[hannahrosemakesart]

Professional Practice External Project: 4 - “A Life Discarded” with Alexander Masters Event at Mr B’s Book Shop , 24th May 2016

I saw this event advertised as I walked passed the shop a few weeks before. The book is a biography about 148 dairies that were found in a skip in Cambridge in 2001. The dairies ranged from the first notebook in the 1950′s to the the last few that looked like they had just been bought, the last submission only a couple of days before the diaries were found. I was fascinated by this discovery and was desperate to know more. My practice holds a lot of relevance to this theme; seeing an insight into a strangers life by exploring it in a way that touches upon ethical issues of privacy. This book made me ask a few questions; has he got into trouble from sharing a strangers information without their consent, or, because the diaries had been thrown away, do they not longer belong to anyone? Did he ever find out who this person was? Did the diarist ever find out he was writing a book based on the exploration of finding the books and the submissions he read? 

The event was held at Mr B’s book shop in Bath on Tuesday 24th May. I was at first put off by the price of the event as tickets were £14, but I managed to get a discount when I stressed to the staff how important this would be for my degree. 

The talk consisted of an interview between Masters and the book seller. Masters explained how the diaries were found and what he decided to do with them. They came in all different types of books ranging through the years. Some were grand with letters embossed on the front, others were basic blank note books. One thing I was extremely fascinated about was the handwriting. He actually brought a selection of diaries to show us. The handwriting held one consistent theme over the years of submissions. The writing appeared obsessive; scrawling words from one edge of the page to the other, and there were absolutely no crossings out. He showed one example of when this person must’ve been a young adult, the writing held an obsessive theme, but the looked like it would be relatively easy to read. He then showed a page from a book that would’ve been written when the diarist was much older, and the writing is barely recognisable, just rapid squiggles on a page. He showed writing continuing on to the back pages in the books, and even the hard cover. This immediately showed an insight into this person. Whoever they were, they obviously used this writing method as a necessity. Masters claimed that some entries went on for pages and pages, stating that the diarist would have written for two to three hours a day, sometimes even more. Masters had taken the diaries to a graphologist who analysed the writing and helped him making better sense of who this person was.

The interesting thing about reading a strangers dairy is that you aren’t introduced to any basic information, for example, their sex. Masters assumed the diarist was a man because of the confident, angry, rapid writing, but he later realised that “he” was in fact a “she”. This is an example of how we make assumptions with people and their lives, when in reality we could be entirely wrong. 

I found the concept of telling someone else's story through the submissions of the diaries they threw away fascinating. Masters is a biographer who doesn’t write about famous people or people who are well known. He tells the stories of ordinary people who have lived extraordinary lives. At some point in the talk he stressed over how passionate he is about this, and is baffled why there aren’t enough writers who do anything similar. I asked him if he could discuss this further, is it because people just assume that they can’t act upon things like this without seeking consent? Is it an issue related to being out of their comfort zone? it’s much safer to tell a story that came from your own head. He said that there are countless ways to tell stories in this way, you just need to make the effort to find them.

It was very insightful to meet someone who is so fearless to explore the life of someone else in such an intimate way. I saw it as a hint of encouragement to carry on pursuing my curiosity with working with personal hints of information and how to find them.

I am currently reading “A Life Discarded” by Alexander Masters, which I bought and got signed at the event. Hopefully when I finish the book some of my questions would be answered.

[hannahrosemakesart]

Professional Practice External Project: 3 - Book Binding Induction

After a tutorial I organised with Mandy Bonnell in March, she made connections for me to participate in a Book Binding workshop which is only available for Contemporary Arts students. This experience was extremely beneficial towards the ongoing development of my practice. I am interested in the aesthetic of hand made items that have taken time and effort to make. After being inspired by Mandy’s own hand bound books as a way to present her work, I have been interested in learning how to bind books by hand to present my prints.

When I made the letter press prints for the window display, I made sure I did two of each, so I could use the second ones for the book. It is interesting to see how these prints are presented in entirely different ways.

I attended the workshop at Bath Riverside on Monday 16th May which lasted a couple of hours. I was talked through the importance of how the paper is placed inside the book depending on the grain as it effects how the pages turn. Once the prints were grouped together I used a Japanese stitch to sew the pages together. I then worked on the cover and backing of the book. I wanted the colour of the front and back to be a neutral, calming colour, which is a theme I have applied to my website and generally how I present my work.

I am very happy with the book and wish to exhibit it along with my boxes in the future. I am very keen to participate in my book binding tutorials before I develop the skills to do it on my own, but I am unsure if this will be available to me, so I made the most of the experience while I was there.

[hannahrosemakesart]

Professional Practice External Project: 2 - Window Display of Prints in Westgate Street, Bath

A key feature of my practice explores how overheard snippets of conversation are shown in different ways. I have presented these snippets contained inside aesthetically pleasing handmade wooden boxes, framed and hung on the wall, placed secretly in hidden areas around Bath city centre (a small gap on a shop door window, a notice board in a pub, the window of a phone box. Most have been removed but one or two still remain) and placed around an oriental supermarket as part of an exhibition. To continue with this exploration, I decided to do a window display in one of the empty shop windows in Bath city centre.

I spent a lot of time for this project in the print room creating prints for the display. I selected ten of my favourite over heard snippets of conversation for various reasons; they were humorous, controversial, intriguing, insightful, or the composition of words looked good on the paper. 

The production of the prints took a lot of time. Each print is A4 sized and the text had to be central on the paper. As each print is different, it took a lot of time to get this right. I did ten prints in total and I was very happy with the end result. Working on these prints have improved my skills in print, which is something that will be very beneficial for my practice.

Communication with the council:

In order to display work in an empty shop window, I had to contact the council and get a window display licence. This was all done via email and one phone conversation.

On 28th April I contacted them again just to see if I could adjust the dates slightly as I was due to be doing this on the same week as an exhibition I was also participating in. This was not a problem, but I wanted to make sure things would run as smoothly as possible

I immediately received an out of office reply stating that Karen would not be available to respond to emails until 9th May, which would have been too late to change anything. Due to this I rang up the property services department of Bath and North Somerset Council and spoke to another member of staff. I explained my situation and that I couldn’t get hold of the necessary person in time to adjust the dates. The following email recapped what was said to me over the phone:

The dates had already been and gone and had never been discussed with me. I had not been asked to sign the licence yet but I was not alarmed by this as I assumed I would sign it when I went to pick the key up. It was irritating that the communication between myself and the person working for the council had not been approached well on their part, however, I continued to communicate with the council in an attempt to still go along with my intentions. I had been spending a lot of time in the print room making the letter press prints for the display and did not want all that time to go to waste. I proceeded to politely but promptly inform the council the importance of this project. 

This communication was successful and I received a new shop on the dates I wanted.

I made sure I was polite and considerate with my response. 

Collecting the key and setting up display:

On Monday 9th May I met with Karen McStravick at the location stated in the email above and signed the window display licence. I was then handed the key and left to start the set up

The shop was quite dirty and was full of rubbish. I brought bin bags and a dust pan and brush with me and cleaned the remains of the shop the best I could. I paid close attention to cleaning the surfaces of the window with glass cleaner to ensure my prints would be presented clearly. 

I then got to work on setting the display up. This took a lot longer than I expected due to the elastic not staying on the side of the walls and the prints appearing uneven. I borrowed a step ladder from a pub I work at up the road which was a big help. 

I eventually managed to secure the elastic to the walls by using a staple gun. I set the prints up on two levels by fastening them onto the elastic with bull dog clips. I tried to make them as level as possible by using a spirit level but due to the weight of the clips and the paper, I could never get them perfectly straight. This did falter the presentation but this was my first window display and it will be something I will bare in mind for next time.

The location:

The window display was situated on what is arguably the roughest street in central Bath. As I was setting up the prints I noticed peoples reactions when they read them as they walked past. I noticed the confusion on a lot of people’s faces and some even seemed quite angry with a certain print; “People think Bath is a posh place, they need to go to Whiteway”. I found this fascinating and I was glad to have a fine art display in a place that isn’t used to them.

The time frame:

This was the same week as my collaborative exhibition at Hai Na Oriental supermarket. This was initially an accident, but I made no attempt to change the dates as I thought having the events at the same time would compliment each other. This did mean having to complete more work in a smaller time frame, but I do feel that having the two projects at the same time worked well, especially to advertise the exhibition; I used a peice of window that I didn’t need to advertise the event by covering it with posters.

Conclusion:

This was a good experience to have and I’m glad I went ahead with the display. I have learnt a lot of skills from this; from developing my skills when creating the letter press prints, to communicating and compromising with the council, to making the most of the space which was not particularly ideal. 

However, if I was to do this again there are certainly some things I would do differently. The entire time I was in the shop I was on my own. I made sure the door was locked every time I was inside and outside of the building. No issues occurred, and I was not going against anything in the terms and conditions of the window licence, but it did not feel completely safe to be on my own while setting up. I would also improve the presentation of the prints by ensuring they appear level. I would do this by using stronger elastic and lighter clips and perhaps fewer prints. 

I will definitely do this again as it was a fairly straight forward way to present my work without spending any money. 

[hannahrosemakesart]

Professional Practice External Project: 1 - “An Outcast Bonding Experience” Collaborative Exhibition at Hai Na Oriental Supermarket

Myself and fellow students Lisa Dreykluft and Pip Marshall had intended to put together a collaborative exhibition together for some time. We bonded over how we feel like slight outcasts amongst our fellow peers at art school. Feeling slightly different to those around us, we decided to work together on something that expressed how we felt. We wanted to celebrate what made us different to others instead of trying to blend in.

We started to plan an exhibition which was to be held inside an unconventional space. We wanted to show our work somewhere unusual and unexpected. We found blank white gallery space very over done and predictable and felt they didn’t define us as individuals. We wanted to take risks with this project, to see how far we could push the boundaries. 

Planning:

We started meeting in February, which gave us plenty of time to brainstorm location ideas. These included a laundrette, a hotel room, a garage and a back of a van situated in a car park. We stayed in regular communication over email and planed regular meetings where we shared ideas. 

We predictably had challenges when trying to find a space which was mainly down to seeking permission. However, we finally decided on a location after finding it whilst exploring Bath city centre; Hai Na Oriental Supermarket - a small shop situated on the first floor of a building just outside of The Corridor, a shopping district in the centre of Bath. The shop is slightly hidden as it requires customers to walk up a flight of stairs before they enter the shop. Once up there, the contents of the shop on the two small levels were completely unfamiliar to us. The brightly coloured packaging crammed onto the shelves were in a different language, the aisles were narrow with low shelves at the end. This held a perfect space for Lisa and Pip to display their work, which was both video. We decided that for a location that was unusual and not obvious to hold an art exhibition, this was perfect. 

The communication with the owner of the shop was initially a bit of a challenge. It was hard to propose such an unusual idea to someone, especially with a language barrier. However, we stated that this would be a great chance to have his new business publicised. After asking us to send him images and descriptions of our current practices, he happily agreed to a short exhibition and a private view.

My work:

When it came to deciding what I was going to exhibit,  I wanted to take a selection of cards from my piece “Snippets of Conversation” and stick them around the shop in slightly less obvious places, intending to catch peoples eyes as they are shopping. I wanted to do this to see how the cards are received when taken out of the box and displayed individually. I also did it to play with the space. Since we were exhibiting in an unconventional space, I wanted to display my work in an unconventional way. 

As we were exhibiting in an oriental supermarket, a large amount of their custom are Chinese. Seeing as my work is text based and all in English, I didn’t want to exclude a large group of viewers. With this in mind, I contacted a Chinese student at Bath Spa University, Tang Ning, via email and asked if she could translate four quotes I selected into her native language. I am glad I included translations alongside my original work as it showed a connection between my work and the location, which I felt was important.

Promotion:

Lisa designed the flyers and the posters which we got printed at Sion hill and distributed them fairly around campus and central Bath in cafes, restaurants, notice boards and shops. I was working on a window display for another project in the same week and took the liberty to use a piece of window I wasn’t using to promote the event by covering it with posters. I also contacted the art and media department of the Bath Chronicle, inviting them to the Private View. We made sure the event information was emailed to every student and member of staff at Bath Spa University through Sue Beech, the department of Art administrator. We also advertised the exhibition on the Fine Art course blog. A final part of promotion consisted of hiring someone to stand outside the shop during the private view and hand out flyers to people walking past. We did this because the entrance to the shop is a little tricky to find and we didn’t want people to miss out.

Poster:

Flyer:

The Private View:

The private view took place on Wednesday 11th May from 6pm - 8pm. The shop was still open to the public which meant both customers and viewers of the event could purchase items. We also bought food and drink from the shop and had them available to our guests for the event. We thought it would be helpful to provide a hand out for people as they viewed our work including information about each of our works and why we decided to exhibit at the shop.

We received positive feedback from people who attended the private view. People were very impressed that we managed to exhibit in such an unusual space. 

I personally hired local photographer Tom Welsh to take photographs of the event. I wanted the pictures to highlight the vibrant colours of the foreign packaging and how our work thrived amongst it. I am really happy with how the photographs turned out and believe they document the event perfectly. The photo’s can be viewed here:

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/142320120@N05/albums/72157668822583511

The Exhibition:

Our work was exhibited in the shop from 12th - 14th May during the opening hours of the shop. It didn’t require us to invigilate as the shop has an excellent security system and because it is a functioning shop, there was someone responsible present at all times. However, we each visited throughout these two days just to ensure everything was as it should be. It would had been nice if the exhibition had gone on for longer, however, we had to respect the busy nature of the small shop and decided on the short dates to work in correspondents with them. This exhibition was very experimental and we did not want to commit to a longer period of time without having the full confidence that it would be successful. Thankfully, the exhibition went very well with no issues, so if we were to do something similar in the future we may be inclined to extend the time period.

Conclusion:

This experience has been hugely beneficial towards developing my skills in many fields that are relevant to being a professional practitioner. We have worked well as a group, respecting each others ideas and views, taking time with planning and developing the project, staying in good communication throughout via email and attending regular meetings, arranging deadlines for tasks far in advance and each being responsible for certain fields of the project we feel we would be best at. I feel this project went so well because of the successful communication between us as a group and the well organised nature we all kept throughout.

[hannahrosemakesart]

20 photos by Hannah Stevenson 

Photographs of An Outcast Bonding Experience Private View 

All Photographs taken by photographer Thomas Welsh

[hannahrosemakesart]

Introducing Letterpress Print Into My Practice

In order to develop my exploration of text based art, I enrolled in a letterpress induction. The process of letterpress is very time consuming and provides a lot of patience. It involves many different type sets and sizes which are selected in order of preference. Each letter is individually selected and placed onto a metal frame called a plate. Once all the letters and spaces have been laid out, the plate must then be filled with wooden blocks and tightened with magnets. You should be able to lift the plate without anything moving. It is then put onto the press and adjusted into place. Ink is rolled out and applied evenly to the letters. Paper is clipped to the front of the press and carefully rolled through the press. Ideally, you should be left with a successful print. However, most of the time there is an issue with the print that must be fixed. It can be very hard to spot errors with the letters before they have been printed because they are all in reverse (errors such as wearing of the letters, letters accidentally put in the wrong place, etc). It can also take time to get the right positioning of the print on the paper. This can be adjusted with adding extra wooden blocks to the outside of the plate.

It is important to me to work in a way that requires a lot of time and attention to detail. Each print I have produced through letter press came from a private thought or a passing piece of conversation. Alongside working with preserving words through containing, letterpress supports my intention to keep words that were once so disposable now alive and special.

Letterpress has become a main medium in my practice. I have been learning about different qualities of paper and which fonts compliment the words best. I am finding that the more attention to detail I have, the more successful the end result is.

[hannahrosemakesart]

The Personal

Before I based my practice on public themes through capturing snippets of overheard conversation, my work showed examples of work that held more private connotations, particularly “How I Currently Feel”. I decided to go back to working in this way, along side the public work, to see the comparisons of the two themes.

I started “Thoughts and Confessions” which consisted of a small basic cardboard box with a label taped to the top. Inside the box contained cards detailing my own personal thoughts and confessions with the same method as the cards from “Snippets of Conversation”; transfer lettering on blank white cards.

The filling of the box was a gradual thing that went on for a couple of months. If I was thinking about something specifically personal, (feelings about a certain relationship, my insecurities, observations about things around me, etc) I would print out the words on a card and place it inside the box. Throughout the entire time of adding to the box, I had left it out in the open, on the plinth in my studio, inviting passers by to read through the contents of the box. There is a lid, which does make it slightly more private than the box I made for “Snippets of Conversation”. Perhaps including a lid was a subconscious decision reflecting my insecurities of sharing personal information.

However, the sharing of personal information was the main intention for making this piece. When I presented “Snippets of Conversation” at Walcot Chapel, I received a few comments saying they felt it was inappropriate that I was including some very personal pieces of information and hints into peoples lives. I have decided to push that further and see how people responded when I share my own personal thoughts and feelings to the world. It was also a test on myself, to push how comfortable I am with sharing personal information. 

We are only expected to share personal details about ourselves in certain ways; in confidence with a friend, therapist or doctor, or in a diary. It is seems inappropriate to share information of this nature so freely, and what I intend to do with this is to challenge that notion.

The basic presentation is done to represent myself being “stripped back”. The contents of the box is raw and honest and shows no false interpretation of myself.

[hannahrosemakesart]

The Christmas Card

Around Christmas time, 2015, a Christmas card was sent to my address. I ripped it open before realising that it wasn’t for me, but either the tenant who lived there before me or for someone who lived elsewhere. This Christmas card was not a conventional seasonal card politely sending good wishes for the new year, it held a very personal message showing an insight to a very intimate experience of someone’s life.

I felt shocked to read the message on the left, then i felt intrigued. Possessing this card held similar connotations to the over heard snippets of conversation I had been collecting. Was I allowed to read these words, let along keep them? Was I going to get into trouble if I’m found out? Is this morally wrong. I find these questions very interesting.

In a literal sense, all that is in that card is hand written words. Words about something personal, yes, but a personal experience about someone’s life who I do not know, an experience that does not effect me, and myself reading the card does not effect them. However, being in possession of this card feels wrong. It feels like I should immediately put it back into its envelope and send it back to where it came from. I should’t be reading it. it’s not for me. 

Instead of doing that, doing what was expected, I decided to do the complete opposite. The card was on display in my studio for months, permanently, for anyone to see. I ensured the card was available to view when our studios were open to the public one evening and I encouraged a discussion about it during a group crit. The card has been on my website since April and now it’s on here, for anyone to see. Perhaps one day the original sender will see it. How will they react? Will they be angry? Probably. I’m interested to see people’s reactions to this. it’s not every day that an insight to someone’s personal life is sent to you by accident. I’d be a fool not to use it to my advantage....

[hannahrosemakesart]

Tantamount B, 2016

This was my first group exhibition since attending Bath School of Art and Design. The whole year group for second year fine art was split up into two groups. “Tantamount A” was situated inside the university campus gallery and consisted mainly of paintings and 2D pieces that hung on the wall. “Tantamount B” consisted mainly of sculpture/3D pieces and was situated at Walcot Chapel near Bath city centre. The little chapel was an interesting place to exhibit. it was an appropriate place to show 3D work due to the high ceilings and the gentle natural light coming through all the windows.

This experience meant we had to work as a team and stay organised. There was no theme for the exhibition, it was just for each person to show a recent piece of work. On reflection, I would say that it would’ve been better if there was some kind of theme, as some of the work looked quite cluttered next to each other. However, we were all at a very developmental stage in our practices still, and to force a theme just so the presentation of the exhibition would’ve been better would have looked obvious.

The set up of my work was easy as my piece was small and easily transportable. I made sure that there was plenty of space around the plinth so people felt welcomed to approach it and look through the cards. I probably would have used a better plinth with a smoother surface, but i struggled finding one in time and made do with the one I found.

I was responsible for publicising the event. I printed off posters that we had designed ourselves and went around town calling into as many cafes, pubs, restaurants, bars and shops that we could find. I spoke about the event with confidence with people and invited as many people to the private view as I could

The private view went very well. Each of us donated a pound or two so we could buy drinks and snacks. We had a successful turn out and I noticed a lot of people viewing my work.

The exhibition stayed on for a week. We each took our turn invigilating which was organised through a time table. We had a comments book and ensured everyone understood the content of each work.

This was a good first experience of an external based exhibition. I think the curation could have been better, but as I said, we were all at very experimental stages of our practice and there was a lot of us who had to shared the space, so with those points in mind, I think we did well.

[hannahrosemakesart]

Containing Words

Once more, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated this blog. That is not a hint to me being idle, in fact I have been so busy, time has flown passed.

I think it will make sense if I continue from the last post. I was talking about the importance  of how I present text through blank cards, the same size as business cards; the direct connection as the cards are shuffled with your hands helps serve a connection between you and the words, making the words more important. I thought a lot about the importance of the words and what I can do to promote that. I wanted to present these cards in a way that will celebrate their existence, a way that will not only contrast the usual existence of a business card (stashed away in a wallet or the bottom of a bag) but also contrasts the original existence of the words; passing conversation, forgettable.

After attending Mandy Bonnell’s staff talk at Bath School of Art and Design, I was interested in how she presented delicate little drawings inside hand made boxes and hand bound books. The aesthetic of something being contained inside something that took time and patience to make, the slow and careful process of production, to me, supports the notion of how I have been working.

The more I thought about containing the words the more interested I became in what connotations this will bring. Archiving, preserving, keeping things safe. I was completely changing the original existance of these words and making them much more permanent.  

I decided I wanted to work with wood. Perhaps to create a connection between the paper cards, or the fact that wood can age beautifully, or maybe I just liked the appearance of small wooden boxes. Probably all three. I am lucky enough to have a partner who works with wood on a daily bases as he makes guitars and also makes other things out of wood on his wood turner. He has over twenty years experience and pays a lot of attention to detail, so I knew he’d be the perfect person to work with. Every single part of the box was made by us by hand. It was amazing to see the box come to life, from the initial drawing plans to sanding down the surfaces at the end.

This was the final outcome - “Snippets”, 2016. Transfer lettering on blank cards contained inside handmade walnut wood box.

I am so happy with how this turned out. The wood is absolutely beautiful and really makes the cards feel much more important than being presented seperately. The box was exhibited at “Tantamount B” at Walcot Chapel in Bath in January 2016. It was presented on a plinth at a level that was easy to shuffle through with your fingers. I received very positive feedback from this piece, including an offer to buy it. I decided to keep hold of it for now though, as i think this could work well as a series.

[hannahrosemakesart]

Cards & Text

I wanted to continue my curiosity for working with overheard snippets of conversation, I really like working with letraset. The slow and delicate process matches the connotations of treasuring each letter, each word that appears on the surface. The whole creation of transferring letters on paper is an exercise in it’s own right. It forms a relationship between myself and the words I am deciding to capture into a physical format. The process is entirely different to other more popular methods of producing text; i.e: typing onto a word processor, hand writing. Although those methods have their benefits, I believe there’s a certain quality to transfer lettering that can’t really be found anywhere else.

Matching with the aesthetics of the intimate and personal, I thought the words should be presented in a format that can be easily accessible to hold in your hand, thus achieving that physical connection with the words. I thought it would be interesting to use blank business cards for this. Rectangle cards are found everywhere. They live in your purse, handed to you when you meet someone. You select the specific card to get stamped when your buy a coffee, they’re printed out as train tickets, bus tickets. They are embedded in our busy lives and are constantly being held, touched. An item that is used so often but rarely seen as a permanent or important feature in our lives holds the same connotations as a passing conversation. Casual conversations - the ones we have with our friends in a coffee shop, while we’re on the phone waiting for the bus, they’re not ones we usually remember much of. They are passing snippets of information, of our lives, our feelings, our situations.

I’ve been spending a lot of time sitting in cafes writing down the snippets of conversations I can hear around me. Sure, a lot of the things I heard were generic, small talk between two peers, but what’s surprising is the details I heard about peoples lives as I sat there. What was intended to be a friendly catch up with a friend turns into an in depth conversation about someone’s complicated life - their relationships, the problems they face. Some of what I heard I could relate to, others were totally foreign to me. From coming out as gay to their strict Malaysian family, to complaining how Christmas is anti feminist. Collecting all these snippets felt like a responsible process. I wanted to present them in a format that held certain connotations to how I originally found them.

[hannahrosemakesart]

“How I Currently Feel”

As well as working with snippets of overheard conversation, I also made “How I Currently Feel” which is eight days of three selected thoughts and feelings that were at the front of my mind that day. I tried not to think too hard about these thoughts, just ones that naturally surfaced in my head as I sat down to record the words each day, usually around the same time of mid afternoon. I did this as a way to explore how our feelings and thoughts can change rapidly from day to day, as well as some being consistent. The thoughts vary from complaining about how there are no more Wispa Golds in the canteen, to confessing I felt no sense of belonging, to just one name repeated over and over again, emphasising that there was one person in particular in my thoughts that day.

This piece is very personal and autobiographical. It felt unnatural to present each page of text on my studio wall, but I think it’s interesting to present content like this so unconventionally, as usually personal daily thoughts are privately stashed away in a diary. I am interested in pushing the boundaries of displaying intimate and discreet details of ones life. Our society encourages us to keep our personal thoughts and insecurities hidden, only encouraged to confess to a friend or in therapy. With this piece I have gone against that attitude.

In terms of material, I used letraset transfer lettering on plain white paper. I purposefully did not give much attention to neatness; allowing smudges and scratched out mistakes throughout the intricate process of applying the transfers. The edges of the paper are rugged and ripped. I wanted to present in this way in an attempt to sway away from it looking formal, as if it were intended to be on the wall. The smudged words and the rugged edges look more personal, with more connotations linked to someone’s diary.

“How I Currently Feel”

8 pieces of A4 paper with letraset transfer lettering

[hannahrosemakesart]

It’s been a while....

I haven’t written on here since October, sorry about that! I’ve been concentrating on the progression of my studio practice, I guess I forgot to keep this blog updated!

So the last thing I wrote about was exploring and playing around with my curiosity with text and words. I have been perusing this further; working in a minimalist style, I have focused on recording down snippets of overheard conversation that naturally go on around me. I am interested in the notion of how disposable a passing conversation can be, and seeing how these pieces of conversation last when taken out of context and placed in a more permanent setting.

I started off with attempting to capture conversations by hiding a voice recorder around where people were chatting. I thought this would be a good way of doing it as I could walk off and get on with other things while it was recording. However, when I sat down to listen to the recordings, I noticed that there was too much background noise to really make sense of what was being said. Also, having to sit and listen to distant recorded voices took a long time. I figured just sitting near people with a notebook and pen would work a lot better.

In terms of location, I didn’t want to go out “looking” for interesting pieces of conversation, I wanted it to be natural. So I sat in cafes I would usually go to with a friend myself, bought a coffee and stayed for an hour or so. Other places consisted of trains, buses, the studio, pubs, coffee shops and cafes all situated around the Bath central area. On reflection, I’ve realised that recording down snippets  in the studio wasn’t a great idea. It was easy for me as I could just sit in my studio and listen to others chat around me, but when it came to presenting these snippets, a lot of the students from my studio saw the work as a chance to find something they may have said, which really steered them away from the original meaning of the work, which was to see how snippets of overheard conversation is received when taken out of its original context. In the future I will try to keep every quote entirely anonymous.

This is an example of how I wanted the snippets to be presented. Letraset transfer lettering on plain white paper. I didn’t want the words to be presented “perfectly” as I wanted them to come across as raw and personal, a bit like a section of someone’s personal diary. I could have handwritten the words myself, but I like the slow process of the letraset. Each letter is carefully rubbed on individually, and with the small size of the letters, it required a lot of concentration. This slow, patient process maximised the relationship between myself and these words, something I would never experience if I worked at a much faster pace, such as typing on a computer or handwriting the words. There’s something about the slow pace of creating these snippets that is very significant to the work.

[hannahrosemakesart]

Working with text

Despite the fact that I have just finished a large acrylic painting, I’m aware that my curiosity lies in the inclusion of text within my artistic practice. Last year I was inspired by Jenny Holzers “Truisms”. I liked the idea of using words to create statements that may be received in a provocative or controversial way. Last year I created some pieces including only letraset transfers on white paper which I entitled “Statements”. These pieces were used as an outlet to vent feelings of anger and annoyance I was feeling at the time. I believe the work was successful due to its minimalist theme, leaving the words to do the talking, so to speak.

In an attempt to experiment with new material, I swayed away from this way of working for a while. However, on reflection, I understand that I am still very interested in words being a primary feature in my practice. 

Now I am playing around with words and how I would like to develop this theme. I have started off with scanning through newspaper and magazine articles and cutting out any words or phrases that jump out at me for whatever reason.

I then grouped these phrases together to create new sentences. I am interested in taking snippets of conversation and taking them out of context, thus stripping those words from their initial intended purpose. 

I displayed the words in this mixed media style because I find snippets from newspapers incorporated into an art piece is usually conveyed in a collage form. I am inspired by the words of Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch and Robert Rauchesnberg. However, I feel the theme sways the viewers attention from the words. In the future I may stick to a more minimalist style.

[hannahrosemakesart]

First painting of the year...

When I was established my new studio space two weeks ago, I wanted to fill it with productivity as soon as possible. A family member asked me a while ago if I could do him a large acrylic abstract painting on canvas, loosely inspired by Mark Rothko, made up of orange, autumnal colours.

At the beginning of last year I produced a large acrylic canvas painting of a similar theme, consisting of blue shades, inspired by coast of West Somerset.

I used this painting as a loose idea, but generally my painting technique is quite improvised by building up layers and seeing what works.

A few layers in. Using yellow as a base layer.

Nearly finished. The middle needs more work.

Finished. 

I’m happy with this painting and I intend to do more paintings in this style. The use of dark tones paired with subtle white highlights helps give the piece depth.

[hannahrosemakesart]

New year, new ideas, new blog

Here we go again!

I’ve attempted an art blog as well as a website to display my work in the past. Neither of them lasted, probably because I just wasn’t feeling the work I was doing at the time and therefore lacked the motivation to make regular updates.

I’ve just gone into my second year of studying Fine Art at Bath Spa University. After a long summer away from the studio, spending my days working behind a bar and drifting away from any art related activity, I have settled into my new studio space feeling refreshed, revived and ready to make new things. I think it’s important to have a break when you’re feeling stuck. It gives you a chance to free your head and put things into perspective.

I experienced a few problems in first year regarding feeling motivated towards my practice. I’m fairly sure a lot of it had to do with lack of confidence. I focused a lot on what my work “should” consist of and forgot how to make things for sheer fun and curiosity. 

Of course, it’s normal to experience creative blips. Now that i’ve experienced a blip myself, there are a few things I have learnt:

1) Never compare yourself to others. We are all different people on different journeys experiencing different things, and we’re all great in our own way. Comparing just dampens your confidence and makes you focus on things you cannot change.

2) If you’re not feeling motivated or inspired, take a break. I found getting away from the studio and focusing on different things for a while really helped me get back on track. For me it was working behind a bar. Meeting new people, having lots of different conversations and staying busy all had positive factors for my motivation.

3) Confidence is key. If you don’t believe in your practice, no one else will. The secret to being a good artist is having the right attitude towards your work. If you talk with passion and make things you have a genuine drive for, it’s easily projected into the things you make. It’s the same if you approach things with doubt. Always believe in what you do, and if it doesn’t feel right you can always try something new.

I’ve been back for two weeks and I’ve already completed a large acrylic painting - a commission for a family member. I’m now interested to create some collage and mixed media on cardboard, taking inspiration from Hannah Hoch and Kurt Schwitters.