Author: Lucy

For our first photography task, I found it a little tricky to think of things that I do every day that relate to labour. I found that I would get to caught up in the word labour thinking that it couldn’t include simple day to day tasks. I decided that for my first sequence I would make a cup of tea. I tried taking these photos from two different perspectives, one was taking photos of myself making the tea and the other was from my point of view. I found the photos from my point of view seemed to look more formal and instructional whereas I thought the ones showing me felt a bit more personal and less like a how-to video.

overall I’m very happy with how our art machines worked. My favorite of the two was the ice one as I really enjoyed our machine process, watching the ice melt and gradually colour the fabric and mix together with different colours. for this art machine we ended up repeating the process twice as when we opened the fabric up the first time we felt as though there were lots of gaps and that it would look better with another round of dye. I was much happier with the result of two rounds of dye as I thought it made the work look a lot more vibrant. I was also happy with our ball art machine however it didn’t turn out as we expected it to. We had to change our plans as the balls were too heavy to be blown by the fan so instead, we used ourselves as the force pushing the balls onto the paper. one thing that I hadn’t thought about was that the balls would get tangled up by the strings, once this happened we were not able to use our machine anymore but I think it made the machine more interesting to look at.

When we were setting up our ball art machine we changed our plans as originally we were going to have white paper and put black paint on the balls however we decided that instead, we would paint the paper black and we brought white, silver and gold paint as we thought that this would look more effective and eye-catching. We also thought that the hanging balls looked a bit like planets so we felt that a black painted paper would fit in with that idea the best. We have slightly changed our ice art machine as in the original plan, the ice was going to be hung up with string but we then realized that as the ice melted it would fall out of the string. we ended up deciding on making pockets out of the material bunched up to put the ice in.

Our group has been looking at different ideas for our art machine. We found that an artist that stood out to us was Margie Livingston as we really liked the idea of dragging materials to create different marks. Our first ideas were based around paint pendulums dripping different patterns onto the floor. This idea brought us to newtons cradle and we decided this would be the base for our art machine. Our plan is to find balls of different sizes, paint them and hang them up. We will then use a rotating fan to blow the painted balls onto a piece of paper attached to the wall to create a unique pattern. We have also been looking into a second art machine idea where we will put water-activated dye on some fabric and hang some ice above it. We will then take a hairdryer and melt the ice which will drip down onto the fabric and activate the dyes to dye the fabric.

I have really enjoyed this brief, I have liked the structure and how it pushes you to create and not think about how the end work is going to turn out. I have really enjoyed trying new techniques such as carving into layers of paint, making paint skins and working with a range of different materials. I also really liked using the printmaking and bindery labs, I found them very interesting and I would like to go back and work in those facilities more in the future. I think my work engaged well with the brief as I was consistently adding and producing new works that flowed on from one another. I found the third week the hardest as I had a lot of ideas in the first couple of weeks but then I reached a point where I didn’t know what direction I wanted my work to go in. I found that the most helpful thing was to research artists to find people using similar techniques or materials to myself and seeing how they produce their work and what their ideas are. If I had more time on this brief I would work more on the paint skins and thick paint, I would work on making my work to a larger scale. I would also like to go back to the bookbindery and try to put some of my works together into a book as a different way of presenting my work.

This week I have been continuing with the thick layering paint as well as experimenting with what happens when you paint with PVA glue. I have experimented with different colours, trying out a darker colour scheme with browns and dark blues and greens. I have found that these work well with the bright colours that I have used in my other earlier works. the main idea that I have been thinking about this week is turning 2D topographic maps into 3D sculptural maps. I am also looking at what happens when the medium that is normally used to make the paintings is now the work itself. I have also seen that I have a very linear way of working and showing my work so I have decided to make works that are in line and grid patterns. Overall I am really happy with the work that I’ve done this week and I’m happy with how most of my experimentations worked out.

For my final ideas I have been heavily inspired by Helen Calder. She creates paint skins and hangs them up, I have been trying to use this technique. I have also been looking at Cat Fooks, I like how she uses really thick paint and makes shapes out of this paint. Her work also relates to what im doing in my work with the layers of thick paint. Kirsten Carlin also uses similar techniques to Cat Fooks with making work out of thick paint. I also like the bright colours that Kirsten Carlin uses in her work. I want my work to be very bright and stand out.

This week I have tried a new technique. I have started layering different coloured paint and carving shapes out of it to create different patterns. I have really enjoyed playing around with this technique and I really like the patterns that come out of it. I have also found that I can use the pieces that I have cut out to make a new work.

Judy Millar is an artist that I have been looking at as I feel as though her work relates to the ideas i’m showing. I really like her use of bright colours and I really like the technique of scraping away layers of paint to reveal new colours and to create interesting patterns. She also looks at scale changes in her work which is a technique that fits in well with this brief.

I have also looked at Rohan Wealleans as his work revolves around the layers of paint that he scrapes into. I also like how he uses very bright contrasting colours that draw your eye into certain points of his works.

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I have been looking at artists that work on fabrics as I have been really interested in looking at how different mediums react on different materials. An artist that I have found that shows this idea well is Lara Merrett. She takes large pieces of fabric and dyes them different colours. I would really like to try making works that use this technique.

Week 1: The found materials that I brought in for the first day was, Old maps, materials, children’s books and a french dictionary. I was very interested in the maps and the patterns that they created. The children’s books reminded me of the technique of painting that I used to do when I was younger with a marble rolling on paper. I also traced over one of the maps onto clear paper and scanned it to different sizes. I tried layering things on top of the french dictionary pages however I wasn’t really happy with how these works turned out and its not an idea that I want to progress. I also used primary coloured inks onto the materials, I experimented with what happens when you wet the fabric before dyeing it and making ghosts. I found that with the wet fabric the inks bleed through into the newspaper and it created a cool pattern that I liked. I really liked the idea of mapping and I would like to look more into topographic maps.

I have started to use the printer in my work. I have made lots of patterns onto clear paper and layered them on top of each other. I used the technique of continuing to photocopy images over and over again changing things slightly. I loved the patterns that came out of this technique.

An Artist that I have been looking at is Daniel Eatock, I really like the techniques that he uses in his work, placing paper over some pens and letting the paint bleed. I tried experimenting with this but I couldn’t find any pens that worked well enough to bleed through. I decided to take the dot shapes through into more of my work.

Shannon Rankin is another artist that I have been looking at as most of her work is based around topographic maps. I like the works she has with cutting out parts of maps and layering into a topographic map shape. I really like this layering idea, I have already used this with the clear painted sheets and i would like to continue with this idea.

As I was researching some artists I cam across Heike Weber. I was drawn to her work by the complex patters that reminded me of topographic maps, I thought that I could use these patterns in my work. I really like the colours that she uses in her works as she mainly uses black, red and blue. My idea is to make works with these patterns in different colours onto clear paper and layering them on top of each other to create an even more complex patterned work.