L.Doyle @lsdoyleartist-blog - Tumblr Blog

Obsession

I have begun to realise that my work is as much about obsession that it is ambiguity and gender. Obsession that has occurred in my life as a person, whilst looking at other artists it has become apparent whilst gender is link obsession is a line of enquiry that is as equally important to my line of work.

This piece was produced to the lead up of my final degree piece 'corporeous', taken from La Grace's image 'The Gate Keeper', she displays strength and power. The face I deliberately did so that she was half in darkness half in light. Is she coming forwards or disappearing? The image I wanted to be my interpretation of hermaphrodite, she holds all the key features of a woman, strength, beauty, stance, sexuality, sensuality and yet the ambiguousness of the face leaves that question of whether she could be male or female. This I want the viewer to decide. Why is It important, why are we so fixated on giving label's out that everything has to have a status, a name, can it not just be?

The influence of DelGrace Volcano

So to home down on what my actual line of enquiry is I seem to have fixated on gender ambiguity, from reading into Della La grace Volcano, she/ bas been a huge source of information and resources. A main influence on my work she/he has taught me what a hermaphrodite is, up until this point I was clueless. The exact definition is someone who has reproductive organs that are associated with male and female, or associates his/herself and being both male and female. Volcano, an artist who's work spans from the 80's until present focuses on showing this ambiguity by photographing the world in which she surrounds herself in. A few of her photographs have been then source of my work, as the strength of my work comes from the source of images I find. Each source has a link to the LGBT world. LA grace is a hugely important one as her photographs many of which are explicit may appear to dehumanise women and appeal to the male and voyeuristic gaze. The difference however with Volcano is she puts herself in front of the camera with her subjects, anything she asks her models to do she also does, she obliterates the male gaze by making her models real people. The typical pornographic lipstick lesbian is what appeals to men, however what stops these photos from being pornographic is Volcano uses real women, friend, partners all become the focus of Volcano's work. The typical female nude becomes a symbol of power and sexuality. Especially within her book 'Sublime Mutations, Volcano shows woman who have come through loss, longing and shows the body as a site of mutation.

The near end

After numerous testing and research I have finished my practice, my apologies that I have not kept up to date with this blog but I intend to show you each piece and my problems and thinking's with each work now. I have kept it all in my head and on scribbles of paper but now it is time for me to show you what I have been doing and to conclude this blog.

24th April, Final degree piece

Well, at the moment I am a little apprehensive as to how my final piece is going to turn out, I am worried. I have spent the day doing the fourth stage of the work, which is to apply varnish to them all. I think my problem to start ff with was I under estimated how much varnish I was going to need for all the boards. To do the process that I do which is to pour the varnish on and then move it around the board by physically turning the board and allowing the varnish to run and make it own marks. So that was my first mistake, then my second mistake I tried to do all 18 boards at once, I poured the varnish and then it started to dry, so I was running out of time and then started to run out of varnish. In the end I had to cover the boards in a thin coat of varnish so at least they were covered. The result is that the boards will not be smooth like I originally intended for them to be. So at this moment in time I do not know if the boards will work of not, I would still like to exhibit them so I am hoping the final stage of spray-painting will lift them a little.

The start of my final piece, 18 framed boards that come together to make one work, after a day making them I used two different sized brushes to create curves and swerves. So far I am extremely happy with how my work is going, the next stage is to varnish the boards. I'm taking a huge risk by working this big, firstly due to the size and then the cost. I cant afford to do this again if I fuck it up, I don't have the money or the time.

As it grows near to the degree show, it's time to up my game and think ambitiously. After a tutorial, my lecturer found that the larger drawings seemed to have more effect as they expressed the body and worked better as a painting. She also found the painting of the 'ass' not to be working, the thick black boarder stopped the delicateness of the spray-paint intercepting with the rest of the painting. What I seemed to have achieved, I had then lost by adding the boarder, so I will try and eradicate this somehow. It was also suggested to me to try and overlap the images, as the surfaces were a painting in their own right, it was a shame to cover them entirely up. So I could work with this and do a huge painting. I am currently working out sizes, but I am looking to work towards something around 16ft. A rectangle made of different sized boards, each with their individual frame. The ink I will paint onto the works all at one so that it flows from board to board, the same will also go with the varnish. The images I will gather over the weekend, roughly thinking I should be able to fit around four or five images onto the entire painting. This would be placed opposite three of my larger drawings, showing a development from Christmas. I feel now what I need to get up to speed on is my research.

Before and after the varnishing process. This board I kept simple, with the same swirly lines made in black Indian ink. The Varnishing process I kept simple too, with clear varnish and only splashes of Teak coloured varnish. To get the smooth layered consistency I pour plenty of varnish, then move the varnish freely by moving the board and allowing itself to stretch and cover the entire area.

What my studio looks like currently. Lots of test pieces on the go with 6 wooden frames on order from woodwork :). I'm also keeping the large pieces going, the next step I feel is to maybe try some long pieces that I can hang over the beams. An idea that's worth trying, mainly as I would like to try and bring my work off of the wall. This way I could try and do life size images of people, really bringing the work to life. Now I am in the final stages of the course and I need to pull out all of the stops. I also need to be pulling the work together, finding endings in work I have been doing and finding ways of finishing them. Over the next few days I also need to make a trip to B&Q to find some varnishes.

Today I added a border round the image in oil paint. I felt the image was missing something, the image was hanging in space, now it feels like I am looking into something, like behind closed Doors. Maybe i should try and white out some more of the wood next time. I feel the wood pieces are each working in my favour, some of these will be in the final degree show.

Productive again

In the studio again today, I feel I need to have a good few solid days in the studio but first I need to do some research and find some images that I can blow up and convert into stencils. It was suggested to me that the problem I seem to have is I am using other peoples imagery. So if I can this week I will take some of my own shots with my partner. Just of the face and capture some intense up close shots of us kissing.

Work today that I have produced includes one of the wood pieces that I have been working on, I feel the image has worked but it needs working on a little more. I think If I work with some black spray paint and frame the outside of the image. This will cover up the mistakes of the stencil and outline the image more. I think the wood piece has worked, I particularly love the glossy finish that the work has to it. Completely different to the paper pieces I hve been working, I think I am working towards the final show now. Over the next few days I need do some more research and also order some more materials, I seem to be down on spray paint. The white is working well and I will stick to this, I think trying different colours will be the next step and also finalising the wood pieces. Overall happy with what I have achieved today.

Small steps of Progress

Small steps but I feel my progress is moving forward every day, today I covered the other wooden frame in the polish so it at least has a layer on it to work upon, I also added the rest of the varnish onto the frame which was really just a drizzle, but this being the heavier substance it made a trail through the polish. As long as I am working on them a little at a time I feel I am making progress.

I also made some progress on the large piece of work I have been working on, I had come to a standstill with it but now I feel all it needs is an image and then it is done. There is only so much a piece of work should be worked on until apathy is reached and nothing more should be done on it. A profound difference can be seen though, be completely whitening the entire painting out with matt paint and then using a cloth to take most of the paint off, the painting is now softer and feels immersive. At long last I feel like a painter.

My group ctit was also today, some valid points were made and I'm not unhappy with what was said, a few suggestions were made such as using canvas and seeing what affects I could get out of that. Overall a good day :)

Another start to a piece of work. Polish on wood and ink. Then varnish thrown over the top. where the varnish repels the polish can be seen as though something has crawled through the varnish :)

Before and after. Gone back to this piece and tones it down a lot. White Matt paint applied and then washed off with a cloth. For me this makes the work less contrived and more fluid. Just the image to add to this and then this work is done. There is a point where the line should be drawn and I should stop

Mixed Day

Well today has been on and off I'm afraid, I feel as if I have taken three steps forward and four steps back. This morning I sanded down the boards which looked like beautifully primed boards after I had finished, then I applied the varnish onto the boards. A mix of antique varnish, button polish, French polish, ink and turps. The effect I got was perfect, I had however forgotten to sweep the ink onto the boards first with the paintbrush so I ended up just dripping the ink onto the board. Mixing the combination of varnishes I had with the ink. The repelling of materials creating a wonderful broken effect. A pushing and pulling of materials relating to my work of the breaking up of a society due to people not accepting other people due their sexuality.

It was here however that things started to go wrong, the mix of varnishes I had used caused a chemical reaction and absolutely stank out the studios. So I had got an aesthetically pleasing board which I wanted however the chemicals that were produced were so overpowering it caused quite a stir in the studio. So I need to quickly decide which step to move on from. One of the options is to maybe move onto resin, the problem being that I have not done a workshop in resin because I had not done the workshop in woodwork. Whatever I do I think I need the use of the extractor fans. Due to the mishap of the materials I felt that I had lost my enthusiasm from this point. So I didn't really want to do anything else. Tomorrow I will focus on research and see what has happened

Trying out things on my wooden frames I had primed and sanded. A mix of antique varnish, wood Polish, button polish, turps and ink.

Beggining of Woodwork

My frames that I ordered arrived from the wood shop today,quite excited to try these out if I’m honest. As I think the varnish will literally shine in the environment of the frame and give me an entirely different surface to work on and give a different effect for the eventually finished works. These are going to be an ongoing process as each layer will take time to try, because of this I am going to work on the three at the same time. Each frame will be a tester to see what I can do and what affects I like. One of the frames I have painted the sides of the frames with the white gloss paint, but then the other two I have left naturally brown. I will varnish these and let this become part of the work. I don’t really want white to show at the end of the process, but each sample will provide me with things that are working and what’s not. So the gloss will dry tonight and then they will be ready for sanding, I think I will sand all three frames and begin their individual journeys. Maybe leaving one un-sanded will leave textures that will add to the work. So the next job is sanding whilst researching artists and images. For this project I find myself not only research painters but also photographers. I feel at the moment I am on track for where I want to go, I am happy with my work and feel that the looming degree show might actually be an opportunity to push myself for the final time.

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