Final Display!

Today I finished my final display and got all my prints mounted onto the wall. It took almost the whole to paint the wall, put in 240 nails, then paint the nails (I didn't like how much the stood out against the wall) then finally put the prints up with magnets. Originally I wanted as many prints up as possible but as I was putting them up as I found that 3 rows looked better than 4 it looked cleaner.
The was so many different dramas with putting the work up at first I wasn't allowed to use the ladders, then I wasn't allowed to use certain nails but it in the end I think it was all for the best because it meant that I refined the prints and picked the best ones to go on the wall. Also, the rows are just above eye level, at eye level, and just below eye level this means that people aren't having to look right up to see them, which I like they can take their time to look at them.

Last Week!

Scary to think this is our last full week at college! I've got most things done, just need to finish my sketchbook, tidy up my research folder then obviously put up my final piece but that'll be done next week. For the most part the past weeks haven't been as bad as I thought they would be, I've been on top of most things and I'm happy that I had my final prints finished in advanced because it's meant that this week I could get on with final touches, statements that needed to be typed up, rather than being stressed trying to finish everything. I feel that my time management skills have really stepped up through this brief, so I'm that'll be a skill I'll be able to take with me into other courses.

Layers

Something that I've been experimenting with is having different layers of paper, ink, paint and acetate on top of each other and whilst I think the outcome is quite good I think that the pieces can end up looking quite muddled, I want to have something that is more succinct.
At the minute I feel that I've been looking at all these different things that has meant that my work has gotten muddy, so I want to whittle down what I've got to work out what is going to be best for getting my point across.

Examiner Meeting!

Today we had our first meetings with the examiners, it went quite well and after speaking to the examiner I feel that I have better understanding of where I want my work to go. I have lots of ideas now, I think I want to take my work futher so that I'm pushing myself out of comfort zone.

Gender Ideas

From looking at Butler's I've discovered her idea that gender is just a performance that it is built up by through the repetition of specific behaviours: like lipstick for women and suits for men. I was looking into those ideas for myself, like how dying my hair is seen as very feminine but going to the cadets/military involvement is seen as being masculine. So I looked at those aspects of myself and created a small series of paintings. Looking at the different 'versions' of myself. I used blue and pink for my colour scheme because they are the recognised colours for male and female.

Sketchbook Pages

Here are some of my sketchbook pages so far and some experiments that I've done over the past few weeks:

 I've mostly been creating portraits as I've been looking at the different ways that people present themselves.

Primary Research

Over the past few weeks, I've collected a lot of research from essays on gender roles, artists who look identity, creating a survey and asking people opinions, and creating some visual pieces. Now I'm working on getting a balance between primary and secondary research so that I can make sure that my concept is fully explored.

Presentation Time!

This week we had our first presentation for David's class, I feel like I've really improved with presentations over the past few years as I wasn't as nervous and only stuttered once. I like the presentation as it's a good way to help you edit your research information which then helps to form your paragraphs for your essay. The essay has been going really well as I've been managing my time better this time and have got a lot of research both primary and secondary.

Warhol-esc

I've been working on some Warhol inspired pieces, using bright block colours and simplified facial features. I like the way that the pieces look but I want them to have more depth, possible adding a meaning to the colours or have a better range of facial expressions/obvious moods.
Something I was thinking was dressing up as an over the top version of myself. So for the cadet part of my life have an ultra masculine looking portrait and have in neural tones, for my artist side have really colourful/possibly blue as I always seem to use blue in my work.

Initial Ideas!

From using a filter my phone I've created some different pop art like pieces that I think work quite well but I feel they could look better if they were printed, which is something I plan to investigate later. 

Major Project!

Now that's us back at college full time, which is good I prefer having a structure to my week I end up doing more work. We've been working on our PLP's this week and I've decided what it is I'm planning on researching. My aim is "Explore and expose our culture's ideas of the sense of self, what it person and what makes someone who they are."
Looking at researching inner narratives and how people feel they can or can't express themselves. The artists that I'm looking into are Andy Warhol: who has a female alter-ego 'Diva', he often looked into identity, he questions the idea of personhood any celebrity culture. Cindy Sherman is a photographer who uses makeup and costumes to create different characters which in turn illustrates different aspects of her personality. Also, I will be looking at musical artists such as David Bowie and Lady Gaga who throughout their careers changed their personas, which lead to questions of how we present ourselves to the public.
I'll also be basing my ideas of the philosophies of Judith Butler, an author who researched the difference between performance and performativity. Her essays Gender Troubles (1990) and Sense of the Subject (2015) are the main ones that I'll be looking into. As they focus on the sense of self, how we interact with others and how we perform ourselves.

Playing around with the layout

Here I was trying different opitions for the layout of this collage:

In the end I went with the top one as I felt it looked the most balanced. 

Sketchbook pages

Refining concepts

From carrying out some extensive research I've decided that I want to look into cyberspace as my non-place as it's a place that most of us spend our time (obviously true if you're reading this) but we can never really get there. There is no beginning and no end to the internet.
I'm also interested in surveillance and how we are watched a society. However, I'm worried that I'm trying to fit too much all into the one project. Something that I know I need to work on is self-editing.

As for the physical side to the project, I think that it is going well. I've created a series of paintings and collages which has helped me to decide how I want my final piece to look.