Chiesa

This week, I have been developing the idea of religion in relation to churches. I read an introduction to a book about them which was really interesting. The author likes to think that churches are museums of art, which is a nice way of thinking about them. I love gothic architecture and stained glass windows in churches.

Anyway, I have been experimenting with collage for the painting week. I ended up focusing on the idea of the broken arch, from gothic architecture and filling it with strips of magazines. I then figured if I turned it on it's side, it looks like a bullet. This plays with the idea of religion and war. I don't want my project to develop along the lines of the negative, so I am deciding this is a "final piece".

In regards of where I am going with my work, I am using watercolours a lot more along with masking tape and incorperating lyrics in to this as well. I have a collection of photos of churches I took whilst in Italy and am working with these. I am focusing on the peaceful and spiritual side of religion and I find this quite therapeutic.

Research. I must do more and also visit exhibitions. I have been researching different viewpoints of religion. Matt, my friend, is Bahai and it was great to hear his opinions on religion. I want to paint the Bahai temple, it looks like a flower just waking.

Fede

The current project I'm working on started off with watching "The Book of Eli", which I thought had many issues I could explore.

The main two were blindness and religion. I decided to focus on religion and come back to blindness at a later date. Starting off by exploring issues in religion, I found myself bogged down in symbolism, facts and the history of the world. I needed to narrow it down. So, I was taking pictures of my Ipod in the dark to see what effects were created ( In the film, the main character has an MP3 on him, and it seems important to him, so I wanted to draw upon this aspect). I liked the results and have been experimenting with them. This didn't work out too good, but the techniques I was using didn't do the idea any justice. I need to work on this further. I have been interested in the personal aspect of religion, taking in to account that religion is different for everyone, it's such an inside thing. I then felt I could make the Ipod photos link in with the idea of reflection of religion. I see them as abstract pieces that allow people to escape in to them almost. They can work differently for different people. I want to juxtapose these pieces with lyrics relating to religion in order to provoke a variety of responses.

Che cosa?

Ok, well I'd better tell you what sort of art I create...

I like to work with paint. This has been the main form my art has taken for the past few years. I've also tried sculpture and collage which feed in to my work sometimes.

I paint with text primarily, but not always. I feel that text just gets the message across a lot clearer sometimes than a picture, yet I like to feel as though it can still be a picture in itself.

I paint using complementary colours, bold and also pink and purple.

The themes that my art has explored are cult of the celebrity, science fiction, music and blindness. I like to explore themes that interest me. At the moment, I'm exploring the issues surrounding religion. I like the way ideas can develop in ways one doesn't expect and the ideas tend to lead me in new places that inspire further works. It's like a journey.

I'm trying to learn to edit my ideas at the moment, as I tend to go off and lose sight of what I'm trying to produce.

Artists/ people that inspire me: Christopher Wool, Bob and Roberta Smith, Barbara Kruger, Lisa Sanditz, Jenny Holzer, Bruce Nauman, Cy Twombly, Vik Muniz, Joss Stone, Norah Jones, Elvis, Johnny Cash and all that jazz.

Ciao

Welcome to my blog....

My name's Charlotte and I'm a Fine Art student @ Winchester School of Art. It's fun : )

This blog is going to be related to my art practice and life in general. I'm going to reflect on what I do and learn from the comments made.

So... enjoy and feel free to comment!