Starting Back

So I was given the theme of Shelter as my next project and with some confusion about how this should be handled, is it a group project or a solo project but working with other people for ideas? Naturally myself and fellow Shelter Group thinkers have gone for both, why not? Two projects are better than one (unless there both quite poor... Oh well).
the first, my group project:

Working with the idea of "shelter" we are creating a video piece (by we, I mean myself, Pete and Andrea, 2 year students) that will follow around the "everyday man/ woman" on there general journey from home to work/ uni/ the soul sucking corporations that demands there lives in exchange for £ or a degree (I'm not complaining, evil makes the world go round... I mean money, money, that's right) and this "protagonist" picking up and placing masks upon there face in the various situations they come into as an expression of shelter, the mask being the shelter hiding the true feelings of the individual, something we all do in order to get along with each other in life. The mask idea comes from hiding the true feeling one may have about a person or situation that they encounter, such as the fake laugh at a terrible joke, or the cracked smile to someone you don't particularly like or hiding back lust and awe through a terrible joke and back to the fake laugh and so on. Currently, we have been taking location shots, developing our "Story Board" and creating the mask, filming starts soon.....

My self project is going to combine an idea I did for my re-sit which was the position of people sleeping with shelter, the shelter of ones room protects them from the hardship out side and there vulnerability, though I believe humans are always vulnerable and hide themselves in their clothes to protect there "modesty" and to avoid feeling vulnerable (working with themes from the mask/ video project there) also, sleep shelters the conscious mind and stops the subconscious taking over when over tired and thus helps the mind to work out complicated issues of daily life, so science and psychology leads us to believe, I'm still working on this idea, but I am hoping to find a define link soon and will shortly begin taking photographs and playing with these images in order to see where these ideas go.

New Uni Year

So after a not so fantastic resist project, I was still given a second chance that I intend not to screw up. So kudos to me for surviving that.
1st project was over the summer and was based on an item of clothing one can wear that represented the difference between my own life and another cultures (assuming I'd been on holiday, which I had) although I think myself and many other students kind of ignored the "comparing the differences" part of the task but it was interesting to see what everyone had come up with anyway. Myself had made a masquerade mask out of an artifact I had bought while in a quaint little artisan town, wall to wall privately owned art shops and unusual cafes, beautiful place, "something something du poppe". The mask, as I said before was based on a masquerade mask which there is some dispute over the origins of this style, some say it was Italian then developed by French and other say the opposite, either way it has some heritage in French history so I worked with what I had, I simply painted the conjoined-face mask in the standard English and French flag colours with a mix between the two designs and used a red flower/ fire looking motif around the edges to represent how I almost set the mask and the room I was in on fire by stupidly leaving it on a lamp to support a clock radio in obtaining a better frequency. The project went well, as far as I could tell.

August

So I'm working on the ideas of structure and sleep, using artists such as Picasso and Matisse for inspiration due there use of the colour blue which I myself relate to depression, poor sleep/ insomnia (so enhanced movement) and dreams which I believe effect the position of the person dreaming and the positions they pull whilst sleeping. I am going to show the unusual positions pulled by sleeping peoples, but not as if they were lying down, but as if they were stood up, as i believe (from experience) that most people are probably standing upright in their dreams. but of course the movements and positions they form are when lying down. I have further developed this idea, or the visual aspect of the idea at least, into a more abstract form, making the images less pictorial, based on the ideas of cubism and Matisse's blue period.
On the side I have a summer project of a piece of clothing that depicts differences between my own culture and another, I have a few ideas but nothing set in stone just yet.

End and Re-start

As I thought, a not so great end to my first year. Struggling through a few things and the main one being my mental block of ideas and the ability to construct and generate anything specific or decent from them. So I am having to try again once more in a shorter amount of time in order to push on to the next year and am hoping that this time i shall pull it off, as a few things have come out of the crisis point that is my, currently, very possible failure. But as I said, hopefully this wont be the case if I can get my act in gear properly and stay focused.
One project given to me was scale and although it was limited time and I think i could have produced a better sculpture (personally I think a much better sculpture) it got a cross the point of the project. I'm now moving on to looking at the physical positions created whilst one sleeps and recreating these unusual poses in a small sculptural form. Not to go into to much detail about that yet until I've got myself completely fixed on the point and purpose which I feel, as long as I don't over complicate, should come out quite effectively.

Back To The Drawing Board

So, once again, my presentation (along with my work) did'nt really cut it, it's been a hectic year or rather a hectic end to the year so I'm having to start again. Which is good I guess, because I would like to move on to the next year, so.... What to do now?
Well we've had to start a month-long project with support tutor Nick, who has been quite helpfull to me already and this is going to be one of the two projects I must re-submit to carry on to next year.
So the first is about scale, we had to take photographs of things that interested us (us in the grand term of, my class) in and about Manchester. I was interested in the not so beautiful and flashy back-alley's as opposed to the "beautiful" displays in the shop windows of the popular kids-choice of corporate monsters- not that I'm that a hippy, I just grow weary of hearing about how excellent Primark is. These dark back-alley's have a sort of quiet-melancholy but also calming and peaceful aura about it, I found it calming. An industrial paradise, a haven, away from the busy bustling streets of the arrogant people that feel that the path they are walking down should not be stepped into or followed?
My other ideas are related to the mass of pigeons that were being chased by small children in Piccadilly Gardens, I thought to myself how these children would feel if they were being chased by the scale equivalent of large human sized pigeons. This I think would work better as the project is set around the theme of Scale.
And finally... Second project, Sleep, Dreams & Movement, more on that as the idea develops.

Ideas and Ramblings

As per usual, my thought process is working with ideas of mortality, fate, fear and religion. Although not the fear of religion mind, though I thought abut this too. I am separating some ideas for my sketches/ drawings whatever you want to call them, it still sounds like I'm doing crayola drawings with the tacky and easily breakable (and edible so I've been told) wax crayons. Anyway, my current two themes are developing ideas for monstrous and deformed human beings, I am a fan of horror films, the Silent Hill series and how they come to created these abused looking human creatures. Human beings for this theme, essentially as i want to work with the ideas of Sin and Fear, i believe the understanding of these two things is better expressed by human beings rather than animals. The second theme is working with the ideas of "Are we alone in the Universe" and the existence of the grand after life; Heaven, Hell, Limbo and the inhabitants; Angels, Demons and Lost souls. I have been researching a few artists, but mainly I have been looking through various written sources on such matters, such as articles on Demonology and the Classification of Angels. With the former idea, I have been looking into the origin or Sin and will try and delve further into it, somewhere along the line I plan to research into behavioural psychology, hoping to gain an understanding of mental illness or degeneration, in order to assist my ideas of monstrous, sinful human beings, as I believe that this will help with creating an interesting image if I can try and explain, through drawing, the feelings inside. Perhaps not even to drawn "Sin-Stained Souls" but perhaps these creatures can come of psychological problems.
Plenty of things ticking round in my head, just need to find some credited artists (because its part of the curriculum, rather than me wanting someones work influencing and destroying fresh ideas but never mind that) so that I can perhaps, develop some new ideas from the existing ones. My aim for the rest of the year is to try and develop various bits of work and see where I want to take it, perhaps I will return to 3D sculpting, at this particular moment, Saturday afternoon, I can not figure out where I'm going to be in 3 months time.

Saturday Afternoon Blues

Over Easter I have found myself a new job at a residential home. As I have found with a similar job to this, it starts to make my mind tick away. Fear, of ending up in such a place, as to me, at the end of the day I can go home, I'm not trapped. I heard someone liken it to being like an open prison, or an asylum. The fear of entrapment, aging, dying (of course, inevitable) losing control and embarrassment. Reflecting on ones life and thinking, did I do a good job? Those things I cannot change, would I really have changed them? This lead me to think about destiny and the people we meet, is choice a real existing force when everything we know is an interpretation of the world through our senses? These things can not be trusted, yet we let them and some of us believe it fate, the wheel of destiny or God. Are we a random happening of accidental encounters and events, or is there a grand scheme, the age old question. As you can tell, I tend to think a lot about things I and others will never know the answer to. A lot has happened over this Easter term and has got me thinking again and trying to incorporate this into my practising work (currently 2D fantasy style artworks) where these paths lead is unknown to me, I guess i must leave some decisions down to the unseen force we call fate and when the option to make a choice arrives once more, I'll try and figure out the best plan of action or at least make a decision and try not to regret it. All this thought on a Saturday afternoon.

Unusual Sub-Post

Manchester Smells Like:
Every day i get off at the same bus stop in Manchester to come to uni and there's always an unusual smell. Its quite bizarre so I decided to blog it, and I'm unsure why but I thought I would.

15/02/10 (MON) Raining today, MC'R smells like fish, not a beach kind of smell, just fish.

Mock Presentation Assessment and Moving Forward

Foolishly, my mock presentation didn't go as well as originally planed, first mixing up the time I was supposed to be there and then forgetting my book with all my concept work was not the smartest of things to do, consequently I got a bad mark for my mock review. Quite ashamed at myself for this, I am going to make sure in my final assessment this doesn't happen again. The path I was following with my project was making me unhappy, i was finding it difficult to come up with ideas that I could see my self pursuing and/ or being of some merit in the skills of creating these ideas in finished form and developing these ideas further. I am not working on a project that has developed through the original one that i started with but i am utilizing my drawing skills into creating fantasy concept art, something that i have enjoyed doing for a long time but have found useful to projects i have had to do in other educational institutes and classes. After talking to my peers who told me to stop holding back from what it is i really enjoy doing most, I have decided to follow this path, I am happier with the collection of images I have made and am looking to developing these images into more striking ones that just hand drawn, possibly by developing them in computer programs i am soon to by my self a "tablet" that i was recommended by other fantasy/ anime/ manga/ concept designers and artist. Where this path will take me I am unsure but I feel more comfortable with this route and have a lot more ideas and imagination when it comes to developing this work. I have been making many sketches in pencil and pens and have designed one "character" and have been experimenting with colour styles and patterns before i come up with a finished hand drawn prototype, which i then intend to develop on the "tablet" as i mentioned before. Other ideas for other "characters" in this concept work range are flowing through in rough images but I intend to develop these further and possibly put them all together in a larger composition. This may develop into something else as time goes on but I will have to wait and see what other ideas come from these initial images.

Christmas to New Year

In the last weeks up to Christmas I have been getting on with developing ideas for my project. I am working with the theme of food and have gone down a fashion and information sub themed route. I am currently developing ideas to do with the information theme of my work rather than the fashion aspect after talks with my tutors. Over the Christmas and New Year holidays I have been thinking about my presentation project that I have to give to a group of my peers as well as updating the on going project, the journal. Events that have taken place over these holidays have inspired me on my side project of cartoon and anime/ manga style artworks. When i return I intend to continue on and work harder on the main project as well as starting and of course, finishing the second of my essays for this first year.