My one to one discussion with my Prof. on Friday was much more constructive and inspiring than the critique I received last week. While it is extremely valuable for someone to receive a strong challenge to the thread of work that one is trying to achieve, (It's always so vital to "test" a thread or direction of work), unfortunately, my own frame of mood at the time made me 'react' rather than respond.
The reaction (not with my tutor at the time I'm glad to say, and as mentioned already, it was quite correct for her to challenge my direction), was for me to close down a far bit during the last. I was no longer in a place of clarity, but really doubtful about anything I had done on the project. My production suffered a I had lost the momentum and sense of purpose and inspiration. Not a good place to be in the fourth week.
However, a trip to the galleries of Liverpool helped to re-establish my vigour and re-kindle my enthusiasm. Whilst I've blogged about the Tate Liverpool back in September (after a day trip my wife and I made one Saturday), I haven't had much chance to return to see the Walker Art Gallery which was really useful. It is here that the John Moores Gallery is sited within. The John Moores annual competition and prize provides a great platform for new contemporary works to be exhibited and viewed by anyone. I think it's probably a closer reflection to what is really happening in the current art scene, and I believe it doesn't perhaps suffer from some of the stuffiness of the Turner prize exhibits which "Joe Public" finds particularly hard to understand at the Tate Modern in London. (Apart from the fact also that it's not directly under the control of Sir Nicholas Serota either, and has it's own body of trustees).
TUTORIAL; -
I found the Friday tutorial very useful as Prof. Swindell provided an interesting discussion and lecture on Composition.
Composition in classical art discusses perfect harmony or the yin and yang balance of "things". Often this includes aspects from Fibonacci and the ancient Greek systems of architecture, introduced by Euclid and Plato and Pythagoras. We briefly discussed the concept of the golden ratio and how it is often found in classic painting together with the rule of thirds, which is still a useful device in both painting and photography today.
Modernism, however, is based on the grid. The exploration of balance and imbalance.
Prof Swindell is a strong advocate of making sure that the creation of our pieces of art, is in fact, 'a performance'. - He thoroughly recommends that the artist stands up to perform his work. Illustration and painting is active. Therefore, by sitting down, this is too passive, and will not produce an active result.
He went on to provide an example based on five pieces of squared paper, which were stuck on part of the studio wall. The example was to divide up the pages with simple straight lines by using masking tape. The goal in this exercise was to bring attention of the eye, to create work where the question is asked what pulls people in to the painting?
He also stated "Work the edges", the edges of the piece of art being created are always critical and often forgotten.
Once the straight lines had been created, he started to carve into the edges by using a Stanley knife or scalpel and peeling away parts of the masking tape to expose the paper underneath. Interestingly within moments, it could be seen that the pieces of art he had made were easily recognisable as a modernist style.
Further advice was "Always create a series of paintings or a series of works"... There should be a coherence of pieces that interact with one another, a bit like the members of a family. In other words, these pieces start to work together individually and in combinations. One can find the stronger pairs or stronger pieces and weaker pieces when juxtaposed between one another. Generally, this can be considered as a "family of ideas" that are connected to one another.
Later, during my own critique and one-to-one, on the work against the project to date, Prof. Swindell encouraged me to "always be doubtful". He recommended (much against my own intuition and schemas that have developed over the last 40 years), to say don't have a finished plan, but be contemplative, be poetic. It is natural that people desire validation when work is being viewed, but in reality it doesn't matter. Remember the mantra that you can't please all of the people all of the time.
- Nevertheless, be consistent, make a series of things.
- Be productive, explore materiality.
- Create a tactile intelligence.
His final advice was "that it is okay for one to strive towards the fundamental ideas that you originally came up with, but it is also essential to explore all the produced possibilities along the way as your own art is being created".
Interestingly, I realised that within this project, what I am doing is really about the grid and the exploration of it together with the exploration of circles within that grid. -
I can consolidate my ideas simply, into these two devices.
... I must keep exploring that notion, I realise it's not important to complete a set final piece, but it is important for me to explore and play, and continue to be contemplative. A great tutorial and a great critique. - Thanks!
I also found a really good article through browsing some work of a young Scotts-Danish artist, Leah Robb. She has written an inspiring article about contemporary art critique, which I found highly encouraging, and would recommend the read to anyone else looking to find understanding of contemporary art and illustration like myself. A sample of her book can be found here> ( http://leahrobb.com/test-scribd-pdf/ )
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