A New Beginning

Moving on – the Big Final Project…. Scary… Working on my ILP, well, I sent it out to the tutors, but it may need to get “tweaked” a bit (or a lot).

I’ll update it here once finalized. Hope it all works out well.....

Alchemy

I haven’t uploaded any info about my progress for some time – so better get on with it ;O)

I’ve got my results so far and I’m pleased enough ;o) Now just need to start the final project.

Just for a few lines reflecting back on the 2^nd not completed project – as I am still planning to finish it. I love the idea and got loads of materials organized.

I’m going to the North of Scotland during the February break. My in-laws are being extremely supportive, although they are not big fans of art that doesn’t look like something from Michelangelo… even Picasso is a bit extreme to them…so very appreciated they are so understanding… ;)

The plan is to heat to a very high temperature two 50x50cm steel plates and melt various metals such as tin, copper, aluminum, brass, silver and also some chemical substances which I’m still getting hold of. This should create a very expressive, alchemy influenced pieces. I’m just really hoping it’ll work out, as I’ve never done anything like this before. The plates will be the final works, but I’m also planning to take photographs of these and make silk screen prints.

So this is the plan – I will update the blog once I get a chance to do it in February.

Snow and The Light at The End of The Tunnel

The college has been closed now for a week due to crazy amount of snow and council’s idea of being prepared for this winter failing miserably… My car is barely visible under the amount of snow and we don’t own a shovel…I guess we are following the council’s example of (not) being ready for this kind of weather. Still my puppy loves it, runs around like a mad thing, chasing snowflakes and making snow angels (well maybe not snow angels, but is certainly able to leave her mark… ;)

So apart from following the weather updates I’m trying to work on my research. I’m over 10000 words now, I will need to clean up quite a bit of it though. Still have a bit to do including conclusion, referencing, bibliography. I’ve done the interviews, just hope the way I’ve done is appropriate… need some feedback on that. I’ve done my survey charts, looking good, but still need to add some more info to those sections. Lots of work for this weekend.

I’ve changed my mind again about the brief I was going to do. Back to the Charlatan Ink Price. I was looking forward to doing the music brief, however I don’t have access to the equipment needed and don’t know when I would have, so I abandoned it. Then I was considering the RSA Stamp brief. I thought about it a bit and did some research, but as I really wanted to do something quite expressive and fine arty rather than graphic design I decided to go back to my original option of the Charlatan Ink. I thought the stamp brief also considering the size of the images would be a bit too similar to my book, the 1^st project. I feel I need to produce something more expressive and especially larger. I’m still tempted to do silk screen prints, if I get a chance to, but may need to stick to painting.

My ideas for the brief? I’m not really trying to be thinking in a religious way, but this sentence from the Bible always resonates in my mind: “You come from dust and to dust you will turn into.” Very true, and it just shows how very insignificant we are.

I came across this artist – Cai Guo Qiang http://www.jingdaily.com/en/culture/cai-guo-qiang-i-like-things-that-are-hard-to-control/    http://www.colectiva.tv/wordpress/lang/en-us/cai-guo-qiang/

I find his approach very interesting and unusual. It got me thinking  about chemical reactions – (because let’s face it, that’s what we are) I would be quite interested to experiment with heated metal plate and pour various chemical substance, sand etc to produce interesting reactions. Again, it would be good to have access to college as I’m not sure about doing anything like that in my little kitchen.

Another way of looking at our being is also the fact that “We are all trying to make a mark in this world”, are we here to leave a mark? What and who for? Why are we here? What is our journey of life (life cycle) about? Why are we so self destructive? Where do we come from? Do we really know what we are and what are we here for? And where are we going? Are we heading towards self-destruction, or is there a light at the end of the tunnel?

2nd Project

Tried gold leaf and it didn’t work that well – at all ;o) So, leaving the illustrations in their original form, the books is printed, bind, front/back pages are cut…. All looking good. I’ll need to add some photos of it in as well.
GSSmith kindly sent to Enzo a whole bundle of cut paper. Paul thinks it’s a bit heavy textured for the prints, so I may stick with the simple mat card I’ve used. I will try it later to see how it looks.

The case study is going quite well but still tons to do. Richard checked my latest version (just over 4000 words) and seems quite happy with it, which I’m obviously very pleased with. I’m hoping to take some days off to get it done as soon as I can. Find it much easier to write at home, plus have access to internet which is vital…

My second project….hmmmmmm. I changed my mind about doing the Charlatan Ink Prize and now thinking about D&AD Illustration brief or RSA postage stamp….
For the D&AD I was considering Thomas Newman, Clint Mansel but find them a bit depressing… not in a mood to do depressing stuff…. So I may go with Vanessa Mae. Or music used in Circ de Soleil. Richard mentioned today (23/11/10) Elvis Castello (Julliete’s Letters) so I need to listen to it.

It’s looks like quite a full on brief and I’m not sure if I’ll have enough time to come up with a good idea and finish it to a good standard….

So…. Maybe the postage stamp, seems a bit more straight forward…
I need to make a decision very soon. I’m hoping to be quite expressive in this project, quite colourful and lively.

Book of Similes - Nearly There

My wee book is getting printed - just hope it looks ok... I'm getting it printed on white 200 g/m2 card in The MinuteMan Press but I've just sent an e-mail to GFSmith Paper Company asking them very nicely for a few samples...

The book of samples was produced in 12/04 so I am not sure if they still have the same paper, however I would really love about 50 A4 sheets of white Accent Fresco in 250 gsm and about 6 sheets of A4 Heartland Juniper in about 300 - 350 gsm. Hope they come back to me soon - with a positive answer ;o)

I still need to design and cut the front and back page, but it is pretty much finished and it was a great fun and experience. Absolutely love printing and wants to do a lot more this year. Paul is very encouraging as well which is nice. He recommended I join a print making studio in Glasgow – will do as soon as I can….

 

Printing Here I Come ;o)

The contents page is good to go. I started to work on the History of e-books.

Gave out more questionnaires, this is the last of the lot. Looking forward to the results…

On Monday 1/11 I printed new pictures, looking a lot better now but still needs a little

more work. I’m using Phtalo Blue and Lamp Black water soluble inks.

I found out today that laser cut costs £75 per hour – a bit too pricey for my student’s pocket…but will see. I’ll give them a call and see what they say.  I tried to cut with a scalpel and it doesn’t look that bad at all.

I am working on the typography for the similes, will keep it quite simple.

I have to start thinking about the next brief – I think I will still go with the Charlatan Ink Price. I have a few ideas, but needs to start putting them on a paper.

Oh – and I have 9 similes/prints to use now, more the merrier ;o)

·         Dark trees bending together as though whispering secrets

·         A fluttering as of blind bewildered moths

·         A lady that leaned on his arm like a queen in a fable of old fairy days

·         A sudden sense of fear ran through her nerves like the chill of an icy wind

·         As a cloud that gathers her robe like drifted snow

·         There slowly rose to sight, a country like a dragon fast asleep

·         His voice was like the clap of thunder which interrupts the warbling birds among the leaves

·         A silver moon, like a new-stamped coin, rode triumphant in the sky

·         The pine trees waved as waves a woman's hair

Printing Press - The Lows & The Highs

Monday 18/10/10

My sketchbook is starting to fill up. I have many ideas for my poetic similes.

I chose the following:

·         Dark trees bending together as though whispering secrets

·         A fluttering as of blind bewildered moths

·         A lady that leaned on his arm like a queen in a fable of old fairy days

·         A sudden sense of fear ran through her nerves like the chill of an icy wind

·         As a cloud that gathers her robe like drifted snow

·         There slowly rose to sight, a country like a dragon fast asleep

·         His voice was like the clap of thunder which interrupts the warbling birds among the leaves

or

·         A silver moon, like a new-stamped coin, rode triumphant in the sky

Thursday 21/10/10

At 10 am I had an interview with a college’s librarian and learned about use of e-books in this particular library. It was a very informative and interesting interview.

On Friday I interviewed a librarian in a local secondary school, the head mistress and one of the English teachers. Again, very interesting and positive experience.

On Saturday 23/10  I started to work on my 7 etchings for the book brief and by the end of the weekend I finished most of them. I was hoping to produce some prints on Monday however the printing press broke down…

I’m thinking of producing the prints but then scanning them into a computer and printing them out on a laser printer. This should eliminate too much paper wastage and also become more suitable for printing a larger limited edition.

I also started to work on my content page for the research and started to type up some information. However on Monday my not very elaborate content page was shot down in flames ;0) I’ve re-done it and handed it in, but I’m sure there will be many adjustments to be made…. Also handed in the mid-term module.

Wahey!!! The printing press is fixed!!! So I managed to do a bit of printing today – 28/10 and the prints are looking quite good. More work to be done but they turned out not too badly.

Oh and yesterday at the Academy I met a writer Mr Tim Bowler – AND he agreed to do an interview with me! A really nice and approachable guy.