What Happens Next?

First of all I would just like to let you know that I finished my course with a triple distinction! AND top of the class. This has definately started my week off on a good note.
Now I have 3 months to decide what I want to do next...

Welcome to Nanna's.

I finished my final piece. On time! I'm not going to lie, I was doubtful myself as to whether it was going to get done in time, but i did manage to pull it out of the bag. There are a few details that i didn't quite have time to manage to do, for example, I really wanted to record myself singing the lyrics I wrote to the song 'These Are a Few of My Favourite Things'. Also, my mind was in such a pickle that I completely forgot to pick up the cup of tea and ham sandwich I wanted to put on my side table, but lucky enough for me I was able to buy one out of a machine in the canteen and put it in my nanna's cup.
I'm really pleased with how my piece turned out in the end, however I do think that the song would have really been the icing on the cake. The nostalgic atmosphere I wanted to create was still there though, infact, my mum had to hold back the tears when she saw it, which is very flattering.

And I do believe that champagne is in order...

The End of an Era.

The end of an era. What does that really mean? The web definition is: An Age. A Specific gap of time which ends due to a dramatic or extraordinary change.
I've just finished a two year course and it's quite emotional really. It's not just about the work, but there are people that I've become close to and along these two years we've drifted apart. I dont know how or why it happened, but if I could fix it I would.
I know that this had nothing to do with my work but I cant help feeling that there's too much ending at once and I'm not ready for this era to end.

These Are A Few Of Her Favourite Things.

I recently had a family meal and used this to ask around about my nanna's favourite things as I can only remember the stuff she liked later on in her life. I got quite alot out of a slightly intoxicated grandma and decided to change the lyrics of the original song from The Sound of Music 'My Favourite Things'. Here it is...

Crosswords in papers, gold necklace and earrings,
Cherry madera and knitting in evenings,
Vodka and orange, and long pleated skirts,
These are a few of her favourite things.

Extra strong tea, no sugar and bingo,
Cadbury Roses and pies with potato,
Max Factor lipstick, and drinking in the club,
These are a few of her favourite things.

Casual Auburn, hair up in rollers,
Holidaying in a caravan in Great Yarmouth,
Frecias and cornations planted in pots,
These are the things that my nan likes alot.

Velvet blazer,
Frank Sinatra,
Playing Bandits too,
These are my nanna's favourite things and I'm sharing them all with you.

Ada Blackledge, My Nanna.

I remember my nanna sat on a rocking chair with a bag of knitting at the side of her. Nanna's house was like the hub, or meeting place for the family and when she went, God bless her soul, the closeness in the family went with her.
For my final piece I want to recreate this meeting place that is my nanna's house. I'm going to use this picture for inspiration.
(NEED TO SCAN IMAGE!!)
The main feature for my installation is going to be a rocking chair like nanna Ada's that I'm going to re-upolster. I might be being a little bit optimistic given the timescale and my budget, but I'd also like to recreate the lamp, only the lampshade will be filled with photographs and memoribilia from nanna's life. I also want a bag of knitting and a family album to be on the chair. I want my installation the be an interactive piece of art work, I want my audience to be able to sit in the chair and flick through the family album, maybe start some knitting and get a real feel for my nanna's life.

Take Me Back To My Roots.

I moved away from Darwen (a small town in Lancashire) nearly two years ago, but what I didn't know until doing research for this project is that my family have lived in Darwen since 1891 and they have lived in Lancashire probably further back than 1787, but I couldn't get further back than that. Darwen isn't that big or well known, however it's most recognised feature is Darwen Tower, also known as Jubilee Tower.

The tower was opened on 24th September 1898 and was built at a cost of £80 000. It stands eighty five feet high and 1250 feet above sea level. During the second world war, it was thought by some that the tower was being used by the Germans and there was calls to dismantle it.

Darwen was also famous for it's cotton during the industrial revolution due to the links to other towns it had to thanks to the Liverpool - Leeds canal. It was also one of the first towns to have the steam train. Darwens motto is  Absque Labore Nihil  which is latin for 'Nothing Without Labour' and is featured at the bottom of Darwen's coat of arms.

Spiderwoman.

I was struggling for artist research in my sketchbook when some one told me to have a look at Louise Bourjeois as a lot of her work is influenced by her mother, like my project is based around and influenced by my family. A lot of her work is structural and I'm more textile based, however she does have quite a few textile pieces, I can appriciate the skills involved, but it's just not to my taste. However, there is one piece that I have fallen in love with. PEAUX DE LAPINS, CHIFFONS FERRAILLES A VENDRE, 2006, which I think is French for SKINS OF RABBITS, RAGS SCRAP TO SELL.

"I always had the fear of being seperated and abandoned. The sewing is my attempt to keep things together and make things whole."

Where Do Broken Hearts Go?

My project has led me to look into hypoplastic left heart syndrome as a year before I was born my mum had another son, Robert, he died of this disease after only living a few days.
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome is when the left side of the heart hasn't developed properly in the uterus. This case is more common in males than females and generally babies with this have other birth defects.

Psycho Buildings Exhibition

On one of my weekly reviews of my sketchbook, a tutor was looking through my sketchbook and saw that at the beginning I was looking at od buildings and she suggested I looked at the Psycho Buildings Exhibition. Having looked at it, I think it's amazing, my favourite was the sort of 'paused explosion'. It was reallly nice to see people completely break the rules of architecture and come up with something new. Here are a few of the artists work.

Gelitin



Normally, Proceeding and Unrestricted With Without Title

Atelier Bow Wow




Life Tunnel

Do Ho Suh




Fallen Star 1/5



Staircase-V

Rachel Whiteread



The Finished Place (Village)



 Los Carpinteros

Showroom

 

Bradlegh Hall, Hall Lane, Burtonwood

At the beginning of my project, I took the title very literal and was actually looking at old houses and the atmosphere they had. I was told that there was a big house for sale in Burtonwood, severa miles from my house, in town I'd never been in before. I had a look on the website of the agents that were selling the house and saw that it was an open house on Wednesdays and Saturdays 2pm-3.30pm. The following Wednesday I dragged two of my friends on two bus journeys to get to Burtonwood, as I didn't have a clue where abouts in Burtonwood it was we just got off in the centre and asked in the local pharmacy (the only shop that was open) which way we needed to walk to get to Hall Lane. It took us 20 minutes to find Hall Lane and about 40 minutes to get to the end of Hall Lane to find that we must of completely walked past it without knowing. At this point we were absolutly freezing as it wasn't the warmest of days so we went into the Fiddle I'th Bag pub. Lets just say that had an atmosphere.

Bradlegh Hall

Fiddle I'th Bag



Keeping On Top Of Things.

Okay, so as I mentioned in an earlier post my FMP is 'If Walls Could Talk', my research has lead me to pinpoint my project onto my great Nanna Ada. At first I was looking at old buildings and the atmosphere that they had and looking at how many family secrets would have been revealed in the four walls that is the house. This lead me to look into the Psycho Buildings Exhibiton, which I will talk more about in another post. I also went to have a look at a house for sale called Bradlegh Hall in Burtonwood, ended up getting lost and in a pub called Fiddle I'th Bag.
I then started to look at my own family, and looking through our history I found that quite a few of the first born children called Robert have died either at birth or during their childhood. A family curse maybe? Or just a coincidence? I put it down to coincidence, as quite alot of the boys in my family are called Robert and the majority of them haven't died.
My mum actually gave birth to her first child and called him Robert, he actually died after a few days through hypoplastic left heart syndrome.
I've also found lots of birth, death and marriage certificates from quite a while back and have displayed in my sketchbook nicely.

Catch Up!

I'm finding it really hard to blog at the moment, it just seems to be the last thing on my mind, which isn't ideal seeing as my blogs being marked on the1st of May. In my defence, it has taken me a while to get into my FMP so I'm two weeks behind everyone else and I'm playing catch up. At the moment I'm still at the research stage, but I promise I will update you soon!

The Land of the Dutch.

Recently, i spent three days in Amsterdam, and fell in love with the city. However, I felt as though three days and two nights wasn't enough time to be able to experience the cultural side of Amsterdam as well as the night life.
Whilst there I went to the Rijksmuseuem and the Van Gogh museum. Neither of these museums really appealed to me, although I can appreciate the time, effort and detail put into each painting. But I prefer art with a meaning or concept behind it, the kind of work I can relate to or a controversial piece. I think there's something a little bit more brave or interesting in putting your opinion out there for everyone to see.
I did find a piece of work that was really interesting in the Rijksmuseum. It was a living clock. I know that sounds crazy but I think the way the artist did it was record himself over a twelve hour period changing the time on a board with a marker. There was something about this that was simple, but amazing.

I didn't find the Van Gogh museum very intresting. I actually think he's a little bit over rated.  I think there were other artists during his era that were just as good, maybe even better. I think the only reason he was so famous is because he was a little bit crazy and killed himself. I also though the building for the Van Gogh museum wasn't that spectacular in comparison to the Rijksmuseum.

My New-Found Love.

I love life drawing! It's just nice to take an hour out of the day to just relax, put on some music and just draw what you see.

3 minutes

5 minutes

5 minutes



30 minutes


My Life Drawing Playlist
1. Someone Like You -Adele
2. Coming to Terms -Carolina Liar
3. Cameo Brooch -The Courteeners
4. At Last -Etta James
5. I'm Not Calling You a Liar -Florence and the Machine
6. That's Life -Frank Sinatra
7. You Are My Sunshine -Frank Turner
8. This Boy -James Morrison
9. Read My Mind -The Killers
10. Revelry -Kings of Leon
11. White Blank Page -Mumford & Sons
12. Winter Winds -Mumford & Sons
13. Undisclosed Desires -Muse
14. Feeling Good -Nina Simone
15. Last Request -Paolo Nutini
16. Behind Blue Eyes -The Who
17. She's Always A Woman To Me -Billy Joel & Elton John

Learning Something New Everyday

I recently did a workshop in how to stretch a canvas, which, by the way, is extremely difficult for a human being with no muscles on their bones. On my canvas i used a turquoise wash and little bits of pretty paper for the back ground, I then used ink to replicate a life drawing i did the day before, I titled it 'Nevermind, I'll Find Someone like You' as this is a song on Adele's album that I chose to listen to during life drawing as it's so relaxing.

A Blast from the Past

I was recently looking through a sketchbook from a little while back. We had to design several different prints and present them to a client. My chosen theme was 1940's and the item of clothing I wanted to base it on was an apron. For my research I looked at lots of magazine cutouts and i found a book of fashion in the 1940's so, I did quite a few labeled drawings from the book which gave me an insight into the materials used and the shapes of clothes worn. I also looked at numerous websites that sold vintage aprons and printed materials.
I only looked at two artists, Cath Kidston. Her work is awesome, enough said. The other was Egon Schiele, his style of drawing was strangely close to my own.
I tried out several different printing techniques and were really please with the results. I experimented with; collograph, emulsion printing, dry point, image maker I even tried repeating patterns on photoshop. I'd created quite a few prints by this point and had to narrow it down to three.
For my final piece, I hand stitched two aprons, created three final prints and photographed my model (Laura Wright) in a 1940's style dress and apron, I worked on this photograph in photoshop to make it look a little more rustic.