Work work work. Create create create.

Here is some initial collage I started and images I cut out. Pretty shit. Im stuck with collage, but lots out, good ideas but never looks how I visage it...

I don't know what to do with it, so i've started drawing instead!

I've thought about using a photocopier to produce some of my work and not just stick down bits of paper, because I feel that It can sometimes look to much with the ends of paper not stuck down properly. But also as I was working, I sometime wondered whether it would be easier and look cleaner if I applied images on top using photoshop?

I've also thought about how is collage really just sticking images down? This is my initial thought of what it means, however I've thought of how I would produce images and it seems that using photoshop would be a really easy way to put images together. Scanning in bits you've cut out and then manipulating them on photoshop?

Resin Jewellery.

Over Christmas I have been re-searching and talking to some friends about ways in which you can use resin. I wanted to put together a museum case with resin to communicate my idea of pattern through the idea of 'parts' as well.

I started with the idea of the butterfly and cut them out intricately, however the idea of using butterflies was something I wasn't that interested in, it felt and looked to girly. So then this led me to the 'moth', a less beautiful but all the same detailed and interesting creature. I have looked into understanding the moth a little more. But when I thought about what I wanted to do, I don't think that the wings or bodies are different. So I'm now concentrating on a few insects with wings to construct and laser cut out of fabrics.

I've begun to design some pieces from bits of insects, the drawings are put together using different 'parts' of insects I've been looking at.

I drew them and then had to trace them using the pentool to get a clearer more defined line for the laser cutter.

I've also thought about how I want the insects to sit in the resin, until everything is cut out and i can start seeing things together I don't know what will be to much or too little. So I've designed some pattern for the insect to sit on and a frame to use possibly?

I thought about using a frame in the jewllery, because while I have been putting these images together I have been thinking about the meaning of the word jewllery and also a collection. When you think about both of these words they mean 'special in some way'. People frame things or present things in some way that are important and special to them, therefore I want to frame my bugs inside the resin.

Davids' Book Shop.

On arriving home, the first thing I wanted to do was gather some books for material to collage. I had David's Book Shop in mind, a book shop and 2nd hand book shop in my town at home.

I bought a few books that had the kind of stuff I wanted to include in my work.

I have begun by just cutting out any image I like or that relates to my idea of a 'collection of parts' and have got ideas for images through the process of cutting out.

I've also started to put together surfaces to work on and collage. The images for my book are going to be mixed media.

I cut things out that showed 'parts', but in groups of subject. The human body, animals, technology, movement.

Even if I don't use many of the images I've cut out or am not happy with the collage, the process of cutting out and choosing what images to cut out has really helped me in putting together ideas for concepts and images in my book.

I also bought this book, which I thought was just sexy! The colours and cover are striking and qitch, but the type and layout on the back is also something I really like.

Collage.

From various bits of collage I've done, I want to find ways that I can present the images together so that they flow and also have a running theme.

I guess that this is mostly down to visual language...

Ways I could do this are through adding text, or a narrative perhaps? Possibly through using the same colour throughout?

Ive looked at some books souly based on collage:

(Collage Techniques: A Guide for Artists and Illustrators)

This book seems to use colours as a running theme through out their images and as a way of creating narrative and a flow, but also a similar way of laying down and sticking paper.

I also came across this website...

http://www.collageart.org/links/

This is some information I gained through looking at the powerpoint Christian showed the first years in relation to collage...

Starting with some definitions:

Collage.

Art assembled from various materials

{ French; to glue }

Montage.

Composite picture made from various elements

{ French; putting together } Also Photo-montage

Assemblage.

Combining 3-D objects together into an art work

Juxtaposition.

To place (things) side by side

{ French; next to }

Denotation.

The primary, literal meaning

The intended meaning

Connotation.

The range of secondary meanings,

The reading of an image

Below are specific movements in collage over the years.

Illustionists

Avant-garde

Political Satire

Formalism

Pop-art

Counter culture

Contemporary collage

Ones that interested me the most were.....

Avant-garde.

Historical pioneers of the DADA, Futurist,

Constructionist and Bauhaus art movements

Artists such as:

Hannah Höch.

Rodchenko, Alexander (1891-1956)

Satire.

Use of ridicule, irony, sarcasm to expose and discourage

vice and folly. Political Satire.

Artists such as:

John Heartfield.

Martha Rosler.

Bringing the War Home.

Contemporary collage.

Artists such as:

James Dawe.

I came across this guy whilst researching. An amazing artist, who grew up and lives in London. His portfolio is well worth a look! His images are all so well executed. Collage, but all done with precision.

Time to 'gather' and 'plan my time' spent over christmas.

Well with a slightly better idea of how I want to approach this brief now and what I want to produce, I know what I need to do.

Here are a couple of books I have got hold of to aid the idea of putting a book together and layout within a book:

What Im planning to achieve over the holiday:

- Gather lots of collage material - Davids Book Shop.

- Start to understand collage more, check Christians collage powerpoint to first years on moodle.

- Create surfaces and start to collage.

- Plan Jewellery idea further.

I know its not a lot, but lets think realistically, how much work am I really going to get done at home?

Things I also need to think about are the fact that there seems so many ways I could approach the way to put my book together, or what to fully concentrate on and so I need to try and recognise or think of something I want to concentrate on to pull it all together.

THE BOOKS STRUCTURE:

THE BOOKS IDEA/COMMUNICATION/MESSAGE:

THE BOOKS SUBJECTS

'Beautiful Losers'.

This was recommended to me by friends, a film called Beautiful Losers which is a 2007 documentary feature film by director Aaron Rose and co-directed by Joshua Leonard. It was produced by Sidetrack Films. Actually a book before a film...

The film focuses on the careers and work of a collective group of artists who since the 1990s began a movement in the art world using D.I.Y, aesthetics from skateboarding, graffiti and underground music such as punk rock and hip-hop. The artists discussed and interviewed in the film include Cheryl Dunn, Shepard Fairey, Geoff McFetridge, Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Steven 'Espo' Powers, Aaron Rose, Ed Templeton.

The film, a series of interviews with these artists explains their reasoning behind their "do-it-yourself" style of street art. As some of these artists discuss their growth in popular artistic culture they explain how becoming renown and admired in the art world was something that never occurred to them from their various roots in street culture, or simply creating art for themselves. As many of the artists began to be recognizable and sought after they discuss their series of commercial success: creating advertisements for popular products, designing products themselves, working in film and being hired to paint and create artwork in well known locations. The personal feelings and convictions of some of the artists and how creating work for corporations compares to their beginnings in street culture is also discussed.

It was a really useful film to watch and made me think about the importance of working within your local community and a where you've come from, playing an important part within your work. 

Its very inspirational and also makes you think about how we as artists actually produce our work? I liked the idea of the artist saying that peoples thoughts are that you have to work in a certain way to make it as an artist, but that he doesn't he works as he did and has fun as a child would do. He comments on how there is no point forcing work, you just let something happen. Nothing you can do is wrong, it just progresses. This is something that lays heavy in my mind, as it's something that I do think about a lot.

It is a film that I feel I will watch many a times, for every reason, inspiration, innovation and to relax myself about where my future lies within the design world.

Wipe that clock off your face.

As well as the outside of the book at the Fresh Leaf zine fair, the style of this book is something I am interesting in re-creating.

I want the theme of parts to be coherrent throughout my book, in anyway, even if it's through the way bits of my book and pages are constructed - through sticking 'parts' odd and ends together.

The books I will be purchasing and looking into to collage for my book will all be classic/old style picture/information books, which i want to portray in my own book such as 'Wipe that clock of your face'. I also like the idea of having rounded edges.

Aswell as using old 'classic' texts and colours from old books that I will be collecting for collage material and inspiration, you can see in the scan below, that the text has been taken from ..

Fresh Leaf. Zine Fair.

The Fresh Leaf Zine fair/Artist Book and zine fair was put on by theartmarket. It was a pilot for a series of artist multiple sales under the title ‘Fresh Leaf’ at theartmarket & kunstfreund gallery in the Merrion Market. There was a variety of artist multiples on sale.

This was a chance for me to go and look at the idea of 'the zine' and see how artists put their books/zines' together. Also an insight into how I may promote myself as a designer in the future. I definitely want to put together my own zines, so this was a good insight into possibilities.

Although it was fun to look at the content and their ideas, it was useful to see the way they structured and put the book together. A style I particularly liked was the one shown below, these books done by Nigel Peake were also well illustrated. I liked the colours he'd used for his cover and also the spine, but the way that they were different colours and complimented each other well.

Another book that uses this style of bound is 'Wipe that clock of your face' by Brian Belott. As you can see from the photo below, the spine has a different colour used and an imprinted bit on the side. This is a book i've looked into further as it encompasses a lot good collage and also has a nicely pieced together in 'parts' layout.

Jewellery.

Been looking into using resin for my jewellery, and also looking at how other artists use it in their pieces.

I've also been thinking about how I want to use insects/wing within my pieces of jewellery.

Firstly I looked up the word Jewellery:

jewellery |ˈjoō(ə)lrē| ( Brit. jewellery)

noun

personal ornaments, such as necklaces, rings, or bracelets, that are typically made from or contain jewels and precious metal.

They describe it as being something that is very personal and made from nice things/pretty thing/precious things. From this I know that If i were to produce a few bits of jewellery, I would only produce a few unique pieces of each, so they're made to be more personal as there aren't many of the same.

What I put inside them is important to, the insects need to be formed from something special. Also the idea of resin (amber), is that these things have been set in there for ages and this makes them special.

Other jewllers, using resin...

Something else important is taking these insects/insect parts and make them look different and make a pattern. Kind of like the idea of these Barbie pieces. Taking something and changing it...

The Moth > The Insect.

What is a moth?

Do I want to use the moth or insects?

A moth is an insect.

From thinking about it, I think that the moth is too ristricting.

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. The differences between butterflies and moths are more than just taxonomy. Sometimes the names "Rhopalocera" (butterflies) and "Heterocera" (moths) are used to formalize the popular distinction. Many attempts have been made to subdivide the Lepidoptera into groups such as the Microlepidoptera and Macrolepidoptera, Frenatae and Jugatae, or Monotrysia and Ditrysia. Failure of these names to persist in modern classifications is because none of them represents a pair of "monophyletic groups". The reality is that butterflies are a small group that arose from within the "moths"^{[citation needed]} and there is thus no way to group all of the remaining taxa in a monophyletic group, as it will always exclude that one descendant lineage.

There are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth, with thousands of species yet to be described.^[1] Most species of moth are nocturnal, but there are crepuscular and diurnal species.