ART280:
Personal Symbolism

Negotiated Learning Plan

What interests or drives you?

I am interested in domestic art and exploring personal symbolism. I enjoy painting and after working with acrylic paints for quite some time, I am interested in experimenting with oil paints this semester. I am particularly interested in surrealist artists such as Salvador Dali and John Brosio, as well as figurative painters such as Paula Rego. I would like to combine both traditional figurative painting with surrealist styles to tell captivating stories in my paintings.

What materials do you think might best serve your investigations? What media / areas possible exhibition sites/participatory project opportunities you intend to explore and research ?

I think oil paints will serve me best as I like to pack lots of details into my paintings and hope to give them a narrative packed with lots of symbolism. I have worked with charcoal, pastels and coloured pencils in the past, however I love the detail you can achieve from painting. I will also use digital media quite often for this project, for example I find photoshop useful for putting different images together and making plans for my next painting. I will also use procreate to experiment with different colours and styles in preparation for a painting. I will work on wood this year instead of canvas and paper as I find it much smoother to paint on.

In terms of exhibitions I would like to explore new and different ways of curating instead of the usual white wall gallery, for example in a bar, community centre, public space, or even my own home.

How will you measure your success?

I will measure my success from feedback from tutors and peers, especially in the crits. The crits will be a great opportunity for me to get lots of constructive feedback on my work so far. Another way I will measure my success is by looking at a piece I am working on and then looking at previous work to see how I am improving and progressing.

Live Outcome

I plan to curate an exhibition in my own home and then publish this virtually on my blog for people to see. I feel like my own home is the best place to exhibit my paintings as I am focusing on domestic artwork and most of paintings are of me and my dog in my own home, with lots of personal symbolism, therefore a domestic setting seems best suited. Hans Ulrich Obrists' book 'ways of curating' gave me the idea to curate an exhibition in my own home. Instead of just hanging my paintings on walls I would like to place them in usual places. For example an idea I have for a painting is of me sitting in a giant cup of coffee taking a bath, I thought this would be great placed in the bathtub or shower. I plan to take a video of the full exhibition in my home along with lots of photos and I will label these on my blog creating a virtual exhibition.

Creative Lives Talk

I recently went to a creative lives talk by RCA painting students; Emily Kraus and Aoibhin Maguire. I found this talk extremely interesting, both artists had very different styles and both gave an insight into how they work. One thing Aoibhin Maguire mentioned was her common use of the colour pink. She said she finds herself using pink paint in every one of her paintings, and if she doesn't know what colour to use she reaches for pink. In a recent painting of mine 'routine' I was exploring the use of bright colours, which is something I am not used to, when I found myself stumped for what colour was missing. I decided to take Aoibhin's advice and found that pink was the perfect colour. I also found Emily's talk very interesting, the way she uses the space around her to create a painting was fascinating. I particularly liked her mini charcoal drawing of how she perceives breathing.

I was lucky enough to have an individual tutorial with Emily in my studio space. We talked about ways I can loosen up a bit more in my practice, including using the space around me, for example Emily suggesting turning over all of my paintings as to have no influence on previous work and focus on what I am working on now. Emily also had me write down ten ways in which I can experiment/ explore with materials and my practice. some things we came up with include: automatic drawing, painting on the floor/ ceiling, and attaching paint brushes to long stick to loosen up and not be so tense and controlled in my painting.

Group Critics

I found the group critics very helpful. I displayed three pieces of artwork all of which were quite different. I got some great feedback on the artwork and some ideas of where to go next. People suggested I continue with my oil painting but go larger scale like my stag painting and tiger drawing. We also talked about some great surrealist artists for me to look into which could inspire my paintings, such as Salvador Dali. I mentioned how I struggle with painting backgrounds and people suggested using subtle tones for the background such as the green background in my small painting of the giant chicken.

Following on from the group critics I plan to continue with my oil painting and include some more personal symbolism.

Exhibition Visit: Hatton Gallery

I recently visited the Hatton art gallery in Newcastle university. I really enjoyed it, it was my first time visiting this gallery and found they had quite a wide range of art available to view. I particularly liked the guerrilla girls poster and the Andy Warhol prints.