Art Student Blog by Jacqueline Murray

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F I N A L  M A J O R  P R O J E C T  C O M P L E T E 

Here is a close up view of my Final Major Project in its chosen exhibition setting. Please enjoy. 

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E X H I B I T I T I O N  I D E A  # 3

Here is my third and final exhibition idea. I have placed my sculpture in the centre of one miniature garden in a shared courtyard. As you can see in the photos above, all houses surrounding the courtyard look out onto the garden which means the residents inside will view my Final Major Piece, all whilst keeping to the new social distancing rules. 

Out of the three locations that I have tried and tested to exhibit my FMP, this is my favourite. My sculpture stands well within this setting; the size of the surroundings compliment the size of my sculpture and the bright colours create an interesting contrast to the deep charcoal tones. 

Henry Moore once said that the sky is the perfect background for a sculpture, and i can see why. When trying to capture all angles I took a shot from the floor, which in turn allowed a glimpse of my sculpture to be set against the sky. This reminded me of the vast pieces of artwork displayed in the grounds of my local modern gallery, Hauser and Wirth. I believe that my FMP would suit a display in a similar location as it is rustic with a modern twist and open to wide interpretation by people from all walks of life. 

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T I M E - L A P S E 

I’ve filmed the process of moving and packing away the sculpture so you can all see how easy it is due to the way in which myself and my engineer designed the connecting framework. Deconstructing the heads and securing them in boxes for transportation means that i can make sure they are safe and protected between each display. It also makes the structure lighter to move which in turn enables me to exhibit it in several locations.

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S U N S E T  V I D E O

Quick video of my FMP exhibited in a raw, natural barnyard environment.

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E X H I B I T I T I O N  I D E A  # 2

To explore my exhibition ideas further I decided to make use of my surroundings and test out displaying my FMP is the barnyard close-by. In these pictures you can see my final sculpture, alongside my miniature maquettes.

To display the maquettes, I found some stone laying around and stacked them on top of one another to create height and an interesting  plinth like structure for them to stand upon. The various layers create a classical sense to the display, and add to the dynamics between each maquette. 

Looking at the sculpture, i feel it is not big enough for the space it stands in. The environment surrounding it is too vast in comparison to the size of my piece. Perhaps if the heads and stand were four times bigger it would be more of a suitable setting - modern art in a rustic environment.

What I do love about this display is the natural elements that compliment my sculpture beautifully. The sunlight shining on the faces and then reflecting off again, creating shadows in some parts and highlights in others. The gold leaf used to fill the cracks almost luminates under the natural sunlight, drawing my eye to the various contours and emotions of the face which in turn builds deeper relationships between the heads; the lovers. 

The farmyard is wild. It is untamed. It is raw. This environment relates deeply to my final major piece and is definitely one that i’m glad to have considered in my exhibition ideas.

[jacquelinemurray1961]

E X H I B I T I T I O N  I D E A  # 1

I have been playing around with various ways in which i could exhibit my Final Major Project. For the first idea, I have tried to recreate the setting in which we would have most likely been showcasing our work at college, should Covid-19 not of interrupted us. In these images you can see my final piece - the sculpture, along with my sketchbook, New York journal, maquettes and the molds that created them. I have included these items in the display as these would have been necessary to include for our initial assessment. 

To me this is quite a clinical setting, and does not feel like a natural environment for my sculpture. With this being said, it is great to see everything together in one place and makes finishing the project (almost!) all that more real. 

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A T T A C H M E N T  O F  H E A D S

The final part in the creation of my sculpture is to secure the heads firmly onto the metal frame. Luckily for me, I have another friend who agreed to help me complete this. He is an engineer and an avid welder who has a workshop that we were safely able to work from. The good news is that my friend has a technical mind and, after telling him about my FMP,  had been pondering the best way we could attach the heads to the frame. The problem we were facing was how to hold each head still enough whilst the fibre glass set onto the arms of the frame - roughly a 20 to 30 minute process. A second problem would have been how we would access each branch once the heads were secured on. 

He came up with two very good ideas to solve this problem:

1) Remove the washer that the farmer had added onto the fixed frame and instead attach the head to the frame with a hollow steel tube. This tube slips onto the end of each arm and the heads can then be removed for transportation.

2) Attach a single hinge to the end of each of the steel arms. Each hinge is made up of two metal brackets that slot into each other. So we would attach one part of the hinge to the back of the clay head, and the other to the end of each arm on the metal frame. This would then enable us to remove each head as and when we needed, solving both problems.

Option number two seemed to be the best way forward but we still had to figure out how to attach them firmly to the heads and the frame. This was difficult to do as the surface of the heads are very uneven. We decided to use thin metal strips to run along the inside of the heads. We shaped them as best as we could to fit the contour of each individual head, we then attached one part of the bracket to the metal strip and angled them all slightly differently so that the heads would tilt into each other, creating emotional connections between each. Adding the metal strips also strengthened each head which removes the worry of potential breakage. We glued them in place before adding fibre glass to several areas in order to hold the strips.

The inside of the heads actually ended up looking awful, and the complete opposite to how the outside looked. We decided to spray paint the back of the heads black to cover the raw metal which in turn solved the problem as best as possible. Aesthetically this looks much better.

Overall, i am feeling thrilled with the outcome of my final piece. With this being said, I would like to develop the concept of this installation further , i can see now how I could really express the essence of my soI in this form more effectively.

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P O S I T I O N I N G  O F  F A C E S 

Here is a condensed video of me figuring out the positioning of the clay faces in relation to the frame. I will be taking the frame back to the farmer shortly to make some final adjustments now that i have figured out what position i would like the faces to be in. The next step after this will be securing the faces onto the frame. I am feeling pleased that it is all finally coming together!

[jacquelinemurray1961]

F R A M E  C O N S T R U C T I O N

I have been working with my neighbour to create a steel frame for my clay faces. After much deliberation on where to put the branches and what shape the frame should be, I came to the decision to just construct a basic frame with simple branches coming off the main tree so we have something to work on. 

Now that i have this frame, i can decide where i will position each face and see if i need to edit any of the branch like framework in order to achieve the perfect design. Once i am happy with the positioning of the faces, I will be attaching them to the steel frame with isopon fastglas fibre kit.

My initial plan was to place the base in a concrete slab to hold the weight, but i’m now thinking the crossbar at the bottom will be enough. If it is not, i can then go back and add a concrete or plaster base.

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I’ve been watching informative YouTube videos on Alginate Lifecasting as I am still drawn to it. It’s something that I really would like to do, especially now that I have all of the materials to achieve this. Whether there will be enough time before the deadline i’m not sure, but it is definitely something i will be working on again in the near future. 

[jacquelinemurray1961]

F I N A L  C A S T S

The firing process is finally finished and I can breath a sigh of relief that everything has gone smoothly. All nine casts are fired and looking fantastic. I am embracing the broken, cracked and crumbling parts as these elements are what make each face unique. I cannot wait for the next stage of putting them all together into an installation and hope it will express fully my intention as an artist to capture and reveal the essence of my statement of intent, the wonder of communication and depth that time, patience, perseverance and love shows within a relationship.

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F I R I N G  T H E  C A S T S

Here you can see the current firing setup I have in my back garden. I have filled a dustbin with straw, kindling wood, wood shavings and hay (anything that i can find really) in order to get the bin hot enough to fire the casts. I wrapped some of the clay casts in tin foil and others I placed straight into the bin for 24 to 48 hours, making sure I checked them regularly initially to make sure the fire had taken hold.

The firing process as a whole is quite therapeutic. It’s exciting not knowing exactly what will come out of the bin at the end of it all. You are handing over and trusting to the elements with the full realisation that you are not in control anymore!

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P R O C E S S  O F  S E C O N D A R Y  C A S T S

This is an example of the process that I followed in order to create the further seven (black) casts. 

Step One: Apply clay to plaster cast and remove once clay is firm enough.

Step Two: Burnish then add a layer of slip before burnishing once more.

Step Three: Leave to dry (although i did not fully dry out most of my casts before firing because they had differing thicknesses, as you can see in the image above). 

Step Four: Cover in tinfoil with dried avocado and banana skin plus orange and lemon peel, bit of garlic and pistachio shells. Place in dustbin and fire for up to 48 hours, or until cold.

Step Five: Retrieve from fire, remove from tin foil and lightly clean off with water before rubbing in bees wax polish. 

V O I L A 

*Repeat process six times*

[jacquelinemurray1961]

P R O C E S S  O F  I N I T I A L  C A S T S 

Lay clay on face and work into plaster cast to get as much detail as possiuble; thick clay is better for strength but you don’t get the finer detail. Plus thick clay is a handicap in firing in a dustbin without prior bisque firing.

Get the clay off the cast as quick as you can after already lifting the edge away to give you something to get ahold of in the easing off of the cast. I did burnish the clay cast while on the plaster then gently burnished after. In-between burnishing I put a thin layer of slip, did this a couple of times.

I did experiment with doves ball slip which could have been a mistake due to it needing to be fired at a much higher temperature than I can get in the dustbin firing.

I really liked the outcome of these casts. The terra sigillata effect on the faces has turned them white and with the contrast of the copper wire, I think they are quite successful. With this being said, if the clay had not been so thin i would have put more copper around the males head. I have not used or seen the effects of this slip before so this is new to me.

[jacquelinemurray1961]

B A C K  T O  M Y  S T A T E M E N T  O F  I N T E N T

As I mentioned in my video uploaded below, I have been finding it very difficult to continue with the acrylic painting of Lilah and really needed to put it aside for the moment to look at new avenues for my FMP.

For inspiration, and to keep myself on the correct track, I have returned back to my statement of intent and looked again at the initial pages of my sketchbook. Although I would have liked to revisit life casting I do not currently have all of the correct materials to do so. I do however have a decent amount of clay that I could put to use in a hope to capture unveiled moments of communication.

Although embryonic, in my experimental stage of the final major project, I had taken two plaster casts from my previous pathway project Mend and Repair. My new plan of action is to create further casts of these at home and fire them in the dustbin in the garden.

Photos and videos to follow

[jacquelinemurray1961]

 V I D E O  U P D A T E

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C U R R E N T  W O R K S P A C E

This is my painting and ceramic workspace which can be found at the end of my table in my (very communal) kitchen. Working from home during the Covid-19 crisis has felt like five steps forward and six steps back at times. This is due to my household being full of people and so my space, privacy and concentration has been limited. There is so much activity happening around me, including homeschooling my eight year old nephew, which has made this situation really challenging.

I have been working between here and my bedroom which fortunately has been quieter, although comes with its own downfalls as it is more difficult to see due to it being North facing.

The positive from working from home has been using my family as critics on my work. They have really got involved in supporting, encouraging and accepting the chaos that comes with working creatively from home. It has been interesting to hear their opinions on my work as they are so far from artists themselves, I feel there is a layman’s honesty to their words which i really appreciate.

With this being said, I have also reached out to my tutors, peers and technicians for feedback on my work as it is good to get several peoples opinions.

Although working from home has been tough, it has also provided me with a new perspective on life that I don’t want to change. Plus i’m getting pretty good at texting, emailing, printing and working my way around a computer.