Who am I?

 How did You become you?

👽👼👻👿💀👸👳👮👨👩👷👰

In this today's task in class, we tried to create a visualization and description of what has influenced who we are today throughout our lives. I decided to fill my figure with descriptions and drawings from various stages of my life that stuck in my memory and that could affect my character. I also added who and what influenced me in my life or what they taught me and what are my personality traits in my opinion.

I think this exercise first showed me how my memories, people and events shaped me as a future artist. Most of these experiences certainly show up in my work and I can even use them consciously as part of my work. Secondly, thanks to this, when doing artist researches, I already know what information is most important to describe a given artist, see what influenced his work and how he uses his experiences and feelings to create his art.

It was very nice to recall some interesting aspects of my life and bring back memories...🙂 

Initial Sketches and drawings with Helen Frankenthaler and Sonia Delaunay

Today to be completely honest I was a bit forced to work in the studio. I don't like working here because everything distracts me and I don't feel as comfortable as in my room, listening to my favorite music loud and singing to myself while creating. Unfortunately, I have to work on the initial sketches for my project. I didn't have time before and still somehow I can't do them having in my head let's say the final effect of the work.

however, I forced myself as well to create something like an abstraction based on my current feelings. Here is my initial sketch. I felt a little frustration, a little anger, a little sadness and a little anxiety because I don't like being judged for unfinished work. I don't like when people watch my beginnings because firstly it distracts me and secondly I prefer them to see the end result which I'm usually quite satisfied with. I know it's bad from the perspective of a future artist at the university, but I'm working on myself. For those pieces I used charcoal and pastels on paper. I know it looks a little bit childish but when emotions are in charge I'm not trying to think what it should look like, I just leave my hands free.

It reminds me a little bit of Helen Frankenthaler and her works. I love the way she uses colours and abstraction techniques and media to create her art. 

Beach Scene, 1961 

Oil and crayon on canvas 

122 1/8 x 93 5/8 inches 

(310.2 x 237.8 cm)

Seven Types of Ambiguity, 1957 Oil on unsized, unprimed canvas 95 1/2 x 70 1/8 inches (242.6 x 178.1 cm) Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AK

In this second drawing, I wanted to use colors that have a more calming effect because I wanted to calm down. Soothe stress and nerves. The effect is not satisfactory for me and I do not like it at all. But most importantly, I achieved my goal.

The third drawing shows another change of my emotions and mood due to the terrible weather outside. Unfortunately, I had to leave the room and it rained on the way. No sun for several weeks, low pressure and rainy weather have a very bad effect on my well-being. I also wanted to try to reflect this state in this sketch.

Completely by accident in this sketch I managed to copy a little abstraction based on circles like Sonia Delaunay. I wanted to use circles to visualize abstract drops falling to the ground. A very big difference, however, is in the colors that Sonia has a lot of. It dominates the entire composition of all her works. My sketch was to visualize the gloomy mood caused by the weather and rain.

Sonia Delaunay

Sonia Delauney

Plan for my Major Project

This is my project plan where I'll show my development and learning about materials, artists, skills, techniques I will try to use. It is also included here in what time frame I will reach the next stages of my project. 

Click here to see my project plan: 

 Project Plan ✅📆📋📝

Project sign off - Art portfolio

My project has been accepted hooray!!! 🙌

Now I can start researching artists, looking for knowledge about the psychology of colors and experimenting with different media and colors on canvas and paper ... I'm super excited and you??

For my Art portfolio term project I will create a series of 6 2D Abstracts using the theme of Expressionism and focusing on different states of mind.  My work will be a combination of painting and drawing.  The aim of this project is to improve my drawing and painting skills and experimenting with a variety of materials such as watercolour, acrylics, marbling inks and surfaces such as paper, canvas and Gesso Board. Each piece will describe a different emotion or event, therefore part of my project will be focused on the psychology of colour.  I aim to complete this by Week 9 and my work will be shown in a gallery on my website. 

Once I've signed off, I can start experimenting. I have a few very interesting artists on my list, from whom I can draw inspiration and learn how to combine colors with emotions. The most interesting for me will be contact with marbling ink and checking how it works at all and how it will help me in my project. I've never had much to do with painting on different surfaces and here I will also be able to learn and experiment a lot. My project will be mostly abstract and I'm excited to learn how to combine different techniques and shapes in abstraction. I have always been a supporter of learning through play and this time I will probably be able to experience it. I think that when something interests you and it's good fun, it's faster and easier for us to absorb such knowledge. I am also curious what I will find about color psychology, colors and emotions in art and the influence of colors on feelings and emotions. Very interesting topics that will be useful to me for the rest of my life as an artist. 

Class Task - Artist research - Grayson Perry

 Today I will tell you about very special artist named Perry. He is British and he is very controversial artist. He was interested in Painting and Performance. Only after leaving University did Perry start to work in the media that he has become best known for - Ceramics.

 His works are very much based on personal childhood experiences and traumas but not only. He talks about his trauma when his father left him when he was 4 years old. The idea of abonHe describes his mother as a drama queen.

He became very attached to his teddy bear named Alan Measles, who became his symbol and the beginning of his artistic childhood life. I like his approach to art, which is based on life experiences. I would like to illustrate my own feelings, emotions and what is happening in my head during my nervous breakdowns or sadness or joy. That is why he really can inspire me to show my own life experiences in my artwork. 

Initial artist research - Tracey Emin

👋Today I'm going to introduce you to a very interesting and slightly controversial artist from the UK whose art and creativity will help me with my major project. 

Tracey Emin - Was born in London in 1963. She still lives and work in London and France. 

Tracey Emin

Emin's Diploma Work, "Trying to Find You", shows how much she was influenced by expressionist painters Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele even though her work is openly feminist. Emin's emotional honesty in reflecting on significant events from her life results in a feeling of intimacy when seeing her art.

As a member of the group of modern artists known as the YBAs (Young British Artists), Tracey Emin first gained attention . This group of artists, who also included Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Angus Fairhurst, frequently cooperated and held joint exhibitions (one of Emin's earliest projects was a store she managed in East London alongside Lucas).

She uses a variety of media in her work, including embroidery, sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, video, and installation.

Madonna said about Emin - “intelligent and wounded and not afraid to expose herself. She is provocative but she has something to say”.

This is one of Emin's installations at Royal Academy of Arts. I feel very attached to her work because it reminds me how depression can looks like. In my case it's a perfectly depicted state when nothing around you interests you, you don't even want to get out of bed. You are a mess and you make a mess around you. In my project it could also help me with how to show and organize feelings, colours and space on canvas.

Tracey Emin 'It was all too Much' (2018)

I also choose this this painting because Emin just like me suffers from insomnia. This painting is a visualization of  pain, frustration and misery.  I will try to reflect my emotions in my project so that they are as clear and understandable as in her paintings and installations.

Reference

Tracey Emin: Artist: Royal Academy of Arts (no date) Tracey Emin | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts. Available at: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/name/tracey-emin-ra (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

Tracey Emin (no date) Artnet.com. Available at: https://www.artnet.com/artists/tracey-emin/ (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

Tracey Emin Review – brutal portraits of female pain (2019) The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/05/tracey-emin-a-fortnight-of-tears-review-london-white-cube-bermondsey (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

Frankel, E. (2019) Tracey Emin: A fortnight of tears review: Art in London, Time Out London. Time Out. Available at: https://www.timeout.com/london/art/tracey-emin-a-fortnight-of-tears-review (Accessed: January 31, 2023).

SMART objective

SPECIFIC: I have to clearly define my goal, what I want to achieve and what actions I will take to achieve it.

MEASURABLE: the point is to measure quantitatively the end result of my goal.

ACHIEVABLE:  I need to be sure that my goal is achievable and that I have the right skills, knowledge and materials. 

RELEVANT: I need to be sure that my goal is consistent with the theme of my project, that it does not violate the rules and that it is going according to plan.

TIME-BOUND: here it is about specifying the time of completion of my project. It should be a specific date or time range.

My goal is to create 6 pieces of my major project named " My Emotional Kaleidoscope" by week 9 or deadline (16/03/2023). I will accomplish this goal by experimentation with different media, techniques and tools. I will also take inspiration from artists relevant to my  project. Achieving this goal will be an opportunity for me to gain new knowledge and skills as well as to get a good final grade.

Reference:

What are SMART objectives and how do I apply them? . 2023. What are SMART objectives and how do I apply them? . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs/what-are-smart-objectives-and-how-do-i-apply-them/. [Accessed 07 March 2023].

 

Development ideas method - Listen, Meditate and Create

In this task, as music that makes me think better artistically, I chose the 5 best ones, i.e..... Vivaldi - Four Seasons, Mozart - Symphony no. 40, Handel - Suite no. 7, Jenkins Palladio and Haydn - Symphony no. 45. I started by sketching what came to my mind, but I kept thinking about abstraction, the theme of my project. I had all kinds of shapes, patterns, compositions in my head - waves, lines, circles, triangles, faces. I drew a few of the ones that came to my mind first and most clearly. I can say that this exercise greatly influenced my creativity. The music and silence around me and the knowledge that I only have to think about the project all helped me focus and see the images in my head. When I started adding colors to these sketches, I started to think about the next stage of my project, which is the psychology of color. How to first show emotions with colors and how to use them to evoke specific emotions in the recipient. I think that this exercise opened me up to such exercises in the future, because I myself often have a problem with focusing on thinking about one thing. I think I will try to do this in the future with every project or job. Certainly thanks to this, my brain will be able to concentrate much faster and come up with much better ideas.

FIRST THOUGHTS ABOUT THEMES FOR PROJECT

Hello!!!👋😘                            

Today in class we were presented with 3 topics of the main project for Artistic Portfolio classes. My task is to choose the one that suits me best and in which I can show myself taking into account my subject area - Fine art. So first I will show you the topics in question: Number 1 is PURPLE HAZE, number 2 is EARTHLY DELIGHTS and number 3 is EXPRESSIONISM. 

Let me start with PURPLE HAZE The theme is directly related to the color purple. This color was considered in antiquity to be the color associated with the royal family, privileges and wealth. Intended sometimes only and exclusively for the upper class. 

Royal Family

      royal purple

The purple dye was extremely rare, difficult to obtain, and became worth its weight in gold. Purple through its rarity has also been associated with various religions around the world. It is used in Catholicism, Buddhism and Judaism, among others. 

religion

A slightly different theme, deviating from the same color, is associated with the musician Jimmy Hendrix and his single with the theme in the title. It differs from the color because it focuses more on the psychedelic trend and the whole visual setting of the single "Purple Haze". Rather, very bright colors dominate there, some abstraction and everything looks like after drug intoxication.

Hendrix single

 If we're talking about drugs, this variety was named marijuana because of its purple shades on the leaves. Personally, I love the color purple and the subject seems very interesting to me. However, so far the only thing that comes to my mind with this topic are beautiful landscapes in shades of purple. Still, he gives himself time to think.

EARTHLY DELIGHTS 

This topic can be associated with everything available to a man on earth. It is considered, for example, in painting as pain, sins, punishment and nightmares, but also as intense pleasure, comfort, bodily pleasures and fun.

The Garden of Earthly Delights

The last one is EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionism was aimed at expressing the feelings of the artist. He opposed naturalism and the bourgeoisie. Expressionists proclaimed that the task of art is to create an image of the inner world of man. The aim of art is to recreate one's own internal content, to express spiritual tensions, anxiety, terror and joy. In the visual arts, expressionism is most fully expressed in the paintings of V. van Gogh and the graphics of E. Munch.

Edvard Munch "Scream"  

 

One of the artists of this era, Otto Dix fought in the trenches and his experiences were reflected in his works. For the works of expressionist artists had influenced by the advent of the First World War (1914-1818). This greatly influenced the artists and designers of a movement based mainly in Germany.

Otto Dix "Stormtroopers advance under a gas attack"

The German expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirschner used bright, garish colors and exaggerated shapes, the figures were recognizable but distorted. We see it in one of his works.

"A Street in Berlin" Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

SUMMARY OF MY CHOICE

 I chose expressionism for my project because I would like to reflect my feelings and emotions towards the surrounding world in my works, just like the artists of that era. Present my vision of pain, suffering or nervous breakdown, but also joy and love using colors and elements of abstraction.

I can't wait and hope for approval of my project 😀 Keep your fingers crossed🤞🤞🤞

Welcome to spring term

Welcome back to my blog...!!!!😀👋

 I am happy to enter the next stage of my learning, which is the 2nd spring term at DMUIC. During this term, I promise myself that I will try to improve everything I have learned so far, learn everything that will be new for me as quickly as possible and not make mistakes that I made in the previous term. I promise You that I will keep you informed about all the most interesting things that I will do and what will happen during the classes, and that I will try not to bore you to death. My subject area witch is Fine Art, is very extensive and I think that I will find a lot of interesting topics that may also interest you. I hope that my creativity and ability to write this blog will improve significantly and riding my scribbles will be much more pleasant and interesting for You.

Unfortunately, during the Christmas break when I went to my family in Poland, I caught the flu. The only place I visited (when I was sick) is Tenerife. I was amazed by the majestic views and landscapes and even quite interesting architecture. I even managed to find interesting street murals which I will show you below. Personally, I love nature and Tenerife captivated me with its beauty and inspired me to continue hard work at the university to visit more such places in the future and have time to sit down and immortalize these exotic landscapes on canvas.