Okay, now I'm up to date

I made this lady, much smaller than the first, in pink plasticine before painting her with latex. I wanted to look at bodily fluids and sensations this time from the outside. Even though it's figurative I have tried to keep some ambiguity- she could have just been given birth to, alien, in a protective coccoon, wrapped up in spider silk, sweating or expelling fluid from her insides onto her outsides. My nail varnish chipped creating these red dots that look like a rash and I absolutely love. So glad I took pictures because she doesn't look like this anymore.. the latex hardened and went all brown and crusty.. which I guess at least mimics what bodily fluids would do?

SO I made a second person, painting her with yellow in areas before layering latex over her. I didn't use so much so I'm hoping she won't change so drastically.. time will tell.

This is a latex 'skin' cast from a plasticine figure. I was thinking about the body as a container, fragile, used.

Plasticine Lady

With historical anatomical models in mind I made a miniature woman of my own, and painted her in oils.

I always prefer oil paint when it's all wet and shiny, maybe I'll try varnishing her.

I like layering things up. I'm hoping to make another better version of this, to dissect. Also when I return to uni I am definitely getting in that metal workshop and continuing down this route. I want to use porcelian and rubber. I've been reading Leaky Bodies and Boundaries by Margrit Shildrick and there's a ton of things it's inspired me to do.

Latex and Wool still life

Made June 2011, just me trying to improve my painting skills and capture the sense of fluidity/wetness.

Legs

I made this toward the end of the third term. I often paint on scraps of cradboard or whatever's laying around but I decided not to neaten it up, to fit the sense of vulnerability I was aiming for. I am particularly interested in the way framing elevates the piece.

End of Year Exhibition

I had been adding layer upon layer to this throughout the project, refining it and my painting skills. Due to time restrictions I had to frame it before it was fully dry though and now it's gone a bit odd..

This is was my plan of how to display my work, which I followed almost exactly. There are areas focussing on different sections of the body, and consequences of sensations/functions of areas leading or connecting.. I thought about it a lot, and there are a few ways I could read it. but I'd rather not say and have the viewer make their own connections or readings.. or just admire the forms.

Term 3 part 3!

I'm cutting a lot out but getting up to date. Alongside my 2d work I explored latex. I wanted something physical and sensory to show alongside my drawings, to act as stimuli for the viewer and create a real 'specimen' of the invasion and illness I had been depicting within the body.

I sewed several pieces together to create this, giving it a handmade feel- though not detracting from its alien/fluid/natural appearance.

I also experimented creating more 2d pieces which I pressed, pinned and layered over drawings.

This is one of my favourite things that I made. The drawing was inspired by the motuh/throat area but drawn from memory and sensations rather than actually looking, giving it a more ambiguous appearance. Rather than looking like phlegm in the mouth it comes to look more like a vaginal fungal infection/discharge.

Exploring the use of light in my work, thinking about microscopes and reflections.

Thinking about ways of displaying my sculptural latex work. I tried hanging/pinning it alongside drawings but it seemed a bit out of place. Here I placed it on a tissue, relating it back to what it represents, perhaps hinting toward emotion but also the sensory experience of blowing your nose. I liked the idea of keeping and displaying something you would usually throw away as disgusting.

I made a second, quite aggressive form with longer 'legs' or protrusions and staged it alongside the first in quite a violent and claustrophobic scene. I like to think that the first is more feminine and the second more masculine. I am pleased with the sense of animation and life and the fascination with things weird or disgusting.

Term 3 part 2

As the term went on I became much more concerned with methods of displaying my work.

These frames were inspired by the layout and display used in the Wellcome Collection's 'Dirt' exhibition.

Here I was exploring labels and relationships of images, using keys and lines as in anatomical illustration, though the relationships were more personal than scientific and often elusive for the viewer.

I considered text, taking scientific descriptions of having a cold and its effects on the body, focusing on the invasion of the body and physical sensations.. but I'm no good with words and I prefer ambiguity so I stopped that.

Layering inner sensations over the outer layer of a person (myself). The internal becoming a cage.

I began thinking about creating a chart. I must've laid these drawings out every possible way. Here I was thinking about mapping the body, but for my final exhibition I looked more to a cause-and-effect diagram that could be read (by me anyway)

Term 3 part 1

Term 3 was good! I visited the Wellcome Collection and became massively inspired to focus much more on the body. I continued with my interest in internal sensations in a series of several small scale drawings.

This is my studio space fairly near the beginning of the term with my drawings and postcards from the Wellcome Collection, photocopies of things that were informing my work, such as anatomical illustration, Ernst Haeckel and Mona Hatoum.

A little bit later as I refined my drawings on an even smaller scale. Some pieces were quite personal, others inspired by anatomical illustration or natural forms, several by sensations felt within the throat- choking, crying, coughing, swallowing, having a lump there. It's quite a sensitive and fascinating area of the body and I was trying to capture that.

Meanwhile I was continuing painting, and exploring my newfound love of latex. I created latex forms from sculptures made in the second term, creating alien forms reminiscent of bodily fluid such as phlegm.

Term 2 Drawings

Term 2 was difficult, but I guess this is the start of where I am now. One night I stayed up really late drawing sensations I felt within my body or memories of sensations:

From then I continued with this interest in holes, the merging of bodily/natural forms and the capturing of growth or change.

These were created whilst thinking about the sensation of swallowing or having a lump in my throat.

I started using conte pastel pencils a lot, they're wonderful.

This is in oils, hopefully ambiguous (bodily holes or muscles, rocky mountains, flower petals etc)

I also continued drawing from nature in microscpic detail. This was from a seedcase.

This was inspired by a Painleve film, drawing from an octopus airway as it opened and closed.

This is my favourite, just the combination of inner/outer, hole/form, the slightly creepy ambiguity and character of the alien/invading form. Definitely a starting point for term 3.

Term 2

I took the sculpture induction but by the end my focus was on drawing. However I do think sculpture was the right choice and intend to use the workshop a lot when I return for my second year.

Here I made a natural irregular form by creating a clay mould and pouring plaster into it. I then painted it in oils, being inspired by the shapes and forms to make it quite bodily in appearance.

I cast several natural objects in plaster but I feel this one using seeds is the most successful.

This is a form inspired  by images in the book 'Nature's Sculptural Wonders'. I was interested in capturing growth and change and its physicality, which worked well with the material I used- air dough, which is kind of porous and stays 'soft' for a long time.

Term 1

My first term at uni wasn't particularly productive, it was more about change and settling in and making mistakes. But I did start using oil paint and discovered how beautiful it is, so that's a good thing.

Basil, Oil on Wood

Lichen, Oil on Canvas

painted paper lichen I left in the woods

After Surprise! by Henri Rousseau, Oil on Wood, small scale