Revolutionary women

These are a series of mixed media outcomes all with the idea of using the women as the topic and theme throughout the pieces of work. within the work there is a use of symbolism that is not only a link but a representation of the women's past life as well as what things have the women who know for today.     

 An example of this the use of symbolism within the Sophie Scholl mixed media piece. The use of the roses is a representation of a group Scholl was in called the "white roses" which was a non violent anti Nazi group. I also focused on the use of texture through the use of materials such as tissue paper and different fabrics such as cloth. To get an over all affect and somewhat of a story of the women's life i chose to overlap important parts of their lives  (that being letters over an old photo or roses over war images).
To improve i could work on a larger scale and use other materials (for photographs) other than printing out photos.

Revolutionary women
The following experiments are influenced by the mixed media series done earlier in the project. The idea behind this piece of work was to mix the women i had chosen with on another (old over more recent). This to show how not much has changed in the force and power of women and how a lot of things have been cnage through the action of women that were/are activist and saints.  

An example of this is Joan of Arc covering Sophie Scholl mixed media piece. Both Joan of Arc and Sophie Scholl have a lot in common. Apart from being very active with change in their country from such an age, they also gave up there lives for cost of saving thousands of lives. The use of over lapping has been used with in this pice to show similarity between old and new (or in this case more recent).

Revolutionary women
The series of paintings where influenced by both the Artists Gustav Klimt and painting (icons/glass windows) Within churches and cathedrals.  The women chosen for this series of paintings are all of women that became saints in their own right.I chose such women as Olga of Kievs, Joan of Arc, Hildgard Von Bingen and st. Beatrice of Silva.  

With in the sieres of work there is a large amount of gold used which can be a representation of religion as gold is often seen and used with in the churches and the roman catholic faith. However, Gustav Klimt is known for his use of gold within his work as well as shapes and patterns.

Although a wide range of patterns and shapes, I find there other parts lacking, such as the use of symbolism which is only seen in one the pieces within the sires. Within the Joan of Arc piece there is a use of shapes and patterns amongst the background and clothing which within it has the female symbol, the famous sword , Joan of Arc symbol and white lily's.

To improve I could use a range of materials that intern would create texture and make the over all outcome more interesting and have a clearer link with former work such as the mixed media pieces.     

Revolutionary women
The golden clay works were originally influenced by Marie Antoinette and the 1700s. Gold became very popular and was often used within paintings, clothing, furniture, house hold objects and framing. I decided to use these towards my final piece but due to changes within project it seemed logical to not use them as a part of an idea to making frame (for my final piece) which i then used within future art works and ideas.

The overall process proved challenging and time consuming. Clay depends on water to stop it from drying. when forming the clay into desired shape ( roses and leaved ect..) it became matter of tome until the clay began to dry and this crack. The use of gold became the main and final step to completing the clay sculptures; not only did it cover the cracks and color of the clay, it also helped keep the form together and stopped any further cracking.
To improve i could use and find another material that is more manageable and time less time consuming instead of using a material that depends on time attention.

Revolutionary women
With in this project i worked with fabrics and wood and transfer photographs onto those chosen materials. The effects were often faded which gave the effect of the images being aged.  

Revolutionary women  

Eric Blum inspired painting

Eric Blum is a an abstract artists who experiments whit paints , mainly with acrylic. He does this by watering down the paints to make the paint thinner. This process is long and time consuming . It consists of going over repeatedly until it has different shades and faded effects, which too reminds me of water colours.

This painting is inspired by Eric Blum and has bits of the palm house . I was also influenced by the Roman / Greek painting with the statues . I took the bottom part of the statute as i thought that created a old, romantic and mythical garden like effect. I also added a flower that originally is yellow and some other plants form the palm house , only using red,yellow and orange tones . 

For me i found this task frustrating as it took one and half weeks to finish . However i found it fascinating how the painting became almost 3d like from the faded effects and the different layers of paint created. I am happy and proud with the out come and is something i would like to go back to and improve my skills on .

 3D wire sculpture 

For this task we had to create a 3D sculpture using the materials of wire and tissue paper.

Firsts step (first step for any sculpture) was to make the skeleton . By using a long piece of thick wire and bent it until it formed a circle which would be the base . From that base i used a thinner wire and cut it into 4 pieces which would be the spine of the sculpture . Now having the spine and the base i then used a very thin and bendable pieces of wire which i used to make 4 joined circles which would go around the spine of the sculpture and would also be the parts that suppoted the spine . 

Once the skeleton was finished i could then start using the tissue paper .I decided to use orange and more earthy tones that where more to the truth off the original object .When placing the tissue paper on the desired parts i would then cover it with thick glue which would be its protective layer , not only was it the protective layer and made it less likely to break ,but it aslo gave a shine to it .    

For me this task was a joy and very educational. Although it took a long time to make and was difficult to shape i still found it rewarding. It was something i had never done . When i think of the word sculpturing , i never would of thought of tissue paper . I automatically thought of marble and stone. I found the process rather harsh and if i could go back i would try and be more prepared, simply by using gloves and creating more space on my desk. 

This is something i would do again , i would increase the size of the object that i am using and maybe not be so accurate with colours and shaping , instead i would be more creative and go out of my comfort zone .

Rome 

  

 Rome , the city of arts , Greek mythology and Roman history .Rome is  one of the first places where art was really born . It's crumbling agent ruins are all filled with art and all art has its own story and history behind it .  

This trip was for my fathers 60th and was not meant be a art tour but it was hard not be inspired by its culture and historical architecture. Unfortunately i have no quick sketches however i brought my camera and took a few photos. I didn't intend to make a blog post about it but i thought it would be interesting.

  

 One of the most memorable moments that still vividly is in my memory is the Medici villa. If you didn't know the Medici family where the most powerful family in Italy who came from Florence and many of who became Popes , Cardinals , Bishops and later royals. The Medici villa is one of the iconic pieces of architecture i have seen yet . Its a mixture of recycled pieces from different places and buildings around Italy . Its fascinating how unique every part of the villa is ,you could see which part of the villa came from a different piece  . The villa looked out of place but for me that made it even more beautiful . Every part of the villa had a story to it,  how each material came , why it came and why some if it was destroyed . The Medici family have been a big part of my life for the past 3 years , they have inspired me with the arts , pushed my style, so for me i owe them a great deal to my style . There was one room that really struck me , the ceiling was covered in grey and gold and filled with small butterflies . The story behind this was that  one of the Medici brother become jealous of his brother , after he died he burnt the ceiling .  The villas gardens is now a place for art students who came up the idea of redoing the ceiling. They did this by burning the painting and creating butterfly's out of the flames . By dong this it inked more to the history of the room. The burning represents the burning of the room and the butterflies represents the freshness and new life of the room.

Rome is a place for artists to become inspired and become educated of the history behind art and how it all started . I think every country has its place for the beginning of art and can be an inspiration for  creative people around the world. 

Silk printing 

silk printing for me was a challenging experience as it was something i had not done before but was keen to learn. It took a few trails and errors until i really understood how it worked and what the mistakes where that i was making. I did not really enjoy the process of this task because it was very time consuming and difficult in general.  

                                       

when doing this task it took more than one person. you could do it yourself but it would of meant not having a clear or neat outcome .Without having a second person holding the screen it would of meant that the paper underneath would move and making the ink smudge . Having a second person to help you became a big advantage and became a big part of the process ,not only was having help from another person great for keeping things steady but made the process faster which meant the they had time to do their silk printing too.

What is silk printing?
silk printing also known as screen printing is a printing technique whereby a mesh is used to transfer ink onto a substrate , except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil .

The process: First i chose a stencil design which i then would use for the prints.After that i placed the stencil under the frame but above the paper . Before using any ink i put tape on the parts where i didn't want the ink to go through , once that was done i then placed a line of ink at one end of the screen and used a squeegee to draw ink across the screen and repeated until i thought ready to lift screen . leaving me with the result .

lino prints 

what is lino printing ?

lino printing is a print making technique .A design is cut into the Lino surface with a sharp knife, V-shaped chisel or gouge, with the raised areas representing a  mirror image of the parts to show printed. The Lino sheet is inked with a roller, and then pressed onto paper or fabric. This can be done by hand or with press. Lino printing in this case is no foreign word but a very well known one that has been locked away in my head for future safe keeping .To tell the truth lino printing has never been my forte but, never the less i'm rather proud of the outcomes. I decided to stick with warmer , more autumnal colours ( reds , yellows and oranges ) one thing i wish i could do again, if i could go back to this day would be to step out of my comfort zone , possibly use a range of colours (even though i used blue) as i think this would of shown more confidence and interest. I would've liked to also add more cuttings onto the lino to show that i understand and know how to add on more shape onto the design . This is something i would not choose to do again if i had a choice but if had no choice in the matter then i would gladly try again, if that meant improving.

Using yellow acrylic paint on the back of the unmarked piece of the lino i placed it onto the paper , giving me a yellow box . After that i used one of my rollers to roll the red ink onto he lino. Once that was done i placed the lino on-top of the yellow square and used a clean roller to roll on top, giving me this orange coloured outcome .

This is not one of my favourites , never the less i have decided to keep it to show my progress. This had the same technique but i have swapped the colours around getting  an opposite effect.

using only red i placed the ink covered lino onto the paper not realising that it had bits of blue on it which created dark splodges (which i think adds to the print) creating this effect.

For both i used red ink and same technique as before .I also used blue ink on one of my prints which did not turn out well and the reason for this was that i didn't use an even amount of ink .