semi-final

      NO. 14

part

detail

“composition of fragmentation”, it mainly concerned itself with disjunctive compositions and 

diagrammatic fragments, two paintings with different sensibilities are trying to be dominant.

The family colors between washed-paper, the primary color of painting and the string I chose 

were pull and push viewers’ sight, I tried to force some further aspects with the experiences to 

achieve both distance appreciation and view in a close range, the numbers of ways like 

collage, stitching, reconstructing, cutting-out, the comparison between drawing and actual 

images or stitches. The reconstruct process drove whole fragments together as parts of my 

organic artwork.

details

Talk Notes.

I get the feeling that these two works have been jammed together

The sensibility seems very different

Interesting use of black and white images

The cut out trees, the sky

Are  more ordered and controlled

I like substance  of the work and the little squares here, from far away I didn’t notice they were sewn and I thought they were drawing.

You can see the relationship between the paint she has used.

A subtleness  kind of thing

I see the images as diagrams, there is a graphic design context

These images are closed up where the string joins

I would not imagine the colour and the cut outs together

Is it more about the diagram rather than the diagramatic

I find everything interesting but they work as two separate works

It is kind of a mad and I like that

It is the disjunctive  things I like that are really hand done

The work is disorientating, I like the idea but I do not like being forced to look at it

Colours match, ie thread and paint, a family line of connection.

Why the big black mount board

It is a throw back from primary school

It is a part of painting yet it isn’t

The top has a chalky effect to it, they do look very similar but different and I like the idea of each one trying to be dominant

Cut outs feed the idea of it being soft and architectural

Industrial, buildings, electricity, structured, organic intervention

Julie Mehretu

Abstract/expressionism

The hand drawn grid sense of blocks is very soft, the softness is much more ofthe body I 

want to see it playing off against

Grid - For me it makes the most of it

The idea of stitching together and using small thread is interesting.

These are incomparable qualities

The force of the connection.  Does this come with this

I feel like I am looking at a diagram of the internet, this comes with this etc

Force the disconnection, eg Ian’s story about incompatible materials

Deconstructing  the idea of making something completely new

The easy selection would be to pull something out

Thomas Edmonds

I think something else is going on here.  I like the different mosh-ups

my response - I would like to see them as complete opposites

Albert Olan

Placed elements in a violent way.  Play around with scale

Everything within this image is of a certain amount of dimension, getting a push and pull

Julie Mehretu

If the black paper was measured there would be a bit more drama, the more of a thinking about the black paper

How would it be if something touched the image

We may be seeing the beginning of something

Recognise each one of these elements as a thing as opposed to a background and a device

Constructing something

I think there is room for the ........................ to be more coherent

Shergy Jensen

If this is the conversation that moves into the collage of images are from elegant??

Highlight the soft stained  patches and then the tougher lines

This is a very delicate, quite slow, procedure

I feel like it is supposed to be growing out more

It wants to be organic or somewhere else

something about CLAY 3 (drawing)

I was thinking that if the clay would become soft in moist condition, how about totally soak into water...

As you can see, the clay block melted and became little bit sticky, after times stirring, the character is very similar as flour except the amount of thickness is less.

P.S  use hot water can speed up the integration of time.

This is when melted clay and water balanced, very trick and smooth oyster white liquid. 

I added oil pastel ash, it would not absorb, just flout on the surface, very colorful.

Pour the liquid onto a watercolor sheet, it standstills on above and absorb into paper slowly.

I tried shake the paper to increase the speed of absorption.

It was wet, after half an hour (studio was warm)...

Dried and left clay spots, also the oil pastel ash stayed with the trace.

Is there have difference when the order of oil pastel ash into clay liquid changed?

oil pastel drew onto paper already brushed with clay liquid

clay liquid brushed onto paper with oil pastel lines

Yeah it is has difference, the first one stayed but the second one melted and absorbed during more clay liquid added.

Michael Raedecker

Dutch, London-based artist Michael Raedecker good at using mixed media to explore 

familiar places and objects in everyday life. He found them on secondhand books or 

magazines, like bed, telegraph pole, table cloth etc. as a painter he did paintings on large scale 

canvas, but it is interesting to see the medium of embroidery on such surface.

Usually he likes use beige or grey-blue color to explore the nostalgic feeling in his works, this 

kind of color is so ambiguous and feminine, same as the embroidery skill, besides he used it 

in an architectural and masculine way, “Raedecker is brilliant in his combination of what are 

each classified as traditionally feminine and masculine arts”

His solo exhibition “Line-up” 2009 had high commendatory, there are fine string, rough 

thread and hair stitched into canvas over a layer of poured paint, he threw out the idea of 

inwrought pattern combine with painting and the considered construct was fitted each other 

well, also the colors he has chosen can see as a family line of connection, the traces of broke 

up the objects on the surface into fragments can found in details, this ambiguity between 

painting and thread really inspired me.

detail

detail

Palmor, L. (2009). Michael Raedecker: Line-up. Retrieved June 16, 2009, from

http://theartobject.blogspot.co.nz/2009/06/michael-raedecker-line-up.html

Combination 4

I started to develop the pigment liner-washing painting part which I tried before, I really like the blur after use watercolour washed the pigment liners, so unpredictable and spiritual, also the comparison of watercolour and pigment liners.

This one is a larger work, also it is another experiment of the washing method I want go further, because the colour I used was quite colourful and busy, how to find the balance is a kind of difficulty, how to build up layers is a challenge, I mean for example, this painting below is an unfinished piece I'd like to keep going, but after added a cutting out layer which is one of the method I want be in my work, it turned to something I do not want and do not like.

   NO.12 (unfinished)

    NO.12(failed layer adding)

The minimal pattens work well I think, it is quite invasive, what if create a busy scene and enormous scale work...

Zoom in, the mirror effects — the patten in the found image and painting detail. 

NO.13

John Reynolds

New Zealand artist John Reynolds, he had a range of practice basic on simple, repeated and 

abeyant shapes, he called this project the “plates”, different visual languages displayed 

similar. In his artworks, there is always a vision of diagram, a multiplicity of possible reading 

and a sense of humor.

“Kingdom come” 2001, it is colorful small-scale lines across canvas, numbers of square-like 

fragments layer over layer, the first glance, there can’t see any particular orders just busy 

and giddy grid patterns, but after focus it brings a shift of rainbow’s colors and an emotion of 

a primary event in abeyance, also you can just read it as a composition diagram.

“Kingdom come” 2001

Reynolds, J. (2001). Summer. Wellington: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Artspace.

Erika. Congreve, R. and Gibbs, J. (2002). The Walters prize. New Zealand: Ernst &Young.

John Reynolds Nietzsche on Whites Beach. (1996). Retrieved 2013, from

http://www.aucklandartgallery.com/the-collection/browse-artwork/14673/nietzsche-on-whites-beach

John Reynolds: Hevn Not To Scale. (2002). Retrieved October 2002, from

http://www.adamartgallery.org.nz/past-exhibitions/hevn-not-to-scale/

artist Chris Braddock with his clay works (drawing)

Check this out:          http://vimeo.com/54972329

" Chris Braddock is an artist and academic. He is Associate Professor of visual arts in the School of Art & Design, AUT University, New Zealand, and Chair of the AUT ST Paul St Gallery. His art practice involves performance, video and sculpture. His theoretical research stems from the disciplines of art history, anthropology, and performance studies. Key terms that underscore Braddock’s art and writing: performative sculpture, part-object/ part-sculpture, moulds and casts, material trace, absence and presence of the body, labour of making, modes of participation, performance and its documentation, animism, contagion, art and spirituality, blasphemy."


  

He did a whole series of body works by using clay (epoxy clay) in 2010, like "2 pushing", "3 pushing shoulders", "3 passing" etc. also the show which just finished in April, "the Material Traces: Time and the Gesture".

In his performance, you can see a very strong relationship between arts' body and the object (here is epoxy clay), there involved a lot of actions, like punch, press, knock, break in, squeeze, mould etc. seem like all about body strength to me, he used every parts of human body to deal with one object or we can say the material — clay.

Also there is a thing about him I really like to say, he got his own way document his works, whatever it's a action, a performance or a sculpture, like the "push" (2003), he recorded the performance of his own gestures by a role of sculptures and description with categories.

 "Braddock has developed the standard categories of documentation such as provenance, materials, techniques and contexts resulting in an extraordinarily detailed and obsessive description in line with the project’s overall concerns of self-reflection with a focus on the methodologies of how things are collected as well as what."

According to his works and the way of document, I sensed those extraordinary details are interesting and playful, through the martial find the reflection of self, that is something I'd like to try...







http://www.christopherbraddock.net/about/        CHRISTOPHER BRADDOCK

http://arden.aut.ac.nz/portfolio/chris.braddock      AUT ART+DESIGN

http://www.christopherbraddock.net/artworks/new-work-2003/      PUSH 2003

something about CLAY 2 (drawing)

• Interesting phenonenon: traced not noly the forms of knuckles, but also the fingerprints.
• can see it very clear even fine lines without waiting until it dry.

• the knuckles' models like some kind of puzzles, or fossil remains of animals.

 

• they are settle but can define as little fragile, see what if smash with a hammer.

• next step I decide to make some tiny bits, just give a try, I'm wondering the result.
• roll the clay up.

• under the rolls is a washed canvas, comparison of grey and colours.
• by chance, I feel maybe it can be a 3D work.

• because of the temperature in studio raised, I found that some of clay bits I covered by a damp towel returned to soft, and could be reused.
• after some research of this non-firing clay, acturally it can be stored in a tightly closed plastic bag and put indefinitely in a wet towel.



THE TOP 10 MISTAKES MADE BY ART STUDENTS

This article was written by Amiria Robinson. Amiria has been a teacher of Art & Design and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for seven years, responsible for the course design and assessment of Art and Design work in two high-achieving Auckland schools. Amiria has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. She is a CIE Accredited Art & Design Coursework Assessor.

THINKING ART WILL BE AN ENTERTAINING, ‘FILLER’ SUBJECT

Many students select Art thinking that it will be a fun subject where you hurl a bit of paint around and scribble with brightly coloured crayons. Students who enter under this misconception suffer a very quick wake-up call. Art can indeed be fun, but it is also an unimaginable amount of work. It requires constant and ongoing effort. Many students spend more time on their Art homework than they do on all of their other subjects put together.

Art should be taken for one reason only: because playing with line and tone and shape and form and texture and colour fills you with joy. If you don’t love making art, your subject selection will torment you. Art will become your demon: the subject you resent with a passion, instead of enjoy.

TAKING TOO LONG TO BEGIN

Some students are struck with a fear that they don’t have an original starting point or that they haven't interpreted their exam topic in quite the right way. They spend weeks fretting over their topic selection and worrying whether it is good enough. 

Here’s the truth: it’s not the idea that matters – it’s what you do with it. Even the lamest beginnings can become draw-droppingly amazing if they are developed in the right way, with reference to the right artist models (visit our Pinterest Boards for artist ideas). Delaying your project in the hope of stumbling upon a ‘perfect’ topic rarely works: instead it results in panicked, last-minute submissions that are a pale shadow of what they could have been, had the full allotment of time been used. Great high school Art portfolios (in almost all cases) need time. Do yourself a favour and begin.

PRODUCING WEAK OR UNINSPIRING COMPOSITIONS

Compositional errors can be broken into the following four categories:

• Cheesy: Surprisingly, there are still students who attempt to create artworks containing hearts; glitter; prancing horses; leaping dolphins or bunches of roses. Overtly ‘pretty’, cliché and/or unimaginative subjects are rarely successful.
• Boring: Those who select appropriate but common subject-matter (i.e. portraits) but make no effort to compose these in an innovative way, do themselves no favours. Even highly able students sometimes can sometimes submit projects that make an examiner want to yawn. (A less able student, on the other hand, with exciting ideas and clever compositions, can make an examiner sit up and take notice).
• Simple: Another common compositional error – usually evident in weaker students – is to avoid complex / challenging arrangements and/or choose a scene that is completely ‘flat’ or formless (i.e. an enlarged detail of a brick wall or a cloudy sky). This is unlikely to give you sufficient opportunity to render complex three-dimensional form and runs the risk of limiting or stifling your project.
• Unbalanced: Every image, page and preparatory component of your high school Art project should be arranged in a well-balanced, aesthetically pleasing way. This can be a challenge for some, but certain principles – and directing conscious attention to composition – make this easier. (More on composition in an upcoming article).

FLAUNTING POOR SKILLS

Struggling with a practical aspect of Art is not a mistake (no one is perfect; everyone is in the process of improving their skills and becoming better) but flaunting your weaknesses to the examiner is. Remove weak pieces and ensure that you present your skills in the best light.

If you are messy, and struggle to control paint, choose an artist model that allows you to apply gestural, expressive brush strokes, so it appears that your lack of control is intentional (this will allow you to continue practising with wet mediums, rather than avoiding them completely).

If you struggle to draw realistically, Read 11 Tips for Creating Excellent Observational Drawings and consider embracing gestural drawing, distortion, manipulation or semi-abstraction.

Showcase your strengths and use these as a distractive mechanism, while confronting your weaknesses head-on.

FAILING TO SHOW DEVELOPMENT

Many Art qualifications (i.e. IGCSE, GCSE, NCEA and A Level Art) ask students to develop ideas from initial concept/s to final piece. Difficulties with development usually present themselves in two forms: submitting a body of unrelated work OR submitting work that doesn’t develop at all. We have written an in-depth article about development to to help those who struggle with this (it was written for A Level Art students, but it applies to other Art qualifications also): this is one of the most important articles on this website.

CONTINUALLY RESTARTING WORK

Those who take Art are often the perfectionist type, wanting every aspect of their portfolio to be perfect. This ambition is great – in fact, most teachers wish this was a more widely-held attitude – however the mechanisms for achieving this are often flawed. Continually restarting pieces of work is not a good idea. It is rare that a drawing, painting or mixed-media piece cannot be worked upon and improved. In almost all cases, initial ‘bad’ layers give an artwork substance, resulting in a richer final piece (see this article about working over grounds for more). Those who habitually restart work have less time to complete the second piece and often end up with a folder of semi-complete pieces, none of which truly represent their skill in the best light.

DRAWING FROM SECOND-HAND SOURCES

Drawing or painting from images taken by others is one of the most risky strategies a high school Art student can use. It sets off alarm bells for the examiner, as it can indicate a lack of personal connection to a topic, a lack of originality, plagiarism issues and result in superficial / surface-deep work. Using images sourced from magazines, books and the internet screams of one thing: a student who cannot get off their backside long enough to find something of their own to draw.

NOTE: This is a guideline only. There are certain art projects – some of which are featured on this website – in which drawing from second-hand resources is acceptable (more on this in an upcoming article). In general, however, this is something that should be approached with care.

SPENDING TOO LONG ON ANNOTATION

For some students, writing comes naturally, and they enjoy pouring words onto a page. Others use annotation as a form of procrastination, to avoid working on the visual material. 

There is nothing wrong with annotation. It is an excellent mechanism for refining ideas, evaluating work and communicating concepts and ideas. But students should remember this: it is usually possible to score perfect marks with little or zero annotation (except, of course, in artist studies where written analysis is required); it is never possible to scores perfect marks with annotation only. The practical work is what matters. Spend your effort creating outstanding drawings and paintings. Use annotation as and when is necessary, but put your fullest energy into creating artwork. Put the art first and the annotation second.

POOR PRESENTATION 

Whether you admit or not, presentation is important. Art and Design is a visual subject. Those who assess it are highly sensitive to visual cues. The way artwork is mounted, arranged and put together speaks volumes to the examiner about your attitude as a candidate: your enthusiasm, your commitment and work ethic. Scrunched, dog-eared, smudged works can (if you are lucky) communicate the idea that you are a insane, artistic genius, but they are more likely to communicate the idea that you are a disorganised, slovenly student who couldn’t care less about the subject. When someone has a few minutes to assess or moderate your entire year’s work, first impressions count. Let your work shine.

(We will have detailed presentation tips in an upcoming article).

PROCRASTINATION

The ultimate downfall of an Art student is procrastination. This is the number one barrier to success. Leaving things until the last minute can work in some subjects (especially the kind where knowledge is absorbed and regurgitated on cue) if you have an excellent memory, excellent grasp of the subject and a have a refined cramming technique – but it almost never works in Art. Even skilful, highly able students need time to produce a great Art project.

Why do Art students procrastinate? How do you stop? This is being discussed right now by students and teachers in our forum.

http://www.studentartguide.com/articles/top-10-mistakes-by-art-students