the art of eliza abejo

⮤ Short-timelapse video of me gluing all the pieces together. Also featuring my lunch break (Author’s own, 2020).

⮤ Found piece of pre-cut acrylics (Author’s own, 2020).

⮤ My own cut-outs in today’s workshop (Author’s own, 2020).

⮤ Making leaves out of the wooden cut-outs (Author’s own, 2020).

⮤ Pictures of the power tools/industrial machines we have available at the UniSA City West Campus (Author’s own, 2020).

Today the day to review the use of these powerful machines!

For future Eliza, please note that you need to wear protective-wear like closed-toe shoes, safety goggles and ear protection around these machines. Oh, and PLEASE watch your fingers.

1. The Drill Press: Used to make holes/circled into your work by changing out the drill sizes.

2. Circular Saw: Good for cutting straight lines right through slimmer pieces of wood. It doesn’t reach out far enough to cut through anything wider that my arm. It also has a clever dial to adjust the angle of your cuts.

3. The Bandsaw: Features a band that moves at a very great speed. Also extremely loud (which is why the ear protection comes in handy). You can use this to cut right through wider sheets of wood. It even has a frame to hold your work in place while you cut through it. You can also use it to cut out slightly curved lines, but only small ones. You could never cut a circle with this.

4. Large Sanding Disk: Turn the extractor on and stand on the left to sand down corners and/or edges of your work. Basically a giant nail file.

5. Small Sanding Disk: Turn the extractor on and stand on the left to sand down corners and/or edges of your small work. It’s a smaller nail file.

⮤ Reviewing my ‘flower arrangements’ a few days later (Author’s own, 2020).

⮤ Just a neat little row of arch-shaped cut-outs that I could use as a stencil for later.

⮤ My first arrangements for two of the shaped canvases.

As I kept working on the arrangement, I realised that the pieces put together were beginning to look more and more like flowers. In sense, by taking the time to arrange the pieces that were already cut and given to me, I did feel like I was trying to make a flower arrangement as I made careful decisions as to what shapes would be at the forefront of my canvases and which ones would remain at the back.

⮤ Assembling my series shaped canvases using found objects, pieces of wood, and pieces of plastic (Author’s own, 2020).

For our third project, Christian tasked us with creating a series of ‘shaped’ artworks or canvases. For this, he told us we could combine a range of found objects and/or shapes and provided the class with scraps from the laser cutting room to aid us. From the pile, I picked out a set of interesting wooden shapes and a large pre-cut plastic sheet and spent the whole lesson trailing different compositions with them. Here’s a little clip of that so you can see it in real time.

⮤ ‘Ikonostasis Encircled’ by Eliza Abejo, 2020, mixed media collage on wooden board with annotations.

⮤ Examples of silkscreen printing.

⮤ Failed attempt at Project 2 - my homemade alternative for an installation piece.

Sorry, I’ve been too panicked with deadlines to update this portfolio as often as I should have so I don’t have a lot of material to provide for these last few weeks... but here’s what I did do:

Went to the laser-cutting studio to seek information about laser cutting the piece for my installation. I wanted the overall size (when displayed) to be half of my body height (so around 77.5cm long). This way it could look pretty as a chandelier or something if it worked out well.

Shane Haddy (the technical officer and go-to guy for any laser cutting needs at UniSA) went through acrylic prices with me and how long things would take. Making the shapes would have been simple, but at the size I did want to do it would have been VERY costly. They also didn’t have all the colours I wanted - mainly only clear and/or white acrylic sheets, so ordering them in would take time. This scared me as I knew I wanted to get into the process immediately - I wouldn’t have a lot of time to wait for a supplier to get what I needed. I definitely didn’t have the money either.

Decided to push the big installation idea on the backburner - perhaps I could make a small hanging ornament with materials at home. Like a mobile.

Looked into how to make on mobile on Wikihow. The method that best worked with what I wanted to do was the third method - using an embroidery ring and hanging my decor from it with string.

It took me a week to plan out and put together using scrap paper around my home, but eventually I did make a small mobile with an embroidery ring, craft paper, glue, and jewellery string.

While taking it into uni to show the teacher, it broke during my journey to the campus (I take public transport). The paint I had put on it also began to flake off.

As you can see, the result has been this mangled mess. It would be a shame however, to not use what I already have (e.g. the gold jewellery necklace, embroidery ring and little emblems made out of paper). Clearly, I’m in need of a Plan C. Or D. I can’t remember what I’m up to at this point.

REFERENCES MENTIONED:

⮤ Photograph of Leonard Brown in his studio (Richards, 2017).

Today’s point of research was into Leonard Brown, a Brisbane artist whose icon paintings deeply reflect his values and beliefs in the Christian faith. Even when he starts off his day, Brown lights oil lamps in his home as the light symbolises the presence of Christ in his life as he works in his studio.

For Brown, he says the ‘pivotal ingredient’ as an icon painter and Byzantine artist is the Christology in his works, saying that every icon of Christ ‘comes with the affirmation that he is both God and man’ (Gouriotis, 2017). In doing so, being a Byzantine artist means reflecting off of the past and traditional values, as the Byzantine canon ‘extends and expands’ on the order of our natural world (Gouriotis, 2017) . To reflect this, Brown uses natural paints sourced globally for his icon artworks as if to copy the old style to the most minute detail.

What caught my eye from his painting in the gallery, however, was not the size of the painting and its traditionalist values but the colours of his icons. As shown in my sketch for that installation piece, I’d like to adapt the brown, red, and green regal yet natural tones of Ikonostasis Deisis Tier - especially the gold for it highlights the most important people in the piece (i.e. in encircling the disciples and Jesus’ heads with gold halos we pay attention to their faces and importance to the Christian faith, even though they lived ordinarily and were not royalty).

REFERENCES MENTIONED:

Gouriotis, K 2017, ‘ Leonard Brown’, Artist Profile, viewed 2 September 2020, <https://www.artistprofile.com.au/leonard-brown/>.