Howard Hodgkin's Responses

This lesson we looked at how we could use colour to represent a memory. As I explored earlier in my colour theory post colour can represent emotions from passion to loneliness, from anger to happiness. These paintings are also inspired by Hodgkin work's we looked at how a took a particularly memory and turned it into an abstract piece  which conveys a snapshot of a memory which is personal to him.

Firstly I chose a red bracelet from my memory box, I carefully thought about the memory the object created from my summer holidays. It reminded me of a day at the beach were I met some new friends and we messed around in the sea, the bracelet was a gift from one of the guys that developed feels for me. The colour I used depicts my mood and feeling in the moment. the blues symbolize the water and the relaxed atmosphere between friends, this contrasts with the vibrant red which shows my summer love and the passion that I felt between us. It also represents the intense heat and the scorching sand. To show the memory I decided to draw a face with flowing hair as it represents the movement of the sea and my hair while I was swimming but also my powerful memory of my first kiss under water. I used circular forms repeatedly to show that my red bracelet sparks the memory and also to represent the bubbles that escaped to the surface when I held my breath underwater. I purposely let the background white to represent the purity of the act and child like simplicity of this memory-us playing the sea.

Again I used reds that represent excitement, adrenalin and danger along with blue that connotes  confidence and precision. also used to represent water and the cold air. I purposely made this response look like an aboriginal pieces, as I wanted it to represent a story of a night out and map out the root that we took on our adventure. My extrovert friends invited me to join them on one of their monthly 'lengging' sessions (which involves throwing water balloons at delinquent youths that chose to dress with a certain 'swag'). From the eventfully evening I kept a souvenir, a chewing gum rapper from the gum Johnny gave me, to remember it by. I used zig-zags in my piece as the rapper had a jagged edge, this simple pattern effects me as I instantly remember the night and the significant object when I look at the piece, making the work personal. I specifically used the colour blue to represent the water balloon, I drew circles to represent the shape of the balloons but also to indicate targets as the colour blue means precision. The yellows represent danger, I purposely mixed it with black creating stripes in the middle as this traditionally links to caution and a warning. There was the fear of getting caught, mixed with adrenaline that is also symbolized by the colour yellow and red. I used green to represent the youthfulness of this activity and to show that we all had fun.

In the this painting i used Hodgkin technique to create an abstract piece that represents my memory. I spent a lot of time at the beach when I was in Italy this summer and as usual I love to collect shells from the sea shore. this painting was inspired by shells in my box. I tried to create a rippled effect with the paint brush that looked like the ripples and lines on the shells. I think this technique worked well as when I asked my peers what the thought of it they instantly told me it reminded them of the sea. I particularly think my brush stroke technique is effective as it represents the waves of the sea as well as the sand and the texture on the shell. The colours were again the most important aspect of this painting. I used yellows to show that I was in a joyful mood while at the sea. The warm colours also reflect the temperature, I used yellow to show that the sand was so hot u could barely walk on it which represents both joy and caution. Red connotes my love for the beach even though i only get to go once a year. The colour blue represents tranquility in this piece as I always feel very relaxed when I'm by the sea. I intentionally made the yellow and the blue merge together to create green as going to the beach always brings back memories o my childhood.

This particularly memory was very special and it evoked a number of different emotions from love to fear as you can tell from the wide range of colours. This memory comes from both my journal and my box. The object that represents this memory is a medallion that was given to me by my summer love to remember him by. The necklace was very special to him as it was given to him by his older brother who is in the was in Iraq and he gave it too me. At this moment I felt almost every emotion and felt like i couldn't except such a gift this is represented by the colour yellow to show caution but also contrasted with joy as I was happy that I meant so much to him. The red represents the love and passion that we felt for each other in this moment. I used green as it symbolizes hope in Italian culture and we both hopped we would see each other again this is contrasted with purple, which symbolizes the unknown. I cloured the medallion in red and blue to represent that i felt comfortable and safe around him but also strongly attracted. I surrounded the medallion in white to symbolize the how innocent and pure this gesture was.

This painting was taken from a memory in my journal. It represents a night out with my friends at a psychedelic rave. I also related this to a object in my box; white florescent body paint in a round blue container. The main colour in this peace that I used is black this is because the rave took place in a forest at night and it was quite dark the only source of light where the lasers coming from the main stage therefore it was very heard to recognize anyone at all! Yellow is a colour that symbolizes joy and happiness. I used it in this piece as i can remember feeling very happy and excited to be with all my friends. In the piece I drew faint figures in yellow, I purposely drew them blurred to represent movement as we everyone was dancing for the whole night. I painted waves of energy flowing between the people in red and yellow. Everyone was in a good mood and the whole night was filled with good vibes this is shown by the yellow. The red represents peoples flirtatiousness as a lot of people try to 'hook up' at these kind of events. I tried to represent the fact that it sneekes around people by intertwining the colour red like a ribbon. I drew a hand at the top to show that everyone at the rave was like a big family and even thou you don't know people you still make new friends. I used purple to represent the unknown as every rave you go to you have a different experience. I purposely made the whole painting squashed together in the middle of the page as if the memory was trapped in a bubble this is because I danced all night and lost track of the time and usually when you go party's its almost as if you enter another world where nothing else maters apart from the know and you don't want the night to end!

I think these experiments worked well as they clearly respond to Hodgkin's work and and provide a vivid experience for both myself and the viewer. I could develop this idea further by focusing on one memory in detail and creating more responses for that particular memory. I will definitely use the concept of colour and its meaning in my final outcome as it intrigues me and I have learnt that I have a passion for colour.

Peter Callesen

Nature's Maze By Peter Callesen

In this piece i can see a man and a woman  standing on opposite ends of the paper  with           paper obstacles in the way and dead end paths. The delicateness of the figures could represent how fragile life is and how the smallest disruption can knock you of your path. This piece reminds me of a classic love story, for example Romero and Juliet as the two figures are facing each over but have no way of crossing to the other side to be together as they are held down by their shadows on the paper. 

The art work could represents how fragile nature is and how easy it is for it to crumble away and disappear. I know this because you can see that the paper is torn up into smaller pieces on one side wasting away and it looks like melting ice. This piece has a scene of poetry, I believe it represents a juorny that we all take in life where the path ahead never looks easy and simple but behind you is a straight line showing were you have already step. You have to work hard for what you want. I think the Callesen uses white paper to create a scene of purity and to allow the images to speak for them selves, however when i look at the piece the white paper helps to create a sense of melancholy in his pieces. I think it emphasizes the loneliness of the piece and gives the message that life is a blank canvas and you have to write your future and make a mark. I think the artist made the piece to celebrate life and death, I also think he gets his inspiration from fairy tales and we fantasies life to be like but he  shows us the harsh reality. I would like to ask the artists why he is so interested in life and death and where he got his inspiration from. I would also be interested to know why he has specifically chosen to use paper as there are many other everyday object that everyone uses. Peter Callesen says something really intresting "The thine white paper gives the paper sculpture a frailty that underlines the tragic and romantic theme of my work. The paper cut sculptures explore the probable and magical transformation of the flat sheet of paper into figures that expand into the space surrounding them. The negative and absent 2 dimensional space left by the cut, points out the contrast to the 3 dimensional reality it creates, even though the figures still stick to their origin without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in many of the cuts."
Peter Callesen when i asked my peer what they think about peter Callesen's work and this one in particular they said interesting things. Pamela said that the art work appears to be telling a tragic story about a two people trying to get to each other. She said that the white paper looks like broke ice and the further the couple get from each other the more the ice brakes making the chance of reaching each other evermore impossible.
Johnny said....
The research has confirmed some of my views on the artists work. For example i interpretated his work as a romantic tragedy and i found that that is a reacuring theme in his pieces. However I have found out the relevemce of the A4 paper and why he uses it;
"By taking away all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white A4 paper sheet for my creations, I feel I have found a material that we are all able to relate to, and at the same time the A4 paper sheet is neutral and open to fill with different meaning." The artists says that the paper is an ordinary everyday object and people have forgotten its significance and rarely see it as a material but just as a method of recording and transporting information.

I think this work is relevant to my project as I could use it to tell a story of my summer memories. During the summer I had a tragic love story and I could easily use Calleson's technique to represent this memory and I think it has a strong link. I was also thinking about how Peter Calleson represents life and death showing what object is really there, the remains in the 3D form and in the negative he shows peoples expectations and what they want to see For example an angel in the negative, this is a fantasy from a dream world, and in the positive 3D sculpture a skeleton showing the reality of what happens after death. I wanted to use this in my work using shells that i collected on the beach. In the negative space i wanted to represent the animal in the shell using it as a home and in the sculpture show an empty shell and the remains of the sea creatures home to show that life moves on and is a cycle.

I would give this work the tittle 'Life', I think this is an appropriate title as the piece shows the natural course of life: a straight path is left behind to show the past and the future is shown as an undecided path with lots of obstacles in the way just like a maze. At the end is the goal and in this case its love, however it could also represents the fact that in life you cross over peoples' path and make memories together. other tittles could be 'Natures downfall' this would effect the interpretation of the work as people would look at it from a political view point where human are involved with destroying nature. For example global warming and the ice melting, the viewer would interpret the piece as what the effect of human's waist is doing to the planet. If I found myself inside this work I think I would feel lonely and this would be emphasized by the white background.

I would like to compare Peter Callessen's work to Jen Stark Recognized by their mesmerizing spirals, loud colours, and op-art attributes, Jen Stark’s paper sculptures draws inspiration from an array of natural phenomenons within mathematics, nature, and cosmic space. Her current solo exhibition at theCOOPER COLE Gallery demonstrates a continuation of her studies in optical illusions, colour gradations, and paper’s transformative qualities. Through an amalgamation of the visual qualities found in mandalas, topography, botany, and light, Stark’s work seems to uncover the underlying pulse of the universe. By visually mimicking the elements of time, nature, and space, Stark’s sculptural works stand as a testament to unity and oneness within the world. The entrancing installations create an alluring atmosphere between the surreal, fantastical, and psychedelic, ultimately welcoming viewers escape into the technicoloured realm of Stark’s vivid imagination.

I think the element which are most successful in his work is the technique he uses to make his 3D outcome. I love the way he builds the sculptures all from a signal sheet of paper, it really show skill. I believe that he would have to calculate and mathematically analysis sketches before creating it. Overall the intricate designs in his woke fit together perfectly to creat a beautifully smooth sculpture. In his piece Natures Maze I particularly like the element of the meaning behind the work, the tragic romantic fairy tale. The elements I don't think are successful in his work is the fact that he doesn't use any colour in many of his pieces. On one side I like the fact that he feels his pieces don't need colour as the meaning speaks for themselves. However I think in some cases the use of colour would make his pieces more effective and would help to emphasize meaning and create a feeling for the viewer.

I would like to create a response to communicate how I feel about my summer and the different emotions that are significant to each memory. One idea that I have relates to someone that i met during the summer as my contact with him is fading and becoming less so is the memory of him that I was holding on to disappearing. I could show this in my piece by creating a memory that we both share out of paper or tissue paper to show how fragile it is and then cut sections out or tear into it to show that its disappearing and its significance is not as strong as it used to me. I think my ideas relate to my research because it uses Callesen's idea of a tragic love story also I would take inspiration from his work were he says he uses paper to emphasize the fragility of the stories and use it in my own project as i think this idea is very effective as paper is naturally a delicate material...... In preparation to start my idea i need to draw out sketches to see if it will work and also do a few experiments before perfecting my final idea.

i love that you can't tell the size of the piece

This piece represents life and death. It depicts silhouette of angels in the negative of the paper this emphasizes that they are dreamy and mythical. Callesen then expertly folds the paper to create 3D forms out of the cut out paper. In this piece he deformed the angels and manipulated them into skeletons with wings,

again creating a religious theme as angels with wings don't exist in our conscious world.this work reminds me of myths and legends but it also has a biblical reference of life and death. Peter Callesen mainly uses plain white A4 paper to create his pieces. the composition in his work is symbol and it ranges in scale. in some pieces he used 7 meter long paper. however he is more famous for using to mundane A4 sheet. he uses scalpels to cut out his intricate

  designs and then reinforces the delicate white paper with glue to help give it structure.

This piece interests me as it seems like the human form has skinned himself to reveal his true nature, in this case his 'negative' form. it also reminds me of negative stereotypes and maybe represents how you have to be stronger as a person and fight back without hiding behind your own skin. Callesen work is very metaphorical and he uses it to convey messages about life, faith death and rebirth though a mix of page and performance art through research I discovered that his work has a much deeper meaning then what first meets the eye. he reflects on how we are often trapped by our shadows and past in life and he shows this by leaving his sculptures firmly attached to the paper without any means of escaping.

Personal colour Chart

In this lesson I used colour to create my personal colour wheel that reflected my mood and showed my favorite colours. Initially we looked at the meaning of colour and were it comes from (this is in detail in my colour theory post). But know we were encouraged to represent how we personally perceives colour and what the different colours mean to me. I mixed each one individually to create secondary colours. I wanted it to show my feelings on  particular days, the vibrant reds  shows my passion and determination to get things done. The green is how I feel around my friends a sense of youthfulness and growth it is also the colour of my school that I see every day. The purples and pinks are my favorite colour as they show my personality, the colour purple conveys a sense of mystery things appear differently to what they are. I think this is a perfect representation of my character as my friends constantly tell me that at first I come across as shy but as soon as I am comfortable I am out going and have a bubbly personality.

The order of the colours is completely random and spontaneous. I made them swirl into a spiral shape as it was an effective way of showing colour and it looked pretty. The dark blues show my mood on a rainy day and the bright yellows represent my joyful mood.

This is an image of me creating my personal colour chart that represents the my interpretation of different colours. Blues always remind me of the sea and my summers in Italy. This was a main part of my childhood as I have many memories from my holidays spent in Italy. The colour red is one of my favorites and I enjoy wearing items of clothing in  red.

Claude Monet Formal Analysis

This is a brief formal analysis of one of the 250  water-lily oil paintings by the impressionist Claude Monet depicting his flower garden at Giverny, France,

Claude Monet used oil paints to depict the vivid colours he could see in his garden. the bright colours in the painting is probably the first thing a viewer notices when examining the piece, Monet's use of bright greens and reds creates a sense of late summer as you can instantly imagine the leaves swapping there lush green colour for their autom coating of vibrate red, orange and yellows when you look at this piece. the hint of red reflection in the water indicates that there are signs of autom around the garden. this use of colour creates harmony and peacefulness in the painting reflecting the change of season. Monet has only used a selection of colours on his pallet which gives the painting a warming effect as the green is slightly yellow which creates a glowing effect making the scene appear sunny.

the artist has used light in this painting to indicate the rays from the sun. This reminds the viewer that the subject was captured on a sunny day creating a warming feeling. i particularly like the way the light is captured in the reflection of the pond as he has created the illusion of water and there is a clear distinction between where the land starts and ends.

The use of small brush strokes creates texture in his work. He has layered the oil paint to mimic the organic look of the surroundings around him. the textured surface forms the effect of plantation, and the reflectiveness of the water. the artist has used texture in an interesting way, when you look at the painting from a far the lines in the layered paint come together to convey a natural look like leaves. the lines in the piece are flowing and effectively portray the movement of the weeping willow and the other plants.

Monet uses composition in his piece in a simplistic form which creates depth in a unique way. the eye is immediately drawn to the center of Japanese bridge and then down the lily pond to the forefront of the painting creating a triangle. this gives the painting width and depth and forces you to look down the pond and into the distance. the placement of the bridge makes it central in the painting, crossing the horizon the artist has carefully chosen this composition as it allows the viewer to look on either side of the painting in a gentle swooping movement following the contour of the bridge. the curved line emphasis the peacefulness and organic nature of the painting.

Audrey Flack

Audrey Flack is an American artist best known for her photorealist paintings and sculptures. Born in New York in 1931 to a middle class family, she attended the Music and Art High School in New York City before going on to graduate from Cooper Union in 1951. her work is similar to Adny warhol as she collects objects that have a personal meaning to her. flack  presents the objesct in ineresting and dynamic compositions the objects have been placed in interesting angles, then takes a photograph and makes a painting. Flack’s paintings concentrated on highly emotional social and political themes. She is known for her feminine color schemes, which were dominated by pastel colors. this inspired her to use bright enhanst colours.

Consistent through Flack’s career is her emphasis on symbolism. She tries to make her work “universal,” something that all audiences can relate to and understand. Her hyper realistic paintings are more captivating than a photograph even though they have all the details of the photograph. This is because her use of colours are captivating.

I made my own response to her work by taking a picture of all my objects from my box in a create composition and then tracing the photograph so that I could focus on adding the colour which was my main focus.

Found Objects

In today’s lesson we looked at the significant of different objects and how they convey and evoke our own personal memories. first we emptied our bags and found objects that reminded us of a certain memory, for example a train ticket that reminded me of a day out with my friends. I was surprised at how many objects i found in my bag and items that had been left in there for a long time and forgotten about. Other items included eye shadows, marbles, pieces of glass, doodles, receipts, a kinder surprise and many more as you can see in the picture bellow.

I then made a composition of the objects in the style Audrey Flack's work in order to photograph and record the items. i arranged them in different compositions to see what looked best. I also placed the objects on different levels of height to show a dynamic composition. I then made sketches of my personal objects using ink and wash. these worked well as they recorded my memories and made them into objects.

We were then given an arrangement of objects that linked and could potentially sum up a person. After coming up with a stereotypical  character that these objects could belong to, we came up with a story and then wrote why the objects link.

I made this response using photocopied pages from my journal. I cut out images that where interesting and placed them into a box to create a scenery that represented my memories. I was trying to depict the sea side. I added a blue vial in the back ground to look like the sea and the sky. I then cut out images that represented the sea and added shells and pebbles. This was a response to Audrey Flack's work, however instead of using objects I used images.

I liked the idea, however I don't think my response was effective as I didn't like the way it looked visually. I think the blue vial made it look tacky and I should have added more images around the box like a collage and given them reliefs so that it was a stronger response to Flack's work.

I used fine liner to draw the found objects that I uncovered lurking around deep in my bag. I think the fine liner worked well and I really like these sketches.

Hodgkin

Dinner at west hill

Howard Hodgkin my first impression of Hodgkin's work is that its in an abstract style of painting in which nonrepresentational lines, colors, shapes, and forms replace accurate visual depiction of objects, landscape, and figures. The subjects often stylised, blurred, repeated or broken down into basic forms so that it becomes unrecognisable. for example in his piece Dinner at West Hill he repeats a series of blue dotes that represents the coloure of the room, this reminds me of a mono print. his use of bold shapes creates a dynamic composition. the horizontal white line gives the work structure helping it emphasises the flatness of the piece. it also represents the end of the table.  

materials and processes: Hodgkin used oil on canvas to create his paintings. there are repeated dots in the back ground this creates a flowing pattern in his work. the colourful shapes create a rhythm and a collection of the memories of the dinner party, recreating the mood in the room. Hodgkin tried to make his pictures into object so from 1970 instead of painting on canvas he unicaly painted on mundane objects like  wooden boredes or door frames. Hodgkin’s paintings are generally small in scale, and are created using the traditional European easel painting. He painted extremely slowly, sometimes taking up to four years or more on one work.

Howard Hodgkin was a English painter, printmaker and collector. he won the turner prize in 1985. the tittle of this piece is Dinner at west Hill it was made in 1964-6. the painting is a commemorates a dinner party given in March 1964 by the painter Bernard Cohen and his wife Jeanie. Some of the marks in this picture drive from the forms in Cohen's paintings. the often manic humour helped place Hodgkin tin the climate of Pop art, although he was not directly associated with the movement. His work is more often associated with abstract. 

I think the meaning behind his work is to recreate one memory and make it into an object. He took figures and then embedded them into the matrix of his work. This painting conveys his feelings and emotions that he felt during that moment that he chose to capture. the artist said "i had to contend with a nervous and glittering evening in a green and white room full of small B. Cohens on the wall". this painting makes the viewer think about colour and its meaning as they try to compare it to one of their memories. This piece reminds me of my childhood memories in the playground as the colours are bright and vibrant and the shapes are structured like climbing frame the dots represent the grass while the flowing shapes show the movement of the children. 

what i particularly like about this piece is the contrast between the repeated pattern of dots in the background which creates a staccato effect, and the flowing shapes in the foreground  together creating a musical symphony. Where the spots is the beat and the colourful, swooping brush strokes  is the rhythm. Howard Hodgkin is a very poetic painter who portrays his emotions and feelings in a synaesthetic manner coresponding to scents, colours, sounds  tastes and tactile sensations. although Hodgkin paintings are visually interesting they can be hard to interpratate. His pieces are all responses to his own memories so it is difficult for the viewer  to truly understand what they are about and know what the artist was feeling at the time. The only indication that we have as the audience to what the painting is about is the title of the piece, just like a song. Which again remind us that his paintings where an emotional response to a particular time and place rather then an intellectual response that show what was really there. When i look at this painting i imagine i can hear ordered cahos because of the spotted background. I would like to use this technique in my own work to capture one of my favourite memories over the summer holidays.

My lasts thoughts on his work is that i love the way Hodgkin has managed to bring the unconscious world into conscious world transforming an emotion into an object  His emotional response to his memories has inspired me to try and capture my own memory and make them into a materialistic object rather then leaving them as a speck in my imagination. Although his responses to his memories have no meaning to the viewer they help us think of our own memories.

Italy

These two paintings are both by Howard Hodgkin they have similarities and differences, the first painting 'dinner at west hill' uses bright colours which inprint in your mind this is also noticeable in the second painting  where vibrant colours are used. Both paintings used bold sweeping brush stroks. In the pice 'Italy'  the brush strokes are more edged and sharp creating a bolder image. this could show that Hodgkin’s memory of italy was sharper then that of the dinner party.

Warhol

The Time Capsules are Warhol’s largest collecting project, in which he saved source material for his work and an enormous record of his own daily life. Warhol began creating his Time Capsules in 1974 after relocating his studio. He recognized that cardboard boxes used in the move were an efficient method for dealing with all of his “stuff.” Warhol selected items from the daily flood of correspondence, magazines, newspapers, gifts, photographs, business records, and material that passed through his hands to put in the open box by his desk. Once the box was full he sealed it with tape, marked it with a date or title, and put it in his archive. Collectively, this material provides a unique view into Warhol’s private world, as well as a broad cultural backdrop illustrating the social and artistic scene during his lifetime. From the early ’70s until his death in 1987, Warhol created 612 finished Time Capsules.

Warhol constantly scoured auction houses, antique stores, and particularly flea markets for new treasures to add to his many collections. Warhol collected Fiestaware, World's Fair memorabilia, Art Deco silver, Native American objects, and folk art. He often acquired large collections as well—Hollywood publicity stills, crime scene photographs, and dental molds. All of these activities reflected his interest in Pop Art and his inspiration: consumer culture.

Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules were almost completely unknown until his death in 1987.

Packing up Union Square was a Herculean undertaking. Warhol was a shopaholic and inveterate collector who threw nothing out. His studio was jam-packed with all the bric-à-brac he had amassed since he moved to New York in 1949, with only $200 in his pocket and a portfolio of delicate drawings under his arm.

Anything he deemed worth keeping - correspondence, books, newspaper clippings, rare exhibition catalogues, business files, Velvet Underground records and presents - was thrown into brown cardboard boxes and sent to the new studio.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3666842/Lifting-the-lid-on-Warhols-Time-Capsules.html
"What you should do is get a box for a month, and drop everything in it and at the end of the month lock it up," he advised in his 1975 book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again). "Now I just drop everything into the same-size brown cardboard boxes that have a colour patch on the side for the month of the year."

What's the strangest thing Wrbican has discovered in a capsule?
"A mummified human foot," he says.
Other outlandish finds include a pizza and a slice of birthday cake.
                                My first impressions

Although Warhol is Renaud for his contribution to the pop art movement i think his time capsules are inspiring. My first impression of Andy Warhol's time capsule is that it is a pieces of conceptual art in itself, offering an insight into the workings of his brain, his life and also the culture of the 60s. I particularly like the fact that his colecteing becme obsssive and some of the objects found are random and quirky revealing a valid view of his life.

Summer Project

During the summer I collected object and placed them in my box. I collected an object everyday to represent my memory of that day. I collected things like; leaflets, coins, makeup, bracelets photos, shells and tickets. This was in response to Warhol's time capsules that represent his life.