Evaluation

My theme for this project was memories. Other the course of this project I looked at a number of artists, and experimented in different materials. We also kept a journal and I made sketches and stuck in photos, leaflets, train tickets, and recites everyday throughout the summer. I used this as my primary sources.  I also collected larger object like shells, bracelets, and makeup which I put in a box as a response to Andy Wholes time capsules. When I look back at all of my reference material I think I definitely collected a wide range that helped me create my final outcome. I then gathered inspiration from these primary objects by choosing the ones that best represented my summer of 2013. My work developed during the project as I started looking at different artists, I knew that my final piece was going to be based on metaphors and meanings. I then made mind maps to show my areas of interest, the tittles that I looked at were: ‘Enjoying Youth’, ‘The end of summer’ and ‘Being close to friends and Family’. The main sub-theme that I focused on was ‘Enjoying Youth’ and romantic tragedy; exploring how memories eventually fade and although in the moment it may seem like the best time of your life, eventually it will be replaced by greater moments. I wanted to convey my summer memories in my work and show the moods and feelings that I felt during the holiday I wanted to mainly focus on meanings so I incorporated the idea of using metaphors in my work to make it more exciting and profound. My work changed throughout the project as at first I wanted to base my ideas around a particular memory that happened in the summer that made me happy, when I met someone special to me, however latter I realized that all my memories evoked different emotions and I wanted to show how they were all linked and created a continuous journey.

First I looked at Howard Hodgkin who uses colour in his work to emphasis his moods and feelings at particular moments in his life. He was a significant artist who influenced my work and final outcome. I used his method of using colour to convey emotions in my work. The next artist I looked at was Audrey Flake; she paints detailed still lives of objects that are personal to her. The colours she uses are pastel this convoys a homely warm feeling in her pieces.  I found the composition of her still life most intriguing as the different levels created a dynamic use of space. Later I looked at Peter Callison, who along with Ebon Heath inspired me the most to create my intricate spiral in my window instillation. Callison uses sheet of A4 paper to build a relief out of it, his intricate fragile sculptures symbolise life and death and enthuses in romantic tragedies. The figures or objects are often trapped by the paper this creates a lonely feeling. I loved his deep meanings and romantic tragedies and decided to base my sub theme around this area. I then used Heaths work of cut out letters to inspire my words that I cut into the spiral.

I explored a number of different techniques during this project, one of the most interesting is when I did a response to Audrey Flake. I made a composition of all my collected objects into a box then I took photographs from different angles. The dynamic composition that I set my objects in was similar to Flakes style with objects hanging down from the top. I then chose the most interesting photo and traced over it and painted it with acrylic using pastel colours like Audrey Flake. I also experimented a lot with paper constructions that represented my memories. I made intricate responses to Callison. I also explored using metaphors in my work to create an art piece for example a dancing skeleton to represent energy. My skills have developed during the project as I know now how to accurately use blogger to present my work. My planning skills have also developed as each week I created new responses in order to reach to my final outcome.

There is one aspect of my studies that I wish I had explored further; if I was to do the project again I would explore metaphors in a greater detail, so that I could link my work to more in depth meanings and also to the meanings of colour.

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 Overall I am extremely proud of my final piece and I think it is one of my best and most successful. I have used the formal elements in my final piece. For example I used shape to create cut outs that got smaller and gave the illusion that wormhole was appearing in the wall leading to another dimension. I used colour in my final piece to convey emotion. I wanted to use very bright colours as I felt I had experienced all emotions during my summer holiday but overall my summer was very fun and exciting. The centre piece of my work is a spiral that comes out towards the foreground. I used line to make the words that represent the emotions that I felt during the summer.

I made my final piece completely out of vinyl mat plastic. I cut out an abstract star shape into each square at the centre, which then got smaller. I then spray painted each one a different colour, I think the spray paint was an effective material as  it gave my piece a finished professional appearance. I also used the vinyl to create my word spiral in the middle. This was extremely difficult as the material is thick and it’s hard to cut by had using a scalpel, it took me a long time to finish the whole spiral.

 The purpose of my window instillation was to represent my memories of the summer. The main meanings that I wanted to convey is how memories eventually fade into a twisting spiral in your mind. Essentially the window space was my mind and the instillation sculpture are my memories swirling around, where resent memories replace older memories and eventually memories become less clear and are lost in a mind vortex.

I designed my final piece first on paper and my original idea was more complicated and had more elements, for example I wanted to create a paper whole in the bottom to look as if it was opening up. Initially I wanted to add lights to my final piece to illuminate the letters and create shadows, however I decided against this as the lights I had where not very strong and didn't create the desired effect. I thought my piece worked well without. I then simplifies my idea by creating a model of what I wanted the instillation to look like. I found it challenging to cut my words out in my spiral as it was very time consuming, I overcame this challenge by pushing through until it was over. I then had the challenge of putting it all up on display. I made a grid to go on top of my window where I would hang all of my elements. I made this out of wood and wire. I then had to hang each individual piece with fishing wire this was very fiddly and annoying to cut I was extremely happy with the end result.

Overall I am happy with my final piece and think it is one of my strongest outcomes, my favourite element is the transparent spiral filled with my memories that comes out towards you, this is because it adds detail to the piece and contrasts the simple block coloured.