The Artists Studio

I recently had a contextual studies lecture which included stuff about the artists studio. I think it's pretty interesting to see where famous artists worked, especially if their spaces reflected their practice.

This is Francis Bacon's studio. I've had this photo saved on my computer for age because it's awesome.

I bet his Mum never told him to tidy up...

The studios of Kurt Schwitters, above, and Piet Mondrian, below, look like extensions of their artwork.

Then there's Chuck Close. This one is interesting because you get to see his painting technique, like there's a hole in the floor for the canvas to fit in when it's moved up and down.

Also, he is The Man.

And I guess it's only fair that I show you my studio space. It's come a long way since the miniature version I made in October, but that's because I've done a lot more work. And I've adopted an easel, acquired some storage, and gathered bags and bags of junk. It's also been messier than this: this photo was taken when my exhibition was up so all my miniature pieces weren't taking up space like they usually do.

New hairband

Amidst all the artness I have been keeping crafty; by sewing buttons onto felt.

And then sewing on two pieces of string and calling it a hairband.

I love me some buttons.

I have to take my exhibition down today.

Sad face.

Tiny Little Dark Things

As promised here are some photos from my little exhibition at uni. I realise that most of what you're seeing is a bunch of boxes not the miniature scenes inside but I'll show you close ups of the individual pieces in future posts.

There's Because You Left on the right, and a newer piece Men In Suits Make Mistakes on the left.

 Should Have Gone The Long Way Home on the right and Dirty Playground on the left. It's a strip club. With working lights. Oh yeah.

Red High Heels on the left, which seems to be the favourite amongst the viewers, and What Have I Done on the right which has a mirror in it so you can see yourself looking...

...like this.

And this is what you end up looking at. I'm very happy with the way the glue dried to look like running water.

The artist and her work.

I also had a plinth with some of the miniature weapons that I made last term on it and a comments book for people to write in. Which they have been doing! It's very exciting.

Exhibition

If you are a NUCA student you should come and see my exhibition!

And if not, I'll post photos of it later in the week.

I'm exhibiting my recent work from the last 3 very busy weeks, including the three pieces I've already featured on this blog.

On a different note, this past weekend marked my 1 year blogiversary!

Kudos to me for keeping it up for a whole year, and kudos to you for reading because I probably wouldn't bother if noone was reading it. But don't forget to let me know you're looking. Drop me a comment sometimes yeah? Cool.

Studio work: Because You Left

Here's another of my miniature constructions. I hope you're not getting bored of seeing them.

This one is a kitchen. There's a fridge and some cupboards...

...a sink and a window. All nice enough.

But you guys know me better than that; there's also bloody knives in the dishwasher.

This pieces is called 'Because You Left' and it's a little shout out to Lost and the moment in the clip below. 

Studio work: Red High Heels

Here's another of my recent makings.

It's a cereal box...

...with some kind of unfortunate scene inside!

So what happened here?

Broken shoes on the stairs, contents of a womans handbag spilled onto the floor.

What do you think?

The title of this one is simply 'Red High Heels'.

I wonder where I got that from...

A Swift craft

I still had another wooden person photo holder leftover from when I made this elf, so I decided to make a Taylor Swift! Cos y'all know I love me some Taylor.

I use it to hold my Taylor Swift concert ticket from a few years ago.

I was going for this look:

Not bad, right?

I cut out a little guitar shape which I covered in glitter and attached to the body which I'd painted to match this famous outfit.

For the hair I used little pieces of yellow wool which, when I pulled them apart, created thinner, curly strands. It's what inspired the whole thing really.

Has anyone else got Speak Now? I love it.

Studio work

Since I got back from the Christmas break I've been super busy making new things in the studio.

Like whatever's inside this Vienetta box.

Looks like an underpass...

...there's a lot of graffiti...

...oh, and a big ol' smear of blood on the wall and floor.

This piece is called Should Have Gone The Long Way Home.

Draw your own conclusions.

Tweet Tweet

I like these felt bird decorations by Digs and Bean.

I like this glitter bird centre piece from Martha Stewart.

I like this vintage paper bird.

Source unknown. My bad.

And I like all these fabric birds made by my friend Natalie.

That is all.

Cava

I finally got round to making something with this bottle top that I picked up at a barbeque in the summer.

I drilled holes in it all the way around and then attached beads to the edge by threading wire through.

A bit of black elastic and some felt on the back so it wasn't scratchy and I have myself a new necklace. 

If you really love animals, you may want to look away

To ease myself back into actually doing work after a very relaxing Christmas holiday, I decided to make miniature roadkill. As you do.

I painted a piece of cardboard to look like a strip of road and then added the indistinguishable animal.

It's made out of tissue paper, felt, glue and bits of dried red paint.

Let's keep that thing out of focus shall we.

If it's little; I like it

Here are some of the artists I've looked at to help with my miniature work.

Life Goes On - Frank Kunert

Frank Kunert is a German artist who makes ironic models based on common phrases and then photographs them.

Laundromat, 2008 - Lori Nix

Lori Nix describes herself as a photographer who constructs her subject matter rather than going out and finding it. She's done a lot of work based on her childhood in Kansas, growing up experiencing natural disasters. Her latest series The City depicts a post-apocalyptic world, empty of human life.



Noir - Jonah Samson

Jonah Samson's latest series of photographs, Noir, is based on early 20th century crime photography. If you know how much CSI I've been watching lately; you'll know why I like this.


Clearing (UXO) - Thomas Doyle

 Thomas Doyle is the only one of the bunch who presents the 3D miniatures as the artwork, rather than photographs of them. I like how he enclosed the tiny worlds into glass domes, reminiscent of snowglobes.

Paper Dolls

When I was younger I had two sets of paper dolls.

The first was twins Topsy and Tim, from the books. Fun outfits included horse riding clothes and school uniforms.

The other was a bride and groom set that came with some awesome dresses and pretty suave suits.

That collection is now up to three as my sister got me this for Christmas.

 

The Barack and Michelle Obama Paper Doll and Cut-Out Book! 

 Fun fun fun!

And look at this great way of displaying vintage paper dolls. Forgive me, I forgotten where I saw this.

Can anyone top my Obama paper doll?