Well, considering I have an iPod with a sellotaped together screen, and have been using a phone for the past 6 years that was my mother's before me, it's no surprise I'd not embraced blogging until now. A good friend of mine uses his blog regularly to keep us all updated whilst he sods off to various countries to do arty research, and it can be a bit of a hoot, but I think that's more to do with the author than anything else! So, I'm gonnae try and get back in touch with the world, and what better why to do it than by filling you all in with my daily witterings!
So, it's the end of the second week, and it has fully dawned on me about just how much hard work this year is going to be. Already done a couple of nights working until about 2am (I imagine that's my poor planning more than anything else) but I have gotten right into it, and can feel the on surge of wanting to sketchbook my little heart out into the wee hours! I found getting into this project quite difficult; combining the skills learned in the workshop with what I could do with materials I've been using for the past god knows how long and am quite comfortable with, and know how to manipulate them; I found that striking the balance between the two areas quite difficult. I'm unsure as to how to use materials like brown wrapping paper, Van Dyke pigment, Prussian blue paint etc, things I enjoy working with; how to transfer this onto metal; I've not quite found that link yet. I'm a total sketchbooking geek, and love working away on a set size of paper in a really informal way and knowing that not every page needs to be as busy or as full as the last, and that it doesn't need to be a finished piece of work and that it is purely about experimenting, whereas I associate metal with being quite a precious commodity and I'm sure it's just a confidence thing and not being completely comfortable with what I’m using. Plus, the amount of tools in that workshop that could do me harm frightens me just a leetle bit and I have already burnt myself, cut myself and just about given myself concussion with the fly press, so as soon as I am hardcore, I’m sure it’ll be just fandabee!
The research thing boggled me as well; don’t know if anyone else felt that. Finding contemporary artists that make vessels was exceedingly difficult! Used the ol’ googlebox but all that was able to give me was “genuine Chinese antiques” which was not what I was after! I tried Crafts Council which was on the VLE and that was much more productive and really easy to find artist’s work on; highly recommend it. I think it’ll be difficult to find any work that’s similar to where mine is going; my final piece/pieces that is, and I am mildly concerned that what I make may end up similar to Hannah Livingstone’s work from last year, but I intend to steer away from that as much as possible. I loved all of her pieces from the degree show; the way they were photographed and displayed was amazing.
Well, there goes my first attempt at blogging, and I hope this will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
