Reflection on tutors comments for Assignment 1

Well I’ve just got my feedback for assignment one from my tutor and found it very encouraging and thought provoking at the same time.

There are a lot of areas that have been identified for exploration. As suggested I have taken onboard the idea of being open minded forgetting the need the for perfection and let the drawing shape itself. I’m not saying I will find that easy but I am more than prepared to suppress my urge to get the work looking “right”. I’m actually excited about experimenting with materials, scale and materials worked and responding to the challenges thrown up by all of these factors the work progresses. Also the idea of having a conversation with the work is very useful although I have a feeling I’ll be arguing with the work a lot! Out of all the experimentation I wish to explore scale might be the most difficult  due to lack of  wall space to attach materials to and the presence of pets in the house making working on the floor problematic to say the least, however, I will endeavour to find a solution.

I will continue to experiment with materials and adding to my mark making  toolkit.

I agree that the camera has made photorealistic drawings almost obsolete and that   abstraction isn’t a bad thing. I do,however, find myself grappling with the following question “At what point does abstraction become less of an artistic choice and more about a way of hiding one’s technical shortcomings?”  Maybe the answer lies somewhere in another question ” What is Art?”. If Art is about communicating a feeling or idea then maybe the traditional notion of technical competence is not really required  as long as the finished piece does it’s job and conveys its meaning to the viewer. That being said if the viewer gets a different message from the work that the artist hasn’t seen has the artist failed? Which leads to yet another question “does the work need to be understood or can it just exist as a piece in it’s own right?” The work is what it is take it or leave it. I’ve gone off on a tangent here I guess what I trying to say is I like abstraction up to a point as long as the work makes me feel something. I love the work of a lot of comic book illustrators from the golden age of comics to the present day there are also comic book illustrators who leave me feeling nothing I’d much rather look at work by Wally Wood, or Alphonso Azpiri, both of whom work with abstraction to a degree, than I would Alex Ross who works in a much more photorealistic way but the results, to my mind, are dull and lifeless.

Wally Wood

Azpiri

Alex Ross

I also find the work of German Expressionists exciting certainly not photorealistic but I feel myself reacting to the starkness of the images and the feelings of frustration and anger that I sense are held within them.

That speaks to me far more than the Mona Lisa < a far more technically competent work, does. Give me the fun of anarchic “Lowbrow art” any day of the week.

Robert Williams Pop Surrealist.

I also looked at a couple artists that were suggested for me to look at were Anita Taylor and Tacita Dean and I am still in the process of absorbing their work.  So going forward I will continue to experiment with materials and push them as much as my imagination and research will allow.  I’m aiming to see an exhibition a month and haven’t picked out February’s yet.