Open Studio 5

Photo taken by Jemima Carey 21/02/2025

Studio Proposal

Content – 5 key ideas you are currently exploring/ would like to explore in your studio practice this semester?

Nature

Self

Maritime

Spirituality

Inter-Human connections

Form/Process – 5 key approaches to making you are currently exploring/ would like to explore in your studio practice this semester (materials, methods, media)?

Watercolour

Viewer engagement

Traditional crafting

Poetry inspiration

Process

Context – 5 key artists that currently inform your own work/ you would like to investigate further in your studio practice this semester?

Agnes Arellano

Helen Frankenthaler

Euan Macleod

Maya Lin

Simon Starling

1. Reflect on your practice as a whole and analyse the key developments – what shifts can you observe in your overall thinking and making processes? What key realisations have you come to regarding your art practice? How do these inform the direction of your practice for this semester?

Nautical themes, sailing related
Self-reflection, using photos of myself as references
Poetry and music and inspirational source material
I have developed my skills in watercolour and woodwork in particular
As a new development, I have discovered that the artworks I am most proud of are heavily process driven

2. What are your practice goals for this semester? Consider: conceptual/ material/ contextual approaches to the practice. What are your longer-term goals for your practice/ career?

To make process driven artwork that engages the viewer
Creating art that isn’t just about something, but offers a clear opinion on that thing
To use my material, process, inspirational sources and presentation in a very deliberate way so that they all contribute to the artworks value and meaning

3. What key issues, conceptual frameworks or approaches to contemporary art practice would you like to research and explore? Consider the contextual field of your practice – what are the key concepts, who are the key theorists and artists?

Climate change and reconnecting with the natural world
Reconnecting with each other as humans, having perspective and empathy; Being kind to ourselves
Finding joy and beauty in our world and appreciating it

Week 1

Translate

Brief: Translate an artwork from 2024 by changing the medium, context or process

I turned my artwork 'Albatross' series (see below) into a digital image with overlayed text.

The translated artwork was made in Adobe Photoshop.

I took the quotes from my original artwork and worked them into a photograph I took on a digital camera a few years ago. The quotes draws similarities between the movements of the ocean and the emotional turmoil that comes with human existence.

I chose to translate my artwork:

'Albatross' (2024) series, made with typewriter, pen and butchers paper

Quotes from the poem ‘Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’ made with imagery

Photoshop process

Iteration 1

Using the 'warp' function in photoshop I manipulated the text to vaguely follow the motion of the water in the underlying image. The text in this image was at 100% opacity.

Iteration 2

I changed the text opacity to 54%, allowing it to better blend into the underlying image and mimic the sea foam.

Iteration 3

I removed some of the text in the middle section of the image so that it would better blend with the sea foam in the existing image. This supports the hidden effect, making the text a secondary visual cue and the ocean picture the first.

Reflection:

Photoshop is not one of my strengths as an artist, nor is it a medium I commonly turn to. However for the purpose of translating my practice into something new, I decided it was the most appropriate opposition to the very traditional process of using a typewriter and a pen.

The hidden effect of the text blending into the sea foam was effective,