Odilia Bird FDA

 Acetate and Lightbox: I decided to print out a couple of my images onto acetate and use a light box to project light through them. when looking at my image on acetate I believe that the translucency added a ghostly feel to the overall image, as if it was an apparition or mirage that could disappear at any moment. The images that I chose were of street lights at night, they were dark and harsh and I believe that the natural aspect of the trees provides a nice contrast to the urban setting, the colour scheme and lighting of these photos caused the images to seem cold and hard. However when placing them on top of a light box it seemed to make the image come alive and the light draws attention, I think that it animates the image and makes it appear warmer, and when looking at the street light it seems to jump out and glow, and I believe that the warmer tones that the light box adds softens the image and allows it to feel slightly more cosy than harsh.

 Photographing light: As a development from my initial ideas I wanted to explore and experiment more with light so I began taking photos of the artificial light that I am surrounded with, which included street lights, exit signs and ceiling lights, however, I found that when looking at the images of the exit signs and lights I thought that they were quite boring and I believe that I would need to develop them further either by editing and manipulating the on photoshop or by collaging them for them to be successful, but I think that they are a good starting point. I thought that this was an interesting development from my initial ideas and I have become interested in the way that light interacts with its surroundings, the majority of my outdoor photos have been taken at night which I believe provides a nice contrast between the light source and the night sky as well as provides a nice gradient of light across an object such as a tree trunk, and I believe that my most successful photos h

 Examples of the ordinary being turned into art: For examples of the ordinary being turned into art I chose two installations, the first one is by Rebecca louise Law and features many many flowers hanging from a church roof, this is an overhead installation which instantly draws the viewers attention up and allows the the flowers to seem as if they are basking in the sunlight entering through the top windows. I believe that this piece works well within the space of a church interior, and the delicatness and fragility of the flowers works really well with the magnificence and intricacy of the church walls and ceiling. I believe that this installation feels almost dream like with the viewer being showered in millions of flowers and I think that the way they have been suspended cause the piece to feel open and airy, a piece that is open and welcoming to the viewer but just out of reach invoking a sense of longing and desire, I believe that this can also be seen with the use of dark red fl

 Examples of ambiguous art vs non ambiguous art: Michelangelo: The Creation of Adam: 'The creation of Adam' is a fresco painting, where the artist paints quickly on wet plaster before it dries, by Michelangelo that can be found on the ceiling of the Sistine chapel and showcases the biblical creation narrative of God giving life to Adam. I believe that this is an example of non ambiguous art as there is a clear religious meaning and story that is being depicted within the painting, if the viewer wanted to look deeper into the meanings and symbolisms shown within the image they may do so, however, at face value and a first glance the image shows God giving life to Adam, this is also reflected in the name of the painting which I believe further confirms that there is a clear meaning and story to this painting. When looking at this piece I can see that the lines within it are curved, soft and the colour scheme is bright but pale, I believe that this allows the painting to feel yout

 Oil painting: I experimented with oil paints for the first time in response to the portrait that I chose at the castle, I wanted to extract and use the colours from the portrait which resulted in me working with and variety and shades and hues of green. My normal go to type of paint is acrylic so I was excited to try out something new, one of the major differences I found was that the oil paints took far longer to dry and therefore I was able to continue to add and adjust my painting without the risk of it drying and needing to start again, I found that these paints flowed smoothly and I was able to layer and blend them with ease which I believe is reflected in my work as the colours are intertwined and the gradients and tones transition from one to another smoothly. I opted to work with water soluble oils rather than traditional oils as they are able to thinned with water and the paint brushes are able to be dipped in water while painting which I believe made the experience as a whol

 Portrait Project: Initial ideas:

 Final evaluation: I believe that this project overall has been a success, I have demonstrated a variety of ideas and developments and I believe that it is clear through my work and documentation that I have considered different media and and have demonstrated my experimentation with different ideas. I think that the artist research and field trips were very helpful for me throughout this project, I was able to be inspired and connect with other artists while exploring my own ideas, I think that looking at artists that are working with similar media to me such as Christian Boltalnski has allowed me to see a variety of the possibilities that come with the materials that I am using and aid me in my decision making as I am able to visualise an outcome more accurately due to the references that I have. Another aspect of this project that I have found helpful is the one on one tutorials with our tutors to go through our ideas and to check in on the progress that we are making, these session

  Projecting onto people: I decided to take my projections further by projecting onto myself as well as the white background. To add to my theme of aliens and biology as well as taking inspiration from movies such as 'contagion' I chose to wear white medical suit and face mask, this not only allowed the silhouettes of my wire flowers to show up more clearly on myself but also added to the atmosphere of the piece and creating a more obvious connection to my themes.  I believe that the first two attempts I made were not as successful as my later attempts, I only used two flowers for the silhouettes and I think that the overall image looks quite bare and sparse, it didn't have the overrun and chaotic atmosphere that I wanted and I think that the decision to keep the hood of my suit down took away from the clinical aspect that I was aiming for, nut my favourite out of the two was the second image where one of the shadows seems to be moving through me. I believe that this make i

 Victorian glass slides: Glass slides also known as lantern transparencies were printed from photographic negatives and were able to retain a fairly high amount of detail allowing for scientific use. Lamps, also known as lanterns were developed in the mid nineteenth century to copy reproduce and enlarge images and drawings they required the light to be registered in the correct position on the condenser and the lens to be centred,  so that it takes up all the rays, some could even be mounted on wheels so that the user could adjust the distance from the projection screen, as well as this, the lantern was also used as an image projector for entertainment or instruction, the vintage and scientific look and atmosphere of these glass slides is what drew me to them and piqued my interest and I believe that they fit into the organic, biological theme that my work has begun to take on. 

 Research: Movies that fit the theme  While developing my project and ideas I notices that the further I went in this project the more my shadows and projections began to resemble monsters, aliens and in some cases germs and bacteria. I then decided to go with an apocolyptic virus outbreak theme taking inspiration from movies such as 'Contagion', 'Train to Busan', 'World war Z', 'The maze runner' as well as tv shows such as 'The walking dead' and 'The last of us'.  All of these movies follow the themes of an uncontrollable, unknown virus outbreak,. I decided to take more inspirations from these forms of media and lean in to the medical outbreak theme while also taking using my own experiences with the Covid 19 pandemic of 2020.

Artists research: Collage  Meghan Coyle: Meghan Coyles collages are inspire by photos that she's takes while on holiday and describes her technique as 'painting with paper'. She uses paper taken from magazines and cuts the paper into different shapes depending on the colour and texture. I chose two images that are in contrast with each other in terms of the colour palette and scenery. The first image is bright, bold and is reminiscent of impressionist techniques. This piece depicts a city scape with a large body of water across the majority of the piece and is slightly abstracted, I believe that the black sections provide a nice contrast to the brighter yellow sections and I enjoy how the strops of paper create blocks of colour that convey depth and perspective within the image, by using white paper the artists has manage to create a reflection of light across the water which I believe is immediately draws the viewers attention. The yellow sky and half set sun set the tone

Pinhole camera: I decided to carry on experimenting with my pin hole camera, both outside and inside. While experimenting inside I discovered that the exposure time was much longer that outside and I had to expose the light sensitive paper for at least five minuets compared to outside which was about twenty five to thirty seconds.  I believe that my most successful image was the one I took of the stairs inside the college, it was clear and crisp and the white, grey and black colours are in stark contrast with each other which provides a nice balance in colouring in the image, the finer details on the area have also been picked up which allows the image to properly convey the scenery and surroundings. I have found that when doing pin hole camera photographs I really enjoy the inverted colours which are shown again in this image, I believe that it causes the image to seem surreal and odd, like a parallel reality and it fits the eerie atmosphere that I was aiming to create with my other p

 Artist research: Projections  Paul Chan: Paul Chan is an American artist, writer and publisher born in 1973. In 2005 Paul Chan created seven large projections based on the biblical seven days of creation.  I have chose two images from his 'first light' installation, the first image depicts an urban landscape with telephone wire and street lights with dark silhouettes in contrast with the pale background believe that this scene gets more and more surreal as you look at it for a longer period of time as you start to notice the floating bus and debris in the background which I believe disrupts the image and causes a disconnect that draws the viewers attention. This piece feels almost dream like to me with a seemingly normal scenery and surroundings that has small, out of the ordinary situations that make you feel as if something isn't right. I think that the addition of the levitating bus elevates the piece to a new level and invokes a whimsical atmosphere within the piece. T

 Yorkshire Sculpture Park: For our 'tracing the land' project we went to Yorkshire sculpture park to conduct some research. I found that as well as the art that was being exhibited there the landscapes and nature that I saw and was surrounded by was incredibly inspiring.  Two of my favourite artists were Erwin Wurm and Leonardo Drew, I found Leonardos pieces to be chaotic and raw, with rough and jagged edges and lines, His piece 'number 360' feels like entering a tornado, it's a whirlwind of plywood and board, and I believe that invokes and angry and wrathful energy, the entire piece engulfs the whole room and when looking in any direction I could see a new section that I hadn't seen before. The most impressive part was the middle section with board stacked on top each other that reaches the ceiling, it's imposing, towers over the viewer and can't be ignored, however I found that viewing this piece from different perspectives seems to change the feeling