My lovely assistant ...

... has been putting up boxes for me today.

Sunshine seen here hard at work this afternoon (while I did a spot of painting). So, my boxes are up in my space in college; my 'lab bench' has been painted; all I have to do now is all of the rest of the 'frufru' (as Sunshine calls it) to make it all come together and look fab.

The laboratory comes together

Summer term week 6 at art school

Right - the last boxes done. Complete with 'samples' - sea salt, baking powder and diluted turquoise calligraphy ink!




And a couple of shots of the top corners to give you an idea of what the 'ceiling' on the boxes looks like ...

It's getting closer (with dates)

Have done a third drawing for the large boxes set, and did a bit more colouring and tweaking of the other picture of bottles:


And this is what the boxes are shaping up like:




The two at the bottom look like a pair but the top one is a bit of an anomaly - I might display them separately. Also, the backgrounds are just too boring. I need to pep these boxes up or they won't hold their own against the other set.

In other news, lots of people have been asking about dates for assessments/show etc., so here goes:

Everything in and done by Thursday 31st May
Internal examinations week of 4th-8th June
External examiners in on Monday 11th June

Private view Tuesday 12th June 6-8pm (my stuff will be in room CE2-04, Central House)
Exhibition open Wednesday 13th June - Sunday 17th June 10:30am - 7:00pm

I'll be there invigilating at some point during the week (although we haven't sorted out our rota yet) but probably not Wednesday as I'm due to go to Bristol to see their end-of-year show.

One step closer ...

Finally! Eight little boxes done, and three big ones (and a host of other things) to go...

EDIT: Don't think the photos do them justice - they are all a bit warmer and richer in colour, but this will have to do for the time being. Hopefully once they are up in the exhibition space I can take more photos in natural light.

Takin' over the house

Summer term week 5 at art school

Yup, I seem to be slowly taking over the whole house. I've sectioned off a third of the kitchen table with my computer, scanner and all my art materials; last week you saw me spread out over the carpet with my collage; and this week I've also spread to the studio table! Poor Sunshine - fortunately he's managed to keep his desk sacred ...

College this week was all about preparing for the show. Wednesday we painted the walls white and scrubbed down the floors (yes, they made the students themselves do it!) and today was a quick meeting about assessments, the show, and other bits like that. I know where I'm going to be, and I've also spotted the table I want to use (to dress up like a lab bench!). Unfortunately the desks (there are about 10 of them - I just need one) are in the BA fine art studios so I have to go nobble one from there ...

In the meantime at home my shadow boxes are coming along. The set of 8 smaller ones (in the photo above) are practically done. I'm happy with them and all I need to do tomorrow is dismantle them and put them together again with proper adhesives (just some crap sticky-tape holding it all together at the moment!). I'll post pictures of the final products then.

I also have the 3 larger boxes to finish; I want to do a little book describing all the bits of scientific equipment and paraphanelia I've used; have to finish collating and putting together in my notebook all the references, resources, tests, etc that I've used/done for the project (we get assessed on all that stuff too); and obviously get things together for the show. My idea is to have all the boxes on the wall behind a 'lab bench' installation on which I'll put my little book, sketch/notebook, and a few other laboratory bits and bobs. So excited, just under two weeks left!

Current state of FMP

I've already tweeked some things since my last update - and I'm liable to do more (none of the collages are stuck down permanently yet), but I've had complaints that I don't update this blog often enough - so here's where I got to yesterday night (click on images for larger versions):

Backgrounds

With acetates floating on top.

I think today I'm going to concentrate on all the non-artistic things, like working out how best to float the acetates in the box, and how to stick the envelope cuttings to the back of the acetates.

Collage madness

Summer term week 4 at art school

This is what my floor looked like this week as I tried to get on with collages I'm planning for the backgrounds of the shadow boxes. From the top going clockwise is: the Ikea bag full of shadow boxes, and just in front of it is some test pieces; some graph papers, photos, other reference material and my sketchbook/notebook for the project; my selection of envelopes with interesting pattered insides which I'm using for collage; A stack of coloured paper; a selection of scientific journals from which I'm cutting out images for collage; and a selection of cutouts - some from the journals and some colour photocopies from my old biochemistry textbooks.

I've currently divided the boxes up into a few sets. The first one is the "measuring set" - ie they are all devices for measuring stuff. This lot are getting the envelope design treatment:

Without background collage

With early attempts at backgrounds

The second set is the "gadgets set" - ie slightly more complicated bits of gadgetry from the lab. I've also gotten slightly further with the collage work for this set:


I was in college today talking to one of the tutors about how my work is progressing and what else I plan to do and how I plan to do it. He seemed pleased with my progress - not much time left now though and I may have to scale back some of my other little ideas for the project.

Apart from the collage, and the drawings on the acetate, I'm hoping to also include some bits of labware in the shadow boxes. This evening I visited my old lab (to celebrate our paper finally coming out) and have managed to scrounge for a good selection of bits-and-bobs (thank yous to all the lovelies at Structural Biology for helping me source stuff!). I now hopefully have all I need to finish my boxes.

Fun with reagents...

Summer term Week 3 at Art School

Progress has been slow this week with mum being here and all. Had a meeting in college today about assessments and the final show - Crikey! Its all systems go now! I did a load more drawings and even coloured some in (the coloured ones are Indian ink on acetate with acrylic painted on the back - like animation cells).

Final Major Project progress

Summer term Week 2 at Art School

It's a bit of a lie to say "week 2 at art school" as I was hardly there this week - I've been working mostly from home, and mostly not actually working but house cleaning. My mum's visiting from overseas and the place really needed a spring clean. But just to keep everyone updated, here's some tests I've done involving my drawings, acetates, collage and Ikea shadow boxes.

My drawing as the background and a colour printed acetate in the middle of the box.

The cover of a "New Scientist" as the background and my drawing on an acetate in the middle of the box.

My drawings on acetate with some cut out old envelope insides collaged to the back.

Same "New Scientist" cover as the background with my collaged acetate in the middle of the box.

Basically I'm working on a combination of layers of acetates and some kind of collage, probably also a collaged background, inside two sizes of shadow boxes. If it comes together I might also include some elements of actual laboratory bits-and-bobs inside the boxes to add an extra 3D element. I've been to Ikea and bought a load more of these boxes, and now I need to finalise what drawings I'm going to do in each box so I can source the relevant pictures for the collages and relevant 3D elements.

Sailing into Bristol

I drew this boat last Wednesday in Bristol when I went for my interview. The illustration studios are on the fourth floor of Bush House, which also houses the Arnolfini Gallery, and faces the river with lots of lovely boats. It was a gorgeous day and the sun was out and I thought about how lovely it would be to live there ...

Well, this morning I got my offer from UWE - looks like I'm going to Bristol!!!

Hooray! :)

Science-y stuff

Summer term Week 1 at Art School

Having put my final major project on the back burner whilst I prepared for my interview, today I had to get my act together and start up again. The day was spent mostly gathering all the material and research I have done to date into my notebook - here are some drawings I did of some lab equipment.

Brizzle, there I was ...

It's all over - and I'm feeling fairly positive. I think the interview went well and all that's left now is to wait for the results. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, this is what I've spent the past week doing - my "interview task".




I'm knackered - AND we have to present our Easter work on our final major project tomorrow ... It's going to be another long day ...

More daily drawings

Birkenstocks

Cameras

Musical instruments

Alarms

Keys

Brizzle here I come!

After some stress and confusion over Easter, I've now found out that I have an interview at Bristol School of Art Media and Design, University of the West of England, on Wednesday the 18th, for a BA in Illustration - that's under a week away! I've also found out that for this interview I have to complete a task which involves making three pieces of art work, 21cm by 21cm each, to illustrate my "three biggest influences" ... Blimey! As if I didn't have enough on my plate already with trying to get my act together to sort out a final major project...