Clay Sculptures – Character Modelling

To accompany my paintings, I wanted to create artworks with clay based on the characters I have been illustrating from my dreams.

Jaco

This model shown from different angles…

That is the back of Jaco’s head, I liked the idea of his hat having a second pair of eyes keeping watch whilst Jaco is resting. I also incorporated the sewn-look into the clay, it looks like something you would see in Pitt Rivers. It also ties in with the repetitive pattern style I am working with, inspired by Australian aboriginal art.

I would say it also reminds me of the music video for ‘Sewn’ by ‘The Feeling’. I’m not their biggest fan but I like this song and I like this video. Youtube link below

— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1peC9_QOiE —

The Box-Man

I had a dream about him recently, he was extended on a pole which was help up by piles of junk.

I like the idea of him becoming a representation of some kind of deity. After discussing ‘Context’ last Tuesday with my group, I felt inspired to make a character who represented the internet and the Box-Man’s square ish head makes the perfect subject for it as it represents a screen. I imagine his screen-head being extended from a pole which is held up by various offerings to him. This is visually problematic as I imagine that the use of the internet is what appeases him, but I shall find a way around that.

Here is how it looked in my dream, I like to think this is the Box-God when he is happy…

And when he is angry…

And when he starts glitching or short circuiting, from over use maybe.

These are simple little models but I find working with clay helps me get my ideas out in a visual and tactile way. I do, however like the collection I am creating with them. I have never had a model fired before, therefore this has become a new avenue of work I have taken on in this module.

Jaco – The Clay Man In my Dream

As I have already shown in one of my previous posts, I have been making work extended from this painting…

For example, this clay model of him…

I have also been working on this painting of him (which I plan to be made up of three parts). I cut out an arched top for this painting to resemble the religious architectural paintings associated with the Mannerists, perhaps this is inspired by first term’s Constellation module with Mahnaz Shah..?

Here it is to date, along with the extra pieces I want to attach with hinges to it’s sides.

These are not yet finished, I want to paint the dog from my dreams growling at him from a distance.

I am not very keen on it yet but I think I will be when I finally get it finished.

Shaped Painting – Spooky Visual Experience

My shaped painting that I made during James’ workshop on thursdays began during the Field module when we were to make a mask based on something that has affected me personally in some way. I made a mask based on an experience I once had in my early teens when I had a friend over. We were alone in the house sitting in the living room by the window when I saw something (or someone) walk past the window, how it looked from that angle they seemed to be wearing black and had a cardboard box or a Jack-O-Lantern on their head. They also seemed to be wearing a little hat. I disregarded it and looked back at my friend, who at which point looked startled.

‘Did you see that?’ She asked.

‘See what?’

‘A man’

‘…With a box or something on his head?’

‘Yeah’

‘Shit’.

We were both so scared and confused about what we had both seen that we went to the front door to investigate. There was no body in my garden, and there would have been no way for him to get out going the direction he was walking. This is something we still creep ourselves out thinking about now, and it felt strange bringing ‘him’ to life the way I saw him.

Here are some original drawings I made of him before painting him.

What I imagine him to look like from the front.

The cardboard box head I made for him. At the time I didn’t take it seriously at all.

I then drew him just as I remember him, from side on walking to the left with the night sky behind him. I thought the light of the moon as a shroud over him would look cool.

My cut out board, primed and ready to be painted on.

The first layer of paint/under coat. Using colours that pop against eachother, e.g. the green would be orange, yellow would be white etc.

Finished version. I think I made the lines in his jumper pop quite nicely. The green under the orange gives it a nice cardboardy texture, and the yellow and white in the sky look misty and reminds me of light pollution. I’m really happy with him.

This has made me want to create more shaped paintings, not necessarily all outlines of the main subject, but shapes other than a square or rectangle.

Tuesday Tutorials – Context Proposal

The context for my work is mainly established in the way various cultures use pattern in art. Firstly, I would mention Australian aboriginal art, which reaches back about 30,000 years and is still being made today. The indigenous people of Australia are separated by different types of’dreaming’, for example, Colleen Wallace Nungari now has the rights to the ‘Yam Dreaming’, which were passed down from her family. This concept is still rather confusing to me, I believe this is due to the vast differences between their culture and my own. How often in our society do we give that much importance to a specific symbol? Especially a symbol that stands for an entire ancestral line. Or perhaps we do give importance to symbols without being consciously aware of how important we have made them. Basically, nothing is particularly sacred to us in our society. This is something I am exploring in my work, giving purpose to the characters I am creating.

Here is a clay model of the character I dreamed about. I have named him Jaco (after american Jazz-Funk bassist Jaco Pistorius). Whether he is something belonging only to my own mind or if other people have dreamed about him too, he symbolises something and I plan to give him a lot of importance. In all cultures, objects can have a somewhat living presence, and this is an important idea within my work.

Here is Ekeko, a South American God (in doll form) which symbolises luck, wealth and prosperity. He seems to be adorned with objects ranging from food, to actual money, to cigarettes. I like that there is a comedic greediness to him.

I have discovered the artist Diego Rivera (husband of Frida Kahlo) who’s work was inspired by the Mexican Votive paintings of the 18th and 19th century. During his life he painted a lot of Fresco paintings, for example one of his most famous works titled ‘Man at the Crossroads’ 1934 (below).

My discovery of Rivera is fairly recent but from what I can extract from what I have seen he seemed to mix the traditional religious painting style of the 17th century Mannerists with more modern, current styles and issues. Before discovering him I had already decided to make paintings of my characters in these architectural shapes to play with this idea of importance and religious context.

Here Rivera has used this cut-out technique to illustrate the History of Mexico.

He created hectic scenes by merging humans with animals in various poses, almost like a ‘Where’s Wally’? drawing. I like the idea of ‘spotting’ a specific character with in a painting, therefore I plan to use animals in this way.

Tuesday Tutorial – Ideas Feedback

I am to continue working with the ideas I had about the concept of ‘Dreamtime’ and Australian aboriginal art, continue researching artists such as Sidney Nolan, Colleen Wallace Nungari and Rover Thomas, but I must get my head down and work much faster in order to see my work come to full fruition.

I shall take on the ideas of offerings in art as a way of giving my clay models and characters a purpose and a story. Following on from my research on Shain Erin and the religious paintings of the Mannerist movement, I shall also be researching the South American God/doll known as Ekeko (believed to be the God of luck, wealth and prosperity) and Mexican Votive paintings and frescos.

I will continue working with paint and play, but I also intend to work with stitch before we break up for Easter.

Colleen Wallace Nungari and ‘Dreamtime’

Nungari was born 1973 in Santa Teresa Community (1 hour from central Australia). Wallace comes from a strong family tradition of Eastern Arrernte painters (Arrernte being her familie’s language) who predominantly paint what are called ‘Dream Yams’. Yams in a dream symbolize fond memories of family gatherings and celebrations. Colleen’s family gave her the rights to paint the Yam Dreaming. Below are a couple of Nungari’s paintings titled ‘Wild Bush Yam Dreaming’.

I have only just dipped my toe into the concept of ‘Dreamtime’, but I have come to understand that it is not necessarily about literal dreaming but instead a way of linking dreams with the creative period within religion. It is more about the creative act in the name of their ancestral beliefs.

Most Aboriginal people believe their ancestors made the land, and can be found in all kinds of natural formations. Each natural form is believed to have been made by a different ancestor with a different name and are regarded with respect. These ancestors also provide basic guidelines for living, guidelines that relate to religious, social, environmental, ecological and cultural matters.

I like the ambiguity of Dreamtime, perhaps it’s only ambiguous to me now because I have only just found out about it, it might be quite a simple practice. Either way, I’m glad I have found out about it as it seems so appropriate for the direction I want my work to take.

Subject Assessment: Ideas Proposal

During the Field module I became interested in dreams and wanted to create a piece of work inspired by a dream I had. I found this much more interesting than the work I had previously been making about plants and decided to combine theses two themes.

Since I have made this swift change I have been researching the following artists: Sidney Nolan, Henri Rousseau, Colleen Wallace Nungari, Chris Ofili and Shain Erin.

Nolan’s loose painting style is something I have been trying to incorporate into my own work.

Ofili and Nungari both use nature as a way of forming patterns without making them the focus of a painting, which is something I have been experimenting with.

 

Rousseau’s work is beautifully childlike and also very obscure, and obscurity is something I want to put into my work as dreams tend to be rather unclear.

 

I also plan to take on Shain Erin’s approach to the dolls he makes; they are embellished and have purposes and stories. This idea of a narrative could work with one or two characters I have been working with so far.

 

My future work will include both painting and clay sculpture as two mediums that I will bounce off of each other.

Shaped Dream Painting

During the process of making one shaped painting with James, I was making another.

I wanted to accompany my first dream painting of the underwater dog with another dream I had about being chased by underwater tiger cubs. I thought it was strange to have these dreams so close together and I felt it warranted a second painting of a non-aquatic animal submerged in water.

It did however become the second bane of my life. I kept telling myself ‘less is more’ but in this painting’s case, more was definitely more. Here it is from beginning to end.

So yes, it looks mad. But in the end I felt happy with it. I chose the round shape to make it look like you’re viewing the tiger through a bubble.

I took inspiration from a rounded convex painting by Parmigianino titled ‘Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror’ 1524. According to 16th century biographer Vasari: “In order to investigate the subtleties of art, he set himself one day to make his own portrait, looking at himself in a convex barber’s mirror.”… I can’t say mine is an exploration of the subtleties of art, but I would say it’s an exploration of pattern, layers and depth. I wanted it to look disorientating, like you’ve just jumped into a lake and the bubbles surrounding you are obscuring the tiger who is looking at you.

This painting bridged the gap between flowers and dreams for me, as I have decided to embrace floral pattern as something that can look quite hallucinatory and strange. I think the flowers make the tiger look like some kind of foreign tropical speicies that’s been hiding in the depths and hasn’t been discovered yet. I like this dark aspect.

Shaped Painting Session (with James Green)

Like last year I have made a shaped painting with James in a workshop with him, these workshops have been organized to help us boost up our Subject work now that Field is finished. I chose James’s workshop because I was eager to try something different and I wanted to get a new painting done quickly, and I knew I would come out of this workshop with an interesting piece of work.

I struggled to come up with something to paint that I would happily cut to shape. I had previously been making work about plants but I found I thoroughly enjoyed painting a dream I had during the Field module (Art and the Conscious Mind) and I wanted to find a way to link the two projects together.

After having a talk with James about the progression of my work, I decided to just go for it. I chose a drawing I made during Field of a ‘visual experience’ I once shared with a friend of mine ages ago. Long story short we both thought we saw – at the corner of our eyes – a man wearing a black jumper with an orange cardboard box on his head (or possibly a Jack-O-Lantern) wandering through my garden. We both freaked because we both saw him but he was nowhere to be seen outside. This memory has stayed with both of us ever since it happened and I decided to make these…

A rough drawing I made of how I imagined the man to look straight on…

An unfinished mask or helmet based on what he/they had on their head. I wanted to see how it felt to be them.

I’d like to finish that mask, or perhaps make a more solid version of it.

Here is my painting in its differing stages.

I decided to paint him side-on as this is how I saw him at the time, I wanted to stick to the visual memory I have of him as closely as possible.

He’s still unfinished, this is just the under-layer of it all. I’m so far pretty happy with it. I shall upload the finished version on Thursday after our next session with James.