Describe the ideas behind your work short listed for Top Arts.
The ideas behind my piece is telling the story of humans overcoming their inner misery in a polluted wasteland world, growing wings and gaining freedom. I am fascinated with the way humans can live in their own pain and despair, how people are much happier to let things grow ugly and deformed than spend time fixing the problem. But I also find it interesting that when given the chance to really look within themselves people can see past all the bleak clouds and find a freedom into a brighter and more richly intoxicating world. Sometimes I view the world as a mechanical toxic place (especially now with all these environmental issues) and I wanted to portray these kinds of ideas in my own expressive style.
What were your starting points? Where did your inspiration come from?
Some of my inspiration came from one of my favourite artists, Camille Rose Garcia, who paints surreal, dark worlds that are inhabited by shady characters. I was also inspired by my love of figurative works – so I already knew I wanted to paint something with figures in it and also I have a lot of interest in the macabre side of art (with artists such as Hieronymus Bosch being a big influence). My art is fairly dark which comes a lot from my own personal experiences, beliefs and ideas which I’ve drawn on a lot over this last year to form the beginnings of the art piece I created.
What media/materials did you select and why?
Because I planned to make a fairly large piece I wanted to try and use some materials that I was familiar with so to reduce the amount I had to trial a lot of materials. I used watercolour pencils for all the detail in my work because I enjoy the precision and control I can create with them, but I can also use them to create more watery and textured components in my pieces. I use watercolours for the diversity I can produce with them. I also used gouache and watercolour paints for the same reasons – in that I like how they can be watered down or kept thick to produce different levels of intensity and different effects, like textures when they are layered up. I used some amounts of acrylic for the MDF board because it’s thicker paint and was quite effective to make textures when added with modelling compound. Materials I used for the first time was shellac and bitumen medium to create the dark murky world and city parts of the MDF. To add some more texture to my piece I mixed PVA with paint and water and added this over some toilet paper to create the raised bits around the board. It was easier to add lots of texture in this way than impasto or modelling compound. I also used some wire on the board to give it a bit more of a 3D look and play on the mechanical aspects of my work.
What challenges/difficulties/discoveries did you encounter in producing your work?
The time frame was a HUGE challenge, because my work was to be so big and have a lot of components I found it hard to finish it all in the time I was given. It became really stressful and I didn’t finish all that I wanted to for it, but overall I was pretty happy with everything that I produced for this unit.
What advice would you give to students undertaking Art or Studio Arts?
Just make sure you know what it is that you’re planning to do and keep that clear in your head the whole way through the unit. It can be so easy to get sidetracked but if you know what you want to do and how you want to achieve that then the unit can be a lot less stressful and you are more likely to produce better results. It’s a subject that requires a lot of your own time and determination to produce really outstanding art and folios, so those who just work within school hours won’t get as far as those who push themselves everyday throughout the entire year.
Are you planning to pursue a career in the arts? What will you be doing in 2009?
Maybe one day. Next year I hope to do nursing, but eventually I want to travel around Europe and maybe do an arts degree over there somewhere. I like the culture and history of a lot of European countries and think it would be interesting to study art in a place that has such a long history of artists. But for now I want to do something in nursing– working with people as they fascinate me so much!
