Coursework statement
In my AS coursework project I explored the theme of natural forms. Initially I began by experimenting with still life drawings. I used a range of different techniques to draw various natural forms such as flowers and plants. I looked at the work of Georgia O’Keefe and produced a copy of “Grey, Blue, Black and pink circle”. I then began to focus closely on flowers. I used photography and sketching to create pieces related to flowers, including two artist copies and some Photoshop work. My project progressed into the meaning of flowers. I came across the spiritual meaning of the lotus in the Hindu belief. The lotus symbolizes the growth of someone and their religion. I then produced a large drawing of four lotus flowers. The background of the drawing was washed with coffee so the middle of the drawing was lighter and drew the eye in. This also symbolizes the light of religion being found by the person that has been finding and growing into their religion.
My ideas then progressed and I began to look at the work of Alphonse Mucha and Audrey Kawasaki. Both of these artists focus on women and what they represent. Alphonse Mucha represents women as beautiful objects like flowers and presents women as if they are only there to be pretty. Kawasaki’s work looks like it has been derived from the work of Mucha. Although, Kawasaki’s work has a very sultry look and suggests that there is more to the women she draws than their looks. She often presents her women in strange situations placed with items such as feathers, bones and even tentacles. My work then progressed inspired by Kawasaki’s work. I took many photographs of bones and using Photoshop edited items such as bones and dead flowers into bouquets of flowers. When looking at bones, flowers and skulls on the internet I came across many images of sugar skulls and images of “The Day of the Dead”. From researching this I found that it is a day where people remember, celebrate and pay respects to the departed. I then started to produce the final piece for this project. My final piece consists of a range of ideas from my project. I produced an installation that consists of three butterflies and two flowers that I drew and have been scanned and printed out in different sizes. I added origami butterflies and attached all these to clear string. These were then hung over a skull. My piece represents life, death and the idea that when you die life is not over, and your living spirit will continue on to another life. This is represented by the butterflies flying up from the skull as the butterflies represent the spirit moving on and the flowers represent life. To Sum my project up, it encapsulates; Growth, Spirituality, Life, Death and how these can all be celebrated together.
Exam statement
To begin my project I created a mind-map to explore different ideas regarding the heading Covert and Obscured. I began experimenting with the meaning of “obscure”. I found different ways to obscure words, people and objects. I then decided to take the route of stories and fairytales. I was inspired by the idea that fairytales have been obscured over time. I did observational drawings of items that you may find in fairytales and stories such as Snow White and Alice in Wonderland. I made a mind-map of many different fairytales. I looked in detail at Snow White and Cinderella as I felt that these were stories that have been greatly sanitized from their original versions. I looked at the artists Mike Stilkey and Bobby Chiu. Both these artists are inspired by books and fairytales. I did artist copies for both of these artists and also produced my own Stilkey inspired book sculpture. My work progressed to be focusing on the story of Cinderella. I am mostly interested in this story as when reading an early version of the story I was shocked at the gore and how much it has changed to the modernized Disney versions of today. I did a drawing of the glass slipper seen in the Disney movie but added blood. This blood is taken from the original story in which the step-sisters would cut off their toes and heels to try and fit into the glass slipper. From this idea I developed a shoe made from clay. This was to be part of a sculpture based on this drawing. I also made a cushion for the shoe made from book pages and a glitter tiara from acrylic. This was all brought together and presented on top of a book on which the page reads “The burial of the dead”. This piece represents the sanitized versions of fairytales that are read by children today which are focused on magic, wishes, princesses and tiaras compared to the gruesome original stories which were told to be scary and deter children from bad behavior. In my exam I produced a drawing which consisted of iconic items from Cinderella and Snow White. This was also inspired by the story “The girl with no hands” which is a very old fairytale written by the Grimm Brothers in which a father chops off his own daughters hands. I hoped to present two well-known and sanitized fairytales within a scene from a very old and gruesome original fairytale. To sum up this project I hoped to show that fairytales were not always a pretty story for children to watch or read. Fairytales today give children hopes and dreams for a “fairytale” future with wishes that could never be true, only to find the reality of life when they grow older. Fairytales were once stories to show children how they should behave and warn them of the realities of life when they grow older.
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