Interaction in Art and Design

For this project the brief was ‘Interaction within Art and Design’. As this is very broad subject, I could chose practically anything for the theme to my final piece, (as long as my audience could interact with it in some way). I found it quite hard at first to think of a theme, but I eventually decided on ‘Family’.

I had many different ideas, but my heart was set on painting as I haven’t had many opportunities, within my college work, to sit down and really get stuck in to a detailed painting.

            My first idea was to create portraits of each person in my family and to hang an object that associated them underneath. My ideas changed as the project went on and I finally decided to keep the theme of portraits but instead of my whole family, I would only paint my grandparents. I would make four portraits, two of my nan and two of my granddad. 

One would be from before they met and when they where my age, 18.

And the others will be a more recent image from their 50th wedding anniversary a few years ago.

The Finished Paintings

Granddad

I am very pleased with how these two paintings have turned out. I particularly like the older image as the younger one was very hard to do. This is because the images I was working off was in black and white and the quality was very poor. But for what I had I think I made a good job.

Nan

Again I like the older images best as I had a clearer image to work off. The younger portrait of my nan was most defiantly the hardest one to do. I blame this on the photograph I had and the amount of 'guess work' I had to do.

The next stage was to develop the interaction.
Not long ago, I found my granddad’s old family movies. After watching them all and finding them so charming, I wanted to involve them in my work. I was quite difficult as each movie was on a separate film/reel that only lasted five minutes maximum and had to be played on an old, manual projector. Because of this, I had to convert them to a digital format so they could be played on computer and through a digital projector. This way it was easier for them to be played in the exhibition. The movie is about 20 minutes long so here here are just few clips from it.

To complete my piece, I started thinking of ways to link everything together. I settled on making my final piece an installation which would represent my nan and granddad’s living room. I would bring in old furniture and different objects that I associated with them. 

            I would have the living room set out and split into two and with two chairs, turned inwards, where the two recent portraits will balance on them with all the objects scattered around, like they were when I found them in the house.

The Objects

Granddad

I will also add a walking stick remote-control and hat, also the mug will be filled with tea.

Nan

I will also add a silk scarf and fill the mug with tea.

The two younger images will be hung on the wall facing out wards behind the chairs and the family movies projected in the middle. 

            My audience will be seated facing the installation so they can watch the movie. They will also be able to help themselves to a glass of white or black pop, (lemonade or dandelion and burdock) which will be on a table by where the audience sit. This is because these are the drinks my grandparents always offer me when I visit, they still get it delivered from the ‘Pop Man’ in glass bottles. 

            To add a finishing touch I will place a book on the table so my audience can write down comments and thoughts about my work but most importantly, their own family memories of their grandparents.
            Overall, my final piece has changed enormously throughout the project, but I am very pleased with what I have finally achieved.

Another part of the brief was to learn how to sell your own artwork. So I picked three of my own pieces that I think would sell the best.
1. My Fine Art final piece – This is a large painting I created, it was a transcription from one of the entrees in the John Moores Competition.
2. Observation final piece – This consists of three photographs that I over painted. Arnulf Rainer inspired.
3. Ceramic Ribcage piece - This was one of my experiments for the Multidisciplinary project. It turned out nicely and I think it would sell quickly.

The Exhibition
Tuesday 29th May 2012

So the exhibition was amazing!!

Once everyone's work was up it looked brilliant and very professional.I am super pleased with how mine turned out.
On the Monday we all went to set up so the majority of it was complete before Tuesday.

Setting Up

Here is the basic layout of my installation....

Before the two younger portraits where hung up

Objects

The Layout of the objects 

Hehe I though this was hilarious when saw it !!

 Table for the audience...

This shows the bottles of pop, the sweet bowl, the comment book and most importantly the projector. 

On the Audience table I had a comment book with a note on that read:

'Please take a moment to write down any comments you have about my work.
Also feel free to share any on your favourite family memories.'

 
 To show how my audience sit to watch/look at my installation. 

  The older portraits and their objects... 

 Writing in my Comment book...

 Each side of the installation... 

 The Projection

It was very hard to capture the projection on camera as I only had my little digital camera instead of my SLR but this was the best I could do. I think you can get a good idea of how it all worked from the images I have taken.

 Overall I am extremely pleased with how my work has turned out, and even thought you can't get the full atmosphere from the images I have taken I hope you can see how my ideas have worked out.
This whole installation was a complete surprise to my family, especially my Nan, and she was thrilled by it. She even shed a little tear...

Artist Comment

Name: Salli-Louise Johnson
Title: Grandparents
Statement: Since being in college I have discovered the art of installation and wished to explore this within this project. My family have been on of my biggest inspirations of late, so I have focused all of my ideas around my Grandparents. Later this year I will be attending the University of Falmouth to pursue a BA Honours in Fine Art.

Exhibition Videos

I took these so you could see how the projection worked but my silly camera couldn't focus, it also had some troubles with the lighting. This is because my area was quite dark so my audience could see the movie projection, but had spot lights on my paintings so they could see the portraits just as clear. I thought it might be a nice idea to show you them anyway as you can see people writing in my comment book.

How To Make A Canvas....

1. Get or make a wooden frame. Be sure that it has a piece of wood in the centre of the frame to make it extra strong. It will also keep your material from slacking therefore your canvas will last much longer.

 2. Measure your material, leave about 3-4 inches around the edges depending on how thick your frame is.

 3. Pull the fabric into the centre of each side and staple it down. Be sure to pull the fabric as tight as you can so the fabric is extremely taut. Just use one staple for each side so it is easy adjust. You will add more staples later on. 

4. Do the same for the four corners, again pulling the fabric as tight as you can.

5. You now have to 'Fold' your corners which can be tricky.
This is what your corner should look like after step 4.

Next, as tight as you can, pull one side of your excess material into the centre and staple. 

Do the same for the other side of excess fabric. Use as many staples as you feel necessary.

6. Your corners should all be secure now so the next step is to staple the rest of the sides.
Do one side at a time, pull the fabric and staple it all along.
TIP: Do this in small sections:
Pull and staple
Pull and staple
      Pull and staple......
This will make sure your fabric is as tight as it will go.

Use as many staples as you need.

Side of the canvas.

Once all the sides are done you should have a perfectly made, very tight canvas. If you chose, finish it off by getting white primer and cover the fabric, including the sides. This will strengthen the fabric and prevent it from stretching.

Once dry your canvas is complete and ready to paint on.

DONE !

Contemporary Practice - Competitions

For this project I have to find a competition to enter that is related to my specialist area. I have not decided on my specialist area yet as I am still finding new areas to work in. So, I have chosen a competition that I think I will have the most fun working for.

The John Ruskin Prize

The Campaign for Drawing announces a new art award: The John Ruskin Prize.

The prize will be awarded to the best wall mounted artwork on the theme 'A New Look at Nature', and is open to anyone over the age of 18 who working in painting, print-making, drawing or mixed media and resident or domiciled in the UK.

The Prize winner will receive £1000 and a specially commissioned pencil case. The winner's art work will be exhibited at Brantwood (John Ruskin's Lake District home) and in the Millennium Gallery, Sheffield during the major autumn 2012 exhibition, Force of Nature: Picturing Ruskin's Landscape.

Nine runners-up will be included in the exhibition of short-listed artists at Brantwood, and offered one night's accommodation to attend the Private View, where the winner will be announced on 7 September.

Deadline for submissions: 1 June 2012

Entry fee: £10 for one image

                      £15 for two images

                         £20 for three images

My Work

I want my work to represent our 'Future Nature', meaning: if we carry on the way we are, digging up land and constructing new buildings, sooner or later we wont have a 'Nature'. Therefore, my piece will have an organic theme but everything will be made out of man-made and unnatural materials such as:

. Wire

. Paint

. Plastics

I got my first idea from my last project: Multi Disciplinary, where I made a heart out of wire. it turned out really well so I decided to use wire in my first experiments.
I created lots of different shaped leaves and decided it was working so well I made a larger one to add into my final piece.

I later went on to make experiments with plastics, this is when I found Angelina Fusible Fibres. This is lots of small, coloured, strands of plastic/film that you layer together in between two pieces of paper and iron. The heat causes the fibres to stick together and make a sheet. The colour I found is perfect for my work as it is two-toned metallic gold, copper, green and brown. The metallic effect on it really fits in well with my theme.

What is really nice about Fusible Fibres is that after you have ironed it together, the edges are very hard to get neat and tidy, so you get a torn/frayed effect. This will represent blades of grass with in my piece

As you can see, when the light is moved around the colours change.

The Paint

 I have chosen to use oil paints for this project as I have used a lot of acrylic in the past and I wanted to use some different techniques. I created some small examples of different techniques on how to use the paints like:
. Fading and shading

. colour palettes
I found that if you use a primer on your canvas first the oil paint dry MUCH quicker than if you paint straight onto the canvas material.


Influences

My first inspirations for the subject of my piece were leaves. I wanted the background (paint) to look like it was out of focused leaves on the ground. This would pick up tone, light and shade, and blurred blocks of colour. Whilst doing research on the internet I came across this image, it is a very good example of blurred leaves, if I was to paint this thought I would make the colour scheme darker, maybe browns and greens instead of orange and green.

After some experiments I found that I didn't like this idea as it was hard to create a lot of texture with the paint itself so I went out to find some new inspirations. After an afternoon at Formby Pinewoods taking photographs I found I really love the patterns of the tree bark so I created experiments with this in mind and they worked out pretty good.

It was easy to use really thick paint and still capture the amazing patterns of the bark. The only thing I changed was the colour scheme, I added in more greens and other 'leaf colours'.

Final Piece

So this is my final piece...

It is quite hard to see the wire leaf and some of the other details so I have taken some close ups...

 Wire Leaf.

You can see (above) that I have added shells into my piece, also you can see part of my wire leaf.

 Gold Leaf.
As you can see I have added gold leaf to the paint. This is beautiful when the light shines on it and it really adds a strong metal effect to my work. The gold leaf I have used came in a little box and it was all different colours (all metallic) Gold, copper, bronze...
I have used gold paint which you can also see in the image below.

The white drips you can see here is PVA glue. I use it a lot in my work as it dries clear but just gives surfaces a little more texture.

Thick Paint.
 I have mentioned using thick textural paint a lot through out this project so I thought it would be a good idea to try and show you just how thick I have used it.

 Fusible Fibres.
Here i made a large sheet of fusible fibres and then tore bits apart and stuck them down.
It is a little hard to see but once it catches the light it looks pretty good.
You can also see the different coloured gold leaf.

And finally, the last thing I do on every piece of art work I create is sign it.

DONE!