Generation: 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland

I, along with 3 friends were fortunate enough to visit Auschwitz last month during our holiday in Poland. We were in Krakow for 3 days and had booked our visit to the camp for the last day, in hindsight this was a sensible idea since the visit was like nothing I have experienced. I still struggle to put into words how it made me feel and think.

Once I arrived back in Scotland I visited the National Gallery in Edinburgh with my mum and sister. We were waiting on my brother who had been visiting friends, so we thought we'd pop into the Gallery for a wee nose! We weren't in there very long, but I moved from room to room taking in as much as I could. I didn't have my notebook with me to take down details of the artists and their work so I had to rely on memory alone. The one artist that stuck out for me was Christine Borland. 'L'Homme Double' is made up of 6 clay portrait busts. Borland contacted 6 sculptors and instructed them to create these busts based on the Nazi war criminal Josef Mengel. They were all given the same information - 2 grainy photographs of the man and a selection of quotes and statements made by survivors of the Auschwitz death camp. The quotes were mostly attempts at describing Mengels physical appearance. 

The psychological aspect of the work astounds me. Borland has conveyed the uncertainty of this mans identity using actual memories from the people who witnessed him first hand. I love the individuality of each bust, how the perspective of each chosen sculptor is combined with the recollections of Auschwitz survivors.

Yesterday, I revisited the Gallery with my friend Flora and took 2 to 3 hours exploring the exhibit. David Shrigley was another artist who stuck out for me. His work that was on display was very impressive. Various selections of woodcut prints and a collection of ceramic/clay boots of all different shapes and sizes.

As we entered the gift shop I picked up one of his books and found myself laughing hysterically. I wasn't expecting a book like this from the work I had already seen from Shrigley - but I was pleasantly surprised! 

I enjoyed these visits to the gallery and have taken on many things from each artist and their work. I continue to be inspired by doing things like this and I love discovering people who's work I can take things from.

Playing about with beach photos

Spent about half an hour on fusing these 2 pictures together. Using the editing app 'Afterlight' on my iPhone I was able to layer the 2 photographs (that were taken on my camera which I synched onto my phone using iTunes) and adjust contrast, saturation, composition, exposure etc. 

Neither of the photographs of my brother and sister were posed or set up in any way. Pretty happy I was able to achieve this with my iPhone, I suppose I have little faith in it when it comes to creative activites but this proves me otherwise! I'll continue to explore the features of 'Afterlight' and other such apps, and update my blog on my findings.

Holiday!

Up at Nairn for our annual family holiday. My granny, mum, sister, brother and I are having a ball already in the very warm weather!

Took a stroll on the beach just now and feeling the benefits of having my digital camera with me. I took over 500 pictures whilst at T in the Park last weekend and so am in the habit of capturing the environment and people surrounding me. I've always loved taking photographs, even when I was younger when it would be with my mums camera. And ever since I got my own a few years back, I've discovered how creative you can get just by observing and getting yourself in the right position to capture a collection of shapes, colours and figures around you.

Here are a few from earlier that I guess fall more into the category of 'artsy' rather than just 'observational'.

Testing the app 'Cinamatic'

Two weeks ago a man had an incident whilst out on his bicycle. He suffered a fall because of a bad heart. This meant that the local ambulance team were forced to close off the road and call in the air ambulance.

I decided to capitalise on this tragic event and take a walk down the road across from my street and take some videos of the helicopter. Of course I felt a little bad for the guy getting stretchered into the helicopter and all but - I had to try this app out right? He was fine any way, plus they were in no rush whatsoever! I was waiting for the damn thing to take off for more than half an hour... Eventually he made it to Edinburgh where I'm sure he made a full recovery!

The audio on this tester video cuts out after each individual clip but in the future I'll edit the sound out, or at least make it less obvious to people watching.

The filter choice irritated me and I settled for the default, grainy, cheesy retro look. It worked okay, but as I said I'm gonna keep my eye out for opportunities regarding subjects to film.

World Peace is None of Your Business

Morrissey's new album on vinyl arrived in the post today and I'm loving it! 

Just wanted to share the lyric sheets that accompanied the record. Really like the layout and choice of typeface...

Sylvia Plath

Was out a drive with my friend Calum tonight and he played me a poem by Sylvia Plath. Calum is at Glasgow University studying History and has an in depth knowledge and love for poetry, and so this was another recommendation I was glad he gave me.

I gave poetry a shot whilst I was in 6th year at school and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! Whilst I would prefer not to produce such personal pieces regarding my artwork - I feel when the rare time comes around when I fancy a bit writing - going down the personal route just feels right.

I may as well provide a link to my Tumblr page, there's a few pieces on there I'm a little proud of. They are in no way ground breaking or anything - but maybe something I may include or attempt to integrate with some of my work during second year!

My Tumblr Page



Anyways - back to Plath! All credit to Calum here as he is so enthusiastic about these things I just can't help but get in there myself and have a look, listen or read. The spoken word and performances of work in general are something I am not at all educated in, but at the same time something I am taking a keen interest in.

I don't know much about Sylvia Plath's life, only that of her suicide attempts and now quite plainly obvious 'daddy issues'. But this reading of her poem 'Daddy' is an emotional and very symbolical insight into her relationship with her father. Stated in the poem he died when she was 10. That said, his presence and very existence had a very serious affect on her life.

The past couple of weeks have had me thinking of all the different kinds of art. Painting, drawing, performance, printing etc. And all of the possibilities and opportunities out there to create my own work through all of the different medias available!

It's exciting!

Here's the link if you're interested :     'Daddy' by Sylvia Plath

'Cinamatic'

This is a new app I discovered on the App Store! Not tried it out yet but I may begin thinking about making a couple of short videos, each based on different subjects. 

I use an app called Vine occasionally to view and film 6 second videos, but when it comes to editing and saving the clips - Cinamatic seems a much more efficient way to achieve what I want. Gonna have a go at filming some stuff tomorrow, I look forward to utilizing my phone for uses other than music and Facebook!

Break time at Hawick Knitwear

"See that bed sold for a couple million quid? Bloody ridiculous"

"How the fuck is that art onyway?! When I have a few beers for supper, don't dispose of the bottles and then leave my bed unmade - you deh see me raking in the cash!"

"I deh fucking get it"

"It's no right, where's my 2 million?"

"If I had 2 mil everytime I soiled my bed... "

Cya First Year

First off - MASSIVE thanks to Siobhan and Niall for teaching, guiding and helping us through our first year on the course. It's safe to say I can speak for the whole of the Level 3 first year class in saying that their guidance has proved very important to our progress.

Secondly, I miss college. Having the resources so close to hand (Macs, paper, printing press etc..) was such a vital part of the creative process. Nonetheless I have been making the most of my sketchbooks and spare time! Staying productive is important to me, slipping into a lazy routine of what I like to call 'easy' activities like listening to music, watching TV and playing my PS4 isn't what I want to do all summer..

I've found that my Kindle has came into good use regarding my productivity. After recently downloading and reading 'A Game of Thrones' I have found that my attention and energy are being focused on more important activities.

My A2 sketchbook is my main outlet for these occasional bouts of creativity. I am lucky enough to have a garden in which I can sit in and admire a view that on a sunny day makes me feel very positive about creating some work. I am able to take that sketchbook outside, sit, and draw away at my surroundings.

As of late, my artistic interests have moved onto the more design, and idea based areas. Sketching and drawing when I can is essential to my progress even if it isn't my favourite thing to do, and so perseverance also becomes very important.

Separately, as my desire for an Apple Mac grows and grows with every day, annoyingly, my bank balance doesn't... Though this hasn't altered my aim in saving money for one! Having access to them daily during first year was a blessing and I grew to love using Photoshop and learning how to create and alter pieces of work. Having such a device at my disposable would be a valuable tool when it came to progressing with my own stuff.

Lastly, I feel at somewhat of a loss on what 'theme' or possible 'area' to pursue in my second year on the course. Going down the personal route and exploring possible issues or problems I have with myself or the world around me - is definitely not what I want to do. Dissecting my secrets and laying bare my every thought and feeling doesn't feel right to me. I love how others are able to do this with themselves though. Plus who knows you better than yourself, right? I don't want to rule out any personal references in my future work altogether, but I do want to address that going down that road just isn't for me. Actually reading over that last part it kind of paints me as some sort of machine like, heartless sod - I assure you this isn't the case! I have feelings too...

I guess I just want to keep things a little more subtle and less obvious - and if that means either myself or my work coming under fire for being too mysterious...then so be it!

Dissapointment

Today I properly realized that time management is a huge problem of mine. Once I had presented my Botanics unit, I felt a sudden wave of reality hit me in the face.

I think it is normal to be interested in some units more than others. For me this has been a recurring theme since I begun the course. I can pinpoint 2 units at the moment that I feel I have thrown all of my creative energy into, and those are 'Viewpoint' and 'Typefaces and Letter forms'.

Keeping time and organizing my schedule to fit in college work hasn't been easy so far (can I just make this clear now, this blog post is not an opportunity for me to make up excuses for my lack of work haha). Having a reasonably busy social life and a part time job has definitely had a negative affect on my studies. Obviously I am still getting used to this new schedule and I hopefully will have tailored my time management by the time I enter my second year.

I feel if I had spent an equal amount of time on each unit in the course up to this point, they would all have been average. I believe that this first year has taught me a lot about how long practical work takes and where I should be doing it i.e College. I'm afraid that I may continue this disorganized behavior once I am in second year but hopefully not.

I remember Niall and Siobhan mentioning at different times that if we are indeed serious about pursuing a further education in Art and eventually a career - then we will no matter what make time for our studies. That made me think. It made me think - surely if I am serious (which I really am) I wouldn't have this problem with time management and lack of work?!

It's obviously down to my priorities. Right now what's most important is furthering my knowledge and understanding of Art and the Art world. But at the same time I need to make a living and support myself and my family.

I am waffling on too much haha. The point I'm making is, in a perfect world I'd come into college everyday, leave my job and commit all of my time to my studies. Now as much as I would LOVE to do that! - I just can't, or at least I can't right now.

I guess I'll just carry on and adjust my timetable the best I can.

It could be worse, after all.