light and shade

 Have been having fun working on the Sculpture and Lens based modules. We have to design a sculpture for a plinth near college.  When I researched I found there was only one female form in the whole town, the rest were men or boats plus one Madonna who in this context doesn't count.......

 I knocked up the plaster and clay models of a woman and her whining g'child trying to get the shopping done.

 Then I threw caution out of the window and took my inspiration from the nearby Coprolite St. [fossilised dinosaur dung] and made this giant turd.  Tutor liked it more.

 We have had a couple of sessions on F numbers and shutter speeds with the aim of producing photos that are blurry or otherwise usually rejectable. I used my own camera, which the tutor couldn't sort out either, so the results were mixed.  The Performance Arts students were very patient and good tempered.

This was someone skipping with a rope of green Xmas lights, a huge success? Next week we are to have a go at photo shop, so my troubles have only just begun.

new plinth

Started next two projects that will last until Xmas -  Sculpture and Photography.
Allegedly the University gave the local council a patch of land in exchange for re-tarmacking the student car park.  Some where in the negotiations a large granite plinth appeared and was placed by the council on the edge of the car park.
Can't say I have ever noticed it, but as I have neither driven nor walked into it, I must have registered it's presence in some way.
The object has been adopted by the Fine Arts dept, with some misgivings, but much glee [mixed feelings depending what kind of tutor you are] and now all us poor students have to design suitable, or more likely unsuitable, objects to go on top. 
Presumably someone from real life and  with more clout will eventually get the gig.
So first morning we had to make a small model of the granite block.........accurately. 
I find measurements an arcane art that is not included in my skill set.  Specially where saws and nails  are involved.  I quickly tried to get round the problem by choosing some kind of plastic wood that I could stick together.  Admittedly things did go wrong in that my measurements did not make allowance for the thickness of the wood when constructing, but the tutor is a kind man and whipped them thru the Big machines again till they looked more agreeable to each other. 
Lots of glue filled gaps I found.
We watched a welding workshop, always wanted to do this, but now not so sure, it does seem to need a steady hand and eye and metal toed boots and a big Darth Vador mask, worrying.
Have been looking at the town history for research ideas, but have already decided public sculpture is not for me, altho the presence of Coprolite St nearby has led me to design a giant turd to sit on top of the plinth as one suggestion .
The camera session was very long and equally demanding, originality is demanded but it's all been done before.......it feels exciting but at the same time I doubt I will prove equal to it,  F numbers come in the same black hole as measurements to my brain.
We were guided by the little camera technician - it all made some sense till he stopped talking. 
He said at one point he was 5'7", same as me; I am a tall woman, but he is a small man. Strange.
Be Ambitious is the tutors cry.  
Help is mine.
I was so challenged by Wednesday that I woke up with a migraine and was unable to go to the Wendy Cope public reading in the afternoon which annoyed me intensely, she would have been stimulating and made me laugh!

End of the beginning

Well that's the end of the first six weeks of my Fine Arts experience. Callie and I are quite relaxed.

Passed Painting and Printing fortunately, so now we can press on next week to Sculpture and Lens Based work…………..cameras I presume.

I think I am settling down a bit, getting to know a few people and skulking the corridors less.  It is quite a culture change from Head Teacher to Anxious Student, specially when I am tempted to organise the class or worse still the tutor. Once a bossy woman, always a BW.

This and below is part of my piece about WWI

Sketch books play quite a large part of the on-going work and assessment.  I have always been too impatient to waste time of them before, just want to get my hands on the fabric and scissors, but I have found that being forced to think more laterally and explore ideas/evidence is helpful.

I still don't want to produce a sketch book as another "piece" - too often I have found in exhibitions the liveliest work has gone into the sketch book and by the time the final piece is produced the idea had curled up and died.

I will put some pics on my blog if you want to see more.

But right now I am going to Felixstowe to walk the dog………..unfortunately I can't quite relax as we had a lecture yesterday on a new Drawing project entitles {Sacred Places"  This bloke had been to Mount Athos, Bhutan, Canyons of America and produced books of sketches.  We have to make a concertina sketch book of 20 x A4 sketches of an actual journey of our own……….drawn in situ………maybe to my garden ladyshed………..who knows. Probably not Felixstowe I am rubbish at water colours

Collage re WWI influenced by Rauschenberg

1903 School class influenced by Marlene Dumas

Life drawing, poor Mike on a cold concrete floor.

Jen being Very Brave,  Young people know no fear.

Rabab and Tricia likewise

class pictures

It seems I have to wait till the w/e before I can get a handle on what happens.  Culture shock.

So this week……had to give a 5 minute presentation on Monday for the painting module, chose Marlene Dumas.  I was called unexpectedly early so hadn't had too much time to get nervous and it went OK. Am working on pieces reflecting her style this w/e, which if you look her up you will appreciate is interesting.

This is her work based on a class photo from her childhood.  I am working on a 1903 class picture from the local village school

One mature student got into a wrangle with tutor about positive and negative, exasperated [in a quiet way] tutor [pink tie] finally asked, do you all want to be brought up to my level or for me to come down to yours?  Ouch.

Tuesday we did some dry etching, which is a quickish way to get a professional looking result and involves scratching into a perspex [tracing if you wish from a photo/pic] then rubbing printing ink into it, cleaning up and pressing in the printing press. 

Technician smiled and said he liked the quiet economic style, so I suspect I could have been bolder.

Wednesday the cohort trained up to London to do some History of Art research at the Courtauld and then visiting the Tanks at the Tate for some performance art and installations. 

I couldn't go [dentists] and am excused study as I already have the credits for this subject. They had a great time it would seem, I know some were dying to get to Camden Market [some had never been to London before, which explains] so I hope they enjoyed exploring.

Thursday I pottered in to pick up a blow up of the photo of the class in grand dads village school, 1903, to work a bit of Dumas magic on.  £14 to pay for A2 size technician had not even expanded to fit, harrumph.

Any extras this 2 semesters are to be paid for and from then on, all materials. Mutter, on top of my extortionate fee situation [no-one else pays, as they don't have a previous degree]. 

Any retired un-degreed person really should consider a university course as the loan will not have to be paid back.  

Did a lot of splashing about with printing inks and rollers for use as backgrounds to grenade, but so far they are not dry! At least that was free.

Friday I went to my textile group SLAPPERS, reassuring to be with people of same age for a change, stitching and nattering.

Previous Sunday I did an Embroiderers Guild day course with Jae Maries, charismatic textile artist, she  made us do some Fine Arts exercises re colour, form and tone and then tear up photos and mingle with fabrics, dunno when I will have time to finish that tho.

one more week then we have a week of assessments, so spending more time getting cold feet in conservatory painting and worrying.  Less time spent on Facebook however so a result.  

stitching plus week 3 of Arty farty

We did screen printing this week, this is my stencil of a grenade; the pics I took of the print were accidently on video, so I will have to re-visit the scene of the crime.  I used black ink on a scarlet backgound and now I have to try and think of what contemporary comment to make when I am adding my next stencil. 

Any suggestions?

The grenade is my theme for a longer project about a "Found object" that reveals a narrative........I found a grenade in the lean-to when we first moved into this, grand dad's, house. He was in the trenches in WWI.  This one was empty, but we didn't find that out till the Army had come tramping down the Lane to inspect it. 

Sadly they still took it away.

It was satisfying to work at one project all day, but annoying that I failed to get a clear background print, when at home [without all the technical accoutrements] on my own small screen, it isn't usually a problem.

Life drawing was chiaroscuro  [spell checker ignored that, had to use the dictionary] covering paper in charcoal then drawing a portrait of another student by candle light,  by rubbing out or chalking highlights. Was quite fun, makes me less fussy, but got actually exciting when another student actually managed to set herself on fire from the candle.

Sudden shocked silence as flames rose, then clumsy attempts to pat her out and throw various belated glasses of water.  She has ruined trousers and a nasty blistering. 

The tutor was mortified, I was left wondering if she had made an accident report [head teachers never die it seems, they just drift into bureaucratic whimsy] but managed to shut up.

Rabab drew me at length and I did a quick sketch of her. Interesting results.

My other project is Sense of Place, based on an contemporary artists work.  Did I say this, I was pleased to see the number of women artists suggested and chose Marlene Dumas.  In 2005ish she was the highest paid female artist, before Louise Bourgoise took over. Who knew? She does some muscular painting, but I chose an earlier work of hers of a school photo, called The Teacher, for obvious reasons.

I am working on a photo of grand dad's school photo taken in 1903 at the village school, emotive, as most of the boys in it would have gone to WWI. so there are links between the 2 projects.

What I am learning I think is

a] to look at my own work for longer rather than staring at the source in a panic  and b]questioning why I am doing it, what am I saying, what is the relevance.  I think these are good things, tho whether they are worth the fees I have to pay is still moot.

Knit and Stitch and other excitements

 Another Fine Art week bites the dust, each day feels like a brick in ……my yellow brick road?  Maybe. 

Monday I used the Huge drills and sanders to make a rather wonky box, and get ticked as being proficient with the machinery.

Not in the least true. 

Afternoon was a lecture on the theory of colour, absorbing but very cerebral and definitely over the heads of the Kennel Club [pet lovers] who chatted up the back.

Tuesday we should have had an outing in the pm, but that got postponed, so we spent all day in the Print Room, again supposedly getting to know the Huge Printing presses and various techniques.  This means Lots of small sketches, [or sketches of cats and skulls from the Young Ones] and dashing round printing them up in various ways.  Very irritating and I spent an increasing amount of time sulking in corners and dripping blood over my lino print.

Wednesday was better, Life Drawing naked man, plus a side order of skeleton.

The Knit and Stitch on Thursday [source of all these pics].  Coach was quite swish and full of older ladies I had never seen before but must live locally, as no-one spoke to me I still don't know who they are. 

Ally Pally was good, interesting stitch artists shows and I didn't spend too much IMO

Friday at SLAPPERS [my textile group], so good to touch base again.   

Saturday, today………….knackered, and with piles of homework.

http://www.wimp.com/inefficientdrinker/  hope this gives you a link to a rather gorgeous video.

 

We have a base in the drawing room and also a section of wall on which to stick up some of our work.  very embarrassing.  This is the result of a mono printng session and a life drawing morning. 

doodles

Re Fine Arts Degree

Well I've done my first week and rather strange it was too.  I seem to be getting on with the other 3 Oldies, and the young ones are like frisky puppies - friendly, but sort of in their own reality.

We did mono printing on Tuesday which was OK, and Life Drawing on Wednesday which was abysmal for the first go [my view was all fore shortened] and then OK  for the second, when I persuaded him to turn sideways a bit.

Most young ones drew him with a HUGE head for some reason, and one drew a dead baby hanging from the ceiling in front of him.  This was greeted with some interest by tutor, so now I know what is expected………

Have at least two projects to complete in next few weeks. 

Painting - A Sense of Place…….take a contemporary artist and paint something in their style, from a photo as a source.  Have you looked at contemporary artists lately, doodles!!

Printing - to reveal a hidden history, physical or metaphysical, a memory/artifact from family or whatever, we are going to an archaeological site on Tuesday to develop this. Joy.  I spent years married to an archaeologist, memories not to be unearthed.

There is an annoying feeling that there are no boundaries, any kind of image making will do, as long as it is "honest" apparently.

But then the tutor demonstrated the most academic skill in the life drawing I have ever seen, much measuring and single point perspective, without anyone, including me, understanding one iota of how she was achieving it.

It's as if they went to the proper Art school decades ago and learnt the skills, but aren't going to pass them on, in case we are inhibited .

cohort

This is some of my cohort, lined up in front of the Art dept. before we went for our trip.  Fortunately I was late and missed it.

visiting Nessie

I didn't think I would even get on the trip as we got wedged in the morning traffic down at Ipswich docks, I had to get out and run.  First mistake.

As luck would have it, I panted up just as my cohort was about to climb into the coach, so I dived into the front seat.  A routine move for those who know me as a travelling companion, I get travel sick.

The 2 tutors looked somewhat surprised to be ousted, but let me be.

Then it is a short ride to the Ness on the ferry boat.

Like much of Suffolk, it seems, lots of the paths were closed and diverted, so we walked MILES to get round to the evil pagodas, which were fenced off anyway!  The shingle is out of bounds as they try to grow stabilising cabbages on it, or something.

The Ness has a dark and troubled war time history, so is now dotted with crumbling concrete buildings which were used for radar, atomic and other secret experiments. It felt like I was walking thru the end of the world, wild, desolate but sunny!!

Being arty our tutors insisted we should go onto forbidden areas, and then be harassed off by the wardens, which added an element of tension as we crouched and tried to time the wardens sweeps round the area.

We were each given [well in our party, the other half of the cohort disappeared and wasn't found till we got back to the coach] ancient cameras, mine was a little plastic Brownie from the 60s I should think.  We each had to take a wibbly wobbly picture, and then sketch 5 times on different textures of paper, the same scene.

Challenging, I must take a little old ladies folding chair next time

A student again

My day [first of Induction Week into the Fine Arts Course] was very tiring for a poor old lady like me.  Much poorer now I have to pay the exorbitant fees, but if not now, when.

There are 20 in my "cohort," young things, barely fully formed, there are three older persons like me, but they are going full time. VERY expensive, unless this is their first degree.

I am just doing part time, as I want time to see my husband, puppy and friends.  Puppy has the squits so am not so keen on her at the mo [rice is the answer, we hope].

After this week of being talked at [repetitiously] and shown round the college [as if I am going to remember what is where] I start the arty farty bit, Monday and Tuesday all day [gulp] and Drawing on a Wednesday morning.

Painting, Sculpture, Printing and Photography.

On Thursday this week we are off on a coach daytrip [joy] to Orford Ness to take photos and sketch, ["water" colours?]

It is all very strange, and I have to concentrate and bear down so as not to run away.  It helps to write it all down, so I hope you find some of it of interest.

home

Now I have a son who is 40!  celebrated with candles in cup cakes, very successful, very American

 Callie is home, and grown [and wet she helped me water the house plants].

 We had a very happy time in Nevada.  However it was very hot between 80s and 90s every day, so I spent a lot of time sitting in the swing chair in the garden, in the shade, watching the Glorious Grandson cavort in the paddling pool.

away daze

Callie is at her Kennels, cats are asleep with servants arranged, bags are packed and we are off to the U.S. of A.  Back in two weeks

oh dear old ladies eh !?

BORJA.- A combination of three documents provided by the Centre de Estudios Borjanos on August 22, 2012 shows the original version of the painting Ecce Homo (L) by 19th-century painter Elias Garcia Martinez, the deteriorated version (C) and the restored version by an elderly woman in Spain. An elderly woman?s catastrophic attempt to ?restore? a century-old oil painting of Christ in a Spanish church has provoked popular uproar, and amusement. Titled ?Ecce Homo? (Behold the Man), the original was no masterpiece, painted in two hours in 1910 by a certain Elias Garcia Martinez directly on a column in the church at Borja, northeastern Spain. The well-intentioned but ham-fisted amateur artist, in her 80s, took it upon herself to fill in the patches and paint over the original work, which depicted Christ crowned with thorns, his sorrowful gaze lifted to heaven. AFP PHOTO/ CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS BORJANOS.

Westward Ho

Last week some stitchers and I went on a sketching trip and picnic to Flatford Mill [Constable country]In the end we went to the cafe for a sandwich and tiddled about in the sunshine.

Now down to business  -  we have booked the the kennels, and people to feed the cats; the  trains; the hotel; the plane; the hotel; the car; the plane back and the taxi home. 
Feel like I have done it all already but somehow I have to get up on my back legs and change continents to see the kids and g'kid.
Still nearly 2 weeks to go. 
Have to down [up?] load some audio books onto ipod in hopes that they will see me thru the nights when necessary. 
Have to organise some hand stitching to take with me, plus more stories for day time.  What makes me think g'son is going to give me time?
Daughter tells me that he was devoted to g'dad from other side of family, oh dear, bet they rolled around together and played SpiderMan. I will never measure up.
Callie is growing and prancing, almost potty trained except over night, kennels will no doubt return her to her primitive state of anywhere any time.
But it will be an adventure!

cat on holiday

Daughter sent me this picture taken when she was at Lake Taho this w/e.  Thought you might like it Gillian. 

lonely

 Have been doing some mono printing, very pleasing to be able to transfer my sketch to the fabric but now of course I am not sure what to do next.  Same as always I end up with a single female figure in a space.