Show & Tell Monday.

Earlier this month, we had to show our remix & appropriation work that we had been set the week before. This was a very informal presentation so I was far more relaxed than I would usually be. We had been asked to create a physical piece of work on this occasion.

I had first chosen to take a selection of Monet seascapes and attempt to re-arrange them in colour order.

I loved the final outcome of this piece but it wasn't quite what I wanted so I then printed off a piece of art by Pablo Picasso called Two Women reading I cut pieces out of each colour and made it into a mosaic using the rainbow as a guide to put order to the colours!

New word-Triptych painting in three panels.

Drawing practice

I thought it was time for more figure drawing, I have always wanted to try drawing my children , but just haven't had the time.

These are my first attempts of my youngest two last week........




I will keep practising....they are not quite right yet:)

New word- Contextual- of, pertaining to or depending on the context.

Pecha kucha - Elizabeth Peyton

On 8th November we had to choose an artist and deliver a "Pecha kucha " style presentation! This meant twenty slides, twenty seconds a slide.

I chose artist Elizabeth Peyton who was an American artist born in 1965. Peyton began drawing at a young age, best known for her portraits of celebrities and friends . She works small scale, in watercolour, pencil, oil and etching.

I was completely absorbed in this research, I love her work and found it easy to choose my pictures, I struggled with the idea of the twenty seconds per slide as I had quite a lot to say on most of them. I have found that I can present more effectively if I only show pictures with titles on the PowerPoint and read from the notes I have on my iPad.
PowerPoint is another new skill recently acquired for college presentations, it is so much easier!

Feedback from Pryle Behrman - well researched and I communicated my information sufficiently.

New word:

Apocrypha -various religious writings of uncertain origin regarded by some as inspired, but rejected by most authorities.

Presentation of comparison of two chosen digital artists

On 31st October , I had to make a presentation of comparitive study of two digital artists, I chose Lila with Nintendo By Evan Baden and Crowd 2 by Julian Opie.

See Crowd 2 in action Crowd 2

Again, this was only in front of first year students and again, I really enjoyed the learning and the research process, which really didn't leave me with much time to think about the nerves until the day arrived.

Feedback from Michael -Still nervous, but presented succeeded in what was asked of me.

Feedback from students-Little eye contact, but did well.

At least no one is saying that I make no sense and speak gobbledygook which is how I always felt:)

New word : Apocrypha- various religious writings of uncertain origin regarded by some as inspired, but rejected by most authorities.

Presentation of Identity and portraiture project

On 24th October it was time to present my identity project Me v football

I felt ok about this until I realised that we had to present to Ruth, Pryle & Alicia-this was daunting as I was expecting it to only be Michael and we were going to have feedback-very scary:(

I enjoyed this project very much, even the painting of the footballers, I had never painted people before! I was looking forward to it all pulling together, I really worry about technical hitches, as technology has been known to fail me on several occasions, and, as it turned out, one of my most important photographs had just disappeared from my data stick.

This set me back a bit, along with being last to present, but I still managed to get all my words out and even answer a few questions!

Feedback from Pryle Behrman - still obviously nervous but succeeded in what I was being asked to do.

Feedback from students-looked nervous, didn't make much eye contact, but explained my work well.

New word: Fascicle a section of a book or set of books published in installments as separate pamphlets or volumes.

On 18th October 2011, I had to give 5 minute talk about a chosen picture from the Gerhard Richter exhibition that we had been to see at the Tate. The exhibition was amazing, it was so difficult to choose just one. I was inspired ( unusually for me) to an abstract called Cage 1. I found that I really enjoyed the research and because of this, I felt less nervous about presenting.

On the day, I felt sick and really didn't want to do it. Once I had started, I did relax a bit, it was only in front of the first years , which helped.

I had Feedback from Pryle Berhman and Michael Spakowski.

Generally I looked terrified and nervous but delivered what was asked. As a first presentation it was ok.

Feedback from students-I only asked a few friends who said that I spoke clearly and I made sense of the presentation.

New word : Perambulations-To walk through , about or over, to travel.

My people drawing!

This has always been my weakness in art, I do t know whether it is because I didn't have the time or the patience to try to get it right, or if it's just that I wasn't that interested like I was sculpture and painting still life.
Whatever the reason, I have decided that it would be lovely to produce drawings that capture a likeness of the subject.
My first recent , before college attempt was last summer, I was designing mugs for prizes on a school trip to see JLS, I didn't have the confidence to attempt realistic portraits of the group, so instead I went for cartoon like images.

I will keep practising!

I decided that for my first college project on identity, I would push myself and paint footballers as it is a skill I want to improve.

New word: Anamorphic-having or producing unequal magnification along two axis perpendicular to each other.

My biggest nightmare

Something that has always terrified me is public speaking, on the rare occasion I was expected to do it in school, I'm sure that I would have been off sick that day, genuinely unwell though as the thought truly terrified me.

So when I started college, I was mortified to be told I had to present after only a week, not only that , but it was presenting something new that I wasn't even familiar with!
The last time previous to this that I had to speak publicly was in June 2010 in my capacity as chairperson of my children's school. I felt it went badly, I didn't speak clearly, I felt physically sick, I was shaking and I got a stress rash on my neck:( not a pleasant experience all round! When the same event came round again in 2011, I simply was not going to put myself through it again , so I didn't do it.

So on 26th September when it came to presenting my work, I just followed what others seemed to be doing and not saying much at all, just showing my work.


New word: populist-a supporter of populism

Identifying my weaknesses.....

I have to identify up to three areas of improvment for my sector studies PDP project, I have chosen....

. Presentation skills

. Life drawing ( people)

. Vocabulary

. Presentation skills- I need to figure out how to manage stress and anxiety regarding presenting to others, I cannot feel comfortable standing and I feel that I gabble my words and can't think clearly.

I have decided that the best way to deal with this is to practise in front of people I am comfortable with and ask them for feedback each time, I have several opportunities to do this in the near future as part of ongoing projects.My aim is to be able to give a five minute presentation and feel comfortable doing it.

I intend to research in books and online to help me improve.

. Life drawing ( people)- I would like to improve my drawing skills where drawing people/figures are concerned. I was put off this while at school, while art was my best subject I did not get the best of teaching and I felt that I was weakest at this aspect of art.

I will practice this and record my progress in this blog.

.Vocabulary-I am concerned that while reading assignments and books since starting college, I do not understand quite a lot of the words used , i realise that this will hinder my understanding of assignments so I must improve my vocabulary. I will do this by writing down words I don't understand in the back of my journal and looking them up. I will also check the meanings of words or phrases that I am familiar with but have never looked up the definition. I will also make sure I use "word of the day" apps on my iPad/ computer etc.

New words : avante garde- outside of the norm

Iconoclasm- The deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives.