Studio Practice
The theme of my project was decided quite late as I wasn't sure which theme to choose. I decided to go back to a similar theme of Identity as my First year final project but with a focus on the first year of living in England after my move from the Philippines.
At the start of this project, I didn't know how to lay it out, but I knew I wanted to start with a big piece. I asked for a large piece of paper, roughly 3 meters by 1.5 meters. I nailed the paper onto the wall in my studio space to flatten it out.
As my project concentrated on the first year of being in England, I felt that researching and deciding on which memories to focus on were essential before creating experiments. During this time, I made some abstract paintings to relax and take a break from written work.
These are the two canvases I painted. There were no thoughts when painting these paintings just went with instinct with the use of colour and stroke of the brushes.
I decided to do 20 memories meaning 20 different images to create. With only a short time to complete this project, I decided to create digital paintings with an element of collage using photoshop. I think digital painting is a quick way to create a collection of outcomes in a short amount of time.
When I printed my first few digital paintings in A4, I thought adding abstract marks with the paint would be interesting. Similar strokes to the abstract paintings I made.
I like how the experimental outcomes look and move forward by contributing abstract painting to some digital prints.
The first piece that will be seen in the collection will be this big piece. I wanted something to represent my first phisical journey from the Philippines to England. I couldn't think of any way to represent that without including a map of some sorts.
To make the piece less busy than including the majority of the world map, I thought of just including the countries the Philippines, Dubai and England. This makes the travel from the Philippines to England can be seen clearly by the audience. Travelling from right to left, I placed the countries estimated in the position where they are on the world map—showing a slight upwards progression in position.
I used a projector to project an image of each country. This made the process very quick when tracing the outlines. I painted the countries in a dark red colour.
I printed more of my digital paintings. I presented them at the Shaun Project Space (photo on the left), showcasing how they would look as a collection. I kept the same colour scheme of red, blue and yellow similar colours to my final piece, My Family Portrait, during the First Year. I chose this colour scheme as they are used in both the Philippines and England flags. The colours represent me as I feel connected to both countries.
I printed the digital paintings on A3 paper for a bigger physical image. I further experimented with these A3 prints by painting them and maintaining the same colour scheme.
Before using this image transfer techinique I did experiments on pieces of spare cardboard. The images in the top row were printed in the university printer but the images in the bottom row were printed at home. At home we have an older printer model. I prefered the images the came out in the university printer.
I wanted to include an accurate map of some sort. Within my first year in England, there were only three locations in my memory that I remember vividly in NewMilton as my parents were very protective over me, and I wasn't allowed out without their supervision.
I used google maps to find my first home address, primary infant school and the local park. I took screenshots from google maps and edited these images in photoshop to have a red tint to match the map.
I used an image transfer technique to place these images into the piece. I did this because I like the effect it has where some parts of the images are unclear or can be peeled off during the process. The transfer was made shiny with a layer of PVA glue.
The effect of the image transfer represents that even though I remember the locations, the memories themselves are hazy. Also, if I placed a clearer image of google maps, someone might recognise it. Partly a form of information protection.
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I wanted the journey to be followed by the audience. I thought the easiest way to show this is to add nails of the places that I traveled through to get to England, NewMilton.
I choose yellow yarn to connect all nails as it complements the red countries well. Visually it looks more pleasing and feel it stands out where the audence can instintually know that they should follow the string.
Half way through creating and printing out the digital painting in A3.
When creating the digital paintings I started the paintings with a photograph reference first.
I create 5 digital paintings at the same time to finish groups of outcomes at the same time instead on concentrating one at a time.
I visited the Baltic to see their exhibitions. Carolina Caycedo was my main inspiration for using maps in my project, and I feel like it is the most direct way to show a journey. One of her pieces of work looked like an abstract piece from afar, and as you went closer, you could see it was an areal view hidden in.
I wanted to contribute to the abstract paintings I made when researching at the start of the project. Adding colour and paint to this project would bring movement in contrast to digital painting.
I was very nervous about painting straight onto the paper, and I wasn't sure how to move the brush to get the desired strokes that I would want. I created experimental paint brush strokes on A4 paper. I placed these experiments next to the image transfer as I wanted them to wrap around them to show their connection.
From the experiments, I kept in mind which brush strokes I liked and used this as a reference when painting on paper.
I kept the main colour red. I created several shades of red, mixing brown, white and yellow. I used a large flat brush to create the large brush strokes. I tried to try and create these long brush strokes with only 2/3 movements.
In the beginning, when creating the first few strokes. I felt I had made a mistake. Keeping the paper with the countries showed an excellent piece where the white space felt essential. Even though I like the aesthetic of white space and can create impactful minimalism when used correctly, I wanted to create a feeling of movement within the piece, which led to the decision to the abstract strokes.
I concentrated these marks around the image transfer, wrapping them around. Most of these abstract marks are nearest to England, as I remember being in England at seven years old, which is nearly all of my childhood memories. Those abstract marks become thinner going towards the Philippines. Even though most of my memories focus on England, I never forget my roots and culture, which my family help me remember and embrace.
My idea of memory is like a pool or a river, ever flowing from one person that connects, which can form a personality. As the river gets longer and broader, the start of that river is narrow and small. You take all that you have learnt and experienced from the happy memories and bad experiences to grow into the person you are today.
During the halfway point of this module, we went around everyone's studio space to see their work process. We had to talk and present what we have done so far and our vision of where our project/piece is going.
Getting critiques from tutors and peers was one comment that my peers said was an excellent idea. He mentioned that I should add a photo of me and the start and end to compare in the timeline.
From the start of this project, I knew I didn't want to use any of my childhood photos as I wanted the audience to see themselves in some of the memories. So I thought of creating silhouettes of my 7-year-old and 8-year-old bodies and plan to paint in the colour scheme. This will be placed at the start and finish of the piece instead.
In the final week before the Christmas holidays, I decided not to add this in my piece. I had a lot of other things to add and felt that if this was included or not, it wouldn't make a difference in the piece, so it wasn't necessary. If I have gone through with it I would like more time to paint it as I don't want a large piece to be rushed.
I finished creating the 20 digital paintings and printed them out in A3. I wanted the audience to have a physical trip around the room to showcase my first year's journey in England. In my studio space, there are four walls that I intend to use.
This wall is the nearest to the first ample space. I laid out the digital paintings in order of memories within the year. I will space out all 20 pieces equally throughout the room, and I wanted to see it visually in order and grouping of images.
I thought of continuing the yellow string attached by nails throughout the journey. I knew that, somehow, I had to indicate a mark for each station. I experimented with adding coloured dotes where I can place a nail in the middle where the yellow string can be attached on.
I got the idea of yellow, red, and orange dots from traffic lights. Initially, the colours would be red, yellow and green. Green would indicate good, yellow is in the middle and red is bad.
I didn't want to include green as it wouldn't fit into my colour scheme. So I decided to have red as bad, yellow as good, and orange as everything in between. This will indicate the emotion of the situations in each station. This can suggest to the audience if this memory is a good or bad experience for 7-year-old me. Doing this will make the pieces easier to interpret as you get a hint of the overall mood.
The way I placed the digital paintings around the room slightly mimics the stations of the cross. The stations of the cross are commonly found in Catholic Churches or any place of worship. It is a series of 14 pictures or carvings portraying events in the Passion of Christ, from his condemnation by Pontius Pilate to his entombment. In the same way, the idea is to follow these stations to reflect on each station and follow the story I want to imitate. My parents are influential Catholic Christians, and religion was a big part of my growing up. At that point in my life, it is natural to include that aspect in this body of my work.
This is the final order of the 20 digital A4 paintings. This is an experiment in layout and how it would work in the room. I changed the coloured dots by changing their size—the size of the dot correlated with the intensity of the emotion in the station. I painted the dots straight onto the wall. These circle shapes define all the pieces into one collection as they are repetitive throughout. I like the aesthetic of seeing it from afar, as the theme can be shown by colour and shape.
I continued the yellow string from England, NewMilton, to the digital painting on the wall. A nail was placed in the middle of the coloured dots, which I placed every station. This string will connect all the pieces from start to finish.
Timeline digital paintings: Placed on the first piece:
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School Photo 1: Class photo of my class in the Philippines
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Flying: My first flight was taken from Dubai to England when riding Emirates. Collage of primary photograph and image of an aeroplane.
Timeline digital paintings: First wall:
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Reuniting with mother: First photo of our family being together after being separated from mother for over a year.
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Apartment Layout: Our first apartment coming into England, the floorplan is written through the eyes of a 7-year-old.
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Exploring the town 1
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Exploring the town 2
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Playground
Timeline digital paintings: First wall:
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School Uniform: Taken on my first day at a new school in England.
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I can't understand: Having a hard time as I don't know English
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Lunch Box: Traditional Filipino packed lunch of rice, adobo chicken and lumpia. Using a spoon and fork as utensils.
Timeline digital paintings: Second wall:
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School Photo 2: Class photo of my class in England.
Timeline digital paintings: Second wall:
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Apartment: Showing what our flat looks like on the outside. I used the balcony as the first place I made a snowman.
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First snow family: First snow experience with family.
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First snow
Timeline digital paintings: Third wall:
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Christmas fireplace
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First Christmas tree: We couldn't afford a tree, so mother made a tree out of tinsel and Christmas cards.
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Opening presents
Timeline digital paintings: Third wall:
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Sister's second birthday 1: My sister was the first to celebrate her birthday in England.
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Sister's second birthday 2: Celebrated with a small Filipino community we made friends with.
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Making friends: I made friends after being bullied in school.
I thought they looked too small after placing the A3 digital paintings on the walls. When printing the outcome version, I decided to go one paper size up. You can see the comparison between A3 and A2.
I think A2 was the best choice as it doesn't feel like there is a significant gap in the wall. It's also exciting to see my images larger as I worked on them on a tiny laptop screen; they feel more substantial and impactful when blown up in a larger size.
These paintings are the outcomes and will be placed on the wall. All digital prints on the wall are A2.
Since printing these digital paintings on upper mid range paper 160gsm white matt poster paper, size A2. I had to repaint the prints that I included, acrylic abstract paintings. Through the experiment A3 prints, I changed them slightly to create cleaner and more pleasing outcomes.
Final Outcome: Space Layout
Overall I like the outcome of my work. I think having the string is an excellent indicator for the audience to walk around the room, and the coloured circles that I placed around the room turned into stations. I'm pleased that I decided not to put them in a row or line and thought of using the whole room. The digital style of drawing and the consistency of the colour scheme helps tie the piece and effectively show the flow of the journey.
If I were to improve my work, I would like a space with four walls without a window, just for visual purposes. The piece Flying was the perfect size to fit onto the paper when it was an A3 experiment, but I thought of printing the digital paintings to A2, it's covering part of the acrylic abstract painting. I couldn't move it to any other space, so I just stuck the print onto the same area. I would repaint the paper if I had the time. I would make the digital images more stable by adding a clean frame or board. I feel that paper is very cheap compared to canvas or wood. Printing it in more durable material, I think, would make the work look more professional.