Artist Statement

For me, I find it comfortable and enjoyable to create art that relates to nature and also has cultural influences from Japanese manga and plant life.

I prefer to work without colour but often enjoy using pastelised watercolour to bring life to my images. Artists that influence me are Chiho Aoshima and Hayao Miyazaki, as I studied Aoshima’s work in secondary school and enjoyed the strange twists that her work possessed as well as growing up with Studio Ghibli’s movies; designed and animated by Hayao Miyazaki. Huge influences on my work are I the films Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. 

I also use my ability to create art as a way to let out anything internal that is bothering me or that I feel could have the potential to become something beautiful. 

For me, what is unique about my art work is the range of emotions, colour schemes and cultures that are tied into my works. For example, I draw tattooed, pierced women as well as flower wearing, peaceful looking males. Violent images that contrast with loving images. 

What my art work means to me is me. My work is me. It represents all that I am and how I see people as well as the world and the inner workings of my brain.

Primary Research: Church photographs

A few photographs of the local church taken 28/4/15

History of the Zoetrope

The Zoetrope produces the illusion of movement by viewing each individual image through the narrow slits in a cylinder that rotates. The Zoetrope was created and named Doedaleum in 1833 by and English mathematician named William George Horner (1786-1837). 

William F Lincoln then decided to re name the Doedaleum;- the Zoetrope in 1887, in the USA. However, in England, the London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company sold a number of Wheel of Life or Zoetrope models.

FMP Timetable/ Action Plan (So far)

Week    Date Week
Beginning    Activity / What you are intending to do - including independent study    Resources / What you will need to do it - including access to workshops
1    02-03-2015
    Complete up to 5 squares centered around the aspects of mental health.    My squares of various materials + various coloured paint/ acetate.
2    09-03-2015    Complete squares from last lesson if not already done at home, start new subject. (E.g. religion, politics, freedom of choice.)    My squares of various materials + various coloured paint/ acetate. Also, different coloured backgrounds. (Experiment with different textures and patterns.)

FMP Proposal

I am scaling down my freedom themed sketchbook to 63 small squares cut out of various materials to add variety. I will then, after gathering as many aspects of freedom as I can find, create an A3 final piece based on either one specific aspect or multiple (if I can incorporate more than one). The piece will then be put in an exhibition in the church once it is completed.

My final piece will be created in the fine art department, but until I am completely certain of what I want to create for my final piece (down to all of the fine details), for the time being I would also like to be able to create small pieces in the textiles department to then add on to my final piece.

The route that I would like to focus on is mental health. It is what first came to mind when presented with the task of creating artwork based on the theme of ‘Freedom’. And I also think that it could mean a lot to a lot of people- that is something that I aim for in my more detailed work; emotional responses.

I would also like to make links to famous inspirational speakers such as Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill. I also find media created that centres around forms of freedom such as V for Vendetta (government controlling their people- taking their freedom away), to be an interesting route to go down with my work as I am personally inspired by this movie in particular and the memorable and intelligent quotes and messages provided by its writers. This movie also quite frequently uses imagery- such as V’s Guy Fawkes mask as well as the colour red and the roman numerals for his name. I would like to incorporate as many symbols that represent freedom as possible from religion to the peace movement, to more personal ideas of freedom and how I imagine to find it. I don’t yet have a specific colour scheme, I loosely aim to order the coloured pages in my miniature sketchbook from darker coloured pages to lighter as symbolism of finding light (freedom) in the dark.

I will be evaluating my work through multiple peer assessment sessions as well as setting myself my own smart targets to finish by the end of every lesson and while at home to make sure that I stay on track with my work and the amount that I am producing as we get further into the project. Blog entries will also be used to document my progress and justify my ideas as well as to give brief explanations as to why I have chosen the references that I have and how I have incorporated those ideas into my work.