Evaluation of my Final Major Project
“A work of art is a world in itself
reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world…”
Hans Hofmann BrainyQuote. (2019)
Introduction
We all know one of the most popular signs in the fine art industry is ''DON'T TOUCH''. (Yatzer, 2019). Over my lifetime I have been warned and restricted at nearly every museum and gallery which I happened to visit, satisfying only my sense of sight -whilst leaving a sense of touch or anything else far behind. I believe many can relate to that feeling. With my final piece, I wanted to break this concept and to engage my viewer in numerous other ways.
For the past two years, I have been creating more than just paintings – I been working on tactile experience for me and the future observer. Texture and feel of the painting are my obsessions, I encourage that my paintings being touched – it’s like I am setting invisible threads to connecting directly with each viewer.
For my final art project, I decided to push some boundaries based on my passion with texture and produce artwork in a more sensual way that I ever did before.
‘Sensory Faculty’ comes as the engagement of human senses through the use of carefully selected materials and surfaces. It is a piece of artwork you can not only see, you can feel it, sense it, but above it all - hear it if you wish.
Thankfully in our contemporary world, everything is possible, everything gets accepted. Not long before pleasant and appealing were essential components of the art world - providing meaning as well as pleasure. Nowadays the artist’s goal is to create more experience for the viewer. And that was exactly on my mind while creating my work – to let the observer explore my art piece through the use of four senses.
“Art can take us away and help us experience new places”.
(Art Class Curator, 2019)
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My journey of ideas begun last year. It’s all started as a thought of creating a painting for blind people, where colour would not really matter, but texture and possibility of adding Braille would play a major role. I wanted to somehow connect and make my art more accessible for people who are less fortunate - to make my painting not just something visually nice but make my artwork into something much more.
Visual art for visually impaired is not a very common thing. There are no many artists whose work can be viewed more than just from afar. But art does not have to be only a visual thing – this was the main message I wanted to deliver with my work.
“Art is a universal medium of expression, bridging gaps across language, time and culture” (Dupere, 2019), this sentence opens an article about ways how art is becoming more accessible to the blind community, one of so many I read in order to find out that there are only a few artists practising in similar field.
I believe that tactile art is a very positive way to share a message and communicate better with various audiences, not just visually impaired. It’s become increasingly important also for young children have sensory tactile exploring opportunities. So as adults - getting to touch and feel the artwork, allows to see more and appreciate art in a very distinct way. So as scent and sound, if added to artwork, can create completely different perspective a whole experience of the subject.
While doing my research I come across many interesting ideas. I went through a lot of changes. My initial thought became more like an impression of sensation on canvas. By the end, it became more about a painting that would engage most of the human senses at once, not just Braille. Vision, touch, sound and smell was making an impressive composition in my head.
Life is the platform where at every step it leaves a scope of innovation, new ideas, new thoughts, new experiments, whilst we are all Fine Art students, we each have different approaches and interests which has enabled me to focus on my own particular aspect and perspective. My fellow students are driven by portraiture - I am more interested in people's relationship to objects, so I think this is the main reason why a lot of my work is more than just a picture. It is an abstract experience which I hope to develop further in years to come.
Since the beginning of my studies, I worked on several contrasting modules, trying to be different and find my style. Over the past two years, I used wide range materials such as watercolours, ink, pencil, acrylic etc. It all paid off giving me the right confidence to experiment on my final piece.
Not having a set theme for my Final Major Project gave me freedom. Usually dictated themes set the tone of whole projects from the start and then you have to go for it even if it's against everything you want to do. For my very final work, I was able to play with my ideas and skills developed in the past. As an abstract artist, I made my theme an abstract subject - open to any interpretation. I wanted to fill it with a wide range of topics and ideas and to connect them all with the audience.
COMPOSITION
I made a few visual studies of different compositions before I even started on my main canvas. From making small atmospheric watercolour washes, to even finishing a larger piece. All created a perfect visual diary for me and helped to decide on my final piece. I chose to make an abstraction of a seascape.
I studied many coastal photographs taken by drones, keeping in mind awareness of copyright issues. As I was only using photos of others for inspiration - only as slim guidance, I was certain, I will not cross image ownership rules.
The coast is such an inspiring subject. I love how lines and distinctive tones of blues arranged themselves in many unusual ways, giving me a distinct direction for my own work.
COLOUR
As many times before I stayed loyal to the white and blue – two of my favourite colour tones.
Usually to gain balance in artwork artists often use a complementary colour combination as based on many colour theories it works at its best, but white is not considered a colour – it mainly represents the absence of it. Just like black, or grey are only shades and theoretically, there can’t be a “complement” to something which isn’t there, to begin with.
Deep blue and navy paired with natural shades of white were working well with my initial intention. This eternally classic combination brought a fresh feel into my work creating a harmony, which I was after. With that in mind, I believe my painting would appeal to a wide range of audiences. As I combined the pallet of blue sea and white sand within this seaside inspired work, I was intended to bring coast home for the viewer.
Upon this project, I used some new mediums - water-based and mineral DIY furniture paints. It was more like a trial - to keep my work environmentally friendly if that’s even possible. Of course, I had to also use acrylics, but this is something I could possibly improve for future projects - working on ways how to move away from the plastic.
MEDIUM AND MATERIALS
I used many additional materials besides paint; reindeer moss, sea glass, Cornish sand, modelling pastes etc. This process helped me to decide on which materials worked the best and which were not compatible.
As I was creating a sensual art experience, there was a lot of involvement required from different sources. I spent nearly two months just building up information experimenting with various materials. With decisions made on colours, I had to work my way to desired texture. It included tissue paper, for textured bedground, sand which I applied on the top, different kind of modelling pastes. To hold a scent, I applied some reindeer moss. It was the easiest option, as it very well absorbed the scented liquid I used. Additionally, I used some sea glass which worked well to simulate a rock formation along my painted seashore.
The most challenging was to find the right way to apply the Braille onto my canvas. I had a few studio sessions at college in order to find the best way. Till the very end, I wasn’t sure if its ever going to work.
Despite our digital world of audio, cell phones and pads, Braille continues to be the most accepted method for people who are visually impaired (Blindchildrensfund.org. 2019). With Braille, they don’t listen to the words, people touch them, sense them, read them with their own hands - adding their own feeling to the words they read.
As celebrating Blind culture was my original idea and main inspiration it became my biggest priority. I knew had to make it happen. I read and watched so many materials, but I couldn’t find the easy solution. After experimenting with different methods and different mediums, I made myself a stencil with text consisting of dots. I used glue to build up my text, layer by layer. I found this method the best solution from all my multiple experiments. I chose “Wish you were here” - a classic postcard message written on a sandy beach- a message of greeting – well wishes from holiday. It worked well considering my overall composition.
⠺⠊⠎⠓⠀⠽⠕⠥⠀⠺⠑⠗⠑⠀⠓⠑⠗⠑
(wish you were here)
Sometimes you have that certain idea in your head, but no matter what you try it’s just don’t work. Braille text was the most important part of my project and I really wanted to make it real. Working to timescale was putting a lot of pressure on my creative progress, but experiences and outcome of this practical activity, was worth all the efforts.
It was the easiest solution, but also the most expensive. As soon as I decided that my painting would be with audio abilities, I searched up various methods. Not having time for any DIY projects, so as lacking experience in such sector I invested in already made sound canvas.
My mixed media artwork is painted on 16” x 20” canvas which hides behind a built-in Bluetooth speaker. It cost me £150.00 but could be a lot more as the original retail price on my chosen small canvas was £399.00.
Quite a tool with amazing sound quality. Developed in the USA by Onsia® whose mission is to; “Blending visual art with cutting-edge sound technology”. (ONSIA® SOUND ART™, 2019)
Onsia® transcend traditional ideas of art and sound and revolutionize the way people enjoy music. They developed Sound Art by using flat panel speakers rather than traditional “cone” speakers - combining art and sound by concealing speakers behind any type of work of art. (ONSIA® SOUND ART™, 2019)
The sound quality of this product is truly amazing and with the right music makes my work complete and unique
SHOWCASE
Initially, I wanted to put my work towards competition, but many I could apply ended earlier this year. Perhaps in a good way, it will give me time to consider my options for next year’s applications and perhaps make a series of similar works.
Currently, my final work is on display at the local gallery. I put forward it as a part of a different module – group project, where we had to identify and target audience. It worked well together. The exhibition is open for a week during the gallery’s working hours and I personally invited as many people as I could to go across and see my work. It is just the first stage as my mission is to engage large audiences.
Alongside this venue, I organised a 3D exhibition to be made for me and my group students. Curated by V21- Artspace – specialising in making virtual spaces my work will last forever and could be viewed again and again via the link. As we live in the digital era it was really necessary to have an online presence alongside the physical display.
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"... Develop your senses; especially learn how to see.
Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
Leonardo da Vinci (Goodreeds.com,2019)
Renaissance master made this exhortation more than five hundred years ago and he was so right – everything is connected. The sound of music, the scent of fresh air, the brush marks of artist inspired by its surroundings, everything connects in invisible ways.
The emotion of the lines and the atmosphere connects in my painting with a sound setting a calming mood, very much representing myself.
At the beginning of my project, I knew that it is essential for me to get as much visual inspiration as possible. It involved collecting art materials, doing appropriate research, getting to know other artists involved in similar work. There was inspiration everywhere for me. I tried a whole range of different style options, narrowed them down. Collected feedback from various sources, such as my friends and tutors. I weighed out as many options as possible, to be able to have a backup plan. Thankfully I didn’t need one.
All project took me about two months to plan and about three weeks went on the practical side. I learned a lot during this time. Get to know different applications of materials, use of different mediums. Everything I did was detailed and analysed via sketchbook and discussed with tutors.
Although work itself was slightly off from the original idea - create a tactile piece for visually impaired - the end result is quite pleasing and I’m not regretting of changing the course of the whole process. I also glad that I stick to my favourite theme and colours, as pushing every boundary could easily lead to disaster.
For the future, I am willing to develop my style more and take on another medium like clay. It could work well alongside my texture paintings. I have the ambition to organise my personal solo exhibition. There are so many projects I could potentially apply with the possibility of sponsorship, like getting help from the Arts Council which is designed to support independent creative practitioners. According to (Artscouncil.org.uk, 2019) they receive nearly a thousand applications each year, supporting as many as they can exciting and ambitious proposals.
One day it could be me.
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