Tuesday:
Cultural History and Theory
We began first up on Tuesday morning with Cultural History and Theory, which being the major theoretical component of the course looks to be the most challenging, and because of that I feel perhaps the most beneficial in improving our art by improving our understanding of art, and of visual language.
In the first lesson we looked at two linked works, firstly Picasso's Guernica (above) and we discussed what it meant to us, before discussing the piece and its historical context, we then looked at a recent piece by Canberra artist E.L.K. (below) and considered the meaning. The teacher had been in contact with E.L.K. and then talked about the meaning the artist gave.
You can check out E.L.K.'s work here: http://www.elkstencils.com/
Image from E.L.K.'s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/E.L.Kstencils?ref=ts&fref=ts
We then did a fun exercise the teacher called 6 degrees of Francis Bacon, where we had to find creative connections between 6 people, it was an interesting group exercise, especially seeing how different people approached the problems in trying to tie these people together.
I'm looking forward to seeing what we will be tackling in this class tomorrow.
Digital Art Investigation
After lunch we then have Digital Art Investigation, where the major learning curve for me so far has been adjusting to the Mac environment used in the classroom. Ongoing though it looks like it will have a different focus from what I have done digitally so should be interesting once the basics have been covered. There seems to be a lot of photo manipulation which I've only done a little off. With my experience in photoshop I'm hopeful that I'll be able to the time into really getting creative in this area.
As the Internet wasn't working in the computer lab last Tuesday, I haven't really got anything to show from this class so here is my latest digital work:
Image taken from my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Art.Chris.Beacock
Wednesday:
Drawing Investigation
Wednesday morning I was having a bit of a shocker emotionally as I went into Drawing Investigation, but started to hit my stride after lunch. We started with some observational drawings, and some basic techniques such as blind contour, Contour, visual measuring and enveloping. After this we experimented with charcoal and ink. With charcoal we tried laying down some tone and then using a kneadible eraser tried erasing to draw the image. I particularly enjoyed experimenting with a brown ink (Burnt umber I believe, but can't remember exactly).
I don't have a scanner up and running at the moment but here are photographs of my work from this class:
Blind Contour using a Technical Pencil:
Contour and Enveloping with Technical Pencil
Observational drawing using Charcoal Stick:
This is the drawing were we lay down an area of tone in charcoal and then erased to build form, you can start to see it developing in this image, but had a long way to go.
Using Ink (Stick, nib pen, and brush):
And finally a quick sketch in pencil:
The main assignment in this class for this term seems to be the 30 drawings challenge, if you would like to also complete the challenge the subjects are:
1. Yourself
2. Animal
3. Food
4. Place
5. Friend
6. Book Character
7. Word
8. Animated Character
9. TV Show
10. A Sweet
11. A turning point in your life
12. Recent Accomplishment
13. Comic
14. Fairytale
15. Family Picture
16. Inspiration
17. Plant
18. Just a doodle
19. something new
20. Orange
21. Something you want
22. Something you miss
23. Something you need
24. A couple
25. Scenery
26. Something you don't like
27. Someone you love
28. Anything you like
29. A place you want to go
30. A congratulations Banner for finishing the challenge.
These must be completed using a variety of mediums, and the idea is to get creative not only in how you use the mediums but the mediums themselves.
I've started to work on the first one which I'm doing in cigarette ash, and as it is on a warped table outside the weather has been contributing. The rain a couple of days ago added some tone to the picture.
Its a interesting medium to work with, the way I've been doing it is slow (cigarette by cigarette) but has given it an organic feel to the process, slowly growing and taking shape. probably better would be to collect the ash in an ash tray and use it like a dry medium, drawing with a brush, and perhaps using a water spray.
Thursday:
Lecture
On Thursday's we start with a guest lecturer and this week was Dave Caffery of the Molongolo group
who is involved with the Art not apart festival which sounds incredible.
Here is the video he showed of last years event:
The next one is coming up 14th march and you can find the details here:
http://artnotapart.com/
http://artnotapart.com/
After introducing himself and talking about art not apart, and his background in cultural philosophy, and his interest in hybrid art forms, he went into a discussion of art philosophy that I found mind blowing. Many concepts I have had at the back of my head for a number of years took form and were made clear by his talk.
He discussed the need to stick with your passions, and being driven by the need for change, to need to promote change.
In planing an exhibit he advised that it should be a collective experience which works together to create the sublime experience: the coming together of the senses and the intellect.
He talked about the Nishi Gallery, and gave a lot of general advise for artists in pitching to a gallery, and about exhibiting once accepted.
And it was with my head buzzing from this talk that we headed into printmaking.
Print Investigation
After an introduction to print making and its history of use by artistic activists, we were inspired to carve out a design from a Lino square for later printing. I found it a fascinating experience as it seems back to front and inside out to the way you would normally go about creating an image, as you are carving away the white from the image and leaving the black, and the image will also be printed in mirror image to what is carved. This is going to take some getting used to ;)
After lunch we got showed how to go about making the prints, how to roll the ink and then transfer it to the block before putting it and the paper through the roller to make the print. It took me a few prints to get it right, and here is my finished image:
As you can see I needed to make more detail through the face. The hole in the head didn't really come out right as I'd carved out what should of been black, and it probably would of been better to carve out most of the background for contrast, but still I'm pretty happy with it as a first attempt, and experiment.
I'm looking forward to next week were we will be visiting the National Gallery's Collection room, where we will get to look at a number of inspiring print works from their collection, something that is bound to inspire us for the afternoon where we will be creating a key block and layering prints to achieve a number of colour effects.
Friday:
3D Investigation
On Friday we had our first class in sculpture and got started carving away at a block of soap. I only had a vague idea of the shape I wanted when I got started, and then after carving away at the soap got inspired to add a rock like texture to it, and turn it into a rocky outcrop. I was pleased with the results, and it allowed me to experiment with the different tools.
After finally getting the soap off our hands, we headed to the National Portrait gallery to have a tour of their current exhibit "In the Flesh", my second time to the exhibit and something I highly recommend. I'm not going to go into it too much here as I have already covered the exhibit here
It was fantastic going through again, with a member of the gallery staff and a group to discuss various pieces, but I'm very glad I had gone first so that I could have an introspective experience and allow the pieces to touch me in a more personal and contemplative way.
It was a fantastic way to finish off the first week of the diploma, and I feel inspired for the week ahead.
Wow that turned out to be a very long post, I will try to update each day in future to keep the posts shorter.
