Volantra's Garden

English Essay to hand in this week.

2009-10-05T07:35:00.000-07:00

What is a life changing event? Dictionary.reference.com online defines life changing as "altering a persons life or circumstances".

There are many people who would never come to realise their ambition in life. I'm one of the copious others who has done nothing but strive to fulfill an ambition. Siting here now looking at the pile of random paperwork and sketchbooks, in amongst which lies my crisp new degree certificate, I find the question "what is a life changing moment?" the easiest yet hardest of questions to answer.

If my life were to become a book it would start with - "as far back as I can remember I have always retained a fascination with art." From the wooden blue painted plane in nursery to the pencil shaded lily flower at junior school, the one memory that stands out from all the rest is learning how to draw a tree in primary one. The way in which the assistant teacher attached small lines together to form upside down branches amazed the shy five year old girl that I once was. Turning the tree round to face me, I began to draw. The tree was not just a rounded curly blob on a stick anymore, each branch had become a new path, never knowing which way it would turn; up, down, this way, that way or sometimes just stop.

From that day onwards my only ambition in life was to share this knew found skill with others, to become an art teacher just like the woman who showed me how to draw a tree. If life was simple the story would be straight forward, but life is not a simple curly blob on a stick; its a parents divorce, a father appearing after 12 years, failing at college, lack of money, failed relationships, new relationships, planning a wedding, achieving a degree. During all of which I have learned patience above all. My ambition has been the crutch through bad times and a gift through good.

The knocks I have taken have been hard and at least once a year the thought crosses my mind "is this worth it?". I wont be able to answer this question until my dream is fulfilled and I'm worried and excited all at the same time. The dream can be seen on the horizon and I'm now one step closer to that dream but what if I fail? Can a child knowing what she or he wishes to be when they grow up be a burden? If anything the answer to both these questions should be considered no, but time and patience can become like frost in a winter wood.

The tree is still not finished and who knows which way the branch will turn. The leaves have fallen and there have been knots in the branches but more than likely new leaves will grow and forked branches will become stronger. These roots have stood strong through floods and seasons and will stand for many more.

Getting things in order

2009-08-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

Its been one of those summers where I have set out with good intentions of doing some work and then ended up distracted by other things. I am now enrolled on a Higher English evening class, as higher English is a must have if I want to get into teacher training next year. I have also got the ball rolling to do voluntary work in secondary schools in the local area helping the art departments. Off on holiday to France soon so this wont happen till I get back.

I'm contemplating turning one of my first ever life drawing's (done in pastels A1 size) into a painting. I've always loved it and to this day its still one of my favorite works of art. I'm curious to see if I can replicate the pastel texture and colour through using Acrylic paint. First I need to source out the perfect canvas.

The summer dress I started has now become just a test for another dress I want to try. I wasn't happy with the pattern I used for the yellow dress and am going to attempt to make my own pattern instead. I foresee a trip to Mandor's in Glasgow for some scummy fabrics.

It seems I have a lot of time planning to sort out this month.

Yellow summer dress

2009-07-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

I'm exhausted after todays activities. I ordered some yellow cotton gingham from ebay which arrived today. The purpose is to make a dress using this fabric which I can wear before the summer is out. Having found a pattern online of a 1950s creation I used the skirt pattern as a template. The skirt is all cut out and sewn now, just waiting on the lining which should come tomorrow before I can sew up the waist line and hem.

I also ordered some DIY fabric button holders :) I love buttons! After painstakingly trying to clip the fabric while bunching it all inside with several fingers I gave up and turned to goodle for advice. I found this site -
Instructables

I then used a needle and thread to bunch up the fabric and then it was easy to clip the back on :) so simple, why did I not think of that in the first place.

They are 1cm wide and there are nine of them to go on the back of the dress once I decide on a top pattern, I cant make my mind up.

Digital Photography Week photographs

2009-07-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

The photography week at "Stills" was fantastic! Here are a very small selection of some of the photos taken from the week -

This was a project I worked on to do with carrying a photograph on you, in your wallet or on your phone. I love the idea that some of us carry a little bit of someone els around.

A couple of the portraits taken:

This was my favourite from the week which I hope to develop further. I took an old family photo from 40s Gorbals in Glasgow and placed it in a west end Edinburgh backdrop:
My future ideas for this artwork are to travel to Inverness and photograph my great uncle (shown on the right in the photo). The idea is to place this photo next to one of his hands holding a more up to date photo of himself.

Website update

2009-07-26T04:18:00.000-07:00

Its a rainy day so what better way to spend time productively than to update my website. The degree page is now up and running :) By the end of today I hope to have more of my photography work and there and other art projects.

Stills Gallery day 1

2009-07-06T12:08:00.001-07:00

I signed up for the digital photography week at the Stills gallery in Edinburgh this week. Today was the first day and already I have acquired helpful skills to help me take better photographs.

The main focus today was on aperture (which I had no idea where it was on my Nikon D50) and shutter speed oh and white balance. The day was spent mainly taking photos along the royal mile followed by learning some Bridge and photoshop techniques in the afternoon. Levels on photoshop is something I already use but today I was shown a more advanced way of using it of which I forgot almost instantly but hopefully another play around with it tomorrow and it will come back to me.

The group is small and everyone seems really friendly which is always good on courses. Overall it has been a very possitive expereince so far and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week.

2009-06-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

The degree show has been a success so far. People have been really engaging with my artwork "Pillow Talk". Just to see how much fun the kids were having with the gloves on opening night and coming in the next day to see the whole of the magnetic board covered in posts makes it worth every penny. I will have to post photos of course later. The house is in a state of disrepair at the moment and must be cleaned before I sit down, relax and process photos.

2009-05-17T12:32:00.000-07:00

Time has flown by so fast these past few months and I have failed miserably to keep this updated. So whats been happening... Well I'm now on to my second project for John Rylands Library in Manchester. The pillow project is still taking time to come together in terms of being perfect for exhibition :S I looked at creating a box to go around a full scale model of the pillow out of perspex but found that it was more or less the same price to have it made for me out of glass. Its going to be a dry glove box which will isolate the pillow in the way I want it to.

The second project is now becoming focused on a small article I found in the New York Times. It writes about the life of John Rylands and how he built up his industry from a penny. Its mainly about small things becoming larger more impressive things from hard work (human achivement) Im looking at the achievement of John Rylands with regards to the cotton industry and the achievement of the Library as a memorial to John Rylands. The library is now connected to the university and is a base for many other people looking to achieve in life. I have used organic acid free materials (paper and cotton).

The degree show is on the 4th June :S I'm starting to feel the pressure and trying to tie up all my loose ends at the moment in time for marking. Today I made my postcard ready to be analysed this Friday. Will do another update tomorrow when things are a bit clearer, this is what happens when you leave blogging for so long.

2009-03-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

I've been a busy bee this week in terms of development work. First of all I created the cast using mod rock of the memory foam pillow. The result was a desired one but I still feel it does not meet my design requirement. It certainly meets the concept requirement. I love the indent on the pillow and the fabric creases captured. I think more development is in order to try and create the same shape to the pillow but a softer feel to it and I still want it to be interactive. I tried makeing a mini plaster 3D pillow and I love it its so cute.

The project is coming along great and I'm feeling very confident with it at the moment. Cant wait to see the final solution at the degree show.

Chris and I went to Berlin. It was fantastic, well worth the visit. The Jewish museum was the highlight of the trip for me and there was lots of snow in Berlin compared to the little snow we had here in Scotland. Photos from the trip can be found on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/volantra/

Knitting

2009-02-01T03:29:00.000-08:00

Away from the stress of portfolio, I decided to take up knitting, as I have been advised recently by many friends online that it helps to de-stress. This is my first attempt at knitting a scarf. I chose to mix together a thick ivory wool with a thinner multicoloured wool, the result was a very thick warm scarf. This took the equivalent of 3 films to do and I'm very pleased with the results. I have since knitted another scarf in a similar fashion but with 12mm knitting needles instead of 7mm and its longer. Its helping wonders with my stress levels.

On another note Chris and I are going to Berlin very soon. For a few years now I have wanted to visit the Jewish meseum in Berlin http://www.juedisches-museum-berlin.de/site/EN/homepage.php
Now I'm nearing the end of my degree I think its about time, plus I had some good news last week that college owe me £520. Really looking forward to it :) need to brush up on my German though over these two weeks. Looking for some other places to visit, as we are making it an art and culture trip. No doubt Chris will be on the hunt for good beer.

Portfolio begininings

2009-01-29T09:01:00.000-08:00

First week of the start of portfolio has been rather productive so far. On Monday I was comfortably already into the work, by doing a self analysis I was able to ascertain my strengths and weaknesses and come up with my two briefs based on this. The first brief is to be the larger of the two, as it ties in with the case study work I did before the Christmas period and I'm very keen to produce a project in connection with Flickr.com.

My ideas for this project are already starting to take shape in my mind but I have found that during research and discussions with different people in college they are changing shape already. Maybe pictures in next weeks post :)

The points and research to consider this week:

Suzanne Lacy
Let Flickr users on the group I set up know the full purpose of the group (check creative commons)
Check out Dundee contemporary arts
Research forms of Diary's
Look at different types of sensory books
Research Installation art

Tasks completed on time this week:

Self analysis
Write briefs
Create project plan
One to one discussion with each lecturer

Tasks to be done before the start of next week:

Finish project proposal for brief 1
Set up discussion group on Flickr.com