Processes and Transparencies

Hello there dear readers

I apologise for missing out on a post last weekend. It was a ...turbulent time to say the least. But here I am and it's time for a new post.

So dear readers, let me share with you what I've been up to since I've gone back to varsity this year. So in third year, the second last year of the Fine Arts degree I am studying, we are considered to be "senior" art students, and therefore capable of setting our own projects and briefs to work with. This is a huge jump from first and second year, where the lecturers would decide upon the topic and the artwork we created was thus a response to this topic.

So let me share with you my thought process behind the project I've been working.

I have been interested in typography since a happy accident with typography in First Year. As regular readers of my blog will know (and if you're new, welcome to my blog and have a look here to see my work), I've worked extensively with the medium of typography over the last two years, and of course given the freedom of subject matter and medium, now I have full reigns to work with typography.

So for this particular project, I decided to relate typography to the idea of access. So when is writing accessible to people, and when is it not? I wanted to play around with ideas of English being perhaps a more accessible language to understand (within a university context) than the language of the artwork. And how I could refuse the viewer access, or certainly make it intentionally more difficult for the viewer to relate to and actually access or understand the work.

How I decided to go about this was to use transparency sheets to write on:

These sheets were my own personal feelings, thoughts and emotions, as well as opinions about how I feel being an art student at an art school is quite inaccessible and the frustrations of being in art school. 

After this process, I then wanted to suspend these sheets from the ceiling of my studio space:

As you can see... this was somewhat untidy and well... the sort of baby steps towards an actual installation. So after this I decided the bulldog clips and looked terrible, so I refined it a bit using beading crimps to tie the transparency sheets:

This looks a LOT better, but something was still bothering me about this format. After speaking to my lecturer, we kind of concluded that it was because they were at eye-level. It was too easy to engage with them on an artistic level and not to mention that the lighting wasn't as effective... so to combat this I decided to hang them differently...

Now here I had caught onto something that really worked. I loved the way the light diffused the transparency sheets and the words themselves, and as you can see in the first picture, it was infinitely more successful than I would have guessed before. But alas it still needs a bit of tweaking, which I will share with you this coming weekend, dear readers.

Until we meet again
Talia

The Human Typewriter

So, it has been one official week since I have returned to university. As a third year, and studying Fine Art... Not to mention French as an additional major. Since my last post, it seems like me taking reigns of my own happiness has been a good strategy to approach life with. I haven't necessarily been getting a lot more done, but I feel like everyday that has passed has been one that was lived well, to the fullest. A day well spent everyday can only lead to happiness I think.

So now that I've caught you up on my emotional goals ,dear readers, I shall tell you a little bit about my first week back.

So its the first week, and I have already been dubbed "The Human Typewriter", by one of the lecturers who had been tutoring me this week. I quite like that. It has a nerdy/artsy/awesome ring to it. I think I shall keep that name around! And if you, dear reader, are wondering why on earth I would consider this to be an affectionate nickname, it is because I am in love with typography as a medium of expression.

To me, one of the most interesting things I have discovered since I have started studying art in university is the beautiful relationship that a love of writing and a love of art can share. They are not separate mediums in the discipline of humanities, but have so many similarities that draw the two (excuse the pun) together. I have always loved creating art, and I have always had somewhat of a secondary interest in writing.

Only once I discovered the art form known as typography, did I discover how words can be the vehicle to create art.

To put it simply,

I make art with words.

And this year I finally have the freedom to make as much art as I want in any way I want to. So I dub this year, 2016, the Year of the Human Typewriter. 

And hopefully dear readers, we will see some results soon. But for now, here is some of my older work, hopefully explaining why I have a catchy new nickname.

Until we meet again
Talia

Colour-Coding My Way to Productivity

So dear readers, I know it has been two weeks without a post. I do apologise profusely, I blame faulty printer cables and fried laptops. But anyhow, we are now in August everyone! so that means there is officially only one third of the year left... and I still feel like I've accomplished so little art wise!

So I've been having a series of epiphanies over the last few months. They haven't been directly related to my art or my work at varsity but rather to my personal life, but they've helped me figure out some neat little tricks and tips to help me out (and looking up life hacks on Pinterest isn't a bad idea either!). So dear readers today I thought I would share my little tips and tricks to make your planning life a little easier, so you can fit in all the things that are important to you.

I personally have an awful memory, and unless I write down what I'm supposed to do... well most of the time it won't get done or it will be a half-hearted job... So I have a diary and lots of coloured pens and matching Post-Its. My personal code is this:
Turquoise = Fine Art/Video Art
Lime Green = History of Art
Orange = Design & Drawing/Book-Binding
Yellow = French
Oxblood = Relationship and Personal Life

This is how I colour code my diary, which is super tiny. I also update my calendar as well as my MyStudyLife App to remind me about tasks that need to be done. I also try to distribute my work out a bit better so that I can spend more time spread out over a few days and really get into the work rather than rushing it and messing it up completely.

Another useful thing I've found is prioritising my To-Do list before I start completing anything, because I find I tend to do all the little easy things first when I have the most energy and then I wonder why I have no energy left for all the important things on the list... which can be problematic at best. So I draw a square next to each To-Do Item:

Big Square = Most Important (as in get off your lazy butt and get this done!)
Medium Square = So So, would be useful to get done today
Little Square = Annoying but useful task, not a train smash if it doesn't get done today

So this is just a small part of my organising tips that should help you to get everything done in time and get it done well. I hope maybe it helps you just a tiny bit!

Until we meet again 
Talia

From Start to Finish: The Garden

So dear readers, I just finished another drawing last night and thought that I would share the process behind it, seeing as I haven't done that for a while. Just for the sake of being thorough, I use Unipin pens, and all of the sizes available. I hope you enjoy these behind the scenes images of my drawing!

As always, any work of mine needs to have a solid drawing to start off with. I use a 2B pencil to sketch in the outlines and compose the image. (Why 2B? Because 2B or not 2B, that is the real question)

I started out by filling in the darker part of the sky. To get the tones here I use the 0.05mm, 0.1mm and 0.2mm pens.

Here I started filling in the darker areas of the hills so I could gauge how I should go about toning the sky. I started using a 0.3mm pen to fill in the darker areas. 

Now that I had a set of dark values to compare to I started filling in the rest of the hills and grass.

Now that the lower part of the landscape is complete, I can figure out how much toning the sky and clouds need.

Here I start blocking in the sky, using mostly the 0.05 and 0.1mm pens

Here the sky is completely filled in, you can see I left a few areas plain to contrast the busyness of everything else.

After adding in the foliage and a few final touches, we have a completed drawing!

Until we meet again

Talia

To Speak or Not To Speak, That Is The Question

Art History Class
10h15
Its cold outside, and its cold inside too. The cold helps me stay awake... mostly. We're talking about the art of the Mende People, and more specifically the Sowo Wei mask they use as part of a ritual that celebrates a girl becoming a woman.

To sum it up, the mask represents the features and characteristics of a woman that the women in this society see as ideal. One of those qualities that intrigued me was the idea of reserved speech. And considerate conversation. How interesting that one of the ideal qualities so long ago was consideration of what you say before you say it. It got me thinking about how this ideal should still be part of our lives now, even though its almost 200 years later.

If you think about it, in this day and age, freedom of expression has been taken to an almost extreme level of "I'll say whatever I want because I have the right to say it anyway". You can see it in the way people speak, in the way they act, but most clearly through social media. What happened to thinking before you speak? What happened to actually considering other people in conversation? I read a saying once that just about perfectly sums it up:

"The ability to speak many languages is an asset, but the ability to keep your mouth shut in any language is priceless" 

I think it's easy to talk a lot... babble and go off on a tangent. But I think being considerate when you speak is a skill to be taught alongside being able to speak. Because sometimes, things are better left unsaid, sometimes you need to be able to listen instead of speak and sometimes... just once in a while, silence isn't a bad thing. 

So dear readers, think twice before saying something to someone because you can, silence can be golden once in a while.

Until we meet again

Talia

An Enlightening Experiment

So dear readers... Today is Monday... I am a day late and a dollar short with this post... and for that I cannot apologise enough. But alas life goes on, and so does this blog. And what's been on my mind this week is the idea of Experimenting. No, not with substances of a questionable nature but rather with regards to Art.

Do you ever get those times when someone gives you free reign with an assignment and you have so many ideas that you don't actually know where to start? That happened to me with a particular Fine Arts Assignment that I have due this week. This is basically how this assignment worked: Each person in the class was given a specific topic, which we have freedom to respond to in any way we choose. Mine was the following piece of photocopied text:

"All the forms of auxiliary apparatus which we have invented for the improvement or intensification of our sensory functions are built on the same model as the sensory organs themselves or portions of them: For instance, spectacles, photographic cameras or ear-trumpets. Measured by this standard devices to aid the memory seem imperfect since our mental apparatus accomplishes precisely what they cannot: it as an unlimited receptive capacity for new perceptions and lays down permanent - though not unalterable - memory-traces of them." 

So, that was my topic. Quite a mouthful isn't it?

All the words that are in blue are the words that stuck out to me when I read this topic the first time... And I wanted to work around the ways in which I've learnt to memorise something... And the first thing I thought of was writing things, because that is my distinct way of memorising something and also having a memory-trace of it...

So I decided to experiment with layering pieces of writing and displaying it on a light box... And here is the final result:

Home made light box sans light

Text layers with lights on

Text Close-Up

If you want to know the relevance of the writing. I wrote the above passage of text repeatedly in progressively smaller text until I was able to recite the passage word for word. Thus a tangible outcome of a memory aiding device became my work for this project... And I have to say, I think this experiment turned out quite successfully.

And this is the week where every assignment is due, so I am off to get more stuff done dear readers.

Until we meet again
Talia

From Start To Finish: Re-Inventing Typograpy

Hello dear readers! After reading Austin Kleon's book SHOW YOUR WORK!, I have been following his advice about sharing both the process of making art, as well as the finished product. So here is another brief post about the work that went into my latest piece (As of today!).

From Start to Finish, my latest little typographic sketch: Re-Inventing Typography

The initial sketch of all the letters

The detailing and filling in of the first line...

Repeating the process with the smaller letters...

Almost Done! On this line I decided to use a 0.5mm pen because it was lacking some contrast...

Voila! The Final Sketch

Details

 And as you can see... it seems like this will be the year for Typography!

Until we meet again
Talia

A Flood Amongst a Drought

Words... Words are strange little creatures aren't they? Strung together in the right order, they can bring understanding to a cloud of confusion...All they're made of is letters and dots and dashes in a particular order but they can say so much more than we intend, but sometimes never being able to voice the very essence of a soul.

I think I've had a love of words and letters since I've learnt how to write. I remember in feathered wisps my first attempts at recreating letters I read in a book, trying to capture the grace and elegance of each letter, attempting to transfer the sound of the letter in the stroke of a pencil. For me, I had a wonder in learning how to write, a sense of wonder which I can feel slipping away from the fresh-faced new generations.

Those who have seen my handwriting now will know it is something much more than the materialisation of thought into something more tangible. It's a form of therapy, helping to keep my mind at ease whilst simultaneously etching my memories into paper. In case you're wondering, this was not always the way I regarded handwriting, it's more of a development this year. I guess keeping pages of journals inspired an epiphany: that I have an insatiable thirst for words and text. Writing is just one manner of satisfying the thirst, but the only problem with writing is that it's such a solitary act.

I'm sure that each and every person has that thirst for communication, whether it is through words, voices or writing. I managed to find someone who can send me the river of words, who cured the drought of solitary writing. I find myself feeling a tad greedy, wanting to hear and drink more words than I deserve. But the truth is, I find myself returning and sharing the words with such ease that I no longer feel parched. I wish sometimes that I could etch each and every word spoken into journals, but the truth is that there are too many words to remember them all.

That's why the words spoken have to count. They have to be sincere, Pure. Honest. So dear readers, make all your words count, you never know whose drought you might be able to end.

Until we meet again
Talia