Here We Go ...

Hi Blogspot

I need to type this up now so I don't forget what we've just discussed or the ideas that have come to me during the discussion.

We've just given our first 'initial ideas' presentation and I think we (the whole class) agreed that handbags would be the way for me to go. This is great. This is the way I've been leaning too - doing a whole collection of bags, each describing something that has happened to me in the past - an event or a memory.

Some of my ideas so far are:

A razor bag - re my wedding day

A rock pool bag - re memories of when I was a kid

A family tree bag - I do come from an 'interesting' line!!!

A travel bag - with Erol the scorpion featuring heavily

There could be lots of ideas ... I need to sit back and remember!

Another idea that came up via Sophie was to do a small booklet with each bag which can describe the story behind the bag. For instance, Erol would be really hard to tell, just on his own, but with a book I could explain the whole saga behind him. AND, my dad's still got all my original e-mails which I could potential screen print or include within the books.

Things I could use to make the bags are razor blades - and perhaps latex dyed to the colour of flesh for maybe the lining or even the outside fabric of the bag, or maybe to use the latex as part of the booklet to go with the story. I could use a map for the travel bag, highlighting where I've travelled - and with it being made of paper, I could fold or pleat it and stitch it in unusual ways.

We were also thinking that each bag should be different - not just on subject matter but also on style - so a travel bag would be different to my razor blade bag etc - and for the family tree, I could use a different type of bag for each person - so a pauper would probably have a scruffy, dirty jute bag, my GI auntie would have a going out bag etc etc - all of which could be included in one large 'family' bag.

These are just quick ideas that are floating about in my head at the moment. I'm writing them down now so I don't forget. But this project, I think, will be fun for me to do and fun for the audience to see - and detailed enough to keep me busy for a year.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm typing this up at school and if I stay on this computer for too long it will probably chuck me off and blow up, so I'll leave it here for now and carry on when I need to at home.

See ya ...

:o)

RWA Submission

Hi Blogspot

Well, today I've handed in my hat for the RWA 'Open' Exhibition which will go on show in November/December this year. Fingers crossed that it gets through the initial selection process and this time will get 'hung'. You never know, miracles do happen!!

Nikki has also handed in two of her hats so with any luck we'll both get selected and they (the RWA) can have a special sculptural hat section! Three hats are better than 1 ... hopefully!

Anyway, that's it for now. That's all I wanted to say. I have a busy day ahead of me today so I'm off.

:o)

First Week at School

Hi Blogspot ...

So, we've just had our first proper week at school (uni) and I'm still struggling with ideas.

I'm going off the two ideas I had over the summer holidays ... I'm not sure they're enough to stretch me - I think they might be 'safe' ideas. Is now the time to play safe or should I stretch and explore? I think the latter would score more points - and points is what I want. I WANT to come out of this degree with a First. I'm not going to get another chance to do a degree again, so I want to push myself as hard as possible and get a top grade. I'm willing to put the work in ... but do I have enough talent and academic ability to achive my goal? I'm not sure, but I hope so.

Anyway, back to now. I've been to the library, I've raided my bookshelves and I have about 15 books to look through for ideas. I'm interested in crazy textiles/fashion, mixed media with textiles, tailoring, metals, nature ... all sorts of things really.

I've done giant flowers in the past which got a mixed reaction from the tutors but the public love them ... and I do have a fascination with all things giant - sea creatures, vegetables - there's nothing better than a giant fish or marrow or cabbage!!! Perhaps I should go down the giant route again and make something huge that dwarfs the public as they look around it - something like a giant acquarium or vegetable patch in textiles?

Another idea would be something to do with crazy fashion. I used to hate the weird stuff that came down the catwalks as a teenage but now I love it! And it might tie in nicely with what I want to do after this degree ... I would like to teach fashion and textiles to age 18+ students. I have loads of experience with textiles but only my own dressmaking skills for the fashion part. Perhaps I should stretch and push that part of my ability? Will it be useful? Will it be relevant?

What I don't want to do is continue on down the path I have been going down which has been focused on my husband's schizophrenia and my role as his carer. I started doing work relating to that because I needed to get it out of my system - to release it. But I've done that now and I don't want to continue with it ... (a) because I'm no longer inspired to, and (b) because I find it quite depressing. Having dealt with it for the last 2 years, I need a break from it and want to do something more humourous this time. I love putting humour in my work - I've done it before and REALLY want to do it again.

However ... and I'm not sure if I'm being manouvered back towards the mental health arena by the tutors or if I'm subconsciously manouvering myself back there (the more likely answer) ... but I'm feeling pressure to stick with it because it's always given me high marks and the public like it. AND I've already been asked by my tutor WHY I want to explore say, giant fish or shells or whatever. A question I couldn't answer. With a personal piece - like my mental health work - it's easy to answer that question and I can make a political statement about it. With something like giant stuff, what is the reasoning behind me doing it and is there a statement there that I can make?

This then leads me to the question, do I have to make a statement or have a reason behind my work at all? Has every well known artist always had a reason behind their work or have they all made statements in their work? I don't think they have - I've got a picture of Monet's waterlillies in my head at the moment ... so if they haven't in the past, why do I need to now? Is this perhaps a good theme for my 4,000 word essay which I need to do in conjunction with my exhibition piece?

What I don't want to do is pigeonhole myself into one area or one medium - I have a very short attention span - always have had. I flit from one thing to the next - one minute I spend my time knitting, the next I do patchwork, then I have a love affair with the internet, then books ... I flit. I always will. It's who I am. That's why I have skills in most areas of textiles ... not just tapestry or cross-stitch or dress-making or embroidery. I do something for a while, get bored of it and move on to something else. Why can't I do this with my artwork? Where does it say that we have to stick to one thing?, that we have to have a personal message behind our work?, that we have to make political statements in our work in order for it to be fully appreciated? This is sounding like quite a good essay question to me ... ... !

Maybe this confliction (is that a word?) I'm having should be expressed in my artwork? Maybe I should question, within my artwork, what is art? Who decides? Why should my art always have a reason behind it? Does all art have a reason behind it? Do all artists only do work with reasons behind it?




So, dear readers ... this is where you start to see the reason behind my blogspot. All this stuff is jumbling around in my brain, day in, day out, like a mini tumbledryer. I need to get it down on paper (ok, screen). I'm not moaning about anyone in particular, anything in particular - in fact I'm not moaning at all ... I'm loving it. I'm using this blogspot as a sounding board. By the tutors questioning what I do, I then question myself about what I'm doing which then ends up in a right two and eight (state) in my head. By getting it out into the open, I can then look back at this and sort through what I'm trying to say and hopefully come to some sort of conclusion which will then result in a piece of artwork that is exhibitable ... and hopefully a decent essay question which I can ramble on about for 4,000 words!!!

Anyway, my head's fairly empty now which is a good thing and means that this blogspot has worked. I'll come back soon and ramble on about something else!!!

:o)

Initial Summer Holiday Ideas

Hi Blogspot ...

So, we have been given the task of finding ideas that we can work with and develop into a final exhibition piece at the end of the year.

Now, I did actually start doing this over the summer holidays and I came up with a couple of reasonable ideas.

The first one was to continue with my 'Boundaries Bag' and continue that further by creating a whole collection of bags which had personal themes.

For instance, I was thinking about doing a bag made out of razor blades. The story of my life behind razor blades is on the day my husband and I got married, about 30 women from my husband's family (he's Indonesian and we got married over there) man-handled me into a room and stripped me. They then divided themselves into groups - one group dressed me, one group did my hair and one my make-up. It sounds horrific but it was actually almost cartoonish and very amusing ... it was a very small room, it was very nosiey because they were all talking at once and I was the only white woman there who towered above the little Indonesian ladies. All was quite amusing until the lady with the razor blade came forward from the make-up group. My Indonesian is very basic so I couldn't understand a word they were saying. I saw the blade and wondered what they were going to do with it - was it some kind of Indonesian slashing of the white woman ritual before the ceremony? Turned out she wanted to shave my face. They sat me down - all 30 woman stopped and crowded around me and watched as the woman with the razor commenced dry-shaving my face. With every sweep of the razor a little cry of wonder went up as the held up the large amount of white fluff that she had removed from my face ... I was letting out a cry of horror as I saw the amount of 'beard' that I had ... dreadful! ... Anyway, that's the story behind the razor blade bag.

Another bag I thought I could make was of buttons because when I was a kid my mum's sewing room doubled up as my bedroom and whenever she worked in there, I would get out her button box and rummage through all the wonderous buttons she had and sorted them into size or colour, textured or furry ... I spent hours doing that and I still have her button box now ... and I still get the same 'oooo' whenever I open it!

So anyway, that's the kind of idea I had for bags - a whole array of them (because I've got a year to do it in) and all made up of different things that have had an influence on my life. It's quite a nice idea but is it enough ... or is it good enough? I'm not sure ... I'm still considering it.

The other idea I had was to do something in textiles of my family tree. I have relatives on both sides of my family who are currently working on our family tree ... which turns out to be quite an interesting family. We're certainly not linked with royalty, sadly, but we do have some colourful characters!

For instance, my great, great, great-grandfather John Price had an extra finger on each hand - 5 fingers and a thumb! I think he was a shepherd - most of the men folk in our family way back when were shepherds or farm hands! Another great, great, great-grandfather I had was a taxidermist and apparently the whole house was filled with stuffed dead animals of various shapes and sizes ... we still have one last piece of his at my grandma's house - a red squirrel with a nut in its mouth mounted on a log in a glass box hung on the wall. I also had an auntie was very 'popular' (if you catch my drift) at the local GI base in WWII. At some point she got 'sent away' for a period of time but came back nice and slender and carried on as before!!!!!

And these are by no means the only 'interesting' characters we have in our family ... the list goes on!!!

What I was thinking of maybe doing, if I can bring myself to do it ... was to great a large (takes a deep breath before she says it) ... wall hanging (urgh, I hate that term!) and recreate my family tree in say, patchwork with each square being a member of my family - a picture of them if we have one - printed onto fabric and perhaps an interesting fact or story about that person which I can recreate in thread or mixed media of some kind.

However, I'm now starting to wonder if this idea is interesting enough ... hmm ... I'm not sure.

Anyway these are my summer holiday ideas.

There'll be more blogs with more ideas as they come!!!

:o)

Introduction to my Blogspot

Hello Blogspot ...

I've revamped you because I wanted to create a kind of on-line diary which I can use to vent in or to air ideas or to just think things through for my final year at uni which will culminate in an exhibition in June 2010.

Why? Firstly, I can get so much crap going around in my head that I need to get it out onto paper - nowadays screen - which will help clear my head a bit. Secondly, because I find myself arguing with myself over some ideas, again it will help me to write it down so I can clarify what I actually want to say to myself . Thirdly, just occasionally, I need to vent about stuff that tutors have said to me. Well, it's not really venting ... well, yes it is actually, but it's constructive venting which will help organise my thoughts and arugments for or against any such comments, and fourthly, I think it will help add to my 'evidence of study' stuff if I can produce a file full of postings ... and it's probably quite useful for the tutors to be able to dip in and out of my on-line blog if they want to see what I'm doing and to keep up to date with my work.

So, anyway, that's my introduction.

Hopefully, regular postings will help me to keep on track of what I want to do and will add to my body of work for the final grading.

Oh yeah, I've set the permissions so that anyone can read this because feedback is always useful and it will be interesting to see what other people have to say, if anything, about what I'm saying. I will say though, that if anyone does want to leave feedback, please make any criticisms constructive, because they are much easier to work with than ones that just say this is a pile of old crap!!!!

Thanks.

And see you soon.

:o)