Gravity: Dawn Mellor (16/10/14)

Dawn Mellor comes from Gamesley which is quite close to where I come from; this immediately put me at ease& I thought I might just like her. However, she had a very no-nonsense way of speaking, as if she is always on the defensive and at times she came across as quite rude. But this just made her a captivating speaker and I barely took any notes because I was so absorbed in what she had to say.

She mentioned her book 'Michael Jackson and Other Men’, that she grew up in the 80s when life was fraught with the race riots. This affected her in many ways, as you would expect. Her paintings are from “constructed personas”, showing well known faces destroyed or mutilated in some way giving them a sinister feel which makes you question why they have the right to be in a position of power in their normal lives. After seeing their faces distorted and broken you start to look at them (as normal people) in a different way, what is this obsession with celebrity about?

Mellor believes that her art has a political stance, she called it “derailing the black/white/bad/good”; she intends to blur the lines between these things in order to stop people from thinking in binary oppositions.

When discussing her painting process Mellor said she starts making and then finds problems to solve. This resonates with me as an experimental painter and it was interesting to hear that this problem occurs regardless of your painting style. Furthermore she said that none of the concepts discovered after a show were intentional from the start, meaning that she does not paint to get a reaction and does not intend or predict any response. Although, this is hard to believe given the emotive nature of her work which is bound to evoke a response from the general public, some of which will no doubt idolise the people who’s faces she mutilates.

Mellor went on to describe the challenge she faces between the expectation and demand for her work and her own love of making. As the galleries are always pushing her to produce things that she does not want to produce. Leading her towards what the current market is interested in instead of what she is currently interested in. This was very encouraging to hear of someone standing up to ‘the man’ and getting away with it! She went on to mention that on several occasions the galleries have been known to be wrong, making me think that people are more likely to buy what is in front of them as oppose to demand something different.

Transmission: Felicity Allen, 'Begin Again - Creating a dis-oeuvre' (14/10/14)

http://www.felicityallen.co.uk/

I found her work to be interesting in its origin, as opposed to its manifestation. She admits that her paintings are poor and I have to agree, they are not lacking in character or life but in simple aesthetics; the reason for this being that she had not painted in years. Her work ‘Begin Again’ was created after finishing a position she had held for a long time at a certain gallery (which name escapes me) she decided to pick up her brush once again in an attempt to fall back in love with painting.

In the lecture she said that, “self doubt is common place in the making of art” and although I find this to be very true for me at present, I was greatly hoping that that would disappear with time. However, throughout my first term of University I have only been presented with a handful of artists that ooze self assurance, though on reflection I believe this to be entirely false. Creating art is a difficult and challenging business and when one does not question their process, technique, purpose etc. how can they really create something artful at all? Without the presence of doubt how can someone discover the truth? It is frustrating to only present questions with no straightforward answer, but isn’t that what art is all about?

She spoke a lot about things that inspire her, for example, ‘Three Guineas’ by Virginia Woolf and ‘The Eye’s Mind: Bridget Riley’ by Robert Kudielka. Her points of interest in the lecture bled together at times, jumping from “denarritarisation” to “Picasso is so sexy” to how “females represent nature and males represent culture”! Overall I felt that when she answered questions at the end of the lecture she was far easier to listen to.

Playfulness

One of my favourite pastimes as a child was going to the seaside, combining this concept with primary colours and a total lack of painterly skill I have created this:

I don't know if I will cover the board completely with paint or leave some white space... I think that some writing might be good here, however I would like to keep the spontaneous& childlike vibe of the piece going.

Tbc.

Experiment

I'm experimenting with the idea of not being an artist. I intend to create a series of work that highlights my existential angst as an aspiring artist.

Tackling what is at the core of my beliefs, in respect of what makes an artist an artist, and what is classed as artistic in my own opinion.