Monday 2 July 2012

2nd Minor - Final Pieces

The Photographs shown in the previous post were used as a starting point for my second Minor project. The quotes below were from my research interviews with people giving their own interpretation or background to the photographs. 

The Missing Collection 



“This is a little girl, who, who lives in this big house, in the English countryside and she’s not allowed to go outside the gate and she keeps her days collecting small things she finds in the garden, and she makes them into little collages in her wheel barrow. So she has very particular ordered things in her barrow that she drives around with, its little clusters of things and she doesn’t speak to anyone. ever. when people ask her questions she just creates a little collection of objects from her garden and that will be her answer to peoples questions.” 


Digital collage

Shadow Box - Oak box, laser engraving, Hand Embroidery.

Shadow Box (detail) - Brass fixtures, leather handle 



The Souvenir 



“I find this one really odd, Maybe it’s because this one is darker than the other ones, and the hat stands out it is because her hat is so black, because the rest of the photo shows that is in really bright sunlight. It’s really odd because it looks like a blisteringly hot day, and she’s wearing this thick wool coat and a black hat and she’s got like black clothing underneath a black dress and black shoes and she’s obviously in her sunday best and a little boy who must probably be about 2 or 3, on his little bicycle, and he’s in his best clothes as well all polished up nicely and so I find that really bizarre. Like it’s some sort of formal occasion, I think it’s that they have gone, or are going to a funeral. And the little boy is happy because he doesn’t know what’s going on really, but the mum looks a bit, her eyes look a bit sad and really heavy and her earrings are just massive Pat Butcher size earrings. And they go with the coat and I can’t work out wether she’s really sad or she celebrating. So I think what has happened to her is this, I think her husband has died, and she’s actually quite happy about it, she’s like a trodden woman, she had a terrible time with him. She looks really like she’s glad that he’s gone but she looks knackered she’s had a hard life because her eyes look really sad and heavy. And the little boy doesn’t really know, he doesn’t really care because he didn’t see his dad much, and he’s quite happy that he has got his bike to keep him happy and he’s in his best clothes and he is going out for the day with his mum. So she’s going to a funeral, or they have been to a funeral, and I think that she will see this now as a new life, and she’s going to have a great time, and she is going to leave her little boy. She’s going to go off and have the life of riley and go meet some other fellas and have another life and have independence and she is going to leave her son behind. I think that this photograph is the only photograph her son is going to have of him and his mum. And I think that he gets given this photograph in a box from his mum after she’s died, and he also gets the earrings, the really big white Pat Butcher earrings, with some photographs but this is the only one that he has got with the both of them together. Maybe he goes to live with his nan, not a children’s home. I think there’s sad and happy, real contrast going on there just like the sunshine and the shade.”



The original photograph

Brooch Earrings - Wax, gold plated gilding metal, silk.



Monday 28 May 2012

2nd Minor - The Photo's

My second minor project was based on a series on found photographs.
Interviewing people, I asked them to describe the photos in question, what is happening in the photo? who are they? what happened just before the photo? where are they going after? 

What do you think is happening?










The answers given in these interviews were then used to inspire an installation.


Thursday 19 April 2012

New Website :D




I have finally got my website properly up and running! Still needs a little work, but nearly there!

Friday 30 March 2012

1st Minor - Photogram Plates

Along with my chair I also created a series of plates, the imagery on these plates is not created with a glaze but by a photographic process, using liquid emulsion. 

The concept behind these plates is a continuation of my extruded chair, referencing the way in which a hoard can overtake even the mundane, simple tasks in life. 




These pieces are slip cast in semi-porcelain and high fired. At this point they are painted with liquid emulsion and various food products are placed on the surface of the plate, which is then exposed with light, and is then developed. 











Monday 5 March 2012

1st Minor - Extruded Chair


From my original drawings I created a series of repeat patterns and had them digitally printed. 

With my favourite of the patterns (the slides) I decided to create an installation piece referencing the way in which hoarding can overtake a persons life, to the extent that even the most simple everyday tasks become impossible. 





After much striping of paint, sanding, re-staining, diamond tufting, and upholstering I finished part one of my first Minor Project, my Extruded Chair. 

Monday 23 January 2012

Home is where the hoard is...

After all the research into collecting that I had done for my dissertation I decided to take a different angle for my practical work, but still very much connected to it, so for my first ‘Minor’ project (I hate that it’s called that, it didn't feel ‘minor’ when I was doing all that work!!) I looked into hoarding...
I knew that I wanted to do a bit more drawing this year as I hadn’t done an awful lot of drawing for a while and so to jump start my idea’s I went around listening to peoples conversations and finding photographs. From hints within these conversations and pictures I drew up imaginary collections that these people could own (although I had no idea what I was going to do with them!). The items within these ‘collections’ are everyday objects and are more often associated with hoarding than collecting (other than the postcards...they just slipped in somehow!). Can an everyday commodity be part of a collection?
So for now here are a few of my drawings...
A series of old batteries

Sugar Packets

Postcards of architecture 

Slides


...next time I'll show you what I ended up doing with them. 

Saturday 21 January 2012

Remember me!?

Long time no see... 
I have been crazy busy for the last fews months writing my dissertation and doing two ridiculously ambitious projects, so have had no time to update my blog.
In order to catch up I’m thinking that I should spilt the posts up instead of creating one stupidly long post...
Where to start??
Well for the last half of the summer I was helping out the lovely Claire Brewster helping out and getting ready for Origin. It was great to see how she works and actually see the reality of making it out in the real world as an artist. 
You should definitely check out her work, it’s gorgeous and all meticulously cut by hand! I’ve now even got one of my very own!