Update

Sorry this is going to be alittle out of style for me.
I'm now in Liverpool, very happy, amazingly settled.
Honestly uni isn't the scary hairy monster people think it'll be.
Its ace.
Of course you miss home.
I've missed home.
Twice.
Which is alot less than most people but the truth is i know it'll all be there when i go back or when i need it.
Literature is rocking my academic socks.
4 weeks, 3 plays.
Tough but terrific.
Art,
fustrating beyond words.
But it'll improve.
And so will I with my internet-frequency.
Promises x

Screen Printing

I know it has been ages since my last post, but i've been busy enjoying all the things i didn't do whilst at college, like socialising :)
I'm planning to slowly put up all my back work from college so when i start Uni in September i can put work up as it happens..


Here are a collection of screen prints i produced whilst planning the chair i posted below. The idea was to play with simple but iconic war imagery in alternative contexts. I would really appreciate any opinions : )



The print above to the left is a simple linear gun print using a mixture of greens and yellows, i like the faded elements and the clarity of image.

The second print is of the reverse of this image and combines green and purple. I like the varied result of clear and faded guns and the sparadic distribution of colour.




The pink was chosen to provide the biggest contrast in imagery. Whilst i prefer the green i think the pink makes a bigger statement as it fuses the generalized gender stereotypes both components depict. I also prefer the the use of a number of colours in the other two gun prints. I think one colour makes it appear flat.

These prints were all created in my first session of print making. So despite the views i have just expressed i was generally really pleased with the images i created. I really recommend the process to anyone who needs to play with image and technique as it is easy to do and if done productively can produce mountains of work. It also enabled me to print the material for my chair, in a relatively labour-free way, other techniques would have been more time consuming and complicated.




Whilst the gun is probably the strongest of all war icons i wanted to experiment with alternatives.
So gasmasks. I realise i have written ALOT already so this is going to be brief...

Pink and green, continues male/female idea, like the depth created.

Blue and yellow, striking image but not conceptually strong.



Finally, orange and green. Abstract finish due to use of offset linear print. Like the colours together and the fresh result.

All screens were made from drawings of mine, scanned into photoshop and repeated. Then the colours inversed if necessary.


Hope you like : )
Happy summer to all! x

Private View

As mentioned in my last post last night was my Private View.
I was so nervous before. I think the fact i wasn't completely happy with my final exhibition was the root of the butterflies. Having already done 6 units it is hard to ensure the 7th is the best, and whilst i really liked the Charlie photograph and the chair i upholstered sadly weaker elements had to be included preventing me from being content.
When I arrived I was overwhelmed with the number of people, (having just expected it to be pupils and parents and a select few at that,) the place was brimming with members of staff (who i've never seen before) mixing with the artworld stereotypes uming and ahing and then popping outside for a creative cigarette.
My Aunt and Uncle-ish had travelled from Oxford to be there, and upon my Uncle-ish pulling a bright bouquet of plastic yellow flowers from his coat for me i relaxed a little and promptly left the strangers to their critical glances and made a beeline for my friends who, comfortingly, were feeling alot like i was only with the edges dulled by free wine. Tammie must have had a couple for when i pointed out my Dad ("the man coming towards us in the blue shirt") she said "Hello Laura's Dad" to a passing gentleman in a grey suit, who was a combination of confused and flattered seeing as it would have made him a couple of decades younger.

(Detail of chair)

Despite having already seen the completed exhibition, the fact it was officially open presented it in a different light. When one of my 6th Form Art teachers who came noted that i haven't changed it made me realise that my work was the only exhibit there with an "issue" base, and whilst at the start of the course i had been intimidated by the fact i was the only topically motivated student and therefore convinced myself i had silenced my opinionated artistic voice, i was wrong to do so, and wrong in thinking that i had. I just know that i have to work on translating all the thinking into the final pieces.

Northbrook Exhibition

So i think i will start this blog about the present, seems as good a place as any.

Today was the official end before the end of my year at Northbrook College in Worthing studying for an Art Foundation specialising in Fine Art.
(By end before the end i mean there is just the Private View and BBQ to go and it is all over.)

It's been amazing how fast it has gone, and whilst not all of it has been enjoyable i am really glad i did it. I wasn't ready for Uni a year ago and certainly wasn't ready to take a "gap year." Plus i seem to be developing an addiction to qualifications, which makes me potentially the most qualified person to ever be rejected from Lidl..or B&Q..or Halfords..but my battle with unemployment is a whole different blog-story!

So Foundation. I got my grade, a Merit. Which is what i deserve. And expected. But its not a Distinction. I really do put unnecessary pressure on me. Again...i'll save that for another blog.

More excitingly, my artwork got selected to adorn the posters and invites for the exhibition! What to see one? : )

The photo is of a college friend Mr Charles Stanley, who can be found on all good myspaces and in the band Charlie and the Ketamen. He probably won't see this shameless plugging, but he is ace so check him out if you fancy it. He's also selling some of his paintings done on the Foundation Course, and if you, unlike me don't live in a 300 year old cottage i think you have no reason not to buy one to add "interest" to your abode.

I'll post some Exhibition shots soon, if anyone is local..or overwhelmingly curious and has time to spare please come to see it!