It’s been a productive if tiring week, finishing off bits and bobs in the studio as well as writing exhibition proposals and filling in lots of forms.
On the plus side, I’ve completed my cut-board series of paintings, as well as being very nearly there with my larger one, all of which I’m more pleased with than I thought I would be. I can’t really put my finger on why that is, but it’s nice to come into the studio in the morning and be excited by what you’re doing, rather than daunted.
I’ve also started bringing my ideas about mirrors and symmetry to fruition, though only just. It’s interesting painting on mirror because you can also scratch into it, though I am having difficulty finding a secure way of getting them on the wall.
I’ve made the most of the studios being empty in the first week of the Easter break by moving all my paintings around and connecting them with pins and thread. This was an idea I began to look into a while ago but haven’t really had the space to explore while everyone is around and my paintings were still wet. I’m interested in the idea of extending the drawn elements of the work beyond the 2D, and creating a new way of guiding the viewer’s eye around the space.
Today is the last day the studios are open, so I’m off back to Torquay tomorrow. I’m planning to do lots of drawing and research in my 2.5 weeks at home, and then come back and have a big burst of painting…
Now we’re nearing the end of the degree, the issue of “ticking all the boxes” seems to be arising more and more. I’m not going to go into detail about how our course goes about marking, but there seem to be countless different opinions on the importance of the degree show, how our support work should be presented, and how much weight we should place on different aspects of our practice.
It makes you wonder how Fine Art courses ever came about- how do you impose a system of grading on something so subjective? As I’m sure you already know, this is the question that always gets asked by people who have no experience of art education. It is a hard one to answer though, especially given the diversity of approaches to making work that there are within my course alone.
Number 1 on the list of ‘How to be Miserable as an Artist’ (I don’t know who wrote this originally so can’t credit them!) is ‘Constantly compare yourself to other artists’. I agree that this can make you miserable, especially when you feel you have to alter the way you naturally work in order to fit in in some way. But I also think it’s an interesting thing to think about, as well as being something we are required to do for contextual studies.
For instance, my course- and housemate Laura has recently been feeling a bit lost with her work, and asked for my advice. Last night I sat and looked through all her recent sketchbooks, journals, and artist research, and presented her with a page of notes and sketches on what I would do if it were my work. She seems to have approved, though it’s too early to draw any conclusions yet!
However, it was an interesting exercise to do. Stepping into someone else’s shoes in terms of art practice is something I haven’t done before- obviously I’ve researched and written about other artists’ work a lot, but to do it with someone you know well is very different. I found myself thinking of what her strengths were, and how I could encourage her to play to them. It makes me wonder what would happen if the process were reversed and the spotlight turned on me!
I suppose the conclusion of this slightly rambling post is that sometimes it IS a good thing to compare yourself to other artists, to step outside your own practice and experience what it might be like to do things outside the limitations we all tend to impose on ourselves. While it’s inevitable that the end of the degree is going to involve a lot of box-ticking, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s no room for us to approach this in our own unique ways.
So, we’ve reached the last week of term (though I will still be in the studio next week so a bit longer to go for me) and I’m trying to resist the instinct to wind down a bit. I’m getting along fine but it’s easy to slip into thinking too far ahead- to the holidays, degree show, post-uni- and forget that the work is still the most important thing.
I’m still working on the paintings from the last post, with not much to report on there. I was part of a group crit last week, and the feedback was positive, with everyone seeing different (weird and wonderful) things in my work, which I like to hear about!
I’ve also started making new drawings and collages from a book about snowflakes. One of the things I explore in my work are the underlying structures and patterns that reveal themselves in nature, like the incredible intricacy of these snowflakes. If you think about it too much it’s a bit mindblowing, but I’m interested in hinting at this feeling of disbelief and bringing the sciency aspect of my source material through into my images.
I have a few ideas in the pipeline relating to this as well as incorporating mirrors and symmetry. Watch this space to see them appear!
I’m back into the swing of things now, after being a bit thrown by last week’s tutorial. To generate some new ideas I cut up a photo of one of my paintings from October, and created lots of collages, taking into account my tutor’s advice about simplicity and awkwardness in the paintings.
Several new pieces have sprung from this, including a series of 6 small paintings on mirrored tiles. So far I think these are quite effective, the only downside is having to look at myself constantly while I paint them!
I feel good about this new direction in my work, especially now I’ve finally braved the tech workshop and cut into the board I’m working on. These paintings have only just been started, but I like the introduction of physical negative space into the paintings. Will gauge the reaction of my peers properly in my group crit tomorrow morning…
