This summer I was distracted.

I flittered about, working, reading books, seeing a couple of gallery shows.

Now I have to decide what I want to do with my practice, my artwork and my career. I am actually not going to think about the career for a bit. It will distract me.

So, thinking about my practice. I want my work to be personal, but I also want it to be about other people, people in general. I don't want it to be about the masses though. I think what I want is for it to be about people, personally. I want it to be about social etiquette, rudeness, pushing the boundaries of human behaviour, but also about people's personal struggles in life.

I think I want to basically marry up my performance work with Tess with my work in general. I want it all to be about humanity. What I really want to do is look at things somewhat psychologically. I often remember things or use things that I've learned from my psychology A Level and recently I've been reading Love's executioner by Irvin D. Yalom which has brought a lot of it back.

Ach, I don't know what to do. I think I'll start by looking at artists who looked at human behaviour and emotion.

Lisa Golightly

I recently stumbled upon some work by Artist; Lisa Golightly. Her recent series, 'The Floodline' ecperiments with acrylic paint, cold press watercolour paper and fabric dye.

I really like the freedom in the work. It seems very organic to me, like vast landscapes or ariel views.

LOVE IS WHAT YOU WANT (Tracey Emin at the Hayward)

Yesterday I went to see Tracey Emin's exhibition at the Hayward. It was amazing.
I was very drawn to how personal her work is and I have always identified with her in that respect, but I don't think, before seeing this exhibit, I realised just how personal it was. Diary entries became works of art, videos showed her interviewing her mother or telling personal life stories.

I was left pretty shocked by one of the videos (about one of her abortions) and still have not got my head around how I feel about it. Prehaps it was meant to shock, but it seemed so honest. Afterwards the word which came to my mind for how i felt was traumatized. But that is too strong a word, as what Emin went through was real trauma.

My favourite pieces were the paintings, which were just beautiful and also seemed very natural and emotive. I had thought, previous to going to the show, that I would enjoy the light works the most, however the paintings were fabulous.

I did see some of the most prolific pieces from Emin's career, such as her quilts, and whilst I enjoyed these, they were not the highlight of the exhibition for me. I think I was so blown away by the painting and the video work that they paled in comparison. They were however, part of her early work and it seems as though she has matured enormously over the course of her career.

I am very inspired now and feel very much like painting. I also think I should incorporate writing into my work more, which is a feeling I have had for a while now.

I am still processing how I feel with regards to the abortion video, I don't think I have ever seen anything which has made me feel so uncomfortable, yet intensely interested. I feel morbidly fascinated with the subject, but at the same time horrified.




I went to the exhibit with Tess, you can read her review here:

http://rational-romanticist.blogspot.com/2011/08/tracy-emin-love-is-what-you-want.html

More resin experimentation

Made these on Saturday, they are similar to the ones I did last semester in University, only this time I used a better mold, which was much better as It did not need any vaseline and so the whole process was a lot cleaner. Also the surface is a lot smoother.

Not really sure where I'm going with this yet but It gave me some interesting ideas, so the next time I do it I will explore those and then write more about it.

At the moment I am skirting around ideas of preservation and burial.

Also this summer:

I have been working on some polaroids of a form of body documentation, shall we say. There are not enough for it to be a finished series yet, but I will post when there are.

Currently reading:

Rachel Hannah - A room Swept White
Nicole Krauss - The History of Love
Kevin Fanning - How I learned to Love you from so Far Away
(The last two are particularly good and I definitely recommend them, the first is for book club)

Some more pictures from Winchester School of Art Degree Show 2011

These are a few more pictures I took of the Fine Art section of this years degree show. All digital photos.

Jane Price

Jane Emberson

Andrea Willette

Rebecca Jane Smith


These are some of my favourite pieces. I can't wait for my degree show and to see what everyone I know well comes up with.

Bruise I

Some Summery photos

Took these on a walk about a month ago. I have not taken nearly enough pictures this summer. Still, plenty of time left though and I have more plans for pictures and creative projects over the next couple of months.

Winchester School of Art Degree Show 2011

I didn't take a lot of pictures this year, but I did enjoy looking around the show.

There was one piece that I liked more than any other, I took a few pictures of it and thought I would share them.

I realised that I really like looking round art shows by myself. I can take my time to look at the things that really interest me and can walk by the things that I don't like or appreciate.

I don't think I've ever been to a show where I loved every piece of work, but sometimes I find I can appreciate the skill involved, even if the theme doesn't interest me. Of course, the best pieces are the ones which surprise me, ones where the technique is good, and the execution is immaculate, the themes interest me and I want to keep looking.

Anyway so this was my favourite piece.


Work by Elle Ford (elleford1@gmail.com) Her website does not appear to be up yet.


Photos are analogue and taken with cross processed slide film (Provia 100f) on a Pentax Spotmatic. I find Provia to be pretty unpredictable when cross processing and the hues can be anything from greens to complete redscale.

Heatwave

Been thinking about what to do over the summer and have a couple of ideas floating around.

1) Self Portraits
I want to look at self portraits. Photographic mainly. I figure if i take enough one of them will be good and I can learn more about photography along the way.

This is a self portrait by Diane Arbus and is one of my favourite photographs:



2) Secret Paintings
I have plans for some oil paintings involving the human body, but they will be slightly different to the last painting I did, more my usual styles and themes.

3) Secret Photos.
I have been working on a series of Black and White photos. Sadly I wont be able to develop these until October. However, this does give me plenty of time to work on the series. The theme is consumerism.

I will have some new photographs developed soon. Maybe early next week?

I am also reading a lot at the moment. Just read The Collector by John Fowles and am going to read The Magus now, also by Fowles.

Painting

Decided to do some painting last night. Quite enjoyed it but I definitely feel like I should be working bigger than this.

I love oil paint, I love the texture, the way it looks, the way it can be worked into. I should really make sure I keep up painting so that I can improve.