#studiopractice2

80cm x 100cm canvas. 

I’ve decided I want my art to be about the abstraction of ‘girly’ magic tropes that were aimed at many girls in childhood through marketing and media. Though it is true that strictly binary representations of gender are fed to us in our childhood, and a failure to swallow these tropes are often met with distaste and shame (even in childhood), the ‘girly’ is something that sits precariously in our culture. ‘Girly’ tropes have a negative stereotype attached to them, with many passing them off as lacking in substance or intellect of some kind, and being silly and frivolous. Young girls in our culture are in a catch-22, as they are encouraged to be girly in youth and later in adolescence when this mindset continues, ‘girly’ things are suddenly shamed and judged for their interests.

 Music acts, certain films and shows aimed at girls, even so far as makeup and feminine ways of presenting are judged harsher by society, particularly in comparison to similar media types aimed at boys. Examples of subjects of this ridicule are the twilight movies, acts like Justin Bieber and One Direction , and negative connotations of makeup being ‘fake’ and phrases like ‘take a girl swimming on the first date’ that demonstrate these attitudes.

 Therefore, I think it an empowering stance to celebrate the femininity that many people in our culture have related to from an early age. This media, because of the strict divide in binary, was often made in the absence of the male gaze and was more emotion driven . This ‘culture’ relates to films, shows, toys, website design, clothing and more, and something to notice is that much of it shares a particular aesthetic style.

The ‘Barbie’ movies were female led films driven by a female perspective. The movies, have light pastels, soft warm yellows and oranges and lilac in their overall aesthetic. The characters wore dresses that young girls would love to wear and didn’t cater to what a male audience would call ‘sexy’. In the design of the cartoon, there often featured elaborate swirls and tiny white stars or dots that would represent a ‘sparkle’. A soft, hazy fade is also employed to show the glow of light. Across the board, pink and purple are used heavily which makes sense when you consider these were the ‘girly’ colours in society at the time.

Here, in the Polly-pocket game website, (a toy marketed to girls but was expanded into an online game) we can see a very similar colour palette. A mixture of bright, sunny colours and pastels, with a heavier focus on pink and purple. It’s also worth noting that the protagonist, as with the barbie movies, is Caucasian, and presents as feminine, meeting all the beauty standards inflicted on girls at the time. Both Barbie and Polly Pocket have blonde hair and blue eyes, which caters to the standard of western beauty that has been popular since the golden age of Hollywood. Design of the room incorporates florals and bold pattern into it’s design and furniture is rounded and soft looking.

The Winx show was a main inspiration for my early pieces in this vein. The show had a heavy focus on fashion and individual style, features the same colour palette as aforementioned and heavily relied on the white dot ‘sparkle effect’ to animate their ideas of magic and fantasy. The ensemble of girls had different styles, ranging from hyper-feminine to tomboyish and sporty. In the cast it is also important to note that more diversity was present, there being a black, hispanic and East Asian members. However the protagonist of the show was style caucasian, and in the latest reboot of the show, two of the POC characters were actually white-washed and stripped of their cultural back-story.

Pixel Chix were popular toys around the time I grew up. The ever-present ‘girly’ colour palette still features. I think it is note-worthy that these toys were built in the shape of a home, and the character moved around this domestic sphere as part of the game. The games also encourages girls to nurture and mother the character in the toy, which can be seen as another way society inflicts this expectation of women to carry children on cis women.

Here is a good example of the sprawling swirls and shapes included in the girly aesthetic. The ocean wave curls under at the bottom, and is adorned with swirly shells and creatures. A chrome sheen is applied to the dolphins in this picture, showing a favouring of light reflection like sparkles, chrome shine and metallics in the girly aesthetic. 

Celia Hempton  Eddie 2017

Thinking about ideas of blatant representation of males led me to the work of Celia Hempton. The colours are gentle and serene, combined with fluid brushstrokes, the image is pleasant to look at. ironic since genitalia is rarely described in this way. often genitalia within art is presented as sensual or erotic. often with male genitalia, it is displayed as dominance. Sometimes genitalia is even displayed as grotesque. This however, is different. There is an innocence. simply, it is what it is. 

Mary Beth Edelson - ‘Selected Wall Collages’

‘Selected Wall Collages’ is a wall-based installation of 146 collages that explores the representation of women across time and culture. The collages, which vary in size, were made between 1972 and 2017. The collages depict imaginary beings derived from a range of different sources that include ancient mythology, art history, popular culture, nature and photographs of the artist and her peers. Many of the images come from Edelson’s career-long research into the figure of the goddess as a bridge between nature and humanity. 

Most of the works were made in 1972, at around the same time that Edelson created her best known work ‘Some Living American Women Artists / Last Supper’ 1972. A number of the figures that were in that collage appear in ‘selected wall collage’ but other additions include Grace Jones, Uma Thurman in the film ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994), Madonna and the former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama.

Tuesday 5th March

I began working on my piece for the exhibition after our lecture was cancelled and I knew I had the whole day to sit and concentrate on my piece. I wanted this to be my best work going into the show so I wanted to be ambitious with my work and wow people, instead of throwing in a piece of artwork I had already created. I chose to make my largest ever piece. I had a week to complete the piece and planned to go home for the weekend so I had to spend my time wisely. It was a very anxious week.

I came up with a plan of the piece I wanted to make, which involved combining the images I had taken a few weeks back. These images I had already been working on to create several smaller paintings so I wanted to extend this series on a larger scale. I used the Procreate app on my iPad to juxtapose the images together and then filled in the gaps using the pen tool. I wanted the faces to be connected but to also show the restriction anxiety can have on the body.

I first cut the piece of paper and laid it out so I could see how big the piece really was. I then used a thick brush to coat the paper in a light wash of grey watercolour. This took me a while as the watercolour pan was so small and I had to keep remixing the paint to make it the same shade. The paper absorbed the water instantly and was quite difficult to work with due to the amount of bumps that formed. I waited a few hours for the paper to completely dry and then began marking out the grid lines to match my digital image. I did this to help make the painting as accurate as possible to the image as I wanted the proportions to be correct. I stayed in the studios until 8:00 that night because the paper was so huge and I only had a 30cm ruler. If I plan on using his technique is in the future, I will get a meter stick to draw the lines as it was very tedious.

Wednesday 6th March

I spent the day mapping out the basic outline in the squares in pencil, to make the piece accurate to the image. Once the basic outline is done I will be able to adjust the other areas to my liking and tweak any other areas. I just needed that basic guideline as I am working on a larger scale to usual.

I planned on using ink for this piece as I wanted it to have a high contrast with the pale wash of the grey background. I found the bumps in the paper began to lessen as I was working on the paper. My choice to use ink was also inspired by fact I had chosen to make my image black and white. I wanted the black to be strong and show depth in the piece.

Thursday 7th March

After completing the outline I began working with the black ink on the face. I decided against using watercolour as I wanted to use as minimal liquid on the paper to reduce the bumps, the ink settled well on the paper and did not spread as quickly as the watercolour. The only problem I faced with the black ink was that it sometimes appeared patchy and required a few coats and also there was no mid tone. I needed to make an artistic decision which would affect the way the piece was viewed. I chose to create some small samples in my sketchbook to see how different mediums would work together and how they would layer. I did not plan on making this piece a mixed media piece. But after a chat with my peers I was convinced to use more than one media and to not limit my possibilities and to also help me with the mid tone areas.

I first made a choice to use charcoal as this would easily blend into the paper and I could create darker and lighter areas. I also wanted to use charcoal within he rope as I found the texture worked really well based on the samples in my sketchbook. I continued working on the ink sections of the piece for the faces and then decided to work on the charcoal areas tomorrow.

Friday 8th March

I had a few hours to work in the studio before I had to catch my three hour train home for the weekend so I wanted to make the most of my time. I started with the charcoal. I first drew the basic outline of the rope in the charcoal and then smudged the charcoal to add some medium tones to the light areas. I then repeated the outline and added some lines and texture to the bends in the rope.

I thought about the paper and how these bumps would never leave. I had a thought about exaggerating these by completely screwing up the paper into a ball and then opening it back out. I also really liked the raw edges of the piece and decided to keep these torn. My piece is about anxiety and how this can be a restriction to the body. I thought this would be a good way to show myself overcoming anxiety.

Monday 9th March

We had all actually set this date as the deadline to have our work done at our meeting on Tuesday 5th so that we wouldn't need to worry, but unfortunately this was not the case for everybody! I had been checking up on everybody's work in the studio to monitor their progress and compare it to mine to see if I was the only one who was behind. Myself and Lucy both began our pieces on the same day and were both working consistently at the same times.

I arrived back to uni late afternoon from my weekend away and went straight to the studio to continue with my piece. I managed to complete all of the rope that was shown in my image, but found this wasn't enough and there were several gaps. This was there I needed to use my creativity and imagine what should go where. I decided to leave my image behind and not be so controlled and reliant on the image. I added in some more rope where I thought necessary around the border of the piece. I also tore the edges of he piece to create more of a raw feel and to make the piece look more square.

Tuesday 10th March

I came into the studio for registration and carried on working on my piece. It was helpful to work in the studio on the Tuesday as everybody was in and I could have the opinions of my fellow course mates, it was especially helpful to have Cara work by me as she could see the piece progress each day and give me advice on what she feels would work best.

The last few days I wanted to work all day and night to get the piece complete so I decided it would be in my best interest to work on the piece at home as I get my sudden bursts of creativity late in the evening when the studios are closed. I also needed to make sure that it was completed in time, so I wanted to work constantly to make sure it was to a high standard. I also did this because I was working late in the studios every night until 8/9 and I needed to make sure I could manage my time better and get the right amount of sleep I needed.

Wednesday 11th March

I worked at home all day on the piece. I decided to add some more faces into the painting as I felt the image on this scale did not work as well. I felt that it needed to have more of an impact and also have hidden faces. I also reflected on what Zander had said about not limiting myself to one media and decided to add a layer of black acrylic into the charcoal rope. I did this to make the rope stand out more and also add further detail. I also added some different shades of grey into faces to add depth, light and shadow. Adding the acrylic also allowed me to fix certain areas I was unhappy with, as I could over paint them.

I noticed something didn't seem completely finished and the work needed something else. I was really unsure about what to do so asked for some feedback from my housemates. I noticed there was a lot of empty space at the top and at the bottom left corner of the piece. So I added another closed eye at the top centre and also added further rope in the bottom left. I feel doing this brought all of the sections together

After making some last minute adjustments, I finally completed the piece at 11:30am just in time to be taken to paradise works tomorrow morning.

I was planning to completely screw this piece up and video myself doing it, but after creating it, I made the artistic choice not to do so. I did this because I was happy with the way it looked and I felt it didn't need to have that appearance as there was already a texture to the paper which I liked.

Thursday 12th March

When venturing into new mediums it is important to test results before going all in. I wished to bring the screenprinting process into my fabrics, and to do this sought to make paper templates using the laser cutter. There is a process of screenpriting that does give photo perfect results but it takes more time, resources, and money that I am personally willing to invest. My project was based on an element of frugality and I wished to extend this into the new trimester.

The laser cutter process is quicker and free, but unfortunately I ran into some issues. The abstract designs I wished to make into templates featured too much negative space which meant certain parts of the templates were cut off entirely and lost. I salvaged what I could and tested it with some spray paints as seen above, the main template didn’t work well with the spray paint but the negative captured a surprising amount of detail.