Sunday 11th November 2012

It has been a good six weeks since my last post and this was intentional, my thoughts were of getting before and after pictures of my projects rather than entering into long series of scripted description where the reader would have to use too much imagination..... that said my work is following that exact path so it is actually quite ironic... ahaha!

My projects this semester have been using....yes you've guessed it TEXT Yippee I hear you yell, well I don't care I'm doing it for me ahaha and much like me my work you will either love or hate and if you hate you'll grow to love ahaha. enough of the baloney  here are some pics to keep you amused for at least 2 minutes.

With summer gone and but a distant memory of lazy days and greedy nights my spare time although not much has been dedicated to my babies, with long walks and time to think they keep me sane in my insane world...

                                  

Some of my bits of work, labour intensive measuring, fine tuning and lots and lots of Jig-sawing. By the end of it I thought that I had Saint Vitus Dance, that said I am really glad that I managed to do it all myself from start to finish. Even with the little errors here and there the work is mine and the errors make it unique to me.

Chiselling and Filing each letter.

I think the effort paid off as they look great on the wall.

Then finally Self Illuminating.

This piece of work was designed and created to work with the wall and space in mind, although the studio space I have this year is a nice size it is hard to create a exhibition within a box and harder still to give the audience an experiential tour of my space. The work is meant to change on viewing and as we walk around the space and each viewer is supposed to identify with what is being asked of course on an individual basis. The letters are also supposed to just cast shadows with limited lighting this did work and as the picture shows the illuminating effects did work too, this was created to highlight another statement within the question of text.

During October me and the old dear went on a trip to Cambridge for the 'Text & Context' Exhibition this was a variety of work that was either carefully placed or strewn around the city of Cambridge. The concept behind the actual exhibition was to have works with text created by artists around the city and as people went along with their day to day lives these pieces would be seen (or not) as folk walked about. Some of the pieces were obscure, some of them were in shops, streets, windows of houses, on garage doors, in the university, in & on the Y.M.C.A building and in the drop in shelter. 

The day was long and draining on my poor fat legs and the work was far and wide and due to the roads being dug up all over the only way forward was to walk.. The day was enjoyable and the work was cleverly thought out, the words were thought provoking and hidden quite well in some areas. Some of the pieces had been vandalised, some were hard to work out as they blended into society and some were performance pieces that had already been acted out and only remnants of paper and locals opinions remained. For myself it was of great help as this gave me greater confidence in my work and how I would like it to be exhibited. The event was a clever idea to interact with the day to day mundane chores and goings on of the average passer by on their way to work or shopping.

A piece set in the homeless drop in shelter.

The above piece was very clearly visual on the bare wall of the homeless drop in shelter. I could not read what the text was and neither could my partner, however a lady that was slightly intoxicated and extremely friendly advised me in drunken gibberish that she could read it perfectly fine and it translated that 'Jesus was dead and that if we don't want to end up like him we must first help ourselves!' Makes perfect sense to me, although I am not convinced that the text was that exact message I only have that lady's word for it as she was reading it to me as I stood before her.! She also had a friend with her that backed up the reading and they were both pointing out the apparent words and text..... it must have been an individual experience, but looking at the piece for a while did make me feel quite intoxicated. There was another one at the other side of the wall that was just as diffused and identical in external appearance. 

Here are some other pieces that we found on out text hunt around the beautiful city of Cambridge. See if you can spot the Text & Context.

YMCA

Art department in the University.

Poetry above a Health shop. hard to make out on this pic.

the telegrams in the old post office

?

hidden within the depths of the back streets of Cambridge.

All in all an interesting day out. It would be intriguing to see how long anything placed in the Grimsby area would last!

Back to my work now ahha, I have also been making a cast of my face to utilise within another project but that is still ongoing but the cast pics I will place on here for the laugh. It was my first face casting of myself and I had help from Sara & Sue but alas they were too gentle with me and some of the face was missed.

 The original cast, not very good but worked on it.

These are not my work only a means to an end. all will be revealed soon. The plaster is too messy for my liking and makes a terrible mess in the studio and to be honest plaster has no appeal to myself as I find it bland and dull.

Also this week I have been working on some of my poetry and trying to build it into some sculpture either to be wall based or free standing, I'm not sure yet.

A long and tedious task, but i'm liking the results up to now.

And one of the first sculptures I was working on will be updated again after trying various lighting within the box unit. it was back to the drawing board as I want a bigger box..

 And that is it for now..... apart from dissertation writing which I am enjoying at the moment... lets see what happens in a few weeks though ahahha but i've got so many ideas my heads bursting with energy aaarrrggghhhh!

This week saw the first group crits in the studios and I must admit it was one of the best crit sessions I have personally had. The group was an eclectic mix of media and characters and the group had great ideas and challenges that they presented. I also needed to ask myself to slow down again as the creative juices flow so fast sometimes I just get on with it and need to take the step back and look closer at what I am creating...smacked hand.. Noted!