Studio Practice : Identity

Identity

Following on from the previous project, I continued to develop my ideas on physical context by looking at place, scale and the audience of visual work and how it impacts the meaning of the work. This project helped me expand my knowledge as I was able to further develop and explore themes of ‘identity and narrative’. I found this interesting, especially as I was able to compare modern artists with artists from the past. It was interesting to see how both worked with the themes of ‘identity and narrative’ and how they experimented with images, processes, objects and materials. I found that new narratives were created, providing me with a rich and varied source of inspiration throughout this project.

Elsworth Kelly was the first artist I looked at, as he was really influential after the war. She became well known for his bright canvasses after influencing the development of minimalism and pop art. He maintained persistent focus on the dynamic relationships between shape form and colour, which definitely interests me. I like how Kelly created irregular shaped canvasses as well as flat sculptures and line drawings, which challenged my conception of ‘space’.

I thought Elsworth Kelly would be a good artist to look at because I’d like viewers to be able to identify my work and experience it with physical responses to the works structure and surrounding space. Real life observations are the backbone of Kelly’s abstraction works. He said “They are replications of the shapes, shadows, and other visual experiences in the world around me”.  When creating my final piece for this project I used mainly Elsworth Kelly (along with Rhys Coren) as inspiration and used bold, contrasting colours, free of recognisable imagery and brushstrokes. Here is an image of Rhys Coren's work - a representation of a football strip. I did something similar. 

http://www.seventeengallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMG_6223-1.jpg

Sarah Morris is another artist I researched. She has been producing abstract paintings and films describing mainly urban and social factors in different cities. She looks closely at architectural details along with the psychology of a city. She began her career producing graphic paintings and I would describe them as ‘dramatic,’ especially with the emotive language used in newspapers/advertising headlines. Her recent series of work is about Rio, Brazil and she seems to have looked at the contrast between ‘urban Rio’ with the city’s beaches, fruit stands etc. From looking at her paintings, I would imagine Rio has lots of hospitals, factories, modern architecture and (football) stadiums, especially after hosting the Olympics in 2016.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/P/P78/P78599_10.jpg

I thought about certain colours I was going to use in the piece of work and seen as football is something I’m definitely interested in, I decided to go down that route. I thought about the team I support along with their identity (Manchester City)

Home kit – light blue/dark blue

Away kit – black/red

Third kit – orange/purple

This links in with my project as it’s about the identity of a certain place, like I would associate ‘Big Ben’ and ‘The Eye’ with London and ‘Eiffel tower’ and ‘Champagne’ with Paris.

Sarah Morris shifted her focus towards Paris in 2014, where she obviously explored cultural, economic and social typologies by looking into Louis Vuitton in Paris; along with champagne, perfume and fashion – the artist explores concepts of national identity.

Skills and aptitudes

In one of our recent CPiC lectures we looked at the skills we possess and the skills we feel like we need to improve, especially if we want to work in a professional environment in the future. I did find this lecture useful because it was about applying creative abilities into a job in the art industry. It was also nice to know what other students thought of me after taking part in the group activity.

Before this lecture I wasn’t so sure on the difference between skills, aptitudes and characteristics. Now, I am much more confident between the three. I learnt that a skill is the learned activity to carry out a task with pre-determined results often given within a certain amount of time / energy. An example of this could be learning to drive. An aptitude is a natural ability to do something. An example for this could be a child with an aptitude for painting and drawing. A characteristic is a feature of quality belonging typically to a person, place or thing.

This skills map shows different categories, containing many different skills which are all required in a professional work environment. Before studying the mind map, I looked at what I thought were the most important professional attributes. These were

• Leadership skills
• Interpersonal skills
• Problem solving skills
• Self-motivation
• Efficient
• Detail oriented
• The ability to prioritise
• Team player
• Reliable
• Ability to multitask

I have highlighted the skills I feel like I already possess (pink) and the skills I felt like I needed to improve upon (green). I found this part quite difficult and I didn’t quite understand what some of the terms meant e.g. ‘Classifying and synthesizing’. As I mentioned, we took part in a group activity which was very useful but at the same time I feel like it became more challenging as others thought I had skills which I didn’t think I had, so then I thought about examples and experiences to ensure that the skill was highlighted in the correct color for me – pink or green?

From having a general look at the map, it seems to be that ‘Co-operating’ is an area where my skills are rather good as I believe I have good listening skills, I can give or accept constructive criticism, I can support others, motivate others and I can present a positive personal image. Other skills I have highlighted in pink include ‘attention to quality’ and ‘working on your own initiative’ which are particularly useful to have whilst studying an art degree. I feel like ‘Creativity’ is one of my main strengths and I’ve always wondered why some people are able to generate loads of ideas super fast and think creatively, whilst others seem to struggle to do so?

‘’The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas’’ – Linus Pauling.

I have used green on the skills which I think could be better, it’s not that I’m really bad at them. For example, speaking in front of an audience is something I’d always found difficult at school. I was able to do it; I just wasn’t very confident at it. I found that I knew the information, and what I want to say I just became nervous and slightly hesitant.

My ICT skills aren’t fantastic but I know what I need to know. I can use my E-mails, Word, Publisher, PowerPoint and Excel with confidence. In comparison to others, my IT skills are bad – I wish I knew how to use photoshop, for example. My telephone skills could easily be improved – I think it’s because we don’t use the telephone in an education environment or in a professional practice, but I’m presuming over the next few years we will begin to use the telephone more in a professional manner as we start to get jobs. We communicate with our teachers, lecturers and fellow students in person. I think some of the skills will come more naturally as we get older and more mature.

I found this ‘skills map’ analysis exercise very useful in order for me to improve. If I was to do this exercise again I would definitely have a third color, where I would highlight the skills I wasn’t 100% sure about. Most of the skills could’ve been either pink or green and I found it challenging to distinguish between the two because a lot of the time it would change, depending on the circumstances.

Environment

This project developed themes of scale, material and audience. It also further developed the ideas of narrative, context and interpretation.

I thoroughly enjoyed this project brief and I found myself asking questions like

• Where does art really belong?
• What factors influence the meanings we associate with places?
• How might I influence of alter perceptions and ideas by exploring context and juxtaposition.

I visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where I collected visual and textual information / data. I considered the landscape and the exhibitions. I thought about the landscape as an environment for art. I also thought about how it might be read – socially, culturally, politically and historically before applying it to a gallery context, thinking about how individuals could relate to it.

Yayoi Kusama was the first artist I researched for this project. Yayoi Kusama was born in March 1929 and is a Japaneese artist and writer. Throughout her career she has worked with a wide variety of media including paint, collage, sculpture, performance art and environment installations. I like how her work usually shows a strong interest in colour, repition and pattern – exactly like my work although it looks so different. She is influenced by minimalist and feminist artwork.

Image : www.pinterest.com/yayoikusama

Kusama started creating art at an early age, going to study painting at Kyoto in 1948. In 1957 she moved to New York where she produced a series of paintings which were influenced by abstract expressionist movement.  Personally, I find the European/American art more interesting although some of the most interesting abstract artists are from Japan. Yayoi moved back to Japan in 1973 and became an art dealer but her business folded and after a few years she was admitted to a mental hospital… I can see her work includes psychological content.

Then, I looked at Martin Creed’s work. He is a British artist and musician who currently lives and works in London. He was born in Wakefield but moved to Glasgow when he was 3. He studied art at the Slade, London. Creed’s work is often a small intervention of the world and uses whatever materials he feels are suitable. One of my favourite pieces is “work No. 200,” where the cubic space is filled with balloons. I could’ve tried something like this as I think it’s a really interesting way to get the audience to engage with the environment. I really like how the majority of Martin Creeds work seems to be very structured and organised. This is exactly how I plan my work to be – especially when working with geometric shapes.

Image : http://observer.com/2016/06/10-things-to-do-in-new-yorks-art-world-before-june-10/

Martin Creeds work is sometimes quite controversial. At one of his exhibitions, a visitor threw eggs at the walls of Creeds empty room as a protest against the turner prize, declaring that Creeds presentations were not “real art” and that “painting is in danger of becoming an extinct skill in this country”. I feel like this is very ironic as Creed has been exhibiting paintings in nearly exhibition he has done over the past years. In 1994 Creed formed a band called ‘Owada’ and he used both his music and art talent to form an even better piece of visual work.

Bridget riley was born in April 1931 in London. She’s an English painter who currently works in London, Cornwall and France. Between 1956 and 1958 Riley nursed her father (who was a well-known printer) as he had been involved in a serious car accident. Her early work seemed to be figurative with a semi impressionist style. She was also a teacher at this point, until 1960’s, when she began to develop her signature art style. I like how she mainly uses black and white. I love how the patterns and geometric shapes she creates have quite a distorting effect on the eye. Riley’s style seems to have been influenced by a number of sources and I feel like her work greatly influenced me as I loved the variety of geometric shapes and forms she uses, which produce sensations of movement / colour. They make me feel slightly “sea sick.”

Riley began investigating colour in 1967, the year she produced her first striped painting. Her trip to Egypt inspired her to use hieroglyphic decorations. She created her own ‘’Egyptian pallet”. Could I’ve used a holiday or a different tradition to influence my work?

Sol Lewitt was born in 1928 in Hartford and worked up until his death in 2007. He studied a fine art degree and then worked as a graphic designer in New York. I especially love how his work always maintained the idea or concept – what can art be? Sol Lewitt was probably my biggest inspiration whilst completing this project. 

Image : http://massmoca.org/sol-lewitt/

 I like how most of his work is colourful, similar with the contrast in Bridget Riley’s work. I like how its abstract and conceptual. Lewitt believed that the idea itself is a work of art. I aimed for my work to be colourful and abstract, including a few black and white pieces, or even a main black and white piece!  Lewitt’s work ranged from sculpture/painting/drawing. Most of his conceptual pieces often did take on a basic material form. Larger scale of wall pieces were not completely controlled by the artist as apprentices carried out his instructions, which were deliberately vague.

My work didn’t involve anybody else but if I was to leave a team with instructions, the emphasis would definitely be on the process and materials rather than producing work with a narrative. I don’t see meaning as a requirement like other Artists. If my work is aesthetically pleasing - I’m happy.

Here are some photographs of my final piece for this project. I experimented with different ideas before producing the final outcome. Here are some of the questions I had to ask myself / test out during the development stage.

• Am I going to work directly onto the studio walls or onto paper?
• Am I going to continue working onto the floor, until the tape runs out?
• How much tape should I buy?
• Should I leave the tape and roll stuck to the wall once it's coming to the end of the roll
• Think about what colour tape I will be using
• Think about the background colour or contrast
• Are there any other objects I could work on in the studio environment e.g. a chair?
• Will I plan it out first or will all the lines be spontaneous? 

My final piece 

Text and Image/Random Narratives

This was a three week project where we worked both collaboratively and individually. I looked at the relationship between text and image, between what is seen and what is read in a contemporary art context. I liked this project as it introduced some of the key ideas to how we think about the relationship between text and image. I was encouraged to experiment and explore the ways in which things and artefacts I produce are read or interpreted – both explicitly and implicitly. I was forced to think about how this may be applied and used within contemporary art.

Throughout the first week we shared images in small groups (which we collected during freshers week) and began to discuss the narrative possibilities of random and disparate materials when they are placed together. We began to explore new contexts - a wide range of possibilities were explored, debated and developed. I considered the ways in which narratives, material and processes impact upon meaning and communication as we worked towards a more individual approach. 

During this project I attended a workshop. I particularly liked the warm up exercise in groups of 3. On A3 paper we had to do 2 x 7 minute drawings of the other two people in our group.  These were line drawings and I used pencil, graphite and charcoal. We then spoke about how each of us felt about the drawings and how we felt about being drawn. We then worked together to produce another, more experimental life sized representation of each person. I tried to interpret the word ‘representation’ loosely  and expanded on the idea of a caption by incorporating a wide range of text into the work – words I had seen, spoken, heard and read.

Throughout the three weeks I researched artists including Judy Wize, Edward Ruscha, Teesha Moor, Bruce Nauman, Matt Dinniman, Cheryl Sorg, Mira Shcendel, Greg Sand and Sean Williams. 

Here his one of the development pieces I produced using Greg Sand as inspiration. I took Photographs in Grave yards, before cutting out silhouettes.

Teesha Moore is another artist who inspires me. She lives in Washington and believes in following dreams and passions. She is a very successful artist and is well known for her quirky scrapbook pages. I really like her work as it’s mostly collage – I really like the idea of ripping up images, sticking them back together and adding bits to them to give them a whole new meaning.

Her inspiration was graphic design and music. She collected childrens books, design books, art books, cook books and quote books. I like that because she would mix all these up, jumble them together in her brain and they would come out the other end as art.

Matt Dinniman is an artist from the UK who is most famous for his collage work. He tends to cut up and collage animals with hats and sunglasses etc. I thought this artist would be a good influence for me and this project as he uses dictionary pages. From what I can see, I don’t think the background writing is relevant to the image.

From hipster dogs to chimps in space and rhinos looking for a first date, every creation is the direct result of little sleep and too much caffeine which is why I think using coffee to stain the pages would be a good idea – it could represent too much caffine at the same time as giving the background an old look. I like how Matt Dinniman combines traditional art, photography and illustration.

There are many animals I could look into. I thought I would research this artist because all of the others seem to focus on people. I have collected visual research from animal magazines and also leaflets from various farms. I’ve taken lots of photographs and drew from them, before adding accessories. Here are a some examples of some quick sketches I produced, using ink and twigs/sticks. I made some natural drawing tools using things from the environment, I got this idea from a trip we went on, where we had to produce landscape pictures using soil, grass and sticks. 

Understanding creativity

Attitude
Knowledge
Imagination
Habitat
Resources
Culture

In seeligs innovation model you can see that attitude, knowledge and imagination overlap. This is because these three parts of the engine are intermal and come from inside you - they are inside the mind and perhaps nobody else can influence them.

On the other hand, culture, habitat and resources are of the outside world. Although these do influence the process of imagination transforming knowledge into ideas, I do believe that all six of these engines are essential for creative problem solving, along with confidence.

Attitude is an important engine because turning ideas into reality is never straight forward. It definitely requires motivation and drive. It is important for the individual to be able to motivate themselves and again, comes with confidence.

Seelig believes that knowledge is seen to be fuel for the imagination, without knowledge the imagination won’t be fantastic. For me, imagination is how we connect and combine ideas, they could be seen as puzzle builders for some people. Seelig believes that to be creative you must have a depth of knowledge as a starting point. When I’m working on some art work and I come to a hurdle, I have to build upon my knowledge and provide myself with tools to overcome the problem. This could be the case with anything. You then pay attention and know for next time – the more we know, the more resources we have.

Knowledge is parallel to resources in the model because according to Seelig, a person’s knowledge depends upon their resources. If you have loads of resources your knowledge will be greater and if you don’t have much knowledge, this is because you don’t have many resources? She says that the more you know about a certain thing then the more likely you are to get funding. She says “It’s really important to look at the interrelationship of all these pieces and not look at them in isolation.”

On the other hand, Habitat is outside of imagination and not parallel to it. This is because ‘’habitat is the externalization of imagination’’, according to Seelig. We have to imagine certain environments first, before stimulating our imagination. I do believe that the environment affects the way we think. Does this mean that the types of environment we build, effects our imagination? This could be true for knowledge and resources as well.

I believe that resources should be viewed more broadly to include time, people etc. This is because I think people tend just to associate resources with money and materialistic things.

Seelig believes that creativity can be taught but I believe that we are all naturally creative. We are all creative as we respond and communicate to the world around us / to our environment. She says ''Interacting with the world requires creative problem solving every day''.

Every sentence we say is unique, our brain thinks about every single thing we say and every action we make. The environment and our culture could be a problem because these have been squashed - Seelig believes that our education system is to blame for this and I would agree with her because at school we are brought up to believe there is only one right answer and schools also favour multiple choice tests, where again, there can only be one right answer.In school I sometimes felt under pressure - especially in front of the class because we were often forced to memorize facts and figures. We were never pushed to think outside the box, and were scared of being wrong.

5 Words

My previous post was about a play dough model representation of where I want to be in 5-10 years time. So, I thought I'd pick a few words describing how I'd like to see myself in 5-10 years time. I decided on

Happy,

Inspiring,

Appreciated

Committed

Successful.

Throughout this post I will give a quick explanation of why I have chosen these particular words / what they mean to me.

Happy – when someone mentions ‘happy’ I think of ‘content’ or ‘fortunate’. I am very fortunate to be able to have a close family who support me whatever I decide to do. I am fortunate to be given so many opportunities and experiences. These experiences have shaped me to be the person I am today. I think that bad experiences and just as important as good ones because you can learn from them and they can make you a stronger person. When I have produced bad artwork or have been given bad feedback I take on board the advice and improve for next time. I like the sense of pride when iv completed a good piece of work. I feel like if I am happy, it has knock on effects and benefits.

Inspiring – I would like to have the effect of inspiring somebody. After I have finished my degree I would like to become an art teacher in a high school. I would like to think I could inspire young people to want to do well in the subject, to become more creative and be motivated to produce work and succeed. In the future I would also like to have a family, where I would defiantly like to inspire my own children to be the best that they can be by teaching them manners, helping them academically and by guiding them down the right paths.

Appreciated – I would like to feel appreciated in 5 years time. I know I am going to give everything to achieve my goals and it would nice to feel like people valued me. If I did become an art teacher, I would treat the pupils with respect and think highly of them. I would hope that they would think highly of me too as I would always push them to be the best artists they could be. I would also like to be appreciated by my friends and family.

Committed – I would like to be commited in 5 years. Some commitments are like marriage. I would like to be commited to a job, by showing up and doing the job well. Throughout the next 3 years I intend to be committed to this art course by producing the best work that I can. I will do this by turning up every day and staying in the studios or in the library when im not working at home. Every piece of work needs to be finished - I will finish one piece before moving onto the next.

Successful – I chose this word because I thought it was the hardest one to define. In my opinion ‘successful’ is hard to define because different people have different goals. Schools define success by grades eg  A*, A, B. In school I was never the most intelligent and in science, my C grade was the equivalent to another pupil’s A*. My mum used to give me so much help and confidence and I think that was so important because teachers wouldn’t praise a student for getting D grades, but if that was the best they could do then why didn’t they?  In 5 years I would see myself as successful if I was a teacher, or even if I was a step closer to being one.

My 3D representation

In one of our lectures last week we were told to create a quick 3 dimensional representation (using play dough) of where we want to be in the future, accompanied by a description which explains what the work represents and how we arrived at it.

Here is my model

At first I thought about making a see-saw to represent stability. I would like to think that in the future my responsibilities won’t be weighing me down. The initial idea was to have one side representing me, and the other side representing my responsibilities. These could include a job, providing food, clothes and shelter for any children, educating the children, paying bills, cooking and cleaning.

After thinking more into this idea, I decided to stick with the idea of ‘stability’. I then made a mind map of other words I associated with being stable and these included

balanced,

constant,

strength,

support,

solidarity,

anchored.

I thought about making a boat, to represent me and an anchor to represent responsibilities. After studying my list of words, ‘balanced’ and ‘constant’ seemed the most appropriate. I then thought of objects including a bike, which seemed appropriate because I could make stabilizers.

I have been guided throughout all my years in education. I have been given ideas, help and support by ‘adults’. These adults are seen to be more powerful, thinking about a hierarchy.

A teacher is always more powerful than a student and a parent is always more powerful than the child, as they have more experience and know more about life lessons and society.

The idea was that eventually, these stabilizers are removed and in the future, I would like to think I am able to continue without these ‘things’ holding me up. I hope I am able to guide myself and at first, a child is always slightly unstable on their bike after removing the stabilizers. It’s the same thing, there will be times where there will be bendy roads, hills and obstacles in the way. These obstacles could be the electricity bills, the job or the children but with the right energy and determination, anybody is able to make it over the finish line and achieve their goals.

Have you settled into Uni and what are you most looking forward to learning this year?

Yes, I feel like I have settled into university quicker than I thought I would. I am from Leeds but I didn’t want to stay in Leeds and Huddersfield is a perfect distance from everyone at home – not too far but close enough I can bring my washing home on a weekend!!! Huddersfield is a nice city, it’s quite small but I like how everything is close together and in walking distance - it only takes me 10 minutes to walk to Uni.

I moved into halls on the 10th September 2016. I am staying at Saw Mill, on Kings Mill Lane. It’s really nice there, I loved it after the open days. I remember being really emotional that morning, I woke up early, which was very unusual for me (usually I have 25372 alarms set)!

I went to the printing shop to print off some photographs for my notice board in my new bedroom. When I got back my Mum had already loaded the car and I followed her to Huddersfield because I had no idea how to get here, even though its just one long straight road.

After I checked in, I sorted out my car park permit and started to unload the car. It took forever - there’s no lift in my block and I’m on the top floor! But I do have a nice view from my bedroom window. Here is a picture I took the other day.  

I went food shopping with my mum and sorted out my bedroom. I love it and it feels really homely. I thought it would take me longer to get settled but I do still go home on a weekend as I work on both a Saturday and Sunday.

As well as moving out I was also quite nervous about starting university. However, after the first day I was looking forward to the next 3 years. We had a tour around the campus and watched a few videos and power points. It was really helpful as we were given lots of useful information, about ipoint and about the course.

We spoke about the 3 strands on the course – illustration / contemporary art and illustration / contemporary art. I am just studying contemporary art and I really like how we have a small class. This means that we get more studio space to work in and more contact time with the tutors. 

The tutors are really helpful, friendly and supportive. They give good constructive criticism and I like this because it motivates me to make the best work that I possibly can! I think that's why everybody seems to have settled in so well - its nice to know your teachers are approachable and are open to any questions you may have. In the studio we all support each other and bounce off each other’s ideas.

I am looking forward to developing as an artist. I learnt many skills last year on the foundation course and I'm looking forward to developing them further through my practical lessons. I feel like I learn more through 'hands on' activities however I do enjoy looking at art magazines, collecting visual resources and researching artists. Over the next few months I hope to interpret and analyse their work (and my own work) in much more detail by looking at the form, context, content, process and mood of the art work.

I’m also really looking forward to the ‘CPiC’ lectures and learning about the history of art. I find it really interesting to see the progression of art over the years. How has society influenced the art that is produced today? I enjoy researching new artists and ideas. I'm excited to learn new things, expand my knowledge and understanding about the different concepts influencing contemporary art.

Wednesday afternoons give us the opportunity to listen to guest lecturers, which I really like the idea of. It’s so interesting to hear other people’s stories and it enables me to widen my knowledge and understanding of art. I do find it quite motivational and in the past I have found myself limited with knowledge and relied quite a lot on the internet. I have been making lots of notes over the past few weeks and I do feel quite motivated. 

After the first month at University I am happy to say yes, I am settled in and I’m definitely looking forward to the next 3 years. 

Image : www.caterlyst.com

YSP Notes

Last Wednesday we went on a trip to Yorkshire Sculpture park. It was a fairly sunny day and a great opportunity to gather some visual research for our projects - Environment / Where does art belong?

Here are some photographs I took with some brief notes I made throughout the day.

Not Vital

Self portraits compress two hind beaten silver boxes. I find it really interesting how the dimensions were based on Vitals date of birth. 15-02-1948. Larger box represents the year and is 19cm x 19cm x 48cm. The smaller box is 15cm x 15cm x 2cm. Work contains a sundried goat - an animal common in everyday life in Vitals home village and the scent of his studio at home in Agadez, Niger.

Heads (inspired by Buddah)

Vital began to paint portraits 7 years ago after he was surrounded by so many faces in Bejing. He began painting portraits on others before focusing on himself. It seemed like he considered how a persons identity would change if the circumstances changed. (location and political control). He used soft brush strokes, muting the grey and white tones. I get the impression Vital focuses on the internal character and personality of people, rather than the external appearance. The shiny and darkened surface of the heads makes them stark, compelling and concentrates the viewer on their relationship to the object and themselves.

Eight Halves

Repeated form of a deer's hindquarters, surreal strand. Animal bisected, multiplied and reconstructed.

Sled

Relates to life in the Alpes. Stillness contrasts with real life - speeding down slopes. Snowball appears to be held in suspension, frozen in time and space. I like how the 'snowball' has been removed from it's typical context.

Mountains

Native Swiss terrain experience of China. Stones and geometric shapes allow their presence to be the main focus. Piz Nair is a representation of a mountain in the Engadin that Vital has known intimately since childhood. It was made from coal that was mined from deep inside the earth in Mongolia. Ideas could've come from a child's imagination but with stark, minimalist aesthetic that contrasts with the exuberant concept eg a plane, a boat, a car (means of travel, relating to a Sled)

David Shrigley

Hand giving a thumbs up. Simple gesture and could be a self fulfilling prophecy eg bad things including the weather, the economy and society may benefit from positivity. David Shrigley uses oil paints and acrylic paints on some work and his work could inspire my 'text and image' project as his distinctive combination of drawing and text to create these large scale works on paper.  

Seizure

Roger Hiorns - nominated for the turner prize in 2009. Hiorns creates sculptures and installations using materials and processes which he has little influence over eg fire and chemicals. In 2008 he transformed an empty council flat in Southwalk, London into a sparkling environment of blue copper sulfate crystals. He pumped 75,000 litres of liquid into the former bedsit and crystals formed on the walls, floor and ceiling.

Litter

''Litter had quite a long gestation, it started as an observation a number of years back. I was driving to give a talk at a college and I passed what I thought was a field of white rabbits. Rabbits do not occur naturally so on my return I parked my car to up find that they were white rubbish bags discarded after a picnic and my art is based on that.'' Leo Fitzmauris.

Nishat Awan

Traces boarders of Europe, along the black sea and documents areas of refuge crisis. Visualises the continent from the perspective of those who inhabit it's edges and those who are in transit. I feel like there is a historical connection with this piece - how the States represent themselves through maps and how citizens and non citizens are defined. This project took 2 months to be documented.

Personal Definitions

My favourite artists were Teesha Moore, Greg Sand and Nikki Farquarson but as my working style has changed over the past few years I have used artists like Sol Lewitt as inspiration, who is a conceptual artist and looks closely at minimalism. Although he works in a wide variety of media, I particularly like his 'wall structures'. I like how his first piece of work consisted of graphite, then crayon, then later in coloured pencils and finally in acrylic paint.

Here are some pictures of my final piece from the foundation course. I produced 2 large canvasses, using lots of layers of acrylic paint and frog tape - I wanted each triangle to be perfect with perfectly straight lines.

I like working randomly and my work doesn't usually have a meaning behind it. I sometimes find myself working backwards. The triangles were positioned randomly and the colour choice was random to some extent, although I tried to divide warm and cold colours, representing different feelings and emotions.

I would say there are 3 main types of visual art : representational art, abstract art and non objective art and I think the media has the biggest effect on the type of work and what category it falls into.

I wouldn't say that my work falls into the 'representational' category as I don't intend to represent actual objects. Although I have looked at realism, impressionism and idealism in the past I'm not very confident in this area. Although representational art probably represents the largest collection of art created, I don't feel like I can relate to this as much as I can with abstract and non objective art. I do like abstract art as I like to exaggerate shapes, lines and colours. I like the idea of transforming one object into something new. My view on the object would often change, giving it a new meaning. However, I personally see my work as non objective art.

For ages I didn't understand the difference between abstract art and non objective art, but then I realised my work doesn't really have a subject from reality. Instead, there is no obvious reference to reality. Jaxon Pollock is the most famous non objective artist I can think of.

He said '' It doesn't make a difference how the paint is put on, as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.''

I agree with this because for me, the most important part of a piece of artwork isn't the process, but the outcome.

A lot of the time my work is just spontaneous but occasionally I would change my ideas when I'm in the middle of a piece. (usually this is part of the development stage) I am happy if my work is aesthetically pleasing, and if my work doesn't look good, or how I intend it to look then I wouldn't consider it finished. This first image was something I did with graph paper and sharpie pens. I like how you achieve a more defined, solid line on paper. I will do a couple more of these using different colours.

Here is an image of a piece of work I did months ago. I tried to push myself out of my comfort zone by not taking projects as literal and by working on cardboard instead, after looking at Martin Creed's exhibition as inspiration.

I plan to do some work with triangles and different shapes, positioning them in the studio environment for the upcoming 'environment' project. Initially, I thought of nature and the outdoors but I've decided I'm going to look at my work in different environments I spend a lot of time in eg Uni, home and work.

Introduction

About me...

Hi! I'm Nicole! I'm 20 years old and I'm from Leeds. I'm a first year contemporary art student, studying at University of Huddersfield.

I have always loved cutting, sticking, gluing and painting ever since I was little, but it wasn't until high school when I developed such a passion for art. I attended Cardinal Heenan high school in Leeds and picked GSCE art in year 9. I found it really hard at first to keep up with the workload, but I really did enjoy being creative.

I attended life drawing classes at Leeds college of art for 6 weeks and became more confident in drawing. In year 11 I achieved my highest grade in art, which came as a big surprise to me and it was then I realised I definitely wanted to study art at sixth form, along with PE, Geography and Sociology.

After I finished my A-Levels I decided I wanted to do the art foundation course as it was a good 'stepping stone' between A2 and degree level. I put together a portfolio and attended an interview at York college, where I started in September 2015. During the first 8 weeks we completed several mini projects and then I decided to specialise in 'fine art'.

Fine art seemed more open and I loved the idea of using mixed media and working on a larger scale, which was new to me as we had been very limited with space in the past. About half way through the year we put together a portfolio of work and started applying for Universities - I applied for Huddersfield, Leeds Beckett, Manchester, Northumbria and York.