze and as a result look like a stuffed lemon but this time I had grown so frustrated with the multiple technological failures that my usual nerves weren’t there.

And for the first time in my life I was able to talk precisely yet honestly about my work, this is a breakthrough for me; not just as an artist but as a person as well. I thought well it’s my work why should I need an over rehearsed script? Why can’t I just talk about what I’m doing in a professional manner? So I did just that and I hope that came across. This got me thinking about this final year that I am currently living and how I want to progress through and after uni.

Ideally I want to present myself in a more confident way where I’m not afraid of saying something stupid or doing something ridiculous because once this experience is over it’s just that, over.

I’ve always had this attitude of hey you think that I can’t be an artist well I’ll show exactly why I should be one and I think that this attitude has evolved into look if I can do it so can you, if I can make art why can’t you? If I can stand up and talk in front of people so can you.

It’s quite inspiring to think this way and for me it’s been a light bulb moment. I want my art to be approachable and I want people to interact with my work. I want people to ask questions and wonder why and how I’ve made something. If they can do a better job than me then that’s great and if you learn something then that’s just as great too.

Thinking about this approachability that I want my art work to have leads me to my concepts and ideas, the main topic I deal with is beauty particularly what people (myself included) perceive beauty as. So making my work approachable will the make the topics that I think about more approachable, so in a way I can make my work a platform. I always want my art work to say something, whether it makes sense or is interpreted as such is a completely different matter.

So right now I feel like I now know my work and what I want it to do, which is an odd relief. I know how to progress forward and how hopefully I can make the most out of this final year. That’s all I really wanted to talk about on this post – this week has been incredibly exhausting yet strangely fulfilling. Let’s just hope my feedback Monday is nice!

In my next post I’ll talk about my recent work and show you wonderful people images of said work. Then after that I’ll resume my artist’s posts as well as taking a post to talk about my dissertation. This week though I’m recuperating and by recuperating I mean sorting out my family’s Christmas presents which is hardly a break!

I hope you’re all having a fantastic week –

And if the week’s going rubbish don’t worry its Christmas soon!



Cindy Sherman (Continued)

I’m trying to keep this way of thinking in mind as I work on new images. Last semester I was really hesitant to go beyond myself, though I did try, I really struggled with people making a judgement about me based on my images.

This year I’m not so afraid of that and I realise that these questions are important aspects to my work. I’ve always looked at identity and people asking questions about my identity, the images identity, is quite an exciting way to interpret work.

What also fascinates me about Sherman is about how her work is still inspiring artists today. Recently I have loved actor James Franco’s reinterpretations of Sherman’s Film Stills Series, apart from the sheer comedic values of his images I think there’s also a very poignant play on societal gender roles which possibly emphasises Sherman’s conceptual values. It’s interesting to read about how the technicality of her photos can inspire too, as mentioned by Franco himself:

“Cindy Sherman’s groundbreaking series Untitled Film Stills showed us how we look at ourselves in film. These were performances within multiple fames of significance. But Sherman was an artist looking at the film industry from the outside. I have started on the inside. I earn my living in the commercial film business. This new series of film stills puts one more frame around the dialogue Sherman introduced.”

(Quotes found on: http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/01/arts/a-portraitist-s-romp-through-art-history.html http://www.beautyequation.com/beone/cindy-shermans…

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/825977/francos-s…

http://sfmoma.tumblr.com/post/31064176516/james-fr…

As are the images)

Cindy Sherman

I have to be honest and say that I’ve looked at her work over and over again. Yet her presence is still as strong as when I discovered her work the first time.

I find that Sherman’s work takes me to another place where I subconsciously question everything. How did she take that shot? Why did she dress like that? How effective is her use of colour? I find with Sherman’s work there is a stark contrast between her earlier and later works.

Firstly, her earlier untitled film series took me into a different reality, as if I was watching her in a Hollywood movie, I felt a little rude like I was spying on her although I couldn’t quite pull my eyes away from her images. She’s a very beautiful woman and it’s easy to think that she belonged in the silver screen however it was fascinating to read about how she was trying to get across the message of being against the very thing she was portraying – creating an interesting double meaning.

Comparing her earlier works though to her more recent works you can see how her characters evolved into sheer exaggerations. This put me off a little, because I was so enthralled by her convincing world, I felt the exaggeration was just that – a little too much. I no longer believed that these people could exist instead I had no idea what to think, all I could think of was how fake these characters are yet this was another reflection Sherman obviously felt about society.

I’ve always admired Sherman’s courage something of which, I think, will continue to inspire me. It’s refreshing to read about an artist who isn’t caught up on thoughts and interpretations or writing extremely wordy essays about how complex their work is.

Quite recently I’ve found snippets from interviews which have only furthered my interest in her as an artist.

“I feel I’m anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren’t self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear.“

This is really relevant to my work. I do use myself in all of my photos and I’ve never really thought of why; I’m not particularly vain nor am the modelling type, to be honest I couldn’t be any further from that.

Though using myself I never really view what I’m doing as an image of me, it’s quite difficult to explain what I mean here but I’ll try anyway, it’s as if I’m an actor and the resulting image is just like a film. I’m portraying characters, people that I think up or people that I have seen, it’s a sort of freedom because I’m not trapped by the idea of just producing a self-portrait. Another quote from Sherman which entirely backs up what I’m trying to say:

“Everyone thinks these are self-portraits but they aren’t meant to be. I just use myself as a model because I know I can push myself to extremes, make each shot as ugly or goofy or silly as possible.”

Still here

I’m sorry that I haven’t posted in a while folks life has been a little hectic over the past week or so. In the next few posts I want to individually write about artists that have inspired me whilst making art works. I’ll make the posts artist by artist hopefully this will make the artists more concise and relevant.

For this introductory post then I would just like to talk about the process of finding artists and my thoughts in regards to artists in general. I think it’s a shame when people turn around and say “What’s the point in looking at someone else’s work?”

For me it’s the same reason why you read books if you’re a student of literature or why you listen to Bach if you’re a music student. It’s quite a therapeutic process when I’m looking for artists, normally I would leave an afternoon free wherein I get lost in the library and find some books or I start with a Google image search.

What’s therapeutic about the process is discovering artists who deal with the same thoughts and feelings as I do, it’s comforting to read about how artists became the artists that they are today, you can turn around and think “Wow someone else had the same thought as me” or “He deals with a lot of the same issues that I want to explore”. And that’s one of the most inspiring aspects of art: finding artists who inspire you.

Quite often being an artist is a lonely process mainly because most artists like to work on their own or work in the confines of their home where they feel the most confident. I prefer working in the university studio with other people around me, I used to love working at home stuck in my bedroom all day creating some grand masterpiece but you don’t learn a lot on your own and you most certainly don’t make the use of the spaces which are given to you.

I think I prefer working in the studio because it’s an artistic environment, there’s a little hustle and bustle, and most importantly there’s life. It’s quite strange to think about how people want to make art. I don’t think that art should be a torturous process, created by the lone ranger instead art should have its own life and growth. You should be able to talk to other people about your art work, you should try to answer someone’s questions about something you’re working on, you should enjoy spending time with other artists and communicate different thoughts and ideas. Well that’s what I think anyway.