ARTWORK (drawing) sense of place (sets and series)

1. How does your drawing project address Realise a body of work?

Project outline

During Semester 2 , 2013 you are required to produce and present a body of work. This body of work can have an overarching concept, which would be inclusive of all your studio areas whilst not excluding the unique qualities of each discipline. Or in turn can be related to the Drawing Unit alone.

The subject I am exploring across my studio areas is identity ... (exploring identity – looking inward ) I have been doing this by looking at , people (past and present ) objects and their significance , my spiritual and scientific beliefs etc . By exploring my immediate locational environment im providing an important piece of my identity.

My projects concept came from a combination of Rochelle Summerfield's Identity project from last year , the build environment projects from Sandy and Hobie and Caths Place project from this year.

Rochelle's project started with a quote from Hugh mackay

A sense of: “place is crucial to All Australians. It is fundamental to the sense of self , sense of community, sense of morality and sense of destiny”

my concept

A persons environment and their routines within it have a fundamental impact on their sense of self , sense of community, sense of morality and sense of destiny . Through this series of drawings I intended to explore the impact the tweed region has had over the past two years in drastically developing my identity.

The focus of the imagery and form is to narrate my connection to the tweed region and places of great importance which have effected who I am today.

my execution

Also my 2D studio areas ive been looking at “finding the line between 2D and 3D”.

explore the spacial boundaries of drawing, at what point does a drawing become a sculpture. drawing is 2dimensional on a surface that isnt meant to be hung on a wall? Drawing on a sculpture. Contiuation into HYPERREALISM techniques, making use of depth of field and digital abnormalities.

From a technical and aesthetic focus my intention was to make a continuation of the drawing project sets and series , the construction of my book. The timber cutout which was drawn on with pastels and my painting project experimentation which led from tromp loeil

In my 2D studio areas ive been looking at “finding the line between 2D and 3D”.

See journal for Bluring the lines of 2D and 3D.

Explore my connection to the tweed region and places of great importance

the original places I chose were :

the original places I chose and reasoning for these choices were:

• C3 Church Kingscliff -the place of my spiritual growth , I serve as a decon , my primary social network
• blockbuster video/dominoes pizza -my bonding with my step children
• kingscliff beach - place of contemplation and exercis
• murbah tafe/sugar mill/tweed river - my place of destiny
• Bluejay circuit Unit / new home - my future is held within these walls

due to time constraints the 5 artwork , of home , didnt get completed

2. What research did you engage with ? Artist contemporary or traditional

what did I look at when brainstorming, research focus?

Brainstroming initially focused on places in my life from my past and present which held great significance . IE

Glen Innes/new england tablelands at childhood

Lismore / Northern Rivers as a young adult

Kingscliff/tweed region where I live now

So as a result I decided to forcus on the tweed region

imagery ?

I purchased a SLR camera this year which I have been experimenting with so most of my imagery came from photographs that I had taken myself , with the exception of the mount warning image which I got off the internet. I chose early morning for most of the source images to take advantage of the high contrast light. For the beach photo I waited till the sun was at a point that it created a shimmer over the water as the waves broke.

Artist ?

Hobie brought attention to the artist Adam Cvijanovic , who he had seen at the sydney biennale.

So much of my inspiration for the “tafe drive” came from this research.

See Journal

Gordon K Hanley is a silverpoint artist who works with gold

See Journal

Gregory Euclide he makes landscape sculptural relief works , paintings and installations

Ive looked at his work previously while researching the mapping project for sculpture.

I Find his painterly relief landscape works have a lot of portential

See Journal

Kelly has since refered me to the artist David Noonan , his works are relevant to my own in regards to where I have gone with the experimentation and have presented some possibilities of where I could

See Journal

3. Discuss the planning of your project , including experimentation , technique selection, overcoming technical problems and determining limitations and constraints ( Refer to your journal)

experimentation , technique selection , why ?

last terms project covered most of the initial experimentation. It was the first time that I had worked directly on a timber surface , so I had to resolve a lot of issues. Placing a charcoal ground to give the super smooth timber surface a tooth and sealing it and cutting of the shapes . I had to borrow a scroll saw and learn how to use it properly.

I chose MDF because it is easy to cut and it has a smooth surface and no timber grain.

These experimentations can be seen in term 3s journal pages

Ive chosen pastels for these works because I enjoy the felxibility of the medium

its ability to smoothly blend and work in layers

My previous experimentation with pastels

in minimising tonal drop out and loss of blending, which came thru moving from mont marte to artspectrum , quality of pigments makes a difference.

and in improving sealing by using a clear plastic spray coat, which was a result of the book project.

It was very difficult to work with Pastels on mirror , I gessoed the mirror first but I found that I was unable to “draw” and make marks on the prepared surface without lifting the gesso off the glass, so I had to use powdered pastel and gentle smudging.

limitations and constraints, technical problems ?

Not being able to use my right(dominant) hand at all for much of the term was problematic. I found it was dangerous to use power tools , I wasnt able to sand the cuts afterwards leaving feathered edges.Lifting was difficult.It all added to greatly increasing my production time.Ontop of that I had to allow for a looseness in my markmaking as my motor skills arent as refined in my left hand Thankfully I am reasonably ambidextrous so it wasnt a total disaster.

4. What aesthetic decisions did you make? Eg working with particular equipment to achieve particular effects, establishing a key , determining a palette and deciding upon a format and a scale

I chose to work in grey scale , I enjoy the focus on contrast and there is something about the black and white aesthetic that can create drama

Since these are all sculptural in nature ill talk about my choices in form for each and visual and form individually

Beach mirror: Spiritual contemplation , realisation and growth

Visual

• chose image of looking out to sea , the shimmering of light on the water and the high skyline
• the mirrored surface to provide that element of contemplation as to why ? I thought about how the 'bible' is refered to being the mirror to the soul, so I wanted to discuss how my beach walks have that same parallel for me. Ie how the vastness of the ocean gives me a sense of insignificance and is humbling.
• I had to accept that I couldnt have a sharp image as I was using pastel powder

Form

• the thinking behind the smaller mirror form was from watching my wife do her makeup and hair looking for those imperfections. The mirroring I am talking about when you enter that period of self contemplation and realisation I am searching for those imperfections in my self . Ie how I react and process situations .

Pizza box: “Cheap tuesday” , family bonding

Visual

• view down laneway to increase depth of streetscap
• text on building blurred
• continuation of the black shadowing in the forground of the drawing onto the pizza box surface so that the entire form of the box and drawing are one
• box open and upright , we eat the pizza and watch the movies at the same time , allegorical reference to this

Form

• pizza box shape because thats the other half of the “cheap tuesday”

Church Cross : spiritual growth , sense of community , social networking

Visual

• I removed the people from the original images , they werent important to what I was discussing , my sense of community and social networking primarily does on within the walls of the church(not literally) so having people outside did not strengthen that concept.
• Continuing the drawing to the base over the structural support

Form

• the form of the cross indicates the faith system that I have , christian , and without that the image would just be a building with some cars parked out the front

Tafe landscape :professional training, fellowshipping, sense of destiny

Visual

• the choices of the sugar mill , mt warning and the mountains is because thats what I pay attention to while I drive on the way to Tafe.

• The blurred “road” is chosen to emulate the headlights and taillights of my car , over many times.

Form

• The complete cutting out of the forms used was originally to avoid a large amount of “white space” and allowed for the addition of mountwarning in the background as a separate form

• this created the aesthetic of a diarama or a popup book which im unsure if I like

5. How could you further develop your techniques in relation to you professional practice ? How might you build upon your ideas towards future work ?

The entire process of making these works was enjoyable and satisfying . I was reaching a point in my 2D studios where I had a very structured process for concepting and executing an image. I was finding it too restrictive to work on the wall and within the confines of the traditional formats.

This year ive been working on broadening and refining my artistic vocabulary so that I can choose a technique to best express the concept that I am exploring. Im looking forward to taking this aesthetic of cross disipline work even further , and incorporating more sculptural elements.

For example

Making use of the shadows cast by the forms , im thinking of those piles of grabage which cast shadows of crows etc which I could use to explore concepts of duality or by Drawing on both sides of the form.

Im still unsure as to the point that they wont be drawings anymore.

Also ive noticed that as my dominant hand healed I was able to draw and paint with both hands simultaneously .. this is something I want to refine in the future.