JACOB HOLDT: 20.02.2014.

SIREN CITY: 20.02.2014.

FAUSTO PODAVINI - 20.02.2014.

ERNESTO BAZAN - 20.02.2014.

ITALIANAMERICAN (1974): 13.02.2014.

"Italianamerican" is a short film produced by Martin Scorsese in 1974. It focuses on his parents stories of immigration to New York and their early life and is a charming insight into what a lot of Italians had been through but also the topics discussed are an interesting view of what life was like back then. Topics such as religion, ancestors, their origins, and life in Italy after the war are all brought up and spoken about in a way that only Scorsese's parents could have. The film also includes his mothers meatball recipe featured during the credits of the film. 

The whole setting and the way they spoke about their lives reminded me a lot about my own grandparents and stories they have told me. I'm planning a trip to Italy during April so that I am able to take more photos but after watching this maybe a film might be something interesting to play around with. Even if I just use stills from it to work with could add something different to my collages. 

SPEAK ITALIAN: THE FINE ART OF THE GESTURE: 13.02.2014.

This book was recommended to me by one of my tutors, Peter, during one of my crits. I'd never come across it before but I'm glad I was told about this! It was written and put together by Italian artist and designer, Bruno Munari and essentially it is a visual diary of well known Italian hand gestures accompanied by their meaning. 

There are plenty of stereotypes that revolve around Italy but I feel that these (sometimes) lighthearted jokes and jests are about certain aspects which play a fundamental part within our culture. Yes we love food, yes are hands never stop moving and yes we're loud! But these traits are something that Italians, including myself, feel very proud of. What I really enjoyed about this book is that it highlights something which embodies Italian vigour so well through the simplicity of hand gestures. This has made me think about what I would like to show through my work for this project because I feel that there are so many things that are personal and part of who I am and its all very overwhelming. My next step will be to make a list of everything that I think represents Italy for me alongside what it may represent for other people. This should help me create small headings/themes to work towards so that my work makes more sense visually to others viewing it. 

JESSICA DAS.

Jessica Das creates beautiful collages using a mixture of photographs alongside colourful paper cut outs. I think the contrast between black and white imagery with colour works really well in adding a different dimension to the work. Again, her work leads me to think about what I can do to change up the composition and scale of my images for BA7. As well as using more abstract shapes rather than the literal. All these posts today have given me a lot to think about! Now it's just a question of getting stuck in. Eep. 

BETH HOECKEL.

I've always had the biggest crush on Beth Hoeckels work since I stumbled across it last year. The choice of images and composition is always stunning but more importantly, so powerful. There aren't many collage artist's work which have left me with my jaw hanging open but Beth's is one of them. 

I like how she tends to have a strong focus on nature whether its vast starry skies or powerful forces of nature and they are usually paired with people starring in awe. Her images are extremely narrative but surreal too, it makes me think about the composition within my own work and to also not be afraid to really crop images down to the bare essentials, obviously within reason so that they still make sense. 

SOPHIE ALDA.

Sophie Alda's work explores myths, dreams, fears and spiritual dimensions. The simplicity of her paintings and drawings is what drew me to her work. I like her floating heads and blank-faced people, they make me wonder what they might be feeling or should be feeling. Her works makes me consider whether if I choose to add any drawings to my own images if simple is best? It might be since my images are very rich photographs so that could work out well. 

MICHELLE THOMPSON.

Michelle Thompson is one of the artists that I'd like to talk about in my extended essay. Her work consists of a mixture of media from photography, digital and typography. What I really like about her work is how she uses a combination of traditional collage methods alongside digital technology.

"Editorial work tends to be digital for speed but I still work by hand when the circumstances allow. More often it's a combination of techniques." 

This quote was taken from her website and it's great to see that even artists like Michelle will use digital methods to make her work. This is how I felt about this current project, as much as I love creating collages traditionally, with the time schedule we have it's definitely a lot easier to create them digitally. Her mixture of medias is really refreshing and gives her images a certain playfulness. It's making me consider playing around with adding my own drawings over my star sign images although I do love them clean and crisp but there's always room for experimentation.