action plan & what I have learnt recently

I realise that I've been sorely lacking in thinking about what my work is and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to do the library exhibition because it's shown me just how rewarding experimentation and contextualising my work is. I've been doing flat, small paintings lately (see images below) and nothing new has been happening. I haven't been progressing and considering exciting new modes and plans and it's really disappointing to face that considering how much the DAS essay and the exhibition have offered in terms of understanding and elaborating on my own work.

I recognise this, however, and am going to make a big effort in setting up a routine for myself to actively experiment, reflect, and contextualise my work and it's formal elements.

The flat paintings I've been making on a5 lined paper (such as those above) have allowed me to test colours, and have been an important part of my pre-library work as colour was an important component of the pieces exhibited.

I have tested and found beautiful colour and texture combinations (above) and have made many paintings and drawings of my typical character (below), slowly perfecting and adapting my ideal cartoon form.

I must concentrate now on drawing from artists, shows, documentaries, and endless things around me to refine my message and form, as well as further exploring the possibilities for exhibiting my physical work and which form it should assume for the right impact and audience involvement.

My favourite art pieces are often posted here, so you can look back through a time frame on those pages and get a good idea of the forms I am using and playing with across weeks and months.

Maximum Irony, Maximum Sincerity

I looked at Andy Holden's installation "Maximum Irony, Maximum Sincerity 1999-2003: Towards a Unified Theory of MI!MS" after Paul suggested it might have some relevance for me, and after reading (on this page), "MI!MS is about the willingness to be lied to and the will to believe! It’s about the intense sadness of our unrealistic dreams, and the intense joy of our desire for them." From the MI!MS manifesto, I was struck by the poetry and familiarity of that attitude, and I recognised inside myself the idealistic joy of which it speaks.

Holden's installation is a vast testament to the collective named MI!MS (which he founded with friends), a loving representation of the history of the collective, both a museum and an artefact itself. It does remind me of ideas I had about creating an installation in the form of a sort of child's wonderland - a vision which is still present in my smaller and less ambitious work.

Like them, I've created a world, but mine is nestled inside my head and only occupies small spaces. The MI!MS world is lavish and bombastic, whereas mine is miniature, contained, and perhaps even guarded, only allowed out in small and specific forms.

Library exhibition prep: looking at the archive

Since I want my exhibition to draw links between my own work and something from WCA's archives, I looked through the archives today (the newspaper clippings below were interesting - the first is not really relevant, but the second interests me as it touches on art as made by people not considering and contextualising everything they make - the unadulterated genuineness of "everyman art") and found this brilliant concertina book made my WImbledon students collaborating with schoolkids from Camden.

I feel as if its location in time is important as the 90s were a time in which very simple and childlike art and fashion were embraced. It is also nicely linked to me by virtue of being made at a time when I was also a young schoolchild (I was 7/8 in 1999), so there is automatically a personal nostalgia for me in it. The children's drawings are perfect example of the ideal messy and colourful and carefree style/method to which I aspire, and which inspires me! I think this is the perfect thing to display aside my work, which similarly will incorporate very bright colours and rough shapes.

Library exhibition prep - my work

For my cabinet exhibition in the library I want to show both my own work and something from Wimbledon's archives. I wanted to figure out a piece of work to make that would be more 3d than a simple painting, so I tried making sculptures with foam, just odd shapes. The idea was that each sculpture would represent a future - strange, unwieldy, and unknown. I wanted to try out something I wasn't really used to. I don't like the sculptures I ended up making because they look garish and random with no formalistic sense of underlying structure. It was valuable to attempt though. I also made some small paintings of children because I had the idea of making some very small paintings and putting them in clunky diy cardboard frames, reminiscent of small children's school craft projects. I tried a few different ways/types of painting and ultimately decided my small painting & cardboard frame idea was my favourite. I will make a series of these and use them as my piece in the finalised exhibition.

these are the paintings I decided to frame with chunky decorated cardboard (this is the only process picture I have for them right now!)

DOWN WITH THINKING: Stage 3 MCP & exhibition thoughts (PPD)

The prospect of the big bad dissertation baby is terrifying, however I have found that the most recent essay/presentation (art as therapy) really pushed and inspired me into a new place in terms of a focus in which my work sits. I am hoping that the exhibition I make in the library will allow the same in terms of frameworks of presentation as well as links to understood art practices and ideas. Presentation in particular has been a struggle for me, so I hope I can really PLAN something now and make it thinking about every component of it rather than just waffling something up (even though that, ironically, is so much of my focus).

I am firmly slotted into the "art as self-care/comfort or pleasure mechanism above all else" frame now. Everything revolves around that perfectly. Everything about art making and its properties of therapy/calming/nostalgia/representation and love of life and the universe is THE THING I CARE ABOUT and want to talk about. That is exactly why it's been tough for me to want to theorise it and think about it and consider every part of what I'm doing, because I've just wanted to DO IT. But after writing the "art as therapy" essay I feel I have a new understanding of the value of considering every detail of my art practice, intentions, reasoning, etc. Everything is precious, and this can be enhanced through academics. I do feel stupid though, a lot during this course. It's hard to find academic things to engage with, it's hard to find the right sort of sources that are relevant and understandable. I seem to stumble upon by accident. That's pretty scary,

Anyway the point here is that I am much more open to contextualising myself because thinking, in practice, has not detracted from my carefree style of work, as I felt deep within myself it would. I'm still scared though.

happy

http://newhive.com/mothcub/happy

So I'm experimenting with newhive pages as a display option. Here I've integrated two simple images and a small piece of audio. This is exactly the kind of framework I want to use, just to have images/sounds/videos fill a webpage, like an online collage with the added depth of sound and/or movement.

ART 2014

I think it will be important to try keeping to a more defined structure at this point concerning what I make. I have been concerned with my process and enjoyment and my outcomes have been difficult to interpret. In terms of presentation frameworks I am leaning towards display being fully located online. Newhive allows me to easily make decorated webpages which assert their place across the screen and allow for easy visual arranging. I want to work concerning levels.

1. My cartoony paintings and drawings. These are a mass piece sort of ever changing and evolving and a representation of me and my thoughts and feelings. They inform and react to other work in some ways and I want to record them but I want them to take a backseat to separate constructed projects. I'll detail these by linking to dated collections of them and noting changes and reasons for changes.
2. Sound. I will make series of tracks, I think a mix between atmospheric and fuller songs. These on their own are artworks, and I want to recognise them as stand alone pieces. These will be the first level which properly inform my intended work.
3. Videos. Once I have my songs, I will make videos for them. I want them to be somewhat ethereal, but, looping back to my paintings as an influence, I want the videos to convey something of my painting process in terms of the softness & sweetness, the unthinkingness & childishness, and the joy and scale of the complexities of my life and personality via my messy acrylic creation transferred onto video.
4. It's possible that I can then transform something of the video into a physical installation, e.g. taking screenshots and weathering them and sticking them up on a wall in a big mound of crumpled paper and masking tape. I'm not sure if this is a good idea as there is something definitively final about the videos. I could, however, transfer this plan to digital by constructed a messy web page around a video, with lots of digital clutter. This would tie into the work more effectively, I think, and would keep everything online.