ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG.

REFLECTION - 5.11.2013.

Today I had my group review with Chris to discuss our thoughts and worries in regards to the 1000 word Research Report. The main thing that had been playing on my mind was whether my topic of choice made sense and was also strong enough to then use for my dissertation. I felt that it went really well again and everyone had made lots of constructive notes on the feedback forms for me. 

Some of the main points that I thought were useful were: 

• Look into Robert Rauschenberg - direct link to Michelle Thompson. 
• Look at the influence of collage artists on contemporary illustrators or just myself. 
• Pop Art? Peter Blake/ Richard Hamilton 
• Look at bad points of collage? Where doesn't it work? 
• Collage seems to be struggling? Is everyone doing the same thing? 
• Look at digital collage too?
• other art forms opinions on collage? Relevance, purpose, etc.
• Is it more effective that the original image? Photographs, painting, drawing?
• Will it always be effective?

These ideas are what stuck out to me most from the feedback and they have given me a lot to consider. I would like to have another look at my previous essay outline and have a slight edit of what I had planned out. I'll be able to incorporate more ideas into my plan and create a more well rounded, balanced essay idea. I've also found some previous Research Reports from past students which Glynn has left for us so I'll be having a read through to see how they have gone about writing and structuring their essay. 

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. 

EXTENDED ESSAY REFLECTION - 5.11.2013.

I've been having a bit of a hard time in terms of what to focus on for my essay. I had a review with Glynn last Friday and it went well but I still felt very confused as to what I wanted to write about. It's all been very overwhelming! I think by having the project work to do plus workshops and then trying to understand the essay I just couldn't think straight since I had, still have, so many things to do. There's not enough time in the day, I swear. 

Anyway, I went into the library yesterday to have a look at some books that would help me to get started. This is what I took out:

- The Cultures of Collecting.

- Collage: Assembling Contemporary Art. 

- Max Ernst: Retrospective 

- Henri Matisse: Paper Cut-Outs 

I also have a reservation on 'Manifesto Collage: Defining Collage in the 21st Century' which I think will be really useful to look at too. Obviously the majority of the books are collage based, since it's what I shall be focusing on for the essay. I've started reading The Cultures of Collecting which although it's about the theories of collecting, it explores this in a very varied way from the psychology and history to just collections that reflect fascination. Collage is, in a way, a form of collecting and I know that I'm constantly collecting images from magazines or photographs. The books also contains a chapter on with Kurt Schwitters, who is one of the artists I shall be looking at so I thought this would be a good book to read. I have yet to start on the others but I will be sure to write up thoughts that I have on them. 

Below I have typed up my plan for the extended essay. I have my group review today with Chris and I hope to discuss this with everyone this afternoon. I know that it's not a lot of work considering the amount of time we have had but it's been very difficult to get to this point. I feel a lot more confident about it but there are still plenty of points that I would like to talk about with Chris.

Title ideas:

- The Power of Collage

-  How Has the History of Collage Influenced Todays Work?

- A History of Collage and Where It Is Today.

Introduction:

For this industry report I am going to look into the early history of collage from the Dada art movement right through to the 21^st Century. The aim of this report is to look into the power of collage and why it’s played such an important role within the art world. By exploring the history I can find out where it came from and how it has influenced modern collage artists today.

Paragraph 1:

- What is collage?

- Where did it come from?

- Background history.

- Dada period.

- Max ErnsT. 

- Kurt Schwitters.

- Hannah Hoch.

- Surrealism.

Paragraph 2:

- How has the past influenced today?

- Michelle ThompsoN.

- The Face Magazine.

- Anthony Zinonos.

- Is it more powerful than just drawing the image? Why? 

- Where does collage go (installations)?

Paragraph 3:

- My thoughts and views on collage.

- What draws me to making collage work? The processes? Techniques? Layering?

Conclusion:

- What have I learnt/found out? 

- My view on where I think collage is heading?