Chuffed mate.....

So we have to do this 15-20 minute presentation infront of like half the entire department *buugggggeeeerrrr*....discussing our own work; the development, inspiration and future plans. And its in less than two weeks :-S

But *chuffed* I've writen almost 10 minutes of it today....and re-reading it a few hours later, it still sounds alright. So I'm pretty happy with myself. Ideally, I would have been doing it at work - thus being paid to occasionally serve people drinks whilst writing it, but as my shifts have been chopped up, I made do with the art department and my room. But that's not important.

As my art is kinda rude and pretty blumming funny, I kinda want to make my presentation the same..........I thought I might put a slide at the beginning that says SEX in maHUsive capitals, with a load of porn behind. Or I might do that, but flash it up really quickly when I say the word SEX. That would be funny.........

On another note, now have 17 people who want hoodies. 2 more people to check with, them I'm gonna order them asap.

And apparently I'm getting rather stressed.....5 mouth ulcers now :( and I randomly burst into tears in the studio, for no apparent reason!! Hahaha strange Vikki.

Dumdeedumdumdum......

Had the crit today

It was suprisingly helpful :) and they gave me lots of ideas for what to do for my other panels....which is handy coz otherwise it was going to get a weeeeeeeeeeee bit repetative.

So, here is what I'm gonna do;

• Have a panel which utilises the scenery designs - create images of war, destruction, violence etc.........buildings on fire, animals being shot etc. ( I have already started trying this out on the roll of Laura Ashely wallpaper and they look coooooooooooool)
• Add references to other artworks and artists - eg have one of Allen Jones's pieces stitched on (such a cool idea, love it!!!)
  
• Deffo have a large scale one - printed on photopaper, maybe have details stitched (onto disolvable fabric and then stuck over the top.....coz sticking a massive photo in the sewing machine won't be good)
• Try out colour - thus giving a totally different effect. And maybe give all the ladies little teeny seedbeed nipples (Vicki suggested that as she walked off.....what a thought to leave me with!! Hahahahaha)

Uhhhu. Panicking again. Hense why I'm still plowing on at 10.15.

Oh, and my idea for a buisiness card is coming along nicely..............

Aaaaannnnddd breathe...........

Today was good....very good infact, untill I got home n got exceedingly wound up by housemate....ggggrrrrrrrrr. But that's not important.

What is important, is that I finished my Laura Ashely piece yesterday (had to stretch plain white fabric under my stitched fabric as the Laura Ashely is raaaather thin)...it looks pretty damm cool. Really hard to photograph though - the pale blue merges into the white background :( .

But here are some piccies anyway (I have been fiddling about with them to try to get them more visible, especially for the seminar presentation)

This is the whole piece - same size as the last one (186 x 129 cm)












This is one of the many details....^^^^^


.....and this one (as you can see, I have made two different "manipulations" for each design).....



So there we go; two down, four to go!!!

Crit tomorrow, hopefully Vicki B n Shirley will have some good ideas for me *eeep*
.......and hopefully I won't want to kill housemate anymore......

Busy times.....

Its all getting a bit hectic at the mo.
Today's plan; Fix 2 pairs jeans
Continue discussion with astarprinting.com re Leavers Hoodies for the art department (I'd decided that I wanted one so I've been organising them for everyone)
Go to Falcon Fabrics (amazing shop)
Stretch backing fabric on frame
Stretch manipulated Laura Ashley fabric on frame
Photograph "Fucking Over Laura Ashley" (that's what its called.....teeheeheee)
Go to work - at work; begin writing presentation.

Photos of "Fucking Over Laura Ashley" to follow. Hopefully.

PS......found this guy in the Telegraph the other day......duuuuuuuuuuude I love it!!

http://www.andygolub.com/

The First of Many......

Well this is all rather exciting....the whole blogging thing. I must admit, I had thought about doing it in the past - seemed like a good way to keep an art diary; much like the "Reflective Journal" I had to do at Farnham, which was the most useful thing I learnt there. But today, whilst sitting in our FAL320 lecture, I suddenly realised how helpful it would really be. Plus the fact that Finola pretty much told us we had to do one.......


SO.

Where to begin?

Briefely, I'm 3 months away from finishing my degree - BA Hons. Fine Art at the University of Chichester. During the past 2 1/2 years I've dabbled in every material practice; paint, clay, drawing, paper cutting, spray and stencil, metal work, digital art.....finally realising that textiles was where I belonged.

My work has centred around SEX (I know, shocking isn't it. It's even better when it's yelled). For many years, it has pissed me off that one can't open a magazine, turn on the tv or glance at an advert with out seeing sex. It is everywhere, used to sell everything, and what is even worse is that we have come to think of it as totally acceptable and normal!!

So I thought....Right, if people are ok seeing sex in the media, then I'm going to bring it right into your home. Right into the things you find comfortable and normal.

I began stitching images from porn mags onto domestic fabric - tablecloths etc. The images were life size (or bigger) and were very basic line drawings.

I then moved onto stitching onto found objects - pieces that people (namely women) had painstakingly sat and made; things like crocheted mats, doilies, embroidered linen etc. I experimented hugely with the stitching process, favouring blocking in areas with stitch - the image visible by changing the direction of stitch.

All of the images were very subtle, so that the viewer might not have noticed the image at first. This is a KEY idea throughout my work - making the viewer LOOK PROPERLY at my work. I see too many people (and I am guilty too) just glance at a piece, before making a snap judgment and moving on. If the viewer does this with my work, they don't see it and so miss out of a bit of cheekyness!!

My current work involves manipulating the classic fabic of Toile de Jouy.

This fabric is generally found in "nice" houses (being slightly pricey) and is gennerally thought of as rather nice really!!

I have been blanking out areas of the design, many through stitching in the same colour as the background, before re-stitching in new details in thread the same colour as the design.

And here comes the funny part. I have been stitching the characters doing rather naughty things. Here is my personal favourite;Irritatingly, my work is proving blumming hard to photograph. But this gives you a general idea.
This section (above, measuring about 22cm across) is part of a 2m x 1.5 m pannel, of which every design has been manipulated.

Larger section.

This photo (featuring the lovely Amy Waters) gives a better idea of scale.

(Fabric has been stretched onto a wooden frame)