Fine Art Practice - Anatomy

So this was my main project this semester. I looked at anatomy, it started off looking at anatomy and medicine throughout history but ended up being far more surreal and experimental. Take a look at my journal, a documentation of my work throughout the semester.

W/C 20^th January

This week I looked at xrays, and began to create my own studies. I produced sketches of the skeleton, I used tea stained paper to create and old look to my drawings of the skeleton.

I then decided to create my own xrays using transparent sheets, for this I used xrays from the internet and printed them onto the transparent sheets. I then used marker pens to sketch out my own style of xrays on transparent sheets.

W/C 27^th January

This week I began to look at organs and other body parts, I made sketches of a heart and a lung using the tea stained paper again. I then moved on to trying a 3D approach, using gelatine as my medium and a hand as my subject. I used a rubber glove to get the hand shape. The end result was successful although I did lose a few fingers upon removing the hand from the glove! I got around this by reattaching them with cocktail sticks.

However, this was not the only problem I encountered with the gelatine. I realised that as a food product, it was easily perishable and after a few days it began to go mouldy. It seemed a good analogy of the delicacy of human life and the decaying of the human body.

W/C 3^rd February

This week I looked at body parts again, this time I used my own body to create images, more specifically my hands and my feet. I used a photocopier to make it look like my hands and feet were pressing against glass, giving a trapped look. I liked the amount of detail I could show using the photocopier, this surprised me as I thought they images would be more blurred.

W/C 10^th February

This week I purchased surgical equipment to recreate a surgery. I will buy varies bits of meat to pose as a human body and will document it via photographs and film.

 

W/C 24^th February

This week I looked into creating videos using my theme, firstly I created fake blood video and then a one focused on my eye. I filmed these videos in my home on my phone, I like that they are close up and low quality videos this gives a rough look.

Help 

Who’s Watching 

W/C 3^rd March

Developing on my idea from 10^th February, I looked at an actual heart, I bought lambs hearts and photographed them. I then began to dissect them and study the insides. Next I sewed them up in different ways, I used a simple needle and thread for a rough look. I filmed the whole process and edited the videos adding different filters and music to create different effects.

I felt a little uneasy at first, cutting up the hearts as I was concerned what people would think but after a while I got stuck in and really enjoyed myself.

Later I got an idea of using my own body with the heart; I created what looked like a chest wound on myself and photographed myself in different poses with the heart. I had great fun creating these images and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of trying something different.

 Heart                         

Heart

W/C 10^th March

This week I looked at my heart photos from last week and used photo shop software to edit them to create interesting and strange looks.

                                           

W/C17th March

Study week in Nice, France.

During this week I spent time viewing museums and galleries in Nice. Such as the Marc Chagall Museum, the Matisse Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art, I also visited the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

Although this week I have not produced any physical work, it has given me some ideas to further my product.

W/C 24^th March

This week, I found my self stuck for ideas and realised after doodling for a while that I could use the doodles in my work. I had created zombie sketches; from these doodles I began to think about the decaying human body and the deterioration of flesh.  I reproduced these sketches on my digital tablet using a sketching app. I hadn’t used the app before and it was surprisingly easy to use and learn.

              

W/C 31^st March

Following my mid module review, I am now looking towards using my dark humour in my work. I decided to create adverts style pieces of work using my heart photos from previous week; I like the use of satire and macabre themes within my work. When showing these pieces to others I liked the fact they got such a range of reactions from comedy to disgust.

    

W/C 7^th April

After looking at surrealist/dada films, I was inspired to create my own film in this style. Keeping my anatomy theme, I got pieces of meat and filmed myself seemingly eating them raw, it was a strange way of working. I kept clips short and simple, and then during editing I added sound clips to make the video even stranger, almost comical.

Meat  

W/C 28^th April

Since creating my heart video, I keep a heart in a jar. The intention was to document its decay, however despite its 2 months in a jar without any preservatives it has hardly changed in appearance. The only real change I can see the draining of the juices and a few blood clots.

 

No, I haven't Died

No I haven't died or slipped into a coma or disappeared into another universe. I have been incredibly busy (sort of) with my combination of uni and working. And although I did finish uni for the summer back in May, I decided I wanted to move out AND start some pharmacy training. So I have kinda had a lot going on!

Anyway, my next few posts will be art and uni related. I let you get a feel for the craziness I decided to commit to last semester! Be warned, there will be blood, and organs and zombies. Not to mention a few other weird and unusual things! I extensively researched the uncanny for these projects! So enjoy =)

My First Degree Essay

Hi guys!
Long time no speak, beern crazy busy with work and uni.
No time to breathe and definitely no time to sleep!

So this is my first essay for my Fine Art degree course. It's pretty bad, and has half as many words as it should. =/
But I'm handing it in today and there is nothing else to say about it. So there!



How and why did the German Expressionists seek to fuse art and life?

Expressionism is a style that allowed a generation of artists to represent and express their feelings of life through art. The movement took place across Europe in the 1900s but was particularly influential in Germany. It was a pivotal motion for art in the 20th century. It was a movement influenced by aspects of primitive, symbolism, post-impressionist and secessionism.

Leading the way into Expressionism are artists such as Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh. Munch's works; 'Vampire', 'Anxiety' and more famously 'The Scream' paved a way forward to a looser more expressive way of painting. His use of bold colours and expressive mark making was highly influential to the Die Brucke movement of 1905.

From this painting we can see how expressionists were influenced by late 19^th century symbolism and how it evolved in the 20^th century. The free expressive brush marks and the distortion of the character’s torso and face foreshadow the expressionist movement.

The aspirations of expressionists was to convey emotion, it was about creating an ideal rather than joining the reality of a progressive time. During the height of expressionism the world was changing quickly and followers of he movement longed for a simpler life. They rejected conventional life in the city, retreating to countryside cottages where they could act out their fantasies of living a more primitive lifestyle. They were obsessed with making art part of life instead of the traditions of gallery and museum pieces.

The idea of getting back to nature was a popular concept amongst the expressionists. They looked towards Aborigine, Polynesian and African cultures; those thought of as simplistic lifestyles, they acted out these ambitions away from the city, hoping to combine life and art like these cultures had done for centuries.

The expressionists aimed to describe feelings visually, exaggerating features to make it seem more expressive. They made more vibrant, contrasting colours to create moods. Distorting perspective, proportions and shapes was the man feature of the expressionists. They had less emphasis on realism and often portrayed their own experience of the world whether it was a street scene or representation of a dream, often a fusion of the two.

Die Brucke was a movement that stemmed from expressionism that began in Dresden, Berlin in 1905. Founded by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff; the four students aspired to find new ways of artistic expressionism. They played on aspects of life like landscapes and nudes, distorting them radically to evoke moods or ideas. Shapes became very basic, proportions and perspectives are altered.

The idea of primitive art intrigued the Die Brucke group. The ability to merge art and life was a foreign concept from the fast paced city life they had grown to resent. Primitive art was not recognised as art by those who created it. It was part of their everyday life, not as something to admire but to use. Expressionists found the simplistic art very real and emotive, it inspired them to produce their own art using their own life to create simplistic works of the places they visited every day.

Cabarets were a place for political satire, perfect for the expressionist views and their rejection of the industrialization and humanization of the city. As a regular visit of the expressionists it was natural to begin to present the cabaret scene within their art in a further attempt to fuse life and art.

Circuses were also at the height of interest for the expressionists; here they found atypical models that were perfect for representing their disdain for the unification of the population and their interest in primitive and African art.

Kirchner was particularly interested in the connection between life and art. He hired two black circus artists as models; Sam and Milly, and painting them in every day scenarios. These paintings shocked audiences as they were shameless and mocked modern life.

In conclusion, the expressionists sought to combine life and art by living out their primitive fantasies; they rejected the modern ways of the city and spent time in the countryside ‘getting back to nature’. However I personally feel that the things they did were acts of art and producing work to be a fusion of life an art was a forced process and never really became what they wanted it to be. Their art was still presented and never really became part of everyday life.

Student Life

So, I'm not the typical student. I haven't moved away, or chosen a big well known institute or even been to freshers.
That's because I don't feel like a student, I feel like I have been a student, partying and studying and being skint. I currently work roughly 18 hours a week and in uni roughly 16 hours a week. Leaving me with either no time  or no energy to do much else. If anything I feel like an pensioner!

Well there's my little moan for the day!

Now let us get down to the week's activities!

Life drawing - Enjoying it, you can just chill an get on with it. Yes there's a naked woman stood in front of you but after a while you don't even think about her being naked! An I'm finally starting to get the proportions right so she doesn't have creepy short legs!

 

Art History - Well the pictures say it all really. I struggle to pay attention therefore leading to some interesting but ultimately not helpful notes.

Digital Art - Had one lesson, couldn't use photoshop, printed a picture. Then copied and stylised said picture. Not much to say but here is an unfinished piece anyway! (Caravaggio - The Incredulity of Saint Thomas)

Studio Work - I'm not actually sure what our project is called but it's been kinda random to tell you the truth! Drawing several pictures of different places then placing them together to make a large unusual picture. We have just started to make sculptures from our drawings. It's all very abstract and strange, I'm not really sure that I like it yet!

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time, I was an avid writer. I would sit for hours making up stories about talking pigs and toys coming to life, writing my own little story books. I was convinced that I would become an author. But one day something changed, an I lost the ability to put my imagination to paper. The stories are still there and any one who knows me will confirm I have some weird tales that I spew out every so often. But nothing gets written down anymore. And this saddens me. However something new happened, I began to paint and sketch and create physical models. I had changed my medium, I had transitioned from a caterpillar writing stories to a butterfly creating art. I'm not saying I'm gods gift to the art world but it's a change that has  made me happy. Don't get me wrong, I definitely miss writing or else I wouldn't be here, it's just when words escape me simple marks and dabs on paper or walls or canvas (or anything!) help me express the emotions I just can't say. I have found that in the past 5 years my art has been dark, and it was at its darkest when I was at my darkest, feeling I was trapped with no release. Now days I'm not so bad, but as my mood drops my drawing becomes more Poe-ish. Ravens and hearts beating below floor boards kind of thing.

Anyway, I'm now babbling, it's late and I have been awake for 17 hours. So bed beckons so I can do it all again tomorrow. 

Hopefully another post tomorrow, a more coherent one about my first week at university.

But for now I bid you adieu.