And still on a green theme - Celebration!

Gasp! I've just heard that I've got a FIRST for my Fine Art Degree which I've been posting about for the last few years here on this blog

(thank you Denise for taking this 'surprised look', to model one of her lovely creations, when I was visiting Australia a couple of years ago)

Start of the countdown to degree show

Degree show space at Royal William Yard 

Today I moved into the space I've been allocated for my degree show and have 2 weeks to get the space looking like I want it - which entails some building of partitions, blocking the window, making a narrower entrance and painting etc. the one technician has 77 students all wanting some kind of work done and all I can do is wait in the queue - meantime getting on with filling the space between the ceiling and wall and polyfilling and painting the back and right hand wall. I don't think I will be able to start thinking about the installation until the beginning of next week. Our assessment is 6-8 June but there is a 4 day holiday weekend prior to that when no university help is available so we've been told it's better to think of the deadline as Friday 1 June!
I'm feeling more chilled tonight because I've ticked 2 things off my to do list:
My professional portfolio is finished - although I have a website I've taken this opportunity to make a book of my work during the past 6 years - actually I started the degree course 7 years ago but took a year out when I moved down to the south west and went travelling in Australia - so this degree has become part of my life and it will seem very strange to have finished it!
I have made an 18 min video as part of my installation and today I got the media technician to help me loop it on a DVD so it will just constantly play during the exhibition - I'm glad I got help as it was really techie stuff in Final Cut and some compression software - It all went over my head!
I intend recording the preparation process during the next 2 weeks here on my blog as it will really help with the self evaluation we have to write for the assessment
So all in all a good start and a good day!

'it starts with embarrassment and ends with hope'

I've just been watching Damien Hirst 'The First Look' on TV - an interview about his forthcoming exhibition at Tate Modern and I've pinched (in the spirit of his art) this quote about his show, for my degree show project 'Painting in the attic'. I've talked about the collaboration in previous posts but haven't said much, since I started the project a few months ago, about the installation for my degree show in June.  I've been scraping away more paint, filming myself working, taking samples, collecting relevant information and thinking about the presentation of this 'forensic investigation'. Last week I had the opportunity to book a space for 4 days at at the university studios in Royal William Yard, Plymouth. My tutor, Phil Power, held a seminar for the group on Wednesday and I got some excellent positive feedback. 

magnifying glass on scraped painting 

I set up the space with a trestle table, a working space with my tools for scraping and examinging the painting which includes a microscope and slides. An easel with the 50 year old oil painting undergoing a removal of the oil pigment and a magnifying lamp.

Installation view, working table,  painting on easel, paper boats on floor

Installation view - working table 

 On the floor was the original frame and a 'contemporary' response to the work - overlaid monotype prints, 6 mirror tiles and a paper boat made from a used envelope - this response to the original painting was as if it had fallen out from the original frame and remade itself 50 years later with the work I am involved with now - it was a spontaneous response while working in the space and trying out my ideas for the installation. The rest of the paper boats (50 in total) I have been making were huddled in the corner rather like a safe harbour! Not sure what to make of this as it took me by surprise when I placed them there.

Installation view - original frame, prints and paper boat - floor piece 

On the opposite wall I put up a shelf of test tubes and perspex boxes containing fragments and pigment scrapings - I intend classifying these and labelling them for viewers to make sense of - only they probably won't make much sense (only to me!)

Installation view - shelf of scraped pigment samples and detailed images

Finally I projected a film of me working on the painting on the wall to the right of the easel painting. The sound was the most interesting - a perpetual loud scraping noise - one of my tutors has suggested I concentrate on presenting only the sound and not the projected images - so more work to do as I don't know much about sound installation.
I feel a lot less anxious now I've tried out my ideas - it was really exhilarating to get them out of my head and into a concrete, visual form.

Beach play

I’ve been absent from my blog for quite sometime and I feel glad to be back. I’ve been suffering from a lack of confidence in my work – not sure what direction I’m taking and it’s worrying me because this is the final year of my degree course – it’s been going on for so long – 6 years to be exact – it is now strange to think of it ending – but maybe this is the beginning also!

I am disillusioned with contemporary conceptual art –I am confused to say the least – not motivated in the slightest and need to get back on track.

It doesn’t help that I am working with the British Art Show as an invigilator and guide –even though it is hugely enjoyable talking to a mixture of  irrate, confused, and interested  visitors about the work in the exhibition – it seems  rather an over exposure to the contemporary art scene! So I’m now thinking why bother? Isn’t there enough stuff that people don’t understand in the world? But that’s not right because I do want to finish my degree. Most of all I want to make work that is honest in my final year! Work that the audience understands without a couple of pages of background information.

I had a tutorial last week and showed my tutor some of the photographs I took during the summer, of the ‘found sculptures’ – he suggested that maybe I could make some interventions myself with found objects

so today I went to play on the beach………

I found a washed up orange and some lovely pieces of driftwood and thought of Gabriel Orozco

It certainly blew the cobwebs away and washed away the blues - I then went on a long coastal walk along the Rame Peninsula, one of my favorite spots – it’s done me a world of good!