Starting Final FMP Piece

After having a break from school, and seeing the Mark Rothko exhibit, I came back with a vigour this week that makes me excited to continue my FMP. I really wanted to get started on my linen piece as soon as possible, but I ended up having a chat with Laurence on Monday that changed my ideas furthermore. I have given up the idea I had to have a free flowing piece. I came up with that idea so long ago, and now after speaking with Laurence, and seeing the Rothko exhibit my ideas have changed. I reflected on this hardship I have with changing my ideas so suddenly last week, and I think that I just need to go with the flow and be more intuitive. I have come to terms with the fact that my flow-y linen idea won't be happening, but maybe when I'm older or in BA I can try again and really nail it.

Laurence showed me this artist name Sebastien Bayet and I really love his work. He is very focused on textiles and what they can do to a canvas (or a panel, etc). His canvas is stretched into squares on the board, stretched across each other, etc, and it is so interesting to look at. It almost looks like the canvas is clothing that the board is wearing. It's totally unique. Anyways, the conversation I had with Laurence has shifted me to do something more physical and sturdy. There is wooden panel that the tutors are giving out to the students, and I will be using a 6 foot x 4 foot piece of it for my final.

This addition of the wooden board has completely changed my idea for my final. I am still going to have a lot of the same elements as I originally planned, but the final outcome will look different. I am actually not sure what I will do for the final elements, but now that I am trying to work more intuitively, I will just have to get in the flow and work it out as I go along. What I have done these past few days is a start, and when I get back from the Spring Holidays, it will have marinated in my mind and I will maybe have some new ideas.

What I have done so far is basically lay down a base for what will come after Spring Holidays. I have written an excerpt from the poem "The Black Walnut Tree" by Mary Oliver on the wood panel. This is one of my favourite poems in the entire world. It is about this tree that is a complete nuisance to the family, and the family wants to dig it out and get rid of it. But, year after year, the tree blooms, produces fruits, and shows the family that it is strong and embedded in the earth, even though it may not seem like it. That is one aspect of the poem that I really like: that even though it may not look strong, its roots go deep, it flowers every year, and it can even provide shade in the summer. I also printed the bricks onto the empty space that I left, because I just really loved the brick prints I had done before. I also wanted to do the bricks printed with the poem because one of my favourite bits of the poem is when Oliver talks about the roots growing in the cellar. It is just such a wonderful image in my brain that I can never undo, and the bricks to me represent this cellar that the strong tree is growing into.

Then I wrapped the linen I was originally going to have as the flow-y linen around the wooden panel as best I could. I decided to go for a larger piece on top, and the smaller piece on bottom to mimic the squares of colour that Rothko would do in his paintings (in my own way). I then began layering some of my original screen print ideas onto the piece, trying to figure out a composition that I liked. I feel like the composition looks OK at the moment... I am hoping that after some reflection these next couple weeks during break I will be able to come back and have some new ideas that inspire me more. I think what I am not liking is that I can't finish it yet, and I don't like the way it looks right now. I am not a fan of the two separate pieces of linen stretch across the panel. I think it looks ratchet and scrappy. Unfinished. Hopefully when I get back from break I will have the time to screen print onto the fabric and figure out what to do with it...

I have tried hanging some metal pieces from the linen, and I do really like the way that those look. They are some old earrings that I had lying around that I thought I would clip to the linen. What I am thinking now is that this piece needs more silver... I want to try and hook things together with safety pins? Maybe trying to find some safety pins that are really big and clipping the fabric together and on top of each other with them... make them really noticeable. I also crumpled some brown paper that was in the classroom that I really liked the texture of, and then painted over it. It created an interesting effect... but I am unsure about how I feel. I think maybe if I try to smooth it out, it might add an interesting texture and effect to the final piece. I'll see once it has dried. I also tried printing the bricks onto a scrap piece of fabric to experiment if I wanted to use more brick prints in my final piece. I think it looks good... but I am not sure how to fit it into the final piece. Safety pin it somewhere? Sew it on? Stretch it? I can figure it out later when I have more pieces to assemble.

Reflection

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