SHAPES

At college we have a week where we make artwork to be sold in an exhibition - every piece is 10 x 10 inches and sells for £10. I had a few ideas for these and this is what I ended up with; lots of smudged about paint which made some really cool shapes. I've then mounted them on some really nice card, and overall I think they look really good - first piece of work I've made in a long time that I really like!

VIDEO

Thought I'd share this, with all of you. Just a little video made by the artist we're working with this year on Slow Boat, I'll paste the basic explanation below, but I'm super excited about it!

"Each year a contemporary artist is in residence with IYP, developing a programme of activities both on and off the boat. We are delighted that Navin Rawanchaikul is our lead artist for 2013. Inspired by his Thai and Pakistani heritage Rawanchaikul is planning our most colourful journey to date, travelling from Birmingham to the East Midlands, stopping off in Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. During this trip Slow Boat hosts Navinland, a floating campaign to find others who share his given name, Navin, with celebratory events along the route."

DESIGN

So, I've had my couple of days in wales, eaten faaar too much chocolate and generally good food so I now feel ever so slightly ill - not quite the result I was hoping for! This was a piece for a design unit at college, which had to be based on and convey an art movement. I chose Dadaism, and mainly worked with ideas from work by Schwitters - even popped down to the exhibition at the Tate Britain, which I helped to pack up a teeensy bit of whilst I was volunteering at Grizedale - it was only cardboard boxes, but STILL PRETTY COOL.

FABRIC

The work pictured above is by Timur Novikov, and I love it. I think the main part of it is, they're so transportable, still have creases all over them and look loved - they're the exact sort of thing I love in a piece of artwork, because they're so simple (not to mention beautiful to look at! I think the airplane over the blue stripy fabric has to be my favourite, the way it hangs in the gallery is just breathtaking.) I've filled a couple of pages in my textiles sketchbook for college about how I could incorporate his style into my final pieces, and I will definitely be taking a trip to Ikea soon to collect some fabric ideas.

CURIOSITY

I'm really struggling to get a good photo of this without wrecking it - ironically I really need one to stick in my sketchbook so failure on my part. One of our units at college is to make a kind of 'being' using inspiration from loads of artists who make things like dolls and little cute textile pieces. All I could think of to take in was my ever growing collection of origami, So i'm going to sew a 3D origami crane, and wishing stars and make a kind of mobile, which will have images like the ones on the background of this printed onto it. I HOPE. LIKE, REALLY HOPE. (We were told to whitewash/colour wash the backgrounds on these so I'm a bit worried it's wrong but I think it kind of conveys what I want to do? I hope so at least...)

MOVEMENTS

Sculpture/3d notes from this week. Thinking of heading towards Dadaism, because of everything I've come across recently to do with Schwitters.

EYES

I have had WAY too much fun coming up with ideas for my outcome for my first unit at college. Basically, our starting point is distorting identity. I, being me, have somehow managed to end up aaaaaaaaat.... optical phenomena. The link makes sense, yeah? Whilst researching, I've managed to find out so much ridiculous, and totally bonkers stuff about how our eyes work and why we actually need two eyes; this has led me to my final piece idea. I'm going to paint two images, in different focuses, to look at how they work together, just like your eyes do. Crazy, huh?

PESSIMISM

You can't see all these properly, but I've been having fun taking notes on people on the train to and from school. It takes me over an hour to get to school and the same back, so I have a lot of time at the moment to sit around drawing and such. My first project on my course this year is identity, so I've come up with a few little ideas, like 'the little book of pessimism' - ever pessimistic, I literally see the bad in everything according to my dad, so I thought I'd document all the little things on the train which absolutely do my head in!  Enjoy!

IN THE COUNTRY

WARNING: SERIOUSLY PHOTO HEAVY

Photo heavy might be a bit of an understatement I suppose… I spent the first half of this week at Grizedale Arts Centre in Conniston, going on long walks and drawing a lot. It was really interesting for me, because of the schemes they have going on in the village, like an honesty shop (local people put their own crafts into the shop, which is unstaffed, with only a log book and a jar for money, and people can buy stuff from it all day long!) which was full of beautifully crafted objects, flowers, and food. I was kinda kicking myself that I only took a fiver with me in all honesty, it was just amazing, you’d never find anything like it where I live (bar the Vintage Fair stuff, which I really really love!)

For such a small village, it’s amazing to think that there are so many people living there who are amazingly gifted! Literally, there’s pretty much anything you can imagine – veg, soap, cake, pottery, artwork, flowers, sewing stuff, vintage clothes, woodcraft, books etc.. Also, from my own point of view what with my bags and stuff, it was good to be able to get ideas for things to do – now thinking about running workshops for the kids down my street (I basically live in a street with children in every house, it’s crazy!) every now and again, bric a bracs, and craft stalls, because I already know of a few people who make and sell stuff elsewhere but there’s something nice about being able to sell at your own home!