From the last two years doing my degree I feel my technical ability with portraiture is getting a lot stronger, and I would like to create something for the degree that is different to what I’ve done before. I think my technical ability is still to be developed into photorealism, but at this stage I think I need to add a new dimension to my work to make it sing out more. After performing at the SNIP Festival in 2013 as a background performer, I felt that I should think about using my hobby of music into my art. The festival was to celebrate the 100 years centenary of Benjamin Britten, and my tutor David said to me to create a song list that suits well with the theme, and that is what I did.
My thought process was to gather an array of Britten pieces, but they were more based on vocals and orchestra so my ideas at that point started to change. I was thinking about the environment I would be performing in and worked from that instead. Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi work is very minimalistic and repetitive and gives a sense of openness to the space around you. I thought this would work well in the empty barn and the emptiness of the environment surrounding the barn.
During the performance there was quite a lot of people around and I was worried that the voices of everyone in the barn may clash, most people in the space went silent, so I questioned after the performance rather than being a background pianist the performance became an installation. From the image that was taken by Laurel Berry; the projection featured behind myself was created by now UCS Fine Art graduate Josh Tyson. That could be something new I could incorporate with performing and possibly with painting using colours representing emotions.
