Well here we go - a forray into the world of blogging. I will be using this blog to document my first year at Bath Spa uni. Yes it is a requirement of the course, but I hope you find it interesting and I hope to use it to document what I have the chance to get up to! I also look forward to recieving your feedback as the only way I can grow as an artist is to let people see what i'm up to and get their reactions to it!

What have I been up to since term started - well In Art I've been studying painting. Week one and we began by doing blind drawing - something out of our bags - my phone decided to stand up to the task and I had loads of fun - it was a really good way to get the drwaing muscles going again after years of neglect! Blind drawing for those of you who don't know is when you are not allowed to look at the piece of paper you are drawing onto, instead you look only at the object you are drawing. This can produce some interesting results, I've put up a photo of my blind drawing below so you can see what i'm waffling about!

 

With the project brief given I started the lengthy research process for the first time in what seemed like forever by looking at my photos and using photoshop I began to distort and reduce them. I really enjoyed learning how to use photoshop to do this and i managed to create some interesting results which really inspired me. I began to play with what icould do with the image in terms of translating it into a painting and coming from a Costume background i initally looked at turning the image into some kind of painted dress, but i didn't feel the idea was right with the image i have been using, so that idea went onto the back burner for the time being. Instead i ended up pursuing the idea of using embroidery in my art work as an accompaniment to the actual painting and then after doing some amples was thinking about actually making it all part ofhte piece.

One large piece of canvas later and i'm on my way. gridding the image and the canvas so that i can transfer the image into a larger scale and i'm painting in no time and loving having a brush back in my hand. the painting has been quite time consuming, but i have had the chance to develop my ideas furthur whilst painting as the actual painting process has thrown up some interesting twists. The image is one of the lead singer of my favourite band - The Cat Empire, but i like the fact you can't excatly tell what it is without being told (i have been told the image looks like a bulls head!) it is brightly coloured and some ofthe shapes are quite interesting, in fact it reminded me of all the good times and the good friends i've made at their gigs as well as the fact that the music has helped me through some pretty rough times in my life. Istarted listening to the music whilst I was painting which started me thinking about soundwaves and in particular the ones made by their music, hence my little forray into garageband. the shapes were really interesting as they echoed my feelings throughout my life - all the ups and downs and i began to contemplate embroidering them over the top of the painting i've been working on. several samples later and a chat with Adele (my art tutor) and i've moved away from putting them over the top of my work and i'm thinking of creating a separate piece. i love the juxtaposition emboidering a soundwave creates, they are by nature a fast and momentary thing and embroidery is such a delecate and painstaking process. the piece i'm now looking at creating as a sister piece to my first paiinting is a part painted part emboridered soundwave which could go all the way round the room and this has become the concept for an instillation where the music is playing and there is lighting similar to the type used during their shows and also using projection which can track around the length of the soundwave as the song plays.

there is so much i could do with this idea I would love to beable to contiune it and see where it leads me. i'm curently looking into the locations of their tour dates over the past 5 years an ploting htem on a map as i think it could make an interesting next step - perhaps as strings suspended across the room but this is something i need to develop further.

time to stop waffling i think. i'll put up a couple of pictures of my work over the next few days so you can see what it is i'm getting up to.

Ciao
xx