Handed In!

It's official...the work is handed in...ARGGHHH!!! Now I have to patiently wait for my assessment on Friday. But it's nice to have the work out of the house and not cluttering up the place. Good times!

FINISHED (pretty much)

So on Friday I went and collected the acrylics and the frames! They all looked FAB! And today, while watching so much TV to keep me sane, I put them all together. Dust and fluff were driving me up the wall but I've managed to get them as clean as I can! Now I forgot to take any photos before I wrapped them up but I'm not unwrapping them now until my assessment! Just gotta polish off my Artist Statement and I shall be complete! For now, here's a pic I took of everything all wrapped up in bubble wrap.

Race For Life

I've just signed up to do the Race For Life in Cwmbran on 26th June! Please sponser me! Even if it's only a pound, every little helps! (And it is in conjunction with Tesco so that phrase is totally allowed!)

http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/katesmith1805

Thanks!

Final Images

These are my final images. I'm extremely pleased at how they look and cannot wait to see the finished pieces when they are fully fabricated! All I need to do is refine my Artist statement and then bam done! Hand in is on the 31st May with my assessment on the 3rd June...nervous much! But I'm glad everything is sent to fabricators etc. Got the prints back the other day and am pleased with them so woo!The images themselves are going to be A3 and the map type image is going to be A2. The dots and line will be on two layers of 5mm acrylic within the frame, layered over the print. Very exciting stuff!

Almost done!

The lines are neat!

The dots are neat!

The images are almost there

Kate is less stressed and able to blog! Tomorrow I will be going to a sign makers to get my lines printed onto acrylic/perspex, and also going to Bristol to sort my frames out. GOOD TIMES! I shall post photos up very soon. Well...as soon as everything is sent to print and is definite!

And relax!

Auction!

http://photoartauction.wordpress.com/

As well as some fantastic collaboration art pieces, original memorabilia from artists is up for grabs at this fundraising auction for our end of year publication! Come along and grab yourselves some truly individual, one off items!

The plateau seems to have made way for some progress

So lately I've found myself on a bit of a plateau, unable to focus or find the drive to do any work...which was pants and very worrying! But today I went to the library, got some books out on John Baldessari, sat in the sun and flicked through them and then wrote some ideas down in my notebook. Oh my god my brain has not been this productive in a while I'm telling you! Sun seems to be good for me!

I wrote down my main core ideas again, reminding myself of what I was doing as I find after tutorials etc that my mind is full of new suggestions that pull me away from what I really want to achieve with this project. It's not that the ideas are bad, they just confuse me for a little while! A few little things came to mind to try out and test as I was doing this, so this evening I've been printing the photos I have so far (I've asked my family members for one photo of their family together in a group). I also printed the family maps off and decided to plot the points on pieces of acetate. I placed these over the photographs and quite like how they look. Not sure on the colours or sizes of the dots yet, but I like how it looks so far.

I also had the idea of what would the maps look like with curved lines instead of straight ones? This came about by thinking about boomerangs, as my family seem to move slightly away from the area and back again. I quite like how they look with curved lines, and I think the one on the bottom right of the image below looks a little like a signature.

I'm wondering whether to move away from the pin prick/space idea. As much as I love bringing my love for space into this project, I'm thinking it could be kept more of a research thing. It would also make the fabrication a lot simpler, which I know isn't the best way to look at things, but I really have been worrying about how to present my punctured prints. Getting them into frames wouldn't be a big a problem, but hanging them in front of a window for the natural light to come through would be a bit of a task, seeing as the windows in the space I shall be exhibiting in are huge with no frames or anything to hang work from. I'm sure I could do it, but I've been worrying about it and always thinking "I'll figure it out later". I now have thought about it...and I don't think it would be an easy task at all. I could use light boxes, but for some reason I am very reluctant to do so. I liked the fact the light coming through was natural and wanted to keep it that way.

I'm going to think about this a lot over the coming week, before my all day review seminar next Friday. Hopefully this will get things into perspective for me and hopefully finalise my thoughts!

Now time for some sleep as tomorrow is a big day! Publication meeting, lecture with Martin Parr, and then a Visiting Lecture! I wish it was a free day now I've got some motivation for my work back. But ah well that's what Friday and the weekend are for!

T-Shirt

To help raise money for our course publication which will be made near the end of the uni year, a Tshirt has been designed and we're selling them to YOU the lovely public.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE buy one!! Only £13.50 online! They're pretty awesome! (and if you're in Newport, they're only £10 in store!)

Thank You!

http://www.freestyleskatestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4_14&products_id=1456

Project tutorial

So this afternoon I had a tutorial about my project to get me going again. It went pretty well and some things were brought up that I hadn't thought of yet and also things that I can advance with. First of all...I NEED to get working! While writing the dissertation, the project was sort of swept under the rug a bit, so now it's time to really get my head down.

I showed my tutor the experiments I've been doing with blurring the family images, and he seemed to agree that this was a good idea, as it takes my personal relation to the work away from it, and makes it more universal. I have also decided that the images I want to use are of the family groupings, so images with partners and their children, making it so the image is clearly a family image, even if it is blurred.

We talked about the pin pricks in the images, and he brought up the point, what if the image only had one hole? What would this do to the work and would it change it any way. So I'm going to experiment with this and see how it looks. He also said that as the image is already blurred, it's giving the viewer the impression that they are already very close to it, so maybe it is inviting them to look through the holes and see what is beyond the image. I'm not sure about this yet, but again, I shall experiment maybe putting something behind the image. This might just be a light, but it could be something physical like a map for example.

We also ended up talking about space again, and about the recent episode of the Wonders of the Universe with Brian Cox, especially the point he made about atoms being mostly empty, so the majority of things in the universe are essentially empty. This struck a chord in my head while I was watching it and it is a bit strange to think about us being 99% empty. (This wasn't really to do with my project, but it is interesting!) Another point we talked about was the term "family" and groupings, and how everything in the universe is held together in groups such as planetary systems, constellations, galaxies, etc. This brought up the point that we always stick with our families, and no other species really does this. We always feel the need to stick together in a family, and I might try to explore this a bit further, incorporating space ideas into it. Maybe posing the question "What is the gravity that holds families together?" (Corny or what!)

Overall a good tutorial...and I really need to get some work done! Busy times await me!

Completed Dissertation!

And the time has come to say that my dissertation is complete!!!!! 8163 words and my brain now hurts! So glad it's completed. All there is left to do with it is to get it printed and bound, and hand it in on Thursday 17th March...then will come epic partying...and then an epic hangover...then back to the project!

I FEEL GOOD!