PDP Exposure

When working towards the degree show I really enjoyed the work that I created although my ideas often changed and core subject stayed the same. The original idea to create a set of tarot cards to ‘tell the future’ of the planet from waste etc, later looking at creating a book to show a narrative of how the waste is becoming worse and finally settling on the series of weavings which tell the future through a narrative in a non conventional illustrative way. I thought that it was very important to consider the materials that I was using and am very happy with the outcome.

Professional practice was a big part of the finishing touches and found it excited creating something that was directly linked to the career that I wish to follow through after university. Designing my business cards and CV felt like something that I would be able to develop and use after graduation. The live application was a little scary, contacted people and not knowing what response you’ll receive although I gained a lot of information about tattoo apprenticeships and what the best steps would be by contacted many tattoo artist. It’s also made me make contact with tattoo artist that I would like to work with which may lead to future opportunities.

The degree show took some work to get set up but overall was an enjoyable experience, working with most students in the year to complete the space and get it presentable. Although there where some people who didn’t help much it was good to have a final group activity with everyone for the last time. Seeing everyone complete their work and it all come together left it feeling exciting for the final degree show.

I am happy with how the weavings turned out although there is a part of me that wishes I had kept with the tarot card idea as it is something I could use for my portfolio and I would’ve been able to develop a large set with the longer time frame although the weavings in terms of educating and showing the meaning work well and I think the true meaning behind the tarot cards may have been lost with the more commercial nature of the cards. I want to develop the cards after graduation to use for me portfolio in the future and I will have to change some of the pieces that are in it now as in terms of tattooing they wouldn’t work and so I will be creating some new pieces that can be used while also trying to create a social media following advertise myself through commissioned work. I will be developing my website further and may try a different website builder other than wordpress as I sometimes find it difficult to use and some work doesn’t always appear the way that I intend for it too.

I have enjoyed the time spent creating pieces for the degree show and am looking forward to seeing everyones work come together.

Weavings

For my final project I chose to complete a series of weavings to show the plastic pollution, I chose this technique as it shows how the plastic is entangled into our environment.

After experimenting with layering and painting onto the plastic I didn’t like the idea of having to buy plastic for the project as it defeated the main purpose and felt like a contradiction. Although I liked the appearance of the piece and it showed how our environment is becoming “made of plastic” I thought that having a ‘story’ of the plastic pollution getting worse would work better as it would display what is happening and has happened.

I began by completing some test pieces experimenting with the thread and plastic, the first one that I developed I really liked however the colour scheme appeared more like the sea than a landscape due to the blue colours. I gathered more green and brown toned threads and started to developing more scenes to appear like a landscape/mountain range. I really liked the outcome and liked the vibrant colours I wanted the colours to get darker as the the pieces went on. My aim was for the last weavings to be less vibrant to show what is happening to the environment. I would’ve also liked to complete a series looking at plastic in the ocean although I chose to look at land as it is less talked about among communities. All the plastic that I gathered for the project was from local business that use products with plastic that cannot be recycled.

The Material

When creating my piece for the degree show the material that I am using needs to be carefully thought out due to the nature of theme. It feels very hypocritical to buy and use plastic to create something about the amount of plastic waste we produce. I’ve been looking into other materials that are more natural such as cotton and I thought about printing onto cotton but then considered using thread and sewing/weaving with it to create a landscape and winding plastic through to show the plastic directly being woven through the landscapes. Using materials that are better for the environment makes more sense with this theme although it may hinder the options that I have and some experimentation but it is important to show that we don’t need to purchase plastic.

The plastic within this piece has been taken from a cafe where I work through the packaging that items we use come in. I have managed to convince the cafe to now use biodegradable disposable cups and so the plastic waste is reduced and hopefully be creating a piece to show the impact it’ll encourage others to do the same.

 

Professional Practice

ProffesionPracticePP

ANTHROPOCENE

After some feedback from the mock viva I started to look into the idea of the anthropocene which speaks about the human traces left on the planet in terms of waste and how it is becoming so bad that it can not be erased. There are many books and a documentaries that look at the topic also.

Books

• The Human Planet

• How We Created the Anthropocene (A Pelican Book)
• By: Simon Lewis, Mark A. Maslin

• Learning to Die in the Anthropocene

• Reflections on the End of a Civilization
• By: Roy Scranton

• We’re Doomed. Now What?

• Essays on War and Climate Change
• By: Roy Scranton

 

Things to consider

What am I trying to communicate?

How am I doing that?

What have I discovered?

What are my creative choices (editing and cropping ideas)?

Show how the work communicates these

 

 

Mock Viva

mockvivapdf

Tarot Cards

The image above shows the tarot cards that I completed for my portfolio as although I’m not using them for my degree show I wanted to complete a small set of them. I really like how they turned out and think that I will develop them after graduation. With some more details and frame around the edges they would look for unique and have a more tarot card feel to them. I like the colour paper as it gives a nicer appearance compared to plain white card.

Observational studies

I started completing some small illustrations to show some waste/rubbish while I was thinking about the materials that I would like to use within my project as I thought that it may help to think of something different and linking it to the use of shadow in some of the previous work but I think that I would be best to continue with the landscape idea as that has seemed the strongest so far and am looking at using some thread\cotton as the material is more sustainable.

Layering Landscapes

I started to experiment with layering landscapes where I put some torn pieces of paper to look like mountains in a box frame with LED’s behind and then later but some mountains into a plastic pocket and drew over the plastic to try and show the plastic within the natural environment. I then started painting onto fabric and later plastic sheeting that would be shown in front of light although didn’t feel as though the message of plastic waste was that clear. I also had to purchase the plastic material and so it felt wrong as I’m trying to show how bad buying/using plastic is. I also completed some pieces using the printed pieces from the tarot cards but found that the whole image wasn’t very clear. I think I need to look further into the materials that I am using in order to create something clear and show how plastic impacts on the environment.

Lino Prints

These are the first prints that I have developed for the lino prints, I like how they have turned out but I’m not sure if I prefer it to the printed version. I like how the printed versions of the cards turned out as it was what I had originally planed in my head. The lino printing method is also not very eco friendly due to the ink and some of material used whereas there are many ways to print digitally while stilling being more eco friendly. As I am not continuing with this idea I will develop a small set of cards and may experiment further with printing onto different material suing the lino cuts that I have already completed.