20/02/2017 - THE ART OF THE MAKER - PETER DORMER

The Craft vs Concept argument is a continual sticking point in my work which raises many questions; as central to my practice is a craft and skills based approach in detailed paintings. Often this has caused trouble as teachers have regularly encouraged me to break from my strictly figurative style and into more experimental concepts, to push beyond my comfort zone. Although I agree with this in a sense as it is easy to lapse into complacent habits, and part of being an artist is constantly challenging and pushing yourself and your medium further, I also feel that sometimes there is an immovable sense of negativity towards representative art, that it is not challenging, subversive or 'risk taking' enough. I feel often that the idea of beauty is missold as 'decorative', serving no purpose other than to fit into a desired setting as decoration, however beauty is a much more transient quality of excellence, defined in one sense as "a combination of qualities that pleases the intellect", and it is this which I seek in my work. I think he captures this sense very eloquently in his writing, and not only provides a well thought out argument for the value and celebration of craft or as he calls 'tacit knowlege' but also generates a wide variety of relevant real world examples demonstrating the application of this knowledge to strengthen his point. He also takes into account the way attitudes have changed over time, and provides social and politically observant theories for what has incited this change.

13/02/2017 - DOCUMENTING WORK - LIGHTING FOR FINE ART

Our workshop on lighting and photographing artworks was very interesting. Only myself and two others from my group turned up, which in some ways was better as it allowed us to have a much more hands-on approach and become more involved with the process.

11-12/02/2017 - "CALCIFY"

In this piece I really wanted to consider my artistic aims and make specific plans before setting out. I wanted to paint a design which could be supersized onto a wall as a full colour mural, in response to my research on the PangeaSeed Sea Walls project and as a further development of my exploration of Surrealism. I wanted to continue with the oceanic theme of the project, choosing to focus on the catastrophe of global coral bleaching. 

7/02/2017 - FOSSIL SCULPTURE PHOTOSHOPS

In my tutor meeting Faye raised issues about the weight of my casts. As I had no specific plan for how to install them, she made me realise that if one was to fall it could potentially cause a lot of damage. She suggested instead I create some photoshopped mock-ups as prototypes for how they would look in-situ, and continue to think about ways I could fix them to the wall in the meantime.

31/01/2017 - WASTING PLASTER CAST

Before I started working on my wasting plaster cast, I first finished my latex reliefs by dusting them in talc and removing them from their clay bases. I was really pleased with how these came out, the latex had picked up the details perfectly, and as I hoped, the inverse carvings I used gave the inside edge of the latex a smooth, even finish.