Charlotte Walker Art Foundation Degree

 

 Lecture Notes:

 In my practice, I aim to explore ideas of human instinct and our relationships with the natural and artificial worlds. Through drawing, textiles and ceramics, I create sensitive and playful works on a small scale that embody these concepts. My values as an artist are to be resourceful and reduce my consumption of new materials; I use second hand or ready-mades whenever possible due to environmnental concerns that often manifest in my work. CV Education and Qualifications   Was educated at Chilwell School (2010-2015) and at Lakeview 6th Form College, Chilwell, Nottingham (2015-2017). Gained 10 GCSEs from Chilwell and 3 A Levels + 1 AS level from Lakeview:    GCSE Art and Design (Fine Art) – A* Media Studies – A* French – A* English Language – A* English Literature – A Geography  – A Biology – A Chemistry  – A Physics  – A Mathematics (higher) - B A Level A2 English Literature - A AS Media Studies - A A2 Media Studies – B A2 Art and Design ADV (Fine Art) - B Studied for a Diploma in Art

Julian Hughes' work explores people and places through the medium of photography. Aside from his own projects, he collaborates with designers, film makers, writers, choreographers, performers and more to develop commercial and personal pieces.   One project he shared with us was his long term quest to plant oak tree saplings and document their growth with photographs. I like the idea of taking artistic inspiration from the process of re-wilding the landscape, it helps promote tree planting to the viewers of the work. I feel a connection with these images because the environment is something I've talked about in some of my previous projects as it's a very important issue right now and I've been conscious of it from an early age. Another of Hughes' projects that I enjoyed was the Nottingham bus station lost property photograph series, particularly since my Collecting project explores ideas of forgotten and reclaimed objects. Photographing the found, mundane items in a

 In his presentation, Marek Tobolewski shared images from his 'Continuum in Symmetry' series.They are large, intuitive pieces made by drawing, tracing and painting lines with lots of layering and positive/negative spaces. His abstract work also explores congruent shapes and geometric forms. I think this style of work is very reminscent of graphic design and I associate that with corporate settings, but this isn't the kind of environment I would like to put my own work in. I enjoyed learning about how he set up a studio in the 80s and managed to raise money and reputation by holding informal events like auctions and art fairs open to the public; I think this is something I would enjoy doing if I worked in a small studio space with a few artist friends.

 Rachel Carter's talk was probably my favourite so far. She showed us some of her pieces that she wove out of wax, as well as a miniature version of her bronze sculpture from the 'Pilgrim Woman' project. I like that she has researched weaving from different cultures and incorporated them into her work to build textures and meaning. In her 'Standing in this Place' project, she engages with women from around Nottingham to produce braids to be cast into her sculptures, and I am really excited to have had the opportunity to be part of this - I got to learn a new skill using a fill-gap braiding kit and be included in her future sculpture for the new Broad Marsh. Carter's work gives women's history a voice, and the fact that she involves other women like me and hundreds of others represents the important role that women play in society both currently and in the past. Part of Carter's success comes from her clever placement of work. She recognised that her scul

Rosemary MacLennan-Crump is an artist local to Nottingham, who engages in community based projects and creates art about people and places. Her work about Bulwell highlights the mundane and ordinary, and encourages people to think about what makes their hometown so special. She gathers stories from local people and responds to these narratives through performance and intervention with a humourous demeanour that engages people with the heriatage and landscape. She also organises events and activities with different groups, showing a passion for community and togetherness. I like the idea of getting involved in lots of collaborative projects and making connections but I generally prefer to work independently and feel less comfortable in the kind of social settings that Rosemary deals with, so I don't generally relate to her practice.   Lecture Notes:

During Mik Godley's talk we were introduced to his ongoing 'Considering Silesia' art journey and the various ways he works. His drawings and paintings look quite traditional and authentic, yet are made digitally using iPad apps such as 'Sketchbook' and then printed large scale. He takes the idea of digital art even further by doing research into different places using sites like Google Earth where he can explore and become immersed in the landscape freely, in areas that may otherwise be inaccessible. I think this is a really good idea because travel can be difficult and expensive, but Google Earth and streetview allow you to explore the world and discover some of the most remote locations. Godley's talk was therefore a good lesson in how to use the internet as a limitless tool for research. His experience of the online world through the years has influenced some his work in a very visible way, as some of his paintings feature squarish blocky marks that recall th

 The process of making my cards began with making a basic template on photoshop. This meant that images and text would all be in the same place on each card and it would look consistent, so whe it came to making each card I just had to edit the text and add my images. When I made a paper mock up, I liked the collage-y style because it had a infantile handmade feel which reminded me of my childhood as a creative kid. When I cut out my images on photoshop I left the a small white border to reference that scrapbook idea and give the images a bit of breathing space. All my backgrounds and illustrations were scanned in high definition. I layered a translucent white box over the background which would act as a window for my objects to sit in, and it makes the background showing through a bit paler allowing the drawing to have dominance. I chose the backgrounds according to what colour scheme I thought complemented the object best. I installed my chosen fonts, using one of them for the title

 

 To get an idea of the kind of retro objects that are popular among collectors today, I explored various pages on instagram. I found that this helped me become more familiar with the kitsch aesthetic that I'm working with, and what is considered valuable or desirable right now. Here's what I found: @bluu.squeaks The owner of this account is a collector of vintage toys and ceramics, and through their posts I discovered the craze of the Rushton Toy Company (founded in 1917), whose kitschy vintage dolls sell for hundreds to thousands of pounds at auction. They have classic, anthropomorphic, over-exaggerated faces made from rubber, and furry animal shaped bodies. Their design uses cuteness in the extreme. I think what makes things cute is often their vulnerability - and giving objects very child-like faces is successful at creating that image. By looking on ebay, I found that they are valued mostly according to their condition, rarity, and presence of original tags or packaging. Ru

This is a questionairre I made about collecting, which I handed out to my classmates so I could get some different perspectives on my theme. Doing this also helped me get an idea of how my work might be percieved by an audience, as the answers revealed how people feel when they look at sentimental or nostalgic objects. This seemed to be a balance of happy and sad feelings - bittersweet.  I did a couple of drawings in my sketchbook using the text I had gathered from my survey. The first one is inspired by one of Tom Hackett's newspapers that he published, which featured lots of wavy lines of text (out of context quotes from collected conversations) and silhouetted motifs. I liked that his text takes the eyes on a journey and creates a feeling of motion and energy like the passing nature of speach. I used fragments of text from my survey that I felt were most powerful or interesting.   One of the answers to my question about why we keep childhood objects was simply 'Sentimental b