Tim's FAD

 On Friday luckily I did not need to go into CityLit in Holborn -Tutorial was conducted by Zoom and I was able  to start outline plans for the end of term presentation. No Tube Today One of the outputs from Heidi (Tutor) was that I should add more on ideas and also my thoughts re Hogarth exhibition, se felt that I could reflect on my experience with visitors during my volunteering (Design, Branding and V&A museums). Here are some of the things Ive found out about Face Blindness... Sheet one on Face Blindness  Part of what I'm thinking about here is the Numskulls cartoon strip from various comics - I wonder if the point that my Dad did some comic strips for children's magazines when I was young is resurfacing as I think about brain malfunctions? The Numskulls and the brain  The other suggestion I had was around an Arts Documentary that covered what was happening in art for a selected year - this would highlight, for example how during 1932 While Picasso was painti...

 Unfortunately Sue who was due to introduce us to Print was unavailable on Thursday but Fortunately we had the excellent Gareth to bring the world of print to us. Water soluble colours are rolled out Red, Yellow Magenta and Black We work from the lightest (Yellow)  Gareth outlined the unit and showed the facilities again we were going to be working with Utopia and Dystopia theme first exercises were with Monoprint (not repeatable)      The cameras we can see The Observation Tower New Colours After Lunch we used one of the printing presses in a collaborative manner using some bright pastel colours which was (for me) quite a pleasure, some surprising results and working with ghost prints and various resist techniques - this exercise certainly revealed the delights of chance.    All involved in this one Four inked panels with objects Paper and Newsprint prior to 'press'

 On Wednesday we started to engage in Ceramics with Robert Cooper, Robert's enthusiasm was clear from the start and very intrigued to find he'd worked with/for Eduardo Paolozzi. Robert's plan is to get us producing work connected to the Utopia/Dystopia topic for a cup and saucer and we were given magazines to help us collage ideas and not much later we were working with slabs of clay to start working with. I am rather literal with themes (perhaps too literal)  and I was thinking about a cup with a happy side and less happy side to be a breakfast cup - and the idea of a Utopian or Dystopian view of the day ahead.  For next week we should take a cup and saucer as well as do some research on potters and check out some techniques on youtube. Happy or Sad  Raw Materials      A sad mug? A happy Ice cream Robert Demonstrates 

 When I spoke with my Tutor she mentioned the value of being with others when visiting exhibitions and in the last week I was lucky to see 2 big name Artists along with friends who have an interest in the visual Arts. Not a Cavalier and Not Laughing   The first was to The Wallace Collection to see the Frans Hals exhibition which was good but perhaps rather ‘samey’ for me – much was made of his fine collection of blacks (in terms of varieties of the tint on his palette) but it was nice to see my friend  who has not ventured out too much during the lockdowns/Covid and who had suggested the venue. The second trip was to see the Hogarth at Tate Britain. The show has  had some critiscm in terms of the ‘woke’ written appendages to many of the pictures, these  were certainly a subject that Kevin (old school friend) and I had a bit of a laugh about – but having said that I quite liked the exhibition – it’s very big and we didn’t get all through it in two and a half...

 It was fantastic to have another professional practice   approach presented on Friday when Louisa Pacifico spoke of her journey from Artist to Sales-Person and commercial  curator in the Arts sector. What Louisa has found is that she works well with artists as a result of completing an Arts Degree but her Mojo is started by deal making and event management. She has worked in Crafts and Arts sectors helping to maintain  heritage skills and growing events like Clerkenwell Design Week. After success  at Clerkenwell  she became a very young Chief Executive at Craft Central ut for a mixture of reasons struck out on her own and as well as helping students at CityLit she has her own 'Future Icons' business. As well as a showcase at 67 York Street she was able to bring alive a unit in Burlington Arcade during a break in Lockdown restrictions. Louisa was able to spend time with all of the members Groups A & B who were present and she made clear that she was hap...

Ute introduced  us more artists who worked beyond the flat plane the artists included Rachel Whiteread whose work I have seen at Tate's Britain and Modern - she works with large objects and is (to my mind) in a dialogue about space.   The Duveen Galleries space at Tate Britain provides a marvellous background for Rachel Whiteread 's amazing 'Untitled ( One Hundred Spaces) seen in 2017 Ute also spoke about Assemblage (Barry Flanagan) and the Sculptured relief of artists like  Liu Janhua .  Other ways of working with 3D can be Land Art one of the big names here is Richard Long an artist I am familiar with from work seen in Ealing and Lisson Grove (in 2014)  Another artist working in the landscape Ute mentioned British Artist   Andy Goldsworthy   described as an 'Environmental Artist' as well as sculptor using things he finds. I have also liked finding out more about US artist  Nancy Holt (1930- 23014) famed for he public art works and her...

 Session 3 of the Visual Communication Design intro' took us to  questions around the interaction between creative and their audience.   A Pollock work at Tate Modern Questions that could be helpful included: Who are you you (as the creative)? What do you want to say? What medium/mediums will you use? What do you want to happen? The issue of what collateral you have was also part of the consideration, how we judge BP is not the same as our views around an artist like Jackson Pollock. (it strikes me how Pollocks' wife has often been undervalued - I was really excite to see Lee Krasner's exhibition at The Barbican  in 2019). A Lee Krasner work Rod (course Tutor) shared with the class how Vis Students students had explored  the approach - using imaginative methods to create narratives - one student had worked with texts on dirty vans another had used scaffolding as a sculptural material.  The rest of the day we worked with 3D to take our work and the topic fur...

 Career On Friday as part of 'Core' we were aging taken into the world of  an Artist and teacher this time it was  Elizabeth (Libby) Ashdown who teaches at various institutions including City Lit where she is teaching Textiles on the Foundation Art and Design classes. Libby spoke about how her Art education had brought her to working as a  Passementerie weaver which is an endangered craft, although the method of working the work produced is contemporary and non-representational.   An artist working in the discipline of a  Passementerie (sometimes known as Jewellery for the home)  is creating an ornamental edging or trimming, if you follow this link you can find out what is encompassed in this craft. It was interesting to learn how Libby gravitated to the work she now does, starting with a textile design degree and moving away from working with manufacturers.  After her  first degree  Libby took a Masters in Textile at The Royal Co...

 Ute was in the driving seat on Thursday and we continued with work on 3D around our ideas as well as the 'Cell' I had started in class last week I had started a model of the Cuban prisons that were close to a physical realisation of Bentham's Panopticon'  I started with a flat piece that was painted and had rough representations of  windows:   This was then roughly moulded to a semi-circle and secured to a base A roof of painted paper was added Some more experiments were carried out around the cell construction and how this might be realised. With the isolation being shown via B/W and shadow  Ute spoke about the sort of people who we might look at including architects who use 3D Models in their work(Richard Rogers and Alvar Aalto for example) along with designers like Philippe Starke (of lemon squeezer fame) . . Also mentioned were the works by Artists like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg (see goat below)  who made 3d works in the case of Johns s...

The Oil drums inside the gallery  On Wednesday we again looked at Visual Communication  and one of the Artists under the microscope was Individually and Collectively Christo  -  I've long been fascinated by Christo in terms of both the vision and the accomplishment- one of 2018's highlights for me was his work in the Serpentine Gallery and also on the Serpentine  . Christo worked for many years with his wife Jean- Claude and continued to plan and organise big projects after her death one of the distinguishing marks of the disruptive works he made around the world was that it was self financed by selling drawings and other connected artefacts even after he has gone  here you can see the recent Arc de Triomphe project   (his nephew speaks here  about the connection to freedom). The actual work Models were made to demonstrate the project and for sale. After seeing and discussing various works that could be experienced we were able to consider how we...

 On Friday we had a great opportunity in the shape of  contemporary British Artist Simon English who shared his trajectory of what he described as being his love of drawing (which often included painting). As well as an Artist Simon is a teacher and it was interesting to hear him talk about what he gets from teaching he has a love for research. Simon has exhibited worldwide, made media appearances  and also is responsible for various books. Simon described how he has struggled between doubt and certainty with periods of introspection and withdrawal - he explained how leaving private education and time in college from 16 onwards brought him to be where he is now, Simon also spoke about collaboration and working with his assistant Cedric. Studio space was important to Simon and he works (often) by combining smaller works together, often on paper some being 2.5m by 2.5m.  Some of his words that  I noted were ' Find the fun' and he also spoke about his use of Autom...

 Ute spent sometime outlining the work and limits of 3D - it was interesting to see such varied work from the  somewhat traditional of   Rodin to the performance of  such ground breakers as  the Yugoslavian (Serbian) Marina Abramovic. Ute emphasised the body with 3D  showing  examples from Anthony Gormley  and Dorothea Tanning. Unlike drawings and paintings the Physicality is more than just a representation and the skills required to construct are to the fore.  One of the things I got from the session was a reminder of how sculptors need to be aware of the Structural nature of their works, at my next time in the V&A (as a volunteer with 'visitor Experience') I took particular note in the Sculpture gallery of how things were anchored, sometimes with trees, or other devices to ensure they were stable - also noting plinths. As we started to construct our work using various materials we focused on ideas around Dystopia and Utopia  ...