Michelle Jessie Sharples

Visual Art Student   University of Salford 

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This series of work is called ‘No place like home’. - Bringing home objects into the studio from a place I experience all of my emotions. I am using inspiration from Tracy Emin’s work throughout my own practice.

Continuation of the weavings I have made for my studio work using T-shirt’s that hold meaning of bad memories. The white and silver fabric hold meanings of bad days for me which I do not actually feel comfortable in now wearing. So I have stripped them up and are making a new use for them by incorporating them into my weavings which then hold meaningfulness. I also feel that in a way they are a reminder that I have actually got pat those bad times. I feel like having depression, having some reminder that you have passed those bad days are such an achievement. These are the things I am incorporating into my practice through all semester projects. Squashing the taboo about not being able to talk about having depression daily. Getting to the next day is such an achievement when you have so many mental demons.

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Drawing myself on the opposite side of the canvas. Adding fire to represent meaning of how my mind feels - burnt out.

I feel like I don’t know who I am anymore and that when I look in the mirror I do not like what I see. Hence the drawing on the wrong side of the canvas representing not feeling important enough for the front to show. I took the idea of this of my practice from the lecture which Brendan where there was a canvas in a painting being viewed from the opposite side of what you would look at it. Testing our narrative reading skills of art itself and realising the meaning through objects conveyed through paint. This lecture was something that struck me as important to think about for my practice. Allowing my audience to read in to my feelings.

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Collage and painting on white card. (Post it note with annotation to explain meaning of work).

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Lino prints done for the 20:20 print which I participated in this year as I unfortunately didn’t take up the opportunity to last year. This has allowed me to take a shine to linocut and the incentive to create more artwork in this way.

I feel like it’s eyecatching and also illustrative with the way the roses are printed. This is something I intend to improve on, maybe on a much larger scale and my aim is to explore print in this way combined with textiles to convey femininity through my practice.

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Influences on my studio practice.

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‘Every part of me’s bleeding’ Tracey Emin. 1999. In the darkest hour there may be light.

Tracey emin, Barbara Kruger and Damien Hirst are artists which heavily influence my studio practice and the style I work within; deep meaning.

This postcard I have which I bought from the Tate Liverpool is a piece of hers which I love as it’s something which when you look at, is very beautiful, bright and bold, in the style of feminine handwriting. Even though the texts meaning is dark and depressing there’s this narrative using the neon lights which makes this piece of text seem beautiful. The thought that even though every part of you is bleeding, there is always light at the end of the tunnel and you will arise from this bad state.

This is a very influential piece towards my practice even though I am not working with light, but the meaning within Tracey Emins work is my inspiration on a whole.

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- Research

I came upon this book in the library which I really enjoyed looking at and reading. I think it’s a clever way to express through stitching. I enjoy the playful aspect with different objects stitched into. My favourite has to be the toilet roll being stitched into to convey an important message. This further inspired me to use everyday materials which people would use and come across in their daily lives to attract an audiences attention. This inspired me to stitch into delicate rose petals as it’s a very different practice to just painting say. I want to create work in my practice with a heavily influence of meanings and depression throughout.

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My weaving looms made from cube shelves before weavings were incorporated into them.

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- Notes of thoughts and feelings on post it notes.

- The roses I have used within my practice in their full state before I arranged them for drying.

- Pieces of reflection for my practice.

I wanted to document the difference of the roses I have used before they were dried for the use of comparison of vibrancy, spring feel and lifelyness. Compared to the dark, shrivelled and wrinkly feel that the dried state is.

Brainstorming my mind thoughts are an important part of my practice. They allow me to document my feelings with time, should I start to feel better than I have reference of something to look back toward.

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Small rose buds encased in resin.

This piece was more of an experimentation of resin which didn’t come out very professional and also didn’t dry properly but I am adding this into my blog for evidence of the work and for documentation of experimenting working with resin. This is something I am giving a reflection on myself to work on as I am heavily interested in resin. But I have come to the conclusion I need to spend more time in the workshop perfecting my resin skills on a complete whole. But experimenting is good!

The finished piece kind of resembles a misshaped, bubbled and chipped piece of ice. I’m calling this one ‘cold as ice’.

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Experimenting with rose petals held up to bright light to reveal their vein like structure. The connection between humans and plants. We are all living breathing organisms. We feel; we live, all amongst each other.

Rose petal entrapped between two thin pieces of clear acrylic.

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- Dried roses on Mdf wood, painted with household white emulsion.

‘Paint me like one of your french girls’.

These two pieces are essentially just painted mdf boards with dried roses which I painted over. I was contemplating actually doing this to them but I’m glad I did and I actually really like the effect of them. The paint dried in Matt. My reasoning for using household white paint as that the consistency is thicker so the coverage is better. Also I want to keep the theme running through my practice to express the use of some non artist medium too and reusing what is available to keep cost down and also thinking about the benefits to the environment.

The pieces overall is an insight to how we with depression get ‘painted over’ like erasing someone and not allowing them to shine or attract attention like something of that which is colourful would. Looking into colour meanings and representation, white represents blank, no emotion and pure. This is my reasoning for just using white and painting the roses so they blend in with the board and don’t really catch your eye. The form of them reminds me of a carved piece, something old fashioned they would have in the late 80’s through to the mid 90’s that maybe your grandma would love.

I am really enjoying the variation of what I can do with dried roses and the effects that can be created whilst also thinking of new ways to convey messages and meanings through art practices to project to an audience.

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Making use of all the material from my dried roses I decided to retouch on embroidery but in a simplistic form to see if hand stitching through rose petals would be a success. I would say it is but you have to be very careful. I wanted to stitch each petal onto my piece of canvas material in a slightly different way, (pictured) to symbolise humans and their cores. Everyone goes through similar or different things in life, but we are all delicate and need taking care of. This pieces narrative is about how we hold to things differently. Even if the petals were to fall away or rip, this would then be a further point to make that, like us humans, some of us are able to cope with more ‘stitches’, some aren’t and they fall. Falling and breaking represents our mental state. Within my practice I am intending to use flowers, (mainly roses) throughout. I will be using them in different ways to explore the narrative of depression and how it is a part of my daily life.

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I made some home made weaving looms for my studio practice. I made them using some cube shelves that I was no longer needing which can be displayed by just hanging them onto a wall mounted screw or nail.

This piece I am calling ‘no place like home’ as I feel it is a representation of home decor with an incorporation of art.

The weaving look itself I made just by measuring half inch nails hammered into the wood on two sides oposing one another then I used white string and tied and weaved it through the nails. Allowing there to be equal tort and tention between each weaved band of string so when weaving my material through it will be of the same consistency throughout.

I cut strips of old pieces of clothing which didn’t fit me anymore as an indented symbolism that my old clothes are far too small from gaining such weight due to being depressed as a result of my constant circumstances. When I grow out of clothes it adds the extra feeling of annoyance to me and upset as it’s one of the aspects which makes me not feel like myself. Which doesn’t help with the depression. So strips from old garments means I am giving something a new life which I think also is a great aspect I have been looking into a lot which is great for the environment. I think old garments also hold a story within them. Like if you wore a t-shirt to a certain event, whenever you’d wear it you may remember the event surrounding its wear. That’s the feel I am putting forward into my practice this year making it feel that more personal and allowing me to further connect with my audience.

The roses, petals and leaves are from bunches of flowers I’ve had around my flat, (fresh when I bought them) but I’ve kept to incorporate throughout my practice. Flowers within my work represent life and death. We buy flowers for the beauty around our home yet when they die and wilter away we throw them and replace them with new. For me that’s a good representation of life and how we are blooming and fresh when we are young, then we live off water and food until we are too old to carry on and we die. Simple as that. But does the way the dried rose looks when dead make you feel in awe of its beauty? Or do you feel they are old and seem outdated? The representation I’m trying to catch from my audience is.. that’s how we treat people with depression. When someone has no life because they are depressed, they wilter away so to speak. People aren’t openly there for you anymore as they used to be when you wasn’t depressed. Will my art be considered outdated and not as good if I used dried roses because they have this aura now surrounding them? Or will someone take the time to look at my work and think it’s just as beautiful and be taken in by the work as much as a fresh cut rose. The value of the two is so different. In life it’s the same principles that surround us.

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Noa Snir visualises mental disorders through her series of minimalist linocut prints

Illustrator Noa Snir’s black and white linocut series explores psychological disorders, phobias and syndromes through pared-back interpretations. The project first came to life as an A5 publication a couple of years ago and Noa has continued with the project since, which has led to an exhibition of the prints in "O! Galeria":https://www.ogaleria.com/ in Porto opening this week.

Noa Snir’s linocut series of work is something I am inspired to work in this illustrative design in my studio work to connect with my audience and create a clear narrative with visuals. linocut isn’t something that I feel I personally am not the greatest at but its something which I inspire to become better at as I think it displays illustratively and also can be used to create a unified multiple. Multiple is a good characteristic to describe mental health, its repetitive.     

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Level 5 starts here

This part of my blog going forward will be my work of level 5, professional context - research and Studio culture 1 - artist and audience modules

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‘No one cares’ acrylic on canvas, painted and scratched into as I was feeling thoughts that I wasn’t loved I channeled my inner thoughts straight onto the canvas. Punching, scratching and painting in fast notions. I wanted to just leave it as it was and not work into it anymore. I think it’s important to know you won’t like every piece of work you make, but the process and the meaning and technique being used helps to make the piece. I can look back at this piece one day and think ‘god I’m glad I don’t feel that way anymore’. I wanted people to know what was in my head. I’ve also jotted down all the other things that came to mind as my theme mostly concentrates on what is in your head mentally and how I’m using my artwork as a way to let out so to speak of the negativity within a timeframe in my life whilst being at university.