Home for reading week

I've come home to the Isle of Wight to see mum and company. Some much needed family time for all of us. Really great to see Laura too.

I haven't done any art this week, other than this quick drawing of my sister playing a game on the laptop at about 1'30 in the morning!

A film clip to My Sharona, for Monica!

Creative Expression

I want to volunteer here!! I've contacted and been told I can't for atleast 4 months, but hopefully at some point I can join one of the Art Therapy groups.

Autism puzzle pieces and a geocache

A couple days ago, I sent off the first part of the Geocache package that Emma, Tara, Elisabeth and I are creating. It's second stop is Ohio. It will hopefully end up as a big container full of random items and a log book signed by all of us. I hope it reaches Monica within the next few weeks.

Today, immediately after feeling the need to send Elisabeth something, I painted all these autism puzzle pieces on a canvas and popped it in the mail, along with some yummy treats.

Sunrise Sunset

Our third project was to document the sunrise and sunset for 7 consecutive days in different ways. This meant getting up at every sunrise (I missed a couple) to record something from that time period, evaluating it, thinking of a different method for sunset and ensuring that I don't miss it, then planning another different idea for the following sunrise. Every day. Whilst continuing our regular weekly schedule!
It was great fun but very challenging for me to come up with short, sweet ideas twice a day. I like to make art and develop it over a period of time, so without the chance of furthering any of these ideas, I feel like most of them are a bit pants!

Changing of light in Freedom Fields, during sunset

Pebbles I collected and painted to create a composition of colour

A rock I collected from the seashore and painted with a picture of sunset at the Hoe. I think the two work well when presented together.

The sunset how I imagined it behind the thick, grey mist. Acrylic paint on canvas.

A negative photo of the city lights from the top of my hill, using a slow shutter speed and manual movement of the camera. I wanted to get circular effects to represent the cycle of sunrise to sunset

As well as these, I filmed the sunrise from my terrace and adjusted the speed to make it faster (really jolty fail), made an oil pastal picture, sketched all the dustbins out on the lane one morning before the folk come to remove the trash, took some video clips of the park lights coming on at dusk, attempted to sing and play a song that represents the change from night to day and wrote down the lyrics, tea-stained paper and cut out the word tea, and had my housemate draw around my elongated shadow that was cast at sunset.



Mapping Stereotypes

I wasn't sure how I felt about this at first.

http://alphadesigner.com/project-mapping-stereotypes.html

Plymouth Mind

Today was the first time I went to Plymouth and District Mind Association - a local mental health advice and support centre. I wanted to see if there was any volunteer opportunities, especially art therapy. I happened to interupt the Tuesday afternoon art session and stayed for and hour or so, getting to know people and learning about the group. Unfortunately, it runs whilst I am at college, but in half terms I am going to volunteer there.

Land art

Today in our curatorial seminar, we touched upon some artists who want to keep their art work away from galleries and museums. Robert Smithson was an American artist, most famous for his land art. He explored the relationship between a piece of art and it's environment. He wanted to create earth work in specific outdoor locations - that could not be displayed in different spaces, such as art galleries. Spiral Jetty is made from rocks, earth and salt and measures 1,500ft. It is situated in the Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA.
 

Nothing to do with land art, but I love this...

I agree with every point she makes, and hope to make art representing this.

Drawing Machines

Our second project was to work in groups to create a drawing machine. This had to be anything that made a mark. Working collaboratively, we experimented with body paint and balloons, before we decided we wanted to use light.
  

We found a prism and explored the dispersion of light on the seashore. We were interested in finding the marks that were unseen in regular white light, but marks that are essentially always there. We replaced the studio with the beach, so we could involve the sunlight, water and the pebbles below the surface. It was difficult with such a tiny prism, but we managed to capture the rainbow effects with a camera and presented photos to the group. 

Articulation of Space

For the first term, we are going to be completing a serious of short projects. Our first one was exploring space and getting used to the space in the studio that is now our second home for 3 years. Everyone was given a set of co-ordinates, which were all different in size and selected at random. Mine were '4.2 x 3.2 x 2.2'. This then represented dimensions of the space that we would be working in for the next 7 days. It was only when I marked my space out with masking tape, that I realised I had one of the largest spaces.
 
We could do anything we wanted in our space, as long as we stayed in it. We completed a series of inductions throughout the week that included activities that would inspire ideas and have an influence on our project. One of these tasks was during our LRC induction. We were given numbers at random and used that along with our initials, to find the book that had the same code. My book was one called 'The Five Senses' and was image based. The random quote that I skimmed to was 'You mustn't confuse clouds for smoke'.

I wanted to put the whole world into my space. As my space was so big, I wanted to share it with everybody and create an interactive space. I made a map of the world using blue and red felt on the floor, and kept it 2D so that it was accessible. I chose to do it in front of a doorway so that people had to walk over it, and had to be a part of it. The world is an open space, that should make everyone feel welcome. I played with the 'co-ordinates' part of the task, plotting them on my map, representing diversity. Even though we are all on different co-ordinates, we are all part of the same world and everyone should feel respected and be treated equally.

The quote I found, I really love. 'You mustn't confuse clouds for smoke'. I think it is a poetic way of saying that you mustn't make assumptions about the world around you. It questions why would we assume something is bad, if we can assume something is good? We all naturally prejudge, but a lot of prejudice is usually unfavourable and has a negative impact. This was supposed to loosely tie back in with my map representing an accepting world, where everyone should feel a sense of belonging.

I made it to art college

I'm starting a blog of my time at university, to keep together a messy collection of work, articles, memories and other experiences of importance in my life.

Before I get carried away blogging about different projects that I'm sure I'll be diving into, I wanted to introduce the course and why I am studying it. I have chosen to do my BA (hons) Fine Art degree at Plymouth College of Art. It is one of only four specialised art and design colleges left in the UK on the south coast of England. Plymouth has an awesome art scene, with many art museums and galleries spaced across the city. I'm actually lucky enough to start my degree at the exact time the British Art Show 7 - Days of the Comet, is in town.

I'm choosing to study fine art, as it has no boundaries and there is endless opportunity to learn new skills and incorporate all types of media into my development. I wish to become an art therapist, specialising in working with individuals with autism.

'Art Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as it's primary code of communication.'
- British Association of Art Therapists

I have a whole bunch of reasons why I wish to pursue this career, but I won't go into that now. I am just looking forward to combining these two passions together. I am very excited to get stuck in with this course, learn new ways of experiencing the world and to become a more creative person.

New housemates. Barbeque on the terrace for Sophies birthday