Studio - flowers representing the life cycle.

i decided to look at photos of my grandma throughout her life and find flowers which best represented the stages in her life. 

Baby's Breath: Innocence, pure of heart.

Primrose: Early youth.

Red rose: Love.

i find it interesting how flowers can have so much meaning behind them without people knowing it.

Studio - week 4 crit

In the crit last week i got some really good feedback for my idea of looking at flowers in relation to a humans life span. a question which was asked was whether or not i should move away from flowers and look purely at the human side of my work however, i love working with flowers and it has become a crucial part of my own practice which is why i think i will carry on with working with flowers.



Georgia O'Keeffe was a name that was mentioned because of the symbolism in her work. because i'm looking predominantly at women's lives (flowers are feminine) id like to create some work that looks closer at the flowers forms.






Mary Kelly's Mother and child work was also mentioned. her work shows the relationship between her and her new born son in media other than just photographs. id like to experiment with text pieces to do with my mum and the relationship she had with her own mum and the one with me as a child and when i was growing up.

Practice - lucas simoes

I appreciate Lucas Simoes' innovative way of making work 3D by building on top of an image and cutting into it to reveal the underlying layer.

Practice - Abigail Reynolds

Reynolds was a suggested artist for me to look at and i'm glad she was. i'm intrigued by her collages that incorporate the old and the new contrast. i also relate through her work because she uses a lot of triangular shapes within them like mine.

Practice - making collages 3D

 I wanted to try and find how i could make my collages 3D so they were more interesting than just being flat on the page. i thought of how you make cubes in primary school by making nets and applied the same theory.

I cut the pieces quite large for the first attempt so it was easier to work with but this actually made it harder to work with when i was trying to put it into a collage. this resulted in it not looking as neat as id like when it was looked at face-on as i normally like the collages to be compact and busy with little spaces in-between.

When you're looking at the collage from the side you can see that its 3D and ho i've done it without looking too un-neat. 

On my second attempt at a 3D collage i made the pieces smaller so they could fit together a lot easier and i think it looks a lot more successful. i like how face-on it almost looks flat until you move around the collage. 

i used the image of the chandelier intertwined with a photo of the alter with a stained glass window so i could combine the twi images i was most interested in.

This collage took a lot of time to create so i need to look at easier ways to create it which are less time consuming so i can experiment easier and quicker.

Both collages look very similar from the sides because they were made using the same technique. however, id like to find a way that makes the work look more professional and clean from the side. 

i intend on experimenting to see if i can make the points stick out more which will mean ill have to cover the white bits. i'd like to see how it looks with the same image around it or a different contrasting angle.

Practice - more practice collages

i tried making a similar collage but with zoomed-in images of the chandelier to see if this changed the over all aesthetic. i think the original collage was the most successful as with this one the images are too big so you can recognise what it is a lot easier. if i were to do it again i would zoom in even more so it was much less recognisable. 

i looked at the stain glass windows in the church to make a collage out of because these were the first things i originally looked at in the church before i decided to focus on the chandelier. this was just a basic quick collage but i like the simplicity of it.

i wanted to experiment with the collages backgrounds and colour by placing one on coloured card. i much prefer the plain white backgrounds as i think the blue distracts from the collage. maybe with a different colour this would work better. 

Practice - John Stezaker

John Stezaker
i was suggested to look at Stezakers work because of his collage work. i find it very interesting to cut two people's face in two and attach them together so they form their own image. by taking part of the face away it makes them almost unrecognisable. the way Stezaker takes away the images significance is what i'm most interested in.

Practice - Dale Chihuly

Chihuly is an artist who primarily works with blown glass. a lot of his works are chandeliers surrounded by spectacular swirls of coloured glass. the triangular shape of numerous of his works are inspirational to me.

Practice - chandelier made from a chandelier

                             

Progressing from my original chandelier collage i wondered how i could develop the idea and thought of making it into a 3D piece, for example turning the pieces into a chandelier shape/form. it would be ironic to turn the cut up images of the important chandelier back into a chandelier-type piece where it was unrecognisable.

this was a quick initial sketch of the idea i have and how i want it to vaguely look. i would hang it from two lamp fittings in the church.

Studio - Scientific illustrations

example of a scientific botanical illustration

After looking at an artist called Marianne North and how she went against the scientific botanical images, i decided i wanted to do the opposite. i liked the clinical and scientific look of these illustrations she decided to go against. 

I'd drawn in this style before many times and it has become unique to me. it looks similar to the scientific images i found and i think it works better than just a photograph next to the baby image as it looks more organic and fitting.











Id like to present this image on the wall with just the text "Gladiolus, the August birth flower".

instead of just looking at one persons life i want to experiment with looking at multiple generations of the same family. for example my own; me, my mum and my grandmother. i want to experiment with the text which i put next to each image. whether it be a mini biography of each person demonstrating how each generation has been brought up differently and how the times have changed between each one, or whether it be a simple depiction of what the image (or the flower) is.

Studio - wrethes to pleasure

Helen Chadwick created a series of images called 'wreathes to pleasure'.   Each image captures a sculptural composition formed of a heady mix of substances and materials, photographed from above. Delicate flowers are suspended in transient states, poised between life and death, in a variety of organic and toxic liquids ranging from tomato juice to Windolene.

Chadwick often referred to the 'Wreaths' as 'bad blooms', explosions of form and colour that are simultaneously seductive and repellent.

Studio - birth flowers

For every month of the year there is a birth flower:

Month	Flower	Symbolisation
January	Carnation[2]	Love, fascination and distinction. Worn on Mother's Day, Teacher's Day, St. Patrick's Day (in green, of course) and at weddings, this hardy, sweetly fragrant flower is also the flower of Spain.
February	Violet[3]/Iris	Faithfulness, Wisdom and Hope. Violets convey the meaning that you will always be true. Violets come in shades not only of Purple, which is what people commonly think of, but also of White.
March	Daffodil[4]	Spring, Rebirth, Domestic Happiness, Respect, Regard and Friendship. The Daffodil is synonymous with Spring as it is the epitome of rebirth and new beginnings.
April	Sweet Pea/Daisy	Love, Youth, Purity. The Daisy conveys innocence and there are five common types.
May	Lily of the Valley	Humility, Chastity, and Sweetness. Sweetly scented and rare this flower also signifies a return to happiness.
June	Rose	Love and Appreciation, while other meanings depends on each colour. The meanings of Roses can vary from Love, Passion, Beauty and Perfection. The meaning depends upon the colour. For example, Red says love and romance, White symbolizes innocence, purity, and remembrance.
July	Larkspur	Levity and Lightness. Its natural beauty comes in gentle hues with refreshing fragrance. There are different meanings for each colour. Pink denotes contrariness, White expresses a happy nature, and a first love is usually symbolized by Purple. Strong bonds of love are represented by the Larkspur.
August	Gladiolus	Strength, Moral Integrity, Remembrance, Infatuation. This long lasting flower comes in a variety of colours.
September	Aster/Forget-me-not	Patience, Daintiness and Remembrance. This flower conveys deep emotional love and affection.
October	Marigold	Warm, Fierce. They exemplify elegance and devotion.
November	Chrysanthemum	Compassion, Friendship, Joy. Chrysanthemums have different meanings. Red is for Love, White means innocence, and Yellow denotes unrequited love.
December	Poinsettia	Good Cheer, Success. The Poinsettia comes in three colours Red, White, and Pink. “You Are The Special One” is the message this flower sends.

My birthday is in august so i placed a photo of me as a new born next to a Gladiolus. however, i'd like each photo collage to be of the same person through different stages of their life so i'll need to choose someone who is already gone so i can portray each stage of their life through flowers.

Studio - 'Final' ideas

After doing more research, and especially since looking at Marc Quinn and Azuma Makoto, i have decided through this project i will be looking at how a flowers life span is similar to that of a humans.
I want to find out what different flowers mean at different stages of life. i want to create a series of images with a photograph of a moment in a humans life, next to a either drawing or a photograph of the flower which best represents that moment.

Studio - Marc Quinn

Through talking to medina about where i was with this project, or where i wasn't, she gave me the names of some artists to look at for inspiration and one of them was Marc Quinn. at first when i looked at his work all i thought was that it looked pretty. however, when i read his overview of these paintings i became really interested. the work is about how "human desire has created new seasons - bringing together in one geographical  location...their beauty belies a sinister subtext: the relentless human desire to control nature". 

I also found his flowers sculptures on his website which i've actually seen at the Yorkshire sculpture park. He describes his sculptures as "the purest and most magical transformation of reality into art". 

My own image

Practice - collage artists

My work for this module is highly collage based so i though is only fitting to research collage artists and find some that i was interested in and that could help progress my work.

Anne Ryan

• Ryan's work caught my eye with it's compact structure of squares,
• i liked the geometric shapes and simplicity of her art.

Raoul Hausmann

• i looked at Hausmann last year and found his work really interesting to look at,
• i like how his collages are cluttered and full of images

Man Ray

• colourful and geometric shapes,
• a collection of shapes bound together

Kurt Schwitters

• the whole picture is filled and busy,
• uses very similar colours and tones throughout each collage,
• mixture of text, image and texture.