The Room

Fog

stop frame happiness :)

Took a small stop frame workshop a little while back and its completely turned my work in a new direction. Alot of my photography had started to be sequential, so it seemed only natural to start to put these together and create something new out of them.. give the work a new realm in which to exist.

So this is my first ever stop frame animation which I made using paper. Last night I played with projecting the work which I really love although I couldnt successfully document this to put up because the light blinded out the image on the camera (must find a way to get round this). Wish I could put it up, was really cool in a dark space. I was working with projecting into an old box frame I was given. Quite small and square. I like how it looks like a normal picture on the wall and then you realise that its moving so i may do some more which are really still but only have slight movement.. like a living picture, to play with this idea abit more.

:)getting excited about things coming together in a different way <3

Carla

The Best Day :)

I spent the whole of Monday in total awe it has to be said.
Me and my partner in art and crime: Christian, along with Betty from our course had been invited by Justin Mortimer to visit his studio (which he shares with Phil Hale, one of my all time contemporary painting heroes!)

It was am-aaaa-zing.
Having studied Phil's work quite alot, Justins work was relatively new to me. It is soo good (now on a par with my admiration for Phil) and we spent like 3 hours just going through all his old work around the studio and looking at the new piece he's working on which is in a different style to usual. He seemed to really like some of the comments I made about his painting which was cool, and made me realise that this was probably just as helpful to him as it was to us. I can imagine that its good to have fresh student eyes on your work rather than professional art nonesense all the time. We paid a visit to Phil but he didnt have much work about, after just shipping most of it out somewhere. His studio was a really cool space to be in, and he gave us an awesome gift :D
We had such a fun day. They were really friendly and have invited us back to a private viewing of a show theyre putting on soon.

We then got pizza (very important) and went to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Richter portraits exhibition. It was really good, but I got more excited over seeing Justin and Phil's work in the main gallery. Makes such a difference to see how much work goes into the pieces and how they go about their creative process.

I've been wanting to paint so much recently and this just made it almost unbearable. Somehow I just cant wait to finish uni so I can get back into painting without worrying about tutors telling me it doesnt fit in with what im doing or something familiar like that.

Have often had the thought that although I like the freedom of a Fine Art course, I also wish i'd stuck to one medium, as now, after 3 years, i feel like im alright at alot of things, but not reaaally good at anything. Maybe if i'd just stuck to painting and nothing else, i'd be really good at it by now?

anyway, I have to go and write an artist's biography for the Free Range Exhibition this summer, but i'll just suggest you check out the work of Justin and Phil.
:) it's awesome.


Justin Mortimer
http://justinmortimer.co.uk



Phil Hale
http://www.allenspiegelfinearts.com/hale.html

Drawing

Hello :) For my final year i've given up dancing, something that i've done non-stop since I was three, so that I can do the evening life drawing at uni. Always missed out on life drawing and although miss dancing alot, I can see myself improving with my drawing because of it so thats quite rewarding.
Plus i really miss drawing and painting.. and seeing as my main work at the mo is just digital and photography based.. this is the only thing thats keeping my fingers happy. clicking the shutter on my SLR just doesn't satisfy them!

anyway, these are just a couple of my most recent little studies with a model.

Let there be light!... on second thoughts.. take it away again

Finally worked out why my images were uploading in colour negative! :)

(if you're having this problem, it's because the file needs to be RGB rather than CMYK)

Anyway, just a photographic study I did yesterday following the previous body sequence which can be seen a few posts down. Thought i'd add an element of light. not sure if I like it? Quite prefer the dark ones I think. Any ideas?

Not sure if I like these. I find them quite amusing to look at, on a first glance basis, but I don't feel they have much depth to them compared to some of my other work. I sort of get the feeling that you just look at it and thats it.. there it is.

*Hurm*

why is it so 'fine' anyway??

I feel that i've only just recently come to understand what 'fine art' actually is.. and i dont really like it that much. I don't feel like i want to be apart of the whole 'fine' art circle once i've completed by degree. It's all too.. blah

I want to be able to draw or paint or make images which are useful, which serve a purpose and dont just sit on a white washed wall with people going 'i dont get it'.

Fine art today (esp fine art education) favours the abstract and its becomming more and more difficult to get recognition for anything traditional or just anything which places its emphasis on the method or general skill in making the image, rather than the weird concept behind it.

This is why as a career I want to work on specific projects, I want to help people who have a concept but cannot illustrate it themselves. In my first year I did some work illustrating a children's book which was great but I recently did some work for director Mehul Desai on some of his short films. I love doing this and its really rewarding knowing that how i've interpreted the script can effect how the film will eventually look. I illustrated selected scenes and then these are used when applying for funding, to give an idea of the feel and look of the film. I've unfortunately stopped working on these as im nearing the end of my final year (and I have a part time job too) but Christian who was also working for Mehul has continued with the concept art which can be seen via the link on top right of my page.

Hopefully I can work on some more projects like this after i've finished my degree in the summer :)

SILENCE, opening scene:

SILENCE, tv scene with mannequins:

EVACUATION, death of 'alien' scene:

All in a row...

Recently i've been doing alot of sequential work.
I've done a couple of series involving film stills from birds flocking, although what I quite like is that everyone who observes them seems to see them as something different.

Apparently they come across as quite figurative? Or maybe thats just because all my other work involves the figure in some way and it has somehow become expected of me? Who knows.
anyway, heres the first.

Sort of small I guess on here.. as it's so wide. so clicking for a larger version would be good :) if you want to see it properly.I took this from a colour video and purposely edited the stills as to give them an archaic look. Alot of my work has this feel, referencing the history of photography while simultaneously contributing to modern photographic techniques :)

here we go

Hello :)

Thought i'd just put up some of the work I've done so far this year. Is it wrong that i prefer the work I did the first day back in October to anything i've done since? hmm.. maybe i'm moving in the wrong direction?


I'm feeling like a really useless artist today.. this whole week infact.. so i suppose today is a good day to start this. Maybe it will help me to look at my work in a different way? .... or maybe it will just contribute to my overly self-critical nature.. who knows.


But i suppose being self critical isnt always a bad thing.. one thing i've learnt from being a hypocrit is that.. when giving people advice on problems which i have myself.. I seem to realise that if you have a critical attitude towards your work it means you will always be improving it.. as if you are satisfied with what you've produced all the time, you wont feel the need to develop it. Therefore, seeing the faults in your work suggests that you know you can produce better.. which while putting your current work down, actually compliments your potential. Happy days huh!? :)