Hot vimto

Apparently my blog is 'very personal'.

Well so be it.

It is in effect a diary after all, but don't be fooled. Just because i speak seemingly openly on here does not mean i've given all my secrets up,  not by any means.

It's nice to have secrets. I'm very torn between those who are honest, abrupt and forthright in their views and those who speak much less. I like the idea of being an enigma. If only i could be a little quieter i'm sure it's much more endearing to keep cards to your chest. Anyway I have been trying to find some lovely artists to inspire me and whilst reading through Vitamin D and Younger than Jesus this is what i found that particularly caught my eye:

I am yet to add to this seeing as stupid google doesn't know my final and most inspirational find nor does my scanner don't work. Boo :c

Booya

Today was the Martin Parr talk and it really was an eye opener.

I'm not sure that it will have been quite what people hoped for, i myself anticipated a talk based much more on his own work, however what was said was far more helpful than any viewing of a back catalogue of photography.

There really was a wonderful 'no shit' attitude from him, and he clearly recognised a sense of apathy in the room. He's obviously no idiot, and why would he be, he's incredibly successful and has been doing what he does, very well, for over 30 years. I therefore respected his views, his knowledge much more than i would many, as he clearly understood the frame of mind many students are in at this stage of art college. You either want it, or you don't. If you want it you need to pull your finger out, otherwise this is a waste of time and money being here. Right now i feel as though i have wasted around £10,000, not working as hard as i could have done, not taking advantage of what i could have done.

For some this is just a stepping stone Parr recognised as once being a tutor himself that only the most dedicated students get far.

Fuck being the loser who gets nowhere, and fuck standing by and watching while people no better than i am get what they want because i was too lazy to try. I am quite frankly sick of my attitude towards art and it's about time i pulled my finger out of my arse and did what i came to do.

Thank you Martin Parr for making me realise i am a shit artist. At least someone did a good job.

[This makes me want to marry Martin Parr, yes yes, the specs are the sex]

Oh and on a less agressive note here is some lovely work by my elective tutor Peter Mitchell. I remember last year he was talking about porn and then being ever so slightly sexist so personally think he is quite possibley nuts, but that can only be a good thing. If you get on with him well then you're sorted and i felt we did. He's been working hard at it for a good 45 years [i reckon he's about 65, god forbid if i added a decade] and his knowledge of the lens shows. His projects in the 1970's in which is worked alongside black and white photography of Eric Jaquir, stirred up a lot of controversy for what was at this time a very modern approach with the use of colour film.

He like Parr is passionate and obsessive about what he does. His subject matter homes in on life in the North and he also has a bizarre obsession with ghost trains. I love the use of colour film. I'm not sure when this changed as i only used to have an interest  in black and white, but really so many images can look better black and white, it's hard to make something look incredible in colour, you have to know what you are doing with the camera. And non of this digital malarkey, all analog. yes please oh yes. Brilliant. I can't wait to start my photography elective.

>>>>

Small funfair in Roundhay Park, Leeds, 1982 / Home of the Underhill Brothers, Starbeck Lane, Stoke on Trent, 1982

A New Refutation of the Viking IV Lander

Kingston Racing Motors, Leeds, 1974 / Hudsons Newsagents, Seacroft Green, Leeds, 1978

All Images © Peter Mitchell

I can't seem to find a website nor can i imagine he likes technology much however when elective starts i may re-edit this with a link to his website if i find that he has one.

This makes my heart stop beating

I haven't got myself ENOUGH music this week or day or whatever but this is beauty to the ears. Perfect.
I want to do

Jon Klassen

Amongst other things of the more graphics / illustration fields, Klassen's little embroidery samples are fun and really just rather childishly endearing. They comfort me and remind me that art can be fun and that simple things such as these should not be pushed aside in our quest to find 'good' art work.

And thus through the finding of Jon Klassen's piece i also found this piece by Meghan Klassen
"Empty bottles, broken hearts"
It's painting, On bottles, and there is little else to bed said about it, i just love the way each figure fits perfectly onto the bottle and floats in dreamily on nothing.

In other news Berlin is BOOKED! ARGH! It's all just rather exciting. Haven't been able to be as excited as i would hope due to one thing and another, my mind playing havoc. I have been hibernating too much. I sillily let myself slip back into that but enough of such folly, hence the lack of blog post. It's time to get up and brace the day. I have lots of project ideas, all of which must be put into practice asap.

White Russian

Today i found out i'm very likely going to Berlin, by very likely i mean we are booking flights tomorrow. I'm am rather excited to say THE LEAST!!!! The art and even more so german design is a delight. The German's were pioneers in great design and this means i will have to get off my lazy a and read my Bauhaus book so i know but stuff.

I'm pretty excited the Germany in fact more to the point Berlin will be the first place i go to. I wanted my destination to significant to me, not somewhere i just partied with my mates and sunbathed, of course there will be time for this nonsense too. I'm hoping Berlin could be the life changing experience i need, in which i find something new and exciting and loose myself physically and mentally in a great city. I'll also be with wonderful people which will make it less scary and it makes my Easter far more productive than it would be spent in Grottingham.

I can't wait to book tickets, to have a plan that i stick to. I have spent far too long wasting life, waiting for things to happen and now i'm making them happen. It's pretty spectacular. In further news i have split my blog into two half in order to keep it organised, one blog for contextual work and general things i am inspired by [here] and my old blog will be used for personal work and extra curricular activities. I'm also going to make a music blog, which i can't wait for either, which i am currently putting underway.

Anyway all of this aside the more important matter is as always what i have seen that i have fallen in love with.

We were given our FABA brief yesterday which is based on 'Materiality', how we choose and work with materials oin our practice. I am seriously beyond language in terms of my excitement as i'm about to step back into what i once loved, working with materials and into unknown territory with new ones. Amongst many ideas one i have been considering is greatly is Collage.

I find that collage can be much more complex than people would imagine as the placement and choice of materials becomes almost mathmatical. Surfaces need to be prepared and considerations such as palette must be taken on board. This is by no means any easier than painting in fact it is simply painting with the ready made. One image can take on a whole new meaning, impression simply thrugh how it is placed. I also like doing collage for the simple fact that it reminds me of childishness, naivity, warmth and happiness. I want to get back to such frames of mind because they come hand in hand with what i plan to work on during my project.

And so here is some gorgeous collage work from many sources i have browsed over the recent days, cleverly i didn't keep track of all the names so i've decided to leave these a blank for now. In this instance it really is about image anyhow, and that is what is important.

bah

Hell I cannot sleep.

And perhaps Misty's Big Adventure are to blame.

Whirlpool of thigs that i want to do, right now. Why does this have to happen at night? When i have to be up at 9 am. To be fair i haven't even tried to force myself to sleep yet, i've been too happy looking at WKW. And  just found this. It reminded me of how i want my work to be, tired and old, worn and loved.
....only i hope i don't have to be in prison to make my sketchpad this lush.

http://www.supermarketsarah.com/detail.php?item=310

And then i remembered the lovely old colouring book at my grandma's, and all the pictures my Aunty drew of Disney characters, and how i MUST get them soon.
I remember just loving to have fun with materials and there being no pretense, well that could be a lie as i was always slightly held back by being a failing perfectionist. But still.
From all of this i got over excited and began to think of all the things i long to make and then i got angry because i didn't make anything all week. Bad bad bad. Must work tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a joy.
Full of paint and blunders.

All Things Bright And Beautiful

Here are some lovely things i found today, via a certain Art's University website.

Sometimes it's interesting to look at other art student's work and compare differences in stylistic values, to that of your own course. Naturally i am intruiged as to the the difference in level of skill in a young artists.

I can't say there was a great deal of things that drew my attention, of about 60 artists i found 4 that my made me stop and think.

Oliver Spooner

These photographs make me think of the marks we leave behind, remnants. Squashed sofa cushions where we once sat, wet towels from our washed hands. All of these things are mundane, we only see how endearing they can be when we look past the objects in themselves. There's something quite kitsch and dated about pastel furnishings especially pink, i love it.

Yasemin Deniz Richards

Dereliction and broken enviornments, two things that and love and so this piece just speaks for itself.

Caroline Grace Fischer

I've recently become interested in the use of thread, string etc in less traditional contexts than normal stitching.

Susu Laroch

This one, i like the most. I love the outcome of dark room photography, the mystery and hope involved in the use of film. Never knowing what the outcome will be. Truly sublime photographs even more so through introduction of affection, through scratching burning.

Hello.Dot.

It has been a h-while.

I had a blockage of the conceptual kind. The concluding part of my work came out fine, but personally i lost the connection. I had to have a sit down with myself and ask the question why?
I've always been pushed to work conceptually, well at least for the last 4 years and i suppose this took over a little. I tried to remember, why in  my previous work, i was so happy. I still considered my concept whilst allowing materials to speak for themselves. Now i'm too concerned with the philosophy of the art and rather than using things i love, i used that which i believe i 'should' use.

So i decided i'll just do what i loved. There's nothing wrong with that. Originality cannot be forced, and i think that's what i was trying to do.

I had a wee browse of the internet and this is what i found that i felt spoke to me

Gracia Haby

These sketchpads by Gracia Haby are g-g-g-g-gorgeous. they're so simple, the juxtaposition between the sepia tones of the antique paper and the desaturated colour of the classic illustrations speaks for itself alone. It makes me think of decoupage, something i always wanted to do.
Love love love

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Valerie Hegarty

This is Valerie Hegarty, and she is amazing. Her work from what i have seen mostly consists of paintings, and frames effected somehow, in a sense de-construction. Walls cracking paintings, scenes of a beach wreckage, bullet holes. It is, similar to the work before, so utterly simple but all about the way original work has been altered. Because it's more installation based it seems less about materials at points but this brought back through the focus on the paintings and frames. I like the idea of this masterpiece being brought down, thwarted by natural forces.

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Xiang Yang

It's not so much all aspects of the piece that i'm interested in, rather the use of thread. It completely baffles me how the artist Xiang Yang manages to use thread to this magnitude, stretching all of them out, yet they remains perfect, un-knotted. From then it is not the stitching, nor the image that is most important rather this thread presented as a whole that become the fundamental part of the sculpture.
I've been wanting to use thread in ways other than just stitch to show it's tactile nature.

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Kate Mccgwire

 

Obviously by proxy i must reference some bizarre art in which taxidermy is used.
It can't be explained why i love animals so much, even more so out of the mortal realm.
Death is just fascinating, that standstill on time, and the rare occasion in which we are privileged enough to witness it from the objective, unattached and allow different, new emotions to take over.
These sculptures are quite different from anything i've seen with the use of animals as mean of material. You are no longer able to tell these are feather, their voluminous forms appear like waterfalls or creatures, inward looking, giving tales of space shared, and used. The first one makes me think of a phoenix coming from the ashes and how it would look upon it's rebirth. Shapes turning inwards on themselves, contours transforming, you cannot choose one thing that the shape could become, making the shapes open to anything, excitingly ambiguous.

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Julie Krakowski

These pieces of textile work are Byjulie Krakowski. They are both amazing but it is the first that i can find charming. She works with materials, fabrics, altering them through stains and burns. The cigarette burn typically would be considered as 'ruining' whatever it effects, however Byjulie manages to make even the most un-enchanting, ethereal, by adding precious gold stitching and rather than the burns seeming to be of mischance, they take over the cloth fabricating patterns of their own. It's amazing, the look as though they were always meant to exist in this way. The brown and gold, colours of nature remind me of moth holes, and are fairytale like.

Stunning!