EXPLORATORY PROJECT (EP) week1 day1

WEEK1 DAY1 - 10 week exploratory project

1.1

1.2

1.3

My experimental project has a dual interest. It will be centred around texture, layers and making, using found or common, everyday materials and also the exploration of how this work is read through the technology of mechanical/ digital reproduction, ie. photography, scanning, importing into computer, websites/social media etc. I hope to then create a dialogue between the two platforms of physically made, textured work and  digital representation. It would be interesting to create a new physical work from the digital work and a new diital work from the physical.                Arists researched/referenced: Kurt Shwitters/ MERZ, Anselm Kiefer, Robert Rauchenberg, Matisse, Gerhard Richter, Ben Nicholson, Arte Povre. (I have really enjoyed exploring the work of these artists .... and I would love to continue ... but now it's time to make!)

I was quite nervous about starting project today; need to put research to one side now and just work intuitively. This morning I collected together an assortment of plastic carier bags, newspapers etc., along with a selection of art materials, paper, canvasses, paints, including household and bitumen etc., already in my hoard. I have also researched and considered buying a resin coating for work (textured v.smooth shiny) but maybe later as quite expensive.
 -- but once in studio saw card remnants from postcard art and decided to start with those., which took me by surprise... then why glue them onto paper for a collage when I could just rest on scanner bed? 1.1 and 1.2  show remnant strips of card layed directly onto scanner bed and 1.3 has black card laid on top. It's an interesting process in that everything is reversed, including layers. Saved scans to file and also printed out copies. (need to check out colour repro, as black card printed brown)
Spent ages connecting up scanner to laptop and at last found a button to put on task bar on laptop. I have an epsons sx425w printer scanner, but have not used scanner facility much.Needed to find online manual to set up professional mode which allows me change resolution etc. Experimented with uploading files to photobox to get files of appropriate size -- too small and quality is not good enough to make a larger print; too big and file either won't upload or computer friezes. Don't find all this techy stuff terribly easy and very timeconsuming, but get a sense of satisfaction through being able to use free or low priced apps/programmes. ( ie, don't have/want photoshop) and this ethos fits in with my project of wanting to use 'found ' materials. Last year I discovered a process of uploading files to a company (photobox) who the printed my work onto acrylic panels. Although the process is quite time consuming, I find this art work attractive and I have sold several pieces. Am I making prints? ..I suppose I am. The only other place I have seen this done is with global wall photos in the HSBC bank. I also like the way this format does away witht the need for frames (which I find problematic) and photobox stick a hanging system to the back of the work.

'coastline' - my work on arylic panels

.... thinking that acrylic panels wouls be a good format for showing fusion work of texture and digital. they come in a range of sizes, largest being 100x50cm, 80x60cm and 40x40cm and are quite expensive,  (£135) for largest panel.
Perhaps I should create a virtual gallery ready to upload to photobox if needed?

1.4 rosi robinson

The work 1.4 was quickly created on  phone, using free app. paint joy, to see if it was possible to create in quality good enough to upload. I made it from memory after seeing work(below) by alex echo.
Photobox has a system of faces :) ,  :I and :(  to show quality of upload/size of print.) I managed to get a good quality :) by saving phone pic to dropbox, then printing a copy, which I scanned in high resolution and uploaded to photobox. ... all a bit time consuming, but it worked!
                  1.5 alex echo