Art By River

What is art?  ..... an emotion? a memory? a persons feeling?  Art is the expression and application of creativity, skill and a persons imagination. We use art to express our visions on how we feel or possibly use it as a platform to get a view or point across. We can translate these emotions across by turning conceptual ideas into visual outlet to share.  I believe this piece, Battle in the heavens by Nicholas Roerich 1912 would be classed as art. If you had this painting framed on a wall it would have purpose yes but what is its function? Well it could provoke a feeling in the viewer yes but not necessarily. The viewer could be impartial.  What is design? ........ A plan? An object?  Design is to create something more like a system or solution for people. A design item could play a part in elements of our daily lives. I believe design is something that should have more of a function.

I Thought I would document the journey I take from my house to my favorite place. It is a place that I like to sit in, draw in, just be in and breathe in. A place that`s pretty and peaceful and full of nature. Scenes, sounds and smells are all around me in this place. It is a public place but very rarely busy so I feel relaxed here. Leaving my house, locking the door (sound clip) Walking the garden path (video) Walking the street (video) High rise building on the way (picture) The tram arriving at the platform (sound clip) Leaving the tram, onto platform (video) Walking, feet in motion, grounds surface changes (video) Sounds of the trees and birds singing (sound clip) My feet crunching on dried crispy fallen leaves (video and sound) Water gushing loudly from pipe into lake (video and sound) Arriving at favorite spot, ground surface changes again (video) Trees singing and dropping leaves as they sway in the breeze, Quail coos and ducks quack, Fish bob up for air making a small splash (s...

We visited the dark room to check out the enlarger and to understand the process of printing photographs in a traditional way. An enlarger is a special kind of projector used to create photographic prints. Inside the room, besides the safe red light, the main light is to be kept switched off and there is to be no artificial light from say a mobile phone for example. This light will destroy   

Using a mouldable wire to create leaf shapes and filled them in using paper or masking tape. This I found to be very satisfying process and I really liked the outcome. I would like to return to this again to try painting the leaves maybe with watercolours. I would like to build on this further. The wire was very easy to manipulate and mould into shapes I desired. Then I wrapped my leaves using masking tape. This is the result of my creation and the group collaboration ....

Monoprinting if a form of printing that can only be made once, unlike other printmaking processes where you are able to make multiple copies. Using a water mixable oil paint a smooth area was covered equally using a roller. It is important to make sure the ink is even all over the surface area. Then we covered this inky board with a clean sheet of paper. Then we made markings and drawings on the paper using different tools. You can lift the paper halfway to check the image and see if your happy with it. If not you can place the paper back down and continue to work on it. Once happy, we removed the paper and set to one side to dry. These were my results 

Monday 25th Sep. Body Wrapping. Our first task was to wrap bodies in brown paper and masking tape to create 3d self standing forms. Like a shell that would remain its shape once removed from the model. I volunteered to be a model and to sit in a position as still as possible so as to keep a good shape. I chose a position that was difficult to remain still in but I chose this on purpose for challenging myself, my mind and to practice sitting correctly for meditation for longer periods of time. It was uncomfortable but I am glad I did this. As icebreaking tasks go on a first day with your new class peers, this was very different to what I've been used to. Strangers hands on your body and being sealed into some paper cocoon. It was warm and noisy inside. Once the paper had been placed over my head, face and breathing space the shell was easily lifted up and off me once complete. It was bearable and I was very impressed with the outcome.  I had a turn at wrapping after this. The proces...