Odilia Bird FDA

Collage: I decided to recreate on of my flower photos as a collage, I used old magazines and sewing patterns to do this. Initially, I drew I line with pencil as a guid to show where the sky and leaves meet then did the green section first and then the blue, I then added different shades of pink to create the flowers. when looking at my collage I was very happy with it, I liked the different tones and variety of bold, bright colours and I believe that because of this my collage feels youthful and fun. However, I noticed that there wasn't anything special about what I had done, it was pretty and decorative but I felt as thought it needed something extra to take it further, so I decided to incorporate some of my wire flowers to add more depth to my piece. I think that this was the right decision to make as when looking at my final piece the artificial wire flowers provide a contrast to the more natural setting of the collage, I believe that the wire adds character to my piece and they

 Wire Flowers: I really enjoyed our earlier task of creating wire leaves and decided to take it forward and recreate some photos of flowers that I have taken as wire sculptures, I used I thin, malleable wire and was able to easily bend and shape it with my fingers and a pair of pliers. To start with I made a small practice flower which I believe was successful, I positioned an equal amount of petals facing up and down to create and even finished look and when looking at the final product I think that it looks delicate and intricate, however, its too small for my liking so for my next attempts I will make them on a larger scale than before. For my continued attempts I decided to make them bigger than my first and I also wanted to have a variety of different flowers so that they didn't all look the same, so while I did model some off my previous pictures I was also inspired by the forms and shapes of spider lilies, I believe that by taking these forms and shapes from the spider lilie

 Ceramics room: Induction: We had a brief induction into the ceramics room, we were introduced and shown how to use equipment such as the hot wire, vac former and oven.  I had a go at using modelling wax for the first time and I created two little flowers, I found that the wax was quite malleable and easy to use and when using sculpting tools I was able to get an outcome that I was proud of. When looking at the two flowers that I made they seemed small, fragile and delicate, and paired with the black colour of the wax they seemed to exude a very gothic aura. I am happy with the outcomes of this session and I will consider using modelling wax in my future work. 

 Creating shapes with card: I made two shapes from card and masking tape based off my pictures and sketches from the castle. the prompt was 'Vessels' wether it's a physical vessel or a metaphorical vessel. I made two shapes, my first being a Bishops hat which consisted of two separate pieces of card stuck together, it was my first attempt and therefore it was still rough and simple, through this I was able to get used to working with the card and take my second attempt further. For my second attempt I recreated a trophy that I saw at nottingham castle, to start with, I curved a single piece of card into a cylinder and then twisted two separate pieces to create handles which I stuck on with masking tape, I repeated this process at the top of my work as well. I decided to apply brown tape around the outside to imitate the salt glaze that I saw on some of the pieces at the castle. Overall, I understand that this was only my first attempt and there is a lot of improving to do,

 Artists research: Feminism and the male gaze: Paul Gauguin is an artist from 1800s who has a history that is rife with exploitation and misogyny and was known to take multiple teenage girls as wives. This can be seen in his work, his piece 'Seed of the Areoi' which depicts a Tahitian woman sitting naked in front of a landscape scene, this woman is the focal point of the painting and there is something perverted and voyeuristic about how she is in her most vulnerable state for all to see. Men painting nudes of women have an incredibly misogynistic and exploitative history, often getting prostitutes and women who most likely didn't have the option to say no to sit for them. This is shown in his work as the sitter is allegedly his mistress, a woman who was most likely exploited and taken advantage of by him. When I observe and analyse his techniques I can see he uses thick brush strokes and bold colour, there is a stark contrast in colour, brightness and tone when looking at

 Artist research:  Authorship: Andy Warhol: What makes his work recognisable? - Created the concept of pop art  - Focused on mass produced commercial goods  - Bright and colourful  - use of repetition  - created works using everyday objects such as soup cans and celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe - Earlier works showcased the blotted line technique  - Use of repetition - Death was an influence and focus in his work  - Photographic silk screen printing  - Combined hand painted backgrounds with photographic silk screen images  - Political implications in his work  Yves Klein: What makes his work recognisable? - Use of the shade of blue which was named 'Klein Blue' after him - Forerunner of minimal and pop art  - Pioneer in the development of performance art  - Focused on human forms and used human bodies as paintbrushes  - Made conceptual and performance art  - Monochrome colours/ Monochromatic paintings  - Uses air and emptiness in his work  - Nouveau Réalisme Analysis of their

 Research: Wire Flowers: For my initial ideas, a lot of them included wire sculptures and flowers as a development from my original leaf drawings. At first I wanted to create the shapes and then cover them in different colours and types of paper and tissue paper, however, when thinking and researching more I found out about a process called dip flowers which consists of dipping your wire flowers and structures into resin which then fills in the gaps to create beautiful glassy petals, this result can also be achieved using products the are more readily available such as nail varnish and wood glue.  https://www.sbdesigns.fr/the-art-of-wire-and-resin-flowers https://www.ginatepper.com/make-wire-frame-flowers/ https://the-gingerbread-house.co.uk/how-to-make-resin-flowers/ Examples of wire flower sculptures:

 Examples of design vs art: I chose a desk chair as an example of design: Padded seat and back for user comfort  Wheels to allow the chair easy movement  Height adjustment  Arm rests High back and head rest  Shaped back  Clear function and purpose for the chair which is to be sat on    I chose a painting By Maria Cosway: ‘the Three holy women lament over the dead body of christ’ No clear function  Artistic techniques have been used  Thought provoking  Makes the viewer feel something  Stirrs emotions  Colour theory  Composition 

Artist Research: Mandy Payne  https://mandypayneart.co.uk/portfolio/paintings-gallery/ Urban Landscapes  Issues of gentrification  Inequality Social housing  The flux of city environments  She is interested in: Brutalist Architecture  Notions of utopia\Dystopia  Finding beauty in the ordinary\overlooked  Materials: likes using materials that have a physical connection to the sites that she depicts  Surface texture and fracture are important concerns for her and her paintings  Concrete  Spray paint  Glass fibre panels Marble  Micro masking tape  Oil   Techniques and media used in this work: - Painting  - Spray paint and oil on glass fibre reinforced concrete  - Urban landscape  Use of tone  Depth and perspective  Thought out composition  Follows the rule of threes  Focal point ( tunnel under the bridge ) Lack of colour and use of gray and black  convey the feeling of a monotonous life  Attention to detail ( lack of leaves of the tree indicate it is a winter setting ) Lack of people comb

 Pin Hole Camera: I used a shoe box, tape and tin foil to make a working pinhole camera, I then went out onto the street and exposed the photographic paper in the box to light for 30 seconds and developed the photo. The photograph that I developed resulted in a slightly blurry image, I believe that this is because I placed it on an uneven surface and the box was slightly rocking from side to side. When looking at the final product I can see that although slightly blurry there is a lot of detail that can be seen, the shapes of the leaves from the tree in front of where I positioned my pin hole camera are scattered across the top and bottom of the image and there is a clear image of a car. To me this image feels old like a black and white still from an old Hollywood movie, I believe that the blurriness adds s sense of spontaneity and movement to the image, as if someone has taken the picture in a rush. My second image was more successful in terms of making sure my pinhole camera stayed s