Getting on with the essay.

The set essay:

To write an essay on an image of our choice, using 1000 words, then choosing a further 6 images which have a relation to this original, using 500 words.

Edouard Manet dejeuner sur l'herbe...

I've always been interested with this image, there's just so much to say about it, its pretty controversial for its time, and was the inspiration toward many other artists. I like dissecting the painting, and learning what each part symbolises, why is the woman staring at the viewer?..as if she has been photographed off guard. I've found lots of new fascinating facts along the way, so I'm eager now to get writing this essay, but i still need to find the other 6 images to relate to this one!

some of Weber's collages...

Marnie Weber*

This artist amazes me, I just love what she does...I came across her collage 'Fun at the Picnic ' in my book 'Art Now', I just love it, i can relate to her style as its very similar to the path that I'm experimenting with at the moment.

Dieter Roth is too good

In the university library, there is a special collections part where I've been looking at Dieter Roth books, their amazing, i love the antique quality which they hold. I like how some pieces are displayed in boxes, it shows how special they are. One book which i found interesting, was a book with newspaper pages...nothing else. Who knows the meaning for something which seems so simple, yet complicated in another sense.

A book i've created, i've hidden sweets inside...it's like a secret place.

sweets!

I'm experimenting with sweets at the moment, exploring the textures and colours. I haven't really got a plan, I'm just putting them all together, pouring glue on, and seeing what happens.

I've noticed that boiled sweets takes a very long time to dry...the sugar coating just melts into a sticky mess, whilst jelly sweets dry very quick and feel really spongy, which i kind of like.

last week...

We were given the challenge in class of creating an invention which Leonardo Da Vinci hadn't previously thought of...well it seems he came up with ALOT. Even so, I tried thinking of things which i find interesting, what do i enjoy? practical, non-practical, I don't think it really mattered, so i went with practical. I love books...not necessarily to read, i love looking at them, so my invention was a light which fits to a book!
I later found its already been invented, never mind i like to think i thought of it first.

A couple of books i've recently created...

I find myself forgetting to keep up with this blogging... so I'm back on it this week.
For the past week or so I've been getting involved in the 'food project', following in the direction of my interest in book making. I love the antique quality of books, my work journals tend to develop into a piece of art in their own right, I like them to be visually interesting urging to be touched. I don't purposely chose to create books, I just find there to be something relaxing about the way in which their crafted, and for the time being I'm happy experimenting with them.
Children's books interest me too, the old fashioned Beatrix Potter type, in fact I love them, I think it's important for children to have belief in their imaginative outlook. The library at MMU has a 'special collections' section which I absolutely love, I've discovered some Dieter Roth books which have inspired me so much, also the childrens books are never ending.

food for thought.

Today in my interactive art class we were given a project based on 'food', having to document today's food intake
As soon as I thought of food related art I immediately thought of Dieter Roth, I love Roth's work, he can just do no wrong in my eyes. Roth was very well known for his paintings and sculptures which were made with rotting foods, such as chocolate, sugar, yogurt, cheese, bread, mince and spices, which subsequently beetles and micro-organisms would then transform.
Roth was interested in the characteristic of the decaying substances, it was the structure which he found most interesting, the play of colours,the variations of deterioration and mould and their general natural transformation.

With Roth's decaying work, it could be questioned whether there would be a point where his work reaches a state of aging, threatening their significance in terms of art history. I don't think the end result is really the importance of the piece, it is the creative idea which I appreciate more, also aesthetically amusing to look at.
Dieter Roth himself describes the end result;
"Eventually they do press the button which stops time, surviving as an image although they may disappear as material. The whole putrefying image actually grows and increasingly takes on museum life".

These images are of Dieter Roth's
'rotting works'.

Jonas Mekas (Walden-Diaries, Notes and Sketches)

I couldn't find the video I wanted to post by Mekas, but I also like the effects on this one, I think it demonstrates the speed of life just passing by.

Jonas Mekas

I came across Jonas Mekas about a year ago in an exhibition at London's Tate Modern.
I was mesmerised by a short film of his named 'Collaboration', the film made me question the meaning of life, and how fast it passes us all by. The scenes were beautifully captured flashing before our eyes, displaying visual encounters of specific events occurring in a lifetime.
Why do we as a majority conform to the general layout of life's events? birth, marriage, children, death, as though we feel obliged to go along with this routine.
These are some of the thoughts which i tapped into whilst watching this video, its strange but true. Before Jonas Mekas I hadn't begun experimenting with film, though now I am so interested in this media and I'm constantly looking for more insightful imagery and films.

Tomorrow I will find the film I saw and upload it onto my blog.

The challenge.

So I've decided to start from this week, blogging my thoughts and interests, in an attempt to create some form of secret journal just waiting to be read.

I figured introducing my artwork in to this blog should encourage me to create on a regular basis, generating new exciting ideas.

So that's the idea, now i will begin.

Beginning...

Inspiration needs to come from somewhere.

I always need images and photographs surrounding me to gain any kind of inspiration for the day, even to begin this blog, because it has to progress from something.
So this is where I'm instigating from, my collection of interesting artefacts.