Reviewing & Refining Ideas

Thinking about my project and in regards to how I want to relate my final piece to my own visual story I decided to experiment with the idea of deconstructing and reconstructing letters. To do this I focused on three artist techniques that I enjoyed.

Ines Seidel (http://ines-seidel.de/en/) is a mixed media artist, who I was drawn to her work for her deconstruction using smaller letters. I heavily used stitch and prepared materials, as well as collage to create some samples that I think are strong and interesting visually to explore. I created a piece inspired by my visual story, which involved intertwining threads and cutting out individual letters to create a sentence taken from one of my letters. I really love the delicacy of this outcome, and the techniques used to create it.

Annie Vought (http://annievought.com) is a paper cut artist, I really liked her unique individually cut words from others handwriting, I thought it was dainty and striking. I created some paper cuts in response and really like the element of it being so personal and unique to your own writing, I used text from my own letters to create these delicate outcomes.

Ania Warzkowicz (http://www.aniawawrzkowicz.com) is an artist who focuses on working on deconstructing work through blocking out certain areas of the piece. I created samples using paper cuts and stitch and love the uniqueness and individuality of each piece of work. I really liked this technique and hope to further use it in the project.

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Looking at Typography

Within my project I thought it was important to focus on typography artists, as the basis of my work is beginning to revolve around my personal visual story involving letters and text. I focused on two artists that included text in their work.

Rosalind Wyatt (http://www.rosalindwyatt.com) is a stitch based text artist. I was drawn to the delicacy of her work, and wanted to try replicating some of her pieces. I created samples influenced by both her work, and my own visual story. I really loved the ability to create the cursive style out of the delicate threads. I think this work is very successful, and although time consuming, creates beautiful outcomes.

Mou Saha (http://collagecollagecollage.blogspot.co.uk) is a mixed media artist, who I was inspired by as she used very different mediums to create the text in her work. A main material I wanted to try was the masking fluid, to reveal text under an otherwise busy piece of work, I really like this effect and how it worked and its a technique I'd like to use further in the project. I also created some mixed media pieces using stitch as text and I think that was equally as successful.

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My Visual Story

As this project brief was Visual Stories, I looked into finding one that was personal and could inform how I work in my project. My visual story is based on letters my grandparents sent to each other when he was away working on a ship. I've highlighted some of my favourite sections, and created some small samples using quotes from the letters. I think it's an important part of my project as it will influence and inspire where my outcomes lead to.

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The Initial Research

Initially thinking of the brief of Visual Stories, I researched artists that related to evoking memories, and displaying items that could be collected and translated into visual stories.

Hens Teeth (http://hensteethart.blogspot.co.uk) was one of the first artists I researched, I loved the hand stitched elements in her work, and how personalised every piece was. Feeling inspired I focused on using the assortment of materials within my own samples and tried to make sure that the text elements were a heavy feature. Creating samples for these pages I experimented with a wide variety of media, such as sellotaping, mono print,  hand stitch, fabrics, buttons, collage and acetate. I furthered my Hens Teeth work in relation to stories about WW2 fighter pilots, this really brought in the visual stories element, and I produced three 'stamps' as mini outcomes, which contained extracts from these stories. I also brought in the text elements from Rosalind Wyatt (http://www.rosalindwyatt.com) as I loved the delicacy of her work. These can be seen below.

Dottie Angel (http://dottieangel.blogspot.co.uk) was another artist that intrigued me, as I also loved the mixed media approach, but this time the work featured typewriters for text, which I really enjoyed and thought brought a delicacy and hand rendered element to the pieces. My samples were created using mixed papers and fabrics, as well as using stitch to tie everything together. I loved how every piece is unique and personalised, and has its own story attached to it. I decided to also show a digital element, by creating a piece using my own personal letter, and taking a collection of scanned samples from my book to create a really nice personal outcome. The collection of materials and items is what creates stories in both these artists work, and I think it's very successful and I'm heavily inspired by this technique throughout my project.

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The Brief

After being given the initial brief of 'Visual Stories', I brainstormed ideas that would hopefully be useful when I needed to research into artists and ideas related to outcomes for my project. I quickly realised that this project would need to have a personalised element within the work in order for the project to be successful,something that I was keen to explore through the visualization of personal family stories. I like the idea of using meaningful objects such as photos and keepsakes within my work, as it makes it possible to expand ideas and further explore the idea of visual stories in connection with my family. The idea of collage and trapping memories within my art creates a more personal project; I could do this by using a variety of techniques and mixed media to really layer up the stories. To make work even more personal I would like to incorporate pieces like letters to really inspire further work and make sure it's a reflection of my life personally. This title will let me explore the works of artists that I enjoy and techniques that I love to use. Using collage and mixed media is something that I would really like pursue in my work as I believe it allows me to emphasise certain elements and creates visually appealing and busy samples. I like that this project brief allows me to go in a variety of different areas and that I can explore work that appeals to me.

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