Still using the projector light, I started to work with water as this created a more natural, organic movement. I also wanted to experiment with a unusual media and one that I could only control to a certain degree. Starting to experiment with the water was really fun and enjoyable because it was unusual watching it grow and spread on it's own. I did not really have a clear direction of where i was heading or what I wanted my outcome to be but I tried to just experiment and maybe something would catch my eye that I could move forward.
I looked into an artist named Barney Bubbles (Colin Fulcher). He was a English graphic artist whose work encompassed graphic design and music video direction. Bubbles, who also sketched and painted privately, is best known for his distinctive contribution to the design practices associated with the British independent music scene of the 1970s and 1980s.
He created liquid light shows for a band named 'Hawkind' and these are what caught my attention. Looking at the colours and shapes he created in these light shows are very unusual, almost looking like micro-organism's and planets. They are also animated so they move around in all different directions.
http://www.billhamlights.com/light_paints.html (The link to Bill Ham lights website).
Whilst looking on the internet about Bubbles I came across another artist called Bill Ham. His work immediately caught my eye because of the colours, depth and shapes that were included. I loved how abstract and interesting the compositions where. The colours included in his pieces were expressively vibrant and luminous. If I can I want to try and capture the same intensity that his compositions have.
He also creates magnificent canvas and paper paintings, which again I am hoping to work into in the future.
These are the start of my first few ink and water pieces which were projected onto the wall. At the beginning i just wanted to get a feel as to how the water and ink mixed and moved around on the acetate. I found it very interesting to watch the ink and water blend together and spread and grow by itself. I wanted to keep the movement throughout all my work and I thought this is one of the most successful ways to incorporate movement by allowing the water and ink to move on its own. I had a certain amount of control over how the water moved around by lifting certain corners of the acetate but once I had put it back down the media would move on its own. I liked the challenge of not having much control over the media.
These are how the ink and water dried on the acetate. I thought they created interesting abstracted compositions, and with it being on a transparent base I was able to experiment moving the compositions over each other in different ways and also i could shine light through them to see what effect it would give off. I thought these small pieces where successful small studies on their own and they also show part of the journey and process I have used.
These are my first few attempts at using water and ink. Next time I am going to bring my recorder in so I can record the movement. However I like the stills of the work as I believe they created interesting compositions on their own. Using these medias allowed me to keep experimenting with movement, mark making and light in a non-traditional way.
Using my acetate ink pieces I took them down to photography where John and Alan showed me the process of how to create a photo-gram. I had never used this technique before so I was eager to learn. Once they had taken me through how to do it, i was left to do it. I enjoyed the challenge of being independent in this new process. However i was slightly nervous because I did not want to break anything. I created these by exposing my prints to a light in the dark room and placing them into a machine.
I was extremely happy with the outcome of my prints because they were so unusual. They reminded me of scans similar to a brain scan or baby scan. Although the prints are a simple process the outcomes are unique and different. Again I can see myself referring back to these in the future to push them forward.
To create these compositions John helped me to use a swan neck camera and a light to project them. With the light being underneath the acetate it gave off a circular effect, which changed the composition completely. The outcome of these looked like planets or agor on a slide under a microscope.
These compositions where projected onto the wall, where i could layer the acetate pieces on top of each other to get different outcomes. The projector also had different effects in which you could edit the colour of the composition. I thought once they were projected onto the wall they looked eye catching, and being able to interact and change the composition around will involve the audience.
These are several photos I took of my projection. You can see how I have Manipulated the compositions and edited the colours and contrast. Messing around with the layering and depth of these pieces was really enjoyable. I thought the pieces where a small amount of colour coming through were really interesting and I also liked the simplicity of the black and white effect, which created various tones.
Pushing my water and ink pieces on I started to add oil onto the acetate. watching the ink, oil and water interact was interesting because the oil repelled the ink which created an usual bubbly effect.
As you can see in this piece the oil has separated the ink. Adding the oil defiantly improves the movement and flow of the piece. I really enjoyed experimenting with these medias and how abstract the outcomes became. I would love to experiment with these techniques in the future but on a much larger scale. The ink and the oil coming together creates more organic shapes and it also allows the light to shine through.
In life class I have been focusing on creating an accurate drawing. I have the choice of deciding which style I want to work in, but because I have not done life class for a while I wanted to get back into the habit of measuring and marking and using my eyes as measuring tools. Once I know I am confident with this technique again I am going to move onto creating more expressive, gestural pieces using charcoal, chalk, ink and paint. I am looking forward to this because I love being able to use the media expressively. However, sometimes I do enjoy stripping everything back and just working on my accuracy.
I created a few experimental studies on a different type of paper, which had a shiny effect. The texture of the paper was much smoother and it had a slippery effect. The ink, oil and water moved around easily on the surface of this paper. On a few of my pieces I experimented with dragging any excess ink of the surface. This did link back to my beginning where I over painted and under painted. However, I still think my acetate pieces where more successful because of the transparency allowing me to layer and to shine a light through them.
I created several more ink on acetate pieces for my final exhibition piece. I was going to hang these so people could look through them and move around them. When you move around the pieces you can create your own composition. I am going to place them near to the entrance of the college so the breeze from outside will make them sway slightly. Although these pieces are still it still enables the audience to ''move'' around them. On their own they are also very interesting little compositions.
I began to experiment with how I could hang them using fishing wire and drawing pins. I hung them layered in front of each other so you could look through them. I also shone a light through them which produced a shadow onto the wall. I wanted to experiment with light because I still wanted the depth in my pieces. But layering them in front of each other also created this.
For my exhibition piece I need to create a dark space where I would be able to project my work. I needed the help of my tutors to set my space up correctly. We used a dark material to layer over the top of my walls and we sliced it down the front to create a curtain. The space was quite small so we had to figure out where we were going to place the electrical equipment. I am not great with electronics so John my tutor helped me out, thankfully. I felt guilty needing to ask him to help me out a lot, but he knows how to work and safely look after all the electrics. I am glad I had his help cause I do not think I could of created what I wanted to on my own. Curating an exhibition is much harder than I thought. Organizing time, spaces and people all together was challenging. With this exhibition being much more independent I realized how organized and prepared I had to be. This is my first exhibition where I tried to lead what was happening, and I believe I have learnt a lot from this experience. I found it very stressful but only because I wanted the show to be a successful first exhibition.
Through the exhibition we wanted to showcase our journey through drawing and mark making and what we have come to understand. This meant we displayed various pieces of our work not just our final outcomes. I thought mixing our work together showed how far we have all come as a group. Although each person had created a huge variety of different pieces of work using traditional and non-traditional media they all linked together nicely. This helped because we did not have to struggle to much about where work would look best. For some of my work I used my black, white and red strip along with my photo-grams next to each other. These linked well together because the line, colour, and shapes all worked together. I think placing these next to each other created a successful exhibition piece.
My long landscape piece was placed high up onto the wall along with Chloe's and Callum's long strips. Together I think they all worked well together and they defiantly looked impressive up on the wall.
I asked Adam to photograph the exhibition throughout the process because he could create a panoramic shot using his phone. This captured the various works in progress. Photographing the process of us curating the show allows us to look back and see how we had improved over the short period of time we had to get the exhibition up.
I emailed Wigan and Leigh college on Facebook to ask if they could possibly advertise our exhibition on there page. The show fell on the same night as the open evening which was great for us as this hopefully means more people attending. I couple of days later I saw they had made a post advertising our show.
At the entrance to the college we placed my first mark making drawing. This was to show the start of the journey we had all undergone. Mine was also still in one piece so it was easier to move to the space. Some smaller parts of the wire had come off but they were easy enough to fix. Putting some pieces of Bex's work on the other side walls complimented each other well. These were the first things you saw as you entered the college and we all thought the pieces were strong enough to grab peoples attention and to get the interested in the show. Also at the entrance where a my hung up ink pieces.
I hung my pieces in front of each other so you the audience could move around them. The wind from the entrance also moved them around slightly which I thought was interesting, because although the compositions where ''still'' pieces they still had a natural movement to them. With the viewer moving around the pieces they would create different compositions.
Inside of my area I had a Light box, projector and a swan neck camera along with my acetate ink pieces. I left a few of my ink pieces because people could interact with them by moving them around and changing the composition. I had to adjust the light box onto the dimmer setting because you could see the bulb flickering when it was being projected.
This is how my acetate pieces projected onto the wall. The swan neck camera is a very interesting piece of equipment because you can bend it so it captures what you want it to. It also has a button called ''effects'', which changes the effects of what it is seeing to black and white, or inverted etc.. These can change the outcome of the composition completely. I believe overall my exhibition pieces were successful because it showed the journey I had been on through this project. I knew from the start of the project I wanted to experiment with traditional and non-traditional media to try and broaden my horizons. I have learned that I still have a long way to go before I can call my self an artist, but I am determined to learn and improve. Since starting back on this college course I was unsure if i had made the right decision in staying. I am still slightly undecided one if my decision was the right one but I know I have to work to the best of my ability to get better. I also think the exhibition was a success and I am really happy that together as group we pulled it off, sometimes things for heated and things did not work out, but that is all part of our learning processes and from this we all know how we can improve in the future.
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