The Road Sign Collection - Series One Development (Firstsite Collectors Group Bursary)

In order to develop The Road Sign Collection I used some of my Firstsite Collectors Group bursary to invest in new software. I needed this software in order to re-draw and increase the DPI of my line drawings.

09/02/20

Test One

Before I could get started properly I had to face a few learning curves. I needed to get use to and becomes one with the feel of the digital pen, to ensure that I would be able to follow the lines of the road signs accurately. I found that the pen was very sensitive and that I needed to keep direct contact with the drawing tablet at all time. This should have been easy, given that I am working with continuous line drawing, however I am sure at times I had remained contact but the line still became broken.

Test Two

While my usual methodology is to do something and then be done with it, I felt that I needed to afford myself some practice with the road signs before officially starting the process. This, it turns out was a good idea as I am still getting to grips with the new software I was not convinced by the practice outcome. Looking at the produced line drawing it feels rather weak, in colour and in line. The text is also not completely legible, which is an issue as the text is such a huge part of the signs integral meaning and purpose.

11/02/20

Test Three

Another practice, but improvement made. The text is more readable and the lines more certain of themselves. As I am still sceptical about the colouring of the lines I have explored different options.

Sign One: Point 1

Sign Two: Point 5

Sign Three: Point 7.5

I will disregard Point 1 as it is not visually strong enough. My initial reaction is Point 7.5, however I worry that goes the other way and is too strong. There is a need for the line to be bold and clear

Test Four

A timely reminded to not get over confident, broken lines. 

Test Five

I need to be more careful when completing the text part of the sign. This sign will be re-done. I am torn as I want the signed to be clearly hand rendered, however I also want them to be read-able.

Completed: 3/71

12/02/20

Test Six

Landscape v's Portrait: Debating which orientation is best in relation to which allows for the largest outcome.

In this instance landscape works best, my worry going forward this that this might not be a trend. For my end goal I feel that they all need to exist in the same format and so it may just be a case of picking one and sticking with it.

Development

The decisions made so far:

1. Line thickness: 7.5
2. Page orientation: Landscape

To accommodate the landscape orientation I have made the decision to crop out any legs and poles attached to the signage (see text five for original image comparison), to allow the focus to be completely on the sign itself. This also allows for the image of the sign to take up more of the page.

Completed: 5/71

13/02/20

Development 

It is taking a while to get back into the swing of drawing these things. On reflection I think that I am holding the digital pen incorrectly, too harshly and putting too much force into the movements. I need to loosen up, follow my own advice that I give when teaching drawing, and use my whole arm to follow the lines.

Some just do not look right. I want to resist the urge to re-do the ones I feel look wrong, as with continuous line drawing they are going to look imperfect. They tend to look worse in isolation, than when viewed with the rest of the collection,

Completed:  15/71

16/02/20

Development

I find that when I revisit the signs that I did not initially take to, I can then see them in a new light and accept them for what they are.

However, this hindsight does not extend to new works and I still find that I am having these initial disappointed feelings towards some new signs.

Completed:  22/71

20/02/20

Development 

Completed:  32/71

22/02/20

Development 

Artist Research: Everyday Things

When developing new work, it is probably a good idea to examine what has come before. Artist research is one of those areas of my practice which is probably neglected too often. With tight time constraints I often pick playing in the studio over artist research. However, this is when my duel role of artist/teaching is beneficial, as when planning sessions, I will always include artist reference to learners to draw upon. This aspect of planning directly feeds into my own art practice, as I will inevitably be inspired by, or see connection to my own practice in some of the artists I present to my learners.

Recently I was looking for examples of artists who created several outcomes based on the same object for a session which focused on still life drawing. I had not noticed at the time, but by searching within these terms I was already drawing parallels to my own practice, as I am essentially look at artists who are creating collections of the same type of thing – for me that thing is road signs. For the artists I researched that type of thing varies. However, what does stay the same is that the artists are often looking at things that fall into the notion of the everyday.

This pull of the everyday as inspiration within art may come from the lure of having the power to help it escape the commonplace, by manipulating the subject matter, controlling it within an art context or simply letting it surrender to the free-play of our subjectivity (Vaneigem, 1983). Whatever it is, the everyday is as popular now as an art subject as it ever has been.

The first artist falls into the latter category, as I have enjoyed the work of Michael Craig-Martin for as long as I can remember. Initially this was due to An Oak Tree, 1973 which as an artwork holds conceptual thinking processes at its centre (Manchester, 2002), conceptual art plays a huge part in my practice.

Craig-Martin, An Oak Tree, 1973

However, more recently I looked to Craig-Martin in reference to his drawing and sculptures. Within my art teaching we look at his works in relation to line drawing techniques, to illustrate how drawings do not have to exist on the page but can also exist sculpturally.

His recent exhibition, The Shape of Things (2019b), echoes my linguistic preference – this is in preference to the word ‘object’ mostly, as object/art objects/everyday objects come with a lot of baggage. Thing feels relatively baggage free. The exhibition sees six steel sculptures installed outside around the Kinder Lake in Houston (Craig-Martin, 2019b). What is evident in these works and the others like them is firstly the simplicity and the power of a strong line to convey information about things. But also, the use of increased scale. The work perhaps slips into notions of the uncanny, by taking these familiar things and changing them in such a way that they start to feel strange (Freud, 1919).

Craig-Martin, Sculpture, 2019a

His things of choice; paperclips, scissors, bottle openers, umbrellas are usually overlooked, very everyday and probably unchoice (O’Doherty, 1986) as subject matter to most. These three categories, I feel are shared with The Road Sign Collection. They are both over looked in the same way, as we use paperclips and road signs functionally, but they are overlooked in other ways. They are very much a means to an end. By using these and increasing the scale Craig-Martin can make the viewer look again (Sedation, 2019). Not only at these supersized versions, but also at the originals, helping to emphasis the significance of these things in our everyday lives. Playing with scale is still on my to-do list and is something that I very much want to explore. Particularly, when seeing how successful the outcomes can be when done well.

The move into sculpture is possibly where the similarities end between me and Craig-Martin. It is not something that I have considered playing with, my main worry is that they would become copies of the original signs, which are in themselves (functional) sculptures. The change in scale would have to be significant to make my outcomes different enough, original enough.

Patrick Caulfield’s work was new to me, (and they actually reminded me of Craig-Martins painting when I first saw them – though his clearly have come before Craig-Martin, you do not always discover things in chronological order).

Craig-Martin, Untitled, 2016 / Caulfield, Wine Glasses, 1969

A quick search of Caulfield and you will see many outcomes which focus on ordinary everyday things, such as wine glasses. Looking at his work I felt that familiar parallel to my own practice, again we both working with collections of everyday items. His style draws on paring down what is in front of him resulting in simplistic but effective still life images. This is something that I want to bring across into The Road Sign Collection. When I first started to draw each of the road signs, I was concerned with capturing every scratch and dent and following them though with the continuous line, however going forward my intention is to pare this back to the most essential lines only. The use of block colour is something I want to explore and having every detail traced stands in the way of this aesthetic.

The print-like nature of his paintings manages to make even the most three-dimensional shape appear flat and I think that, in essence this is what I want to do. As mentioned, before I intend to eschew the sculptural and I guess the opposite of that is to make everything at two-dimensional as possible. It feels just as effective as a means to get the audience to consider these things in a new way.

In relation to my own practice this research has given me a few things to consider;

• I need to do something with scale and not just say I am going to
• I am also intrigued to explore the uncanny a little more, as surrealism usually finds its way into my practice this route of enquiry could be fitting
• As I continue to develop my digital skills, I will explore making the road signs more two-dimensional

References

Adams, T. (2015) Interview: Michael Craig-Martin: ‘I have always thought everything important is right in front of you. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/apr/26/michael-craig-martin-interview-everything-important-is-in-front-of-you--guru. [accessed 23/01/20].

Freud, S. (1919) The Uncanny. Imago, Bd. V., 1919 [Translated by Alix Strachey.]

M, Craig-Martin. (2019a) Sculpture. [Online] Available at: https://www.michaelcraigmartin.co.uk/exhibitions/2019/5/31/sculpture. [accessed 23/01/20].

M, Craig-Martin. (2019b) The Shape of Things. [Online] Available at: https://www.michaelcraigmartin.co.uk/exhibitions/2019/8/1/the-shape-of-things. [accessed 23/01/20].

M, Craig-Martin. (2015) Paintings: Untitled. [Online] Available at: https://www.michaelcraigmartin.co.uk/painting. [accessed 23/01/20].

Manchester, E. (2002) Summary: Michael Craig-Martin: An Oak Tree, 1973. [Online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/craig-martin-an-oak-tree-l02262. [accessed 23/01/20].

O’Doherty, B. (1986) Inside the White Cube. University of California Press. 

Sedation. (2019) Michael Craig-Martin: Sculpture. [Online] Available at: https://www.seditionart.com/magazine/michael-craig-martin-sculpture. [accessed 23/01/20].

Tate. (2020) Caulfield: Wine Glass. [Online] Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/caulfield-wine-glasses-p04092. [accessed 23/01/20].

Vaneigem, R. (1983) The Revolution of Everyday Life. London: Rebel Press.

The Firstsite Collectors Group Annual Party

Friday night (7^th February 2020), I attended the Firstsite Collectors Group Annual Party, hosted at Firstsite to celebrate the 2019 bursary winners. The event was attended by members of the Firstsite Collectors Group, bursary winners and members of the Firstsite team, including director Sally Shaw.

The evening was a great networking opportunity and to meet others involved. There was chance for the bursary winner to display something of their art practices. For this I decided to show my three artist books and my current sketchbook. I presented the artist books as they fully document the last two years of my art practice, with images and short art essays. While my sketchbook documents my current ideas and the start point for what it is that I will be using my bursary for.

Each bursary winner had the opportunity to speak about their art practice and what it is they are planning on doing with their bursary. It was really insightful to listen to the other creatives talk about their artistic processes and ideas; from artists drawing and painting from across rivers, on trains and from Instagram to artists print making and attending research trips.

Within my speech I spoke of my general art practice being based around text and site and how historically I have utilised very DIY, hands on methods and materials, such as; wood, plaster, string and paper. I went onto to discuss how with the bursary I would explore digital outputs to develop The Road Sign Collection. The end goal being to create an artist book, or artist colouring book, wanting to have an outcome which could be interacted with by an audience.

Within this time, I also explored some of the aspects of The Road Sign Collection that compel me to continue with this project. Touching on their everyday nature and our individual experiences with them and how they exist both as mass produced objects, as well as originals, with each having their own history which is documented in their visage.

The opportunity to talk about my art practice in an environment such as Firstsite, is unique and a valuable learning experience. There are few other situations in which to flex and develop this skill set.

Attending the Firstsite Collectors Group Annual Party prompted me to reflect on my experience of the process of applying for and receiving the bursary.

I found the process of applying for the Firstsite Collectors Group bursary useful in that it made me articulate myself and my ideas in a more coherent way – having to write within word counts also helped. I was conscious that those reading the application may not have encountered my practice before and wanted to ensure that I did not overlook any aspect of my practice.

Receiving the bursary is a great vote of confidence and goes someway to externally validating what it is you are doing. From a practical point of view, it offers much needed funding to allow artists to continue to develop – from a personal viewpoint I would not be able to justify investing in software such as Photoshop without the bursary. However, it also comes with some pressure as there is a slight feeling of being accountable to others with reference to what it is you are creating. Something that I have mot felt since leaving university. This is an exciting position to be in and I look forward to seeing what it is i create and develop by December 2020.

You can read more about the Firstsite Collectors Group and the 2019 bursary winners here.

Online Learning? I'm Student Again...for 11 weeks

I love learning and am a firm believer in the importance of continued professional development. I have been out of education for over a year now 

To continue my CPD activity I have enrolled on an online course, this is the first online course that I have completed (other than online training, which tends to be fairly quick, not interactive and full of prerecorded videos, all culminating in a multi-choice question quiz and printable certificate). 

In this blog I will reflect on the experience of taking part in an online short course. The course runs from week of 13th January to week of 9th March. 

In the first instance I have been provided with a timetable and given access to an online learning environment, which include an area to chat to my tutor and other learners on the course. The timetable sets out sessions for webinars and indicates times when we must talk to other learners. So my initial thought is that the course will be fairly interactive, rather than just working through materials on your own. 

As of the 14th January I have completed all but one of the orientation tasks, the last being to introduce ourselves on the online chatroom. I am putting this off as no-one else has introduced themselves and going first feels scary, there is not guidance regarding what to include in this introduction and frankly I do not want to come across in the wrong way, say too much or too little. On reflection this is counterproductive, as everyone else may be feeling the same and then no-one will comment. In situations like this I often consider what it is I would say to a student and that would be something along the lines of 'everyone is feeling the same' with the implication that you should just do it. 

It is now the 29th January and I have just posted my introductory message onto the site. The deadline to do with was the 31st January and from the looks of it there has been a last minute rush from many of those enrolled. 

Coming up we need to test our webcam and speaker connections for interactive digital classroom activities. I have no experience of learning like this and I am a little apprehensive about it going in. It somehow feels more scary having to meet people digitally, than face-to-face. 
The course gets started officially this week. It will be interesting to see how this experience compares of education compares to my other experiences!