Juggling

Painting project - sketches based on memories of a room you lived in and observational sketches based on rooms you live in now. Can be details of the room, or a view out the window

These will form the basis of a painting. I might cheat and pretend I can see something out of my window that I want to paint anyway

Fabric screenprinting - a short workshop I took at ELP to learn how to print on fabric., for an idea for our long project in year 2

Learning that bold lines and shapes are best for screenprinting for it to come out well and make the most impact.Getting a bit confused as this is often for people wanting to make repeat patterns for clothing or furniture fabric, but I'm thinking of it more as making a whole image. (except on fabric not paper)

What I want to do is recreate surfaces (like wood, or rusty metal) but you need quite strong high contrast source material to expose the image onto the screen. Grey tones are not picked up, you have to make your source image black and white and high contrast.

Work for the ELP summer show on the Southbank

I had to rein myself in as my first idea was to make a deck of cards to make an installation.(Resisting putting the word installation in inverted commas, now I am actual art student). I like to make life complicated. Most people do just one print and frame it then they're done. They don't stress themselves out. I like to take on huge projects that I have no time for.  last time I made an alphabet with 24 prints and it was hard getting it done in time. 52 separate prints is just crazy talk, so I've regretfully put it on the backburner.

I am trying to recycle some drawings for this so I'm halfway prepared already.

We also have a drawing project coming up which will go over a few weeks.

All these ideas are getting tangled up. I was also a bit confused by a charming French lady I met on the screenprint course who bombarded me with questions about the 2nd year project. It was lovely to have someone show so much interest and insight, but it did mix me up a bit.

"You have the idea. Now you need to have the theme." I thought I had the theme, but now I'm confused.

I think one of the things that marks the professionals from the amateurs is having the confidence to talk about your ideas and what you are doing, even if you don't feel confident.

Though sometimes I get resentful at having to explain myself. Did old time artists have to provide artist statements?*

 "So, Van Gogh, what exactly are these sunflowers all about?"
"They're just sunflowers. I wanted to paint them. Alright?"

* Not comparing myself to Van Gogh here