Patches of Remembrance

This art project is about the loss of my dog and the work being created is in memory of her. Athough lost she will never be forgotten and she will be remembered as someone very special. The music I listen to while painting reminds me of her... and it is my memory of her that keeps me playing and going.

[patchesofrememberanceartproject]

This is the second tribute video I created in memory of Ellie. This song I heard before she was put to sleep. Ellie was with me from 2010 until May 15th 2018 when she had to be put to sleep. For many years I have created art with Ellie by my side since 2010 from when I started doing a level 2 art course to then doing masters in university. I never did think that I would end up at university years ago but I pursued art not knowing where I was going to end up. I dreamed that art would take me places and it has and I have been on a big journey so far, and although ellie is gone now I must continue to carry on. Ellie didn’t want to give up and was constantly wanting to play even during her final days.

Ellie will never be forgotten as she inspired me in many ways. 

[patchesofrememberanceartproject]

short evaluation

In this final project I have been successful with creating a body of work in remembrance to the dog that I lost called Ellie. She was diagnosed with skin cancer after a lump was removed from her leg and was tested positive as being cancerous. A patch of skin was removed from her chest and was placed on on her leg after the first lump was removed. Sadly the cancer was at the stage of spreading and was aggressive and soon 9 lumps grew where the patch was. I didn’t want to think about the lumps too much so I decided to create work using patches because she had a patch on her leg. The lumps were dreadful to see and haunted me quite badly so I thought about breaking a painting up into patches to express an idea that when things appear to be broken it is important to try and fix things regardless. Although Ellie couldn’t be saved she was still very happy and she had a great life, and the last day I saw her she still wanted to play even though the lumps looked as though they caused her pain.

I am happy with the work that has been created in memory of her and I feel that if she was still around she would have enjoyed the pillows I had made because she used to rest on pillows and sometimes on my bed next to me. The weakness I have is displaying artwork but I hope to improve how I display art in the future.  Now this project is finished I plan to create more art soon expanding on my interest of combining stitching with painting.

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this is the floor plan. I’m on the left where it says ‘shannon’. that is the space that I am taking up in the room. I am happy with the amount of space given and now I just need to think about displaying the work.

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at the moment my display looks messy and I am thinking about rearranging the display again tomorrow for the final time. Not sure too much about how things will be displayed but I am thinking of scattering the pillows out in some way.

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playing around with displaying the work. I had pillows, the patchwork piece and piles of other paintings to think about.

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2 pillows

I like the idea of pillows resting on each other also. so some of the pillows were alone and others were together.

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The new display idea was to then remove the grey bed sheet and scatter the pillows out a bit more so that they wouldn’t be resting against the wall. Though this layout makes me think about stones.

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My first display idea for the work was this

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front view of my first display i had in mind. 

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my first display idea looked like this. I wanted the pillows to be gathered around the patchwork piece in the center. The pillows themselves reminds me of people gathering around and I wanted the patchwork piece to be the main focus of the work as it was created because a painting was destroyed.

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‘patches of remembrance’

I destroyed a painting into patches and I have hand stitched each patch back together but in a new order. The process was very time consuming but very rewarding, and the piece has been made in memory of my dog who was put to sleep. She had a patch on her leg placed after a lump was removed and it was discovered that the lump was cancerous when tested. i didn’t want to create work showing lumps because of how traumatizing they were to look at so instead I decided that I would focus on working with patches. Each patch is a different part of a painting that I destroyed.

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My first display idea I had was to lean the pillows against the wall and planned to have the patchwork piece in the center.

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I had this idea for display. I wanted to get 2 bed sheets to cover the floor to make it look neat and arranged in an order. I didn’t want the messiness of the painterly floor to be a distraction to the patchwork piece that was going to be resting. I was afraid that if i was to place the patchwork piece on top of the floor itself it may blend with the messiness of the painterly wooden floor and get lost in the space. That is why I decided to start putting a grey bed sheet down to hide the messiness of the wooden floor and begin making an organised and neat display. Esther didn’t seem to like the grey bed sheet and neither did others so it was decided to remove the sheet and then I was thinking of how  I could display the work in a different way.

[shannon09star]

Rakuen Soundtrack - Build a little world with me (Laura Shigihara)

This song reminds me of Ellie quite a lot. Ellie was given to me in 2010 which was the time I started doing Art for my options in school. Shep my old labrador retriever was put down because of cancer earlier before Ellie was given to me. I was given Ellie and she helped me overcome mourning shep and she looked after me for years while I studied art. It was in 2010 that I began studying art further and then I went on to going college and then university. Ellie was always there for me and she helped me in many ways. She used to enjoy being next to me while I did drawings. This song reminds me of her and how she was always with me. 

The words ‘would you build a little world with me’ reminds me that I created so many artworks while Ellie was by my side and now I wanted to create work in memory of her.

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this is another gif that I have made of ellie using 2 photo’s.

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I decided to make an animated gif using some photographs of Ellie.

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Alexander Rybak - "Roll With The Wind" (Official Music Video)