PRODUCTIVE, for a change...

Evening,

It has been such a lovely day today it was hard to concentrate on much in college, with the idea of picnics and walks in the sunshine occupying my brain. Although I don't think I was productive practical wise... I was somewhat productive with my concept.


I had worked on a few ideas over the Easter Holidays based on what the examiner had said to me about making my project more obviously related to people. He had suggested hangers, so I took this idea and ran with it as it was both conceptual and practical..well at least I had convinced myself so.

After making a few mock ups on photoshop, I'll post them below..I thought I was onto something fabulous. I decided that before I took this idea any further I would consult my mentor Staci.. and I am glad I did. Although the idea would have worked for an interior for a shop..it would work quite so well for my project. Basically my first idea of the structure in the middle of the room wasn't as discreet as I would have liked...then the hanger and clothing rail idea was much the same and drew away from the flowers!

After talking to Staci, whilst dying and panicking inside I realised that I had overcomplicated my simplistic message and had to go back to the drawing board and make the 'structure' almost invisable with fishing wire and thin mesh being my main materials.

I would love to develop this further tonight but my gran is in hospital and we are going to pay her a vist. But I promise I shall get back to it ASAP.


peace homies.

Oops!

Wow a whole month has passed by and I haven't blogged in all that time. Incredibly disappointed as it my most favourite part to do! 

Awe well, on the bright side I've managed to get a lot done in regards to college work. My sketchbook is full of little ideas I just need to whittle them down to something more concise that I can justify. Speaking to the SQA examiner helped a little bit, but it also made me panic so much! He suggested I focus on my photography, but I just can't think of how? HELP.

Oh well, I've been a lot more productive when it comes to PDP stuff and my contextual studies essay! I've about 1000 words left to go but that should be easy peasy! And for PDP, after about 30million tries at getting VistaPrint to work it did. So I am patiently waiting on my business cards to arrived, as well as a few novelty bits and bobs to give out during the exhibition.

I have also been focusing on my business Instagram to generate some interest in my project and hopefully encourage more people to attend my final exhibition.

Hopefully won't be another long wait to hear all about my fabulous degree life.

Ps. Only 7weeks to go 🙈😭

The sun is shining and thats about it...

YO.

Having an extremely stressful few days as I am burying my head in the sand when it comes to this project as I am not feeling it at all. I have good days but mostly bad days when I genuinely want to start the whole project again. I am struggling with the photography element, my strongest point that so far I have not included at all...shit. This is what is really stressing me out, but I am also stressing over the cost of the flowers for my original idea - a free standing 3D installation that would require thousands of flowers.... talking £2,000 upwards for a piece of work that wont even last a god damn week. NO THANKS.

On a brighter note, I did visit the Modern Contemporaries at the RSA which was a collection of the best work from the graduates last year. I was actually surprised by the choices as I was sure I had seen work in the degree shows last year that were a lot more creative and interesting... but maybe that's my taste.

I hope that eventually the Art and Design degree at Forth Valley College is invited to display pieces of work. I am definitely going to make sure to invite the RSA members to our degree show event.

Anyways, moving back to this headache of a project, I have decided to look into the possibility of making the installation a bit more cost effective but also surprisingly more relevant to the message I want to convey - using a waterfall..a symbol of energy and representative of life.

Spring Time Catch-up

So it is officially spring, perfect for my project in particular as the flowers are beginning to bloom and provide me with plenty photo taking opportunities as well as fresh flowers straight from the garden.

I haven't wrote for a while because I didn't think I was doing very well with my project so I was trying to focus on that without thinking about much else. I was beginning to panic because I wasn't panicking about not having a solid idea... catch 22 much.

As a way of solving my creative block I looked into other possible ideas of preserving flowers as this was the most sketchy part of my project, as I didn't trust that the flowers would keep for the duration of my exhibition. I experimented with the idea of having a 3D box image of a flower or possible 6x4 framed images of flowers.

Sketch and prototype of 3D box idea

Having at least three or four solutions actually helped calm me down a bit, before I knew exactly how much I was freaking out - great timing. I just really wanted photography to be a big part of my project as that is my strongest and most comfortable field to work in, however speaking to my tutor Staci, she made me realise that I didn't have to compromise the fresh flower installation element of my work. I could do both, in fact I am going to use the photography to give the audience a better understanding of the installation.

For my next experiment with photography I am going to use a technique that I first seen used by Richard Silver, in which he takes several photos of a landmark at different times of the day, layering them on top of one another to great a single image.

Copyright Richard Silver

 I want to adopt his technique but use it to document the process of birth and decay in flowers, starting from them in bud to them wilting away - I want this to be a representation of the lives that my installation will depict through flowers placed strategically.

So, I feel I am back on track and just need to get cracking with taking lots of photographs and sourcing plenty of flowers.



cya x

Week beginning 1st February...

So Personal Learning Plans submitted I can now get on with some deep research and development! Exciting times! I've such big plans and ideas I just hope I follow them all through to beef up my body of work for submission!

I worked on a small piece using a fully bloomed rose, attempting to make an alginate cast of the rose to then fill with plaster to make a forever rose! 

The final cast wasn't the best but I think that was down to the plaster mix as it was a children's version as that was what I had available at the time! I shall attempt this again as I found it could be a possible part of my final piece of work that I will exhibit!

So far so good, as long as I keep to my time plan and make sure I do actually do a little bit of work each day... 

Thanks for following my journey, soon I hope you'll be graduating with me ❤️

Studio Practice 2 - Final Project

As the title suggests this is the beginning of the end, for this BA degree anyway. So naturally I am nervous about my ideas for this project as they have been playing on my mind for well over a year now, as the deadline was looming from the get go.

Over time my ideas have changed, which was to be expected... as I tried my hand at different aspects of art and design to get to grips with my strongest areas. I've concluded, finally that photography is going to be a big part of my final project, along with my previous knowledge of floristry. As I have yet to see anyone do anything with flowers and such like as a final piece, I think it will be a refreshing insight into what is classed as 'art and design'.

So this week has been encouraging, as I have spent the week refining my Personal Learning Plan so it is of a high enough standard for the external examiners to get a good idea of my intentions for the next few months. I had been nerous that the idea I had had over the Christmas break was not going to be good enough, but that seems not to be the case - WOOHOO!

Before I talk anymore about what has been going on I will explain my idea... it draws on my interest in photography, whilst utulising what I learned when I worked in my aunties florist. The whole idea will be based on 'The Language of Flowers' as I attempt to give my audience a better understanding of the real meaning behind a particular flower. I want my project to highlight how little we think about flowers, especially when they are a gift.. basically would you know what to send someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer? probably not completely as there are a lot of misconceptions as to what a flower means, a yellow rose means friendship and a red means mad love... a stark contrast.

I hope this post has given a good insight into my plans for the next few months, I will keep up to date throughout, possibly even starting a vlog as a means of recording my progress.

xo

Finished

So there we have it Studio Practice 1 Part 2 is DONE. Thank goodness, that it's done and I am proud of myself.

My final piece consists of two aspects, the framed images with descriptors and then the mix and match hex that allows the audience to mix the emotions.

The reason I opted for the ability to mix and match emotions is so that the audience can create new ones. Also I included a neutral so that if mixed with one facial tick you witness what we see all to often in real life. This being that we attempt to conceal our true feelings but our faces give us away without us even knowing.

These facial ticks are subconscious and uncontrable because we are so busy trying to hide the rest of the emotions features - crows feet, wrinkled nose, forehead lines, mouth turned up/down at corners etc... We cannot conceal them all.