Tied up Tuesday

Here is an overview of my day through a series of images:

Love, Fear. Hate

I decided to further my concept of roots and their representation of locks and secrets, as their visual qualities seem to really inspire me. I feel that during this week i have really come to terms with the direction of where my project is heading. I have developed my concept in the boundaries of movement and movement and find myself creating pieces that are truly representational of my theme. Photography seems to be one practice which deeply inspires my work. Catching moments that pass us by and being able to study and analyse them to a deeper level really fascinates me.

This week i decided to put my finger knitting creations into use by making a combined material sculpture of a deeply rooted plant. I created this piece with wool, wire and brown paper with pen detail.
The piece, as you can see on the left, shows the combination of materials i used and how i structured the piece. The roots represent how secrets are locked away beneath the surface yet the leaves represent how these secrets may bloom or flourish and become known to the public. I printed words of secrets onto the leaves, giving bare minimal detail which makes the viewer unlock the meaning of the piece. Fear. Love. Loss. etc , these words represent our constant thoughts and feelings that effect us deeply. Creating this piece has really urged me to develop the sculpture in a highly conceptual manner with more visual aspect such as different buds and flowers and different lengths of roots. Choosing roots as a subject matter has proven to be quite an interesting  task.

During the week i also delved into the concept on locking away secrets within a journal. This piece is a sequencial work which leads on from my intricate pen drawing of a journal with secrets creeping out in a weed form. I love the idea of distilling reality through glass and locking away secrets within compartments. I designed this piece as you can see on the left entirely in cardboard. I used corrugated cardboard to give effect of pages. I painted the piece in a tarnished style which represents the wear and tear that secrets have on our lives. I added a magnifying glass piece which represents a peephole which distills the perception of secrets.
I am currently working on creating a moving roll of secrets with lights inside. I would also like to create a leaking medium of somesort which that flows from the journal, but for now i would rather develop my root concept.

"Drawn to Stitch" by Gwen Hedley, is one book which i owe my inspiration to. It has inspired me to work in different materials on various medium. This beautiful books pairs down complex subject matter in an truly fascinating manner. The photography of  lock interio which you can see to the right is image that is currently inspiring me with ideas for a new work. I have chosen heshing, wool ad wire to depict my vision of lock interior in an inventive manner. I am also deciding on using natural wood which i have collected over the weekend, as structure.

-Theresa

Going back to my roots

 In relation to my project on motion and movement, i have furthered my concept of secrets into roots as roots are symbolic of both locks and secrets combined. I feel that roots have great visual qualities in relation to showing a sense of movement therefore i found them to be a quite interesting source of subject matter. I also thought of how roots are hidden away like secrets they are buried beneath a surface, unseen to others. Another subject matter which i find quite interesting is the pattern found in wood and the bark of trees. Their natural embellishments are made of the most beautiful designs. The rings and knots of wood almost remind me of fire or waves in a sense.I also wanted to focus on droplets as a poem which i have read inspired my thoughts on how droplets are secrets that fall to the ground and soak away until the next storm. Another part of my project which i would like to focus on is photography and telling my life and my secrets through keyholes, like the photograph i have taken on the right. I want to develop this concept deeper and to create a piece with these images that show a great sense of movement. I find myself easing into the project more and more and am constantly asking myself, what can i do to show movement? I also find myself asking,what materials can i used that show movement as well as describing my subject matter in an inventive manner. I experimented with spices and cloves in create the rich colours of rust and chains.

 

Interesting projects are constantly running in the creative grounds of L.S.A.D. There is currently a beautiful fashion exhibit running in the hallway of the ground floor. These beautiful garments are quite geometrical with unusual choices of form and pattern. Seeing the work of the fashion students while passing through the hallway really inspires me as the resulting pieces are so skillfully made with such creative and original concepts.

 On Friday the 18th of November, as a part of studio 3's group crit with Elaine, we took a fascinating trip to some wonderful galleries in the vicinity of Limerick city.  Limerick City Gallery of Art was just one of them with such inspiring pieces. Heres a quick glimpse of some of the works which i found to be inspiring.

I particullarly liked the ceramics works by Irish artist; Cormac Boydell. The pieces are so intensely rich and with much elemental aspects. They are also quite affordable pieces of fine artwork with orginality flowing through each piece. I adored the design of one particular piece which was of the salmon of knowledge.

   

The Art of Ceramics

On Tuesday the 15th of November, I had the wonderful privilege of attending a ceramics workshop with a leading

ceramicist; Kieran White. I decided to sit in on this lecture as I am currently starting into my own ceramic

project, which i will keep you up to date on.
This intriguing demonstration on working with earthstone clay really opened my eyes in the area of ceramics. Kieran

firstly exhibited ceramic work by previous students of L.S.A.D which gave the workshop group a broad understanding

of the diversity of objects that can by created. These pieces made me appreciate the absolute skill and creativity that goes into creating such unique work. The time and effort put into these pieces show a great sense of devotion and I really respect this as working with clay can be quite tedious.
I absolutely adored the ceramic plate created by a previous student which deals with the subject of "The Celtic Tiger". The piece is so simplistic yet fascinating in design with great attention to detail. I found the concept to

be utterly appropriate as I myself think contemporary issues are quite attractive concepts when creating art. I am

very much a symbolist and seeing pieces with great meaning really excites me.
Kieran discussed the different techniques used in creating ceramic works, he also explained different techniques in glazing the pieces. One of these techniques that i found quite inspiring is the act of sawdust firing. The beautifully lined and textured pieces that result from this technique of firing are outstanding in design. 

Kieran showed the workshop group how to get thin strips of clay by using the press. He also showed us how simple tools can create simple yet effective designs. Overall this talk on ceramic practice really gave me a deep understanding to the time and energy that goes into making these beautifully designed works. This demonstration has also attained me a deeper interest in the area of pottery and design.

I am currently working on my own piece of pottery. My idea for the piece is to create a voicebox like vessel which will contain secrets on the inner section. To the left you can see the start of my experimentation with earthstone clay as i began with creating the base of the vessel. I hope to fire and glaze this piece in the coming week or two.

 -Theresa

Creeping Secrets and

So after my review and feedback with my tutors, I started to explore new ideas and thoughts in the context of locks and movement. Talking with my tutors helped me further my idea in locks and now I have moved onto the concept of locking away secrets or how secrets never die and always come out in the end. I firstly began with looking at what retains and confines secrets and developed them into conceptual ideas. I explored how secrets are locked away in journals and diarys and how there are certain things people may never know about us although some secrets may leak out that we never expected.

My first conceptual idea was to create a journal made of ceramics with lock interior(top left-hand corner photograph) inside of it which would cover certain sentences and block the view of secrets to the audience. I then explored the idea of the larynx ie the voicebox containing secrets untold. I hope to further this concept and to produce a ceramic piece which i have sketched and planned for at the moment. I also decided to set myself the task of collecting anonymous secrets and fears of art students in this college as a part of this project. I created a poster to request these secrets and produced a box for which the secrets and fears should be placed in anonymously. I placed this box and poster on the notice board by the canteen and in the first year area. My plan is to produce a stylized ceramic larynx in the form of a vase with chalice embellishments( to show the sacredness of secrets) , lined in the inside with fears and secrets. The larynx itself locks away secrets that may never be told. My plans are all ready for delving into the production of this piece, I just have to gather the necessary materials and equipment.

The project which I currently finished was a piece inspired by light and typography. On Sunday morning i captured an image of an old journal with the sunlight coming through the blinds onto it. This image really inspired me as it reminded me of how secrets leak out, so i decided to draw a detailed image of the photograph in black pen on white card. I knew i was going to progress this image into a 3d format to show movement in a visual sense but was not sure until Mondays lecture on typography really grasped my attention and inspired me. I love the idea of art being created with letters as it adds another dimention of meaning to the piece. 

My idea of secrets leaking out of this old journal turned into the concept of secrets creeping out like old weeds that come back to haunt someone. I found this concept more interesting as many people have already produced flowing typography imagery that deals with the movement of water. I thought the idea of secrets creeping was more suitable, it also reminded me of the black and white photograph I have taken of the journal with the sunlight creeping onto it. I researched different types of garden weeds and found a weed that grows through stones which i found visually beautiful. I went through a process of deciding how i would create my typography to symbolize a weed structure

 I used the programme Microsoft Word for creating the typography. I choose to gather the beginnings of secrets which i had found on a website that anonymous secrets are posted up onto. I didnt want to write the hole secret as my concept wouldnt have come across as clear as there was a lack of space for writing. Heres a few of the decisions i had to make in creating the piece of the programme.

• Font style
• Font size
• The condensement of the font
• The colour of the font
• Font outline and fill
• Font background colour or colours in my case
• Word spacing
• Indentations
• Page Orientation
• Paragraph spacing
• Page margins etc..

As i have my ECDL certificate i found working with Microsoft Word to be quite straightforward.
Creating the winding and overlapping weeds was also straightforward.

1. I firstly cut out the sentences of different shades of green.
2. I then glued 2 sentences together with the writing facing outwards
3. I glued the inner section of the double-sided strips and twisted to make a straw shape
4. I then cut the endings in a leaf like structure

In the process of making this weed typography structure i made sure the writing was visible to the viewer and that they were easily read. Overall i was quite happy with the resulting work.

 The lecture on typography inspired me so much that I went hope that evening and photographed the diversity of typography found in my kitchen. I just love the variety of fonts and colours used to convey the products messages. It shows just how high-class the product design industry is these days.

 The use of lettering to create imagery is just so fascinating!

Until next time

-Theresa

Life is an experiment

So, for this very short 3 day week, I decided to further my skills in finger knitting and to create a to a large scale knitted piece. I produced a design for my own unique finger knitting structure which would allow the knitting to be looser and larger. I create this structure with a long thin sheet of wood and 10 bamboos sticks that were orginally 20cms in height but were cut down to 10cms due to the strain being put on them. I firstly began by creating my own yarn by cutting thin strips f material and tieing them together. I used 3 blue toned materials as I wanted to convey a sense of this knitting to be tarnished and old. I tried using my newly created yarn on my large finger knitting structure but found that it was too strong for knitting and ended up breaking the knitting frame. It also had no stretch which made the knit very loose in places, so i decided to finger knit my yarn on my hands. The result was quite beautiful and not what i was expecting. It was tight with the colours flowing into eachother. The rough edge of the material in the yarn really gave it a rugged old sense which i liked. I turned this knitted piece into what looks like chains as i found finger knitting to have a chain-like quality to it, which relates to my them of locks. I found this tarnished knitted chains to have a great sense of movement.

So i continued on with my task of creating a larger scale knitted form on my frame. I chose wool as my yarn as it has a great stretch quality.In choosing the wool i chose a thick great wool with white highlights which would give a real sense of a typical chain. I found knitting on the frame to be quite rewarding as the finished piece was much more looser and also thicker in a sense. But what i did find was that there were loose strings on the back of the knitting which was due to the large scale frame. In my opinion these loose trails behind the knitting, only added further qualities to the form and exhibit a more free flowing sense.
There is a real beauty about finger knitting and now that I have grasped the technique to a deep level, i really understand just how admirable this simple form can be. Give it a go and see what you think! There are plenty of tutorials on finger knitting on youtube so get to it!

Everyone has a fair turn to be as great as he pleases.