Artist inspiration: Grayson Perry

Grayson Perry.

 

"Over the Rainbow"

2001

 

As part of my contextual studies on Monday and as part of my learning from year 1 i learnt to take inspiration from not only textiles/fashion designers but from artists, architects, books/stories and everything else! Inspiration doesn't have to come from something that has already been done, but something that triggers something in your brain, to form your own unique ideas.
I have been online again looking for artist research (as part of my 5 internet research artists!). I remember looking at Graysons Perrys' work in A level and knew that he had focused on autibiographical/childhood events. His work doesn't appeal to me visually but his context is far more interesting for me. I like my work to have a strong sense of personailty i don't want to do it because i 'have to' but because each piece has a mini story, a small part of me, a thought about idea that has turned into something.
"In his work Perry reflects upon his upbringing as a boy, his stepfather's anger and the absence of proper guidance about male conduct. Perry's understanding of the roles in his family is portrayed in Using My Family, from 1998, where a teddy bear provides affection, and the contemporaneous The Guardians, which depicts his mother and stepfather.^"

"golden ghosts" - 2000.

In this Grayson has portrayed unhappy expressions on little girls faces contrasted with beautoful scenic landscapes. He has hidden meanings within each of his objects. The girl in the gold dress is of his alter ego Claire and is described as his 'coming out dress' mirroring the time of when he 'came out' within a period of his life. He has visually intepretated and displayed/documented his life through imagery.

"two children born on the same day"

1996.

 

In his work it is also very political on the saatchi gallery, i quote:
"Perry reveals ‘One of the reasons I dress up as a woman is my low self-esteem, to go with the image of women being seen as second class…It is like pottery: that’s seen as a second-class thing too’."

 

Also to link it back to my theme of childhood,although all of his vases are not of childhood scenes, they are revealing his feelings from when he was a child and going through different stages in his life. He is looking back and conveying personal emotions through art when in my opinion he feels that it is time and he is ready for his voice to be heard, something of which he may not of had.

Inspiration: Emma Lundgren

Future Folklore print:

Emma Lundgren is a Sweden born fashion and textile designer and graduated with a first class honours textile degree from Central Saint Martins.
I particularly like her as she infuses her past (Sweden) with her present with contemporary London influences. Which is something i am going to try to achieve within my upcoming work.

She has used typical scandinavian design patterns like cross stitch and horses with a playful colourful twist so she provokes a feeling of the past and the future - typical design with contemporary colours.

 

I really like this piece as it is very geometric and routine but looking closely it is hard to tell were the repeat pattern starts and finishes and this is a aim that we have had with our recent repeat project. It has been very thought about to me it looks mathematical. I like her use of colours, she has broken up the background with a invisible line from red to white. The pattern of the broken square shapes helps with this transition. My eyes dart across the whole of the fabric due to the broken shapes however my eye is first drawn to the rythmic look of the statement flowers. To me this broken shapes that descend down the page is a way of translating visually that something has broken down, something has changed from it's original state. - Links to the idea of things change from past to present.

 

Emma Lundgren for Tokion Magazine.

"Blend past and future by constructing a future folklore hat for Tokion Magazine Reincarnation Issue 2009"

Emma Lundgren again has used the idea of past and future within her work but within sculpture this time. She has used old tablecloths, re-using materials with the combination of shiny new materials. Again she has used scandinavian design patterns with London culture colours and a feel to it. Her signature 'more is more' style is evident here.
 I love the colours here they are primary colours. The use of primary colours to me is a way of exploring my childhood. I would use paint kits that came with blue, red, yellow and white/black paints. I first learnt how to mix paint with primary colours. Children are more alert to the boldness of primary colours.

This looks so intricate. this inspires me to go onto the laser cutter! She has used a new range of materials to me it looks like a type of rubber due to its scaly yet shiny texture. Rubber is versatile and very tactile to be able to move and bend and be manipulated like that.

 

Colour editorial:

These fashion headpieces are a exploration of narrative and identity. She has used a variety of techniques here, knitting is predominant but it looks as though she has used material manipulation amongst the technique pushing it forward and making it unique. Knitting to me is about the intertwiningof two materials coming together, again another reference to my concept of past and present coming together.

It's all in the research.

Today we had our first contextual studies lesson of the year and i feel lucky to have elaine as she is very knowledgable and she too is doing a masters degree in further research. She is also very easy to talk to. I wrote down a lot of websites i could use to help me gain inspiration, ideas and trends which i have tried to do tonight. I have come up with my initial starting point of my new project: childhood. Nick said : what is Norwich to you? Norwich to me is my birthplace, it is also the birthplace of my siblings; coming froma large family this is a personal subject and something i get lots of ideas from. My youngest siblings are ages 2,6 and 9 years old which is perfect as it allows me to explore my childhood(past) in comparison to theirs (present). It allows me to take a journey through time and record memories that i have of my childhood and theirs in and around Norwich.

Inspirational:Eunsuk Har.

Eunsuk Har is a textile graduate from central saint martins and is someone who interests me as part of the start of my new project of transformation in quite a mechanical and sculptural way. She uses sublimation printing onto wood, acid printing onto wool felt and etches into leather. She creates multi dimensional and directional pieces that can be worn by the user how they would like as a way of demonstrating her aim : "temporal identities and constantly transformative human nature".

Her collection is called the 'nomadic wonderland' and its purpose is decided by it's user and could be used for interior accessories or fashion.

I think that this artist suits my potential work well due to it's complex context and the fact that it comes with a meaning. It has been created on purpose, to inform the user and the viewer about a deep and meaningful issue. I also feel that laser cutting could be used in my work, as i am excited about our laser cutter induction that is soon approaching!

From a repeat project to a norwich scarf.

I have been thinking today after my cad embroidery induction that i would like to have a natural transformation from my repeat project where i have been focusing on flowers,pegs,scissors and other 'mechanical' looking objects. Norwich to me was where i was born, and i would like to take this as my starting point - a birthing place -  A people place where 132,000 people live in the Norwich City council area. I would like to investigate the transformation of birth to the working person that journey that they go on. Just like a flower starts as a bud in one persons home and blooms into a flower and is more of a concerntrated and controlled transformation.

Here are some images that i have found inspiring and are quite lateral and far off the target but can be used as starting points, colour palettes and techniques.

Paper sculptures made from tax returns and receipts.

Eunsuk Har.

Lasercut.

Tracey Kendall.
- a wallpaper designer/artist.

This piece of work interests me as this jigsaw wallpaper has been arranged in a way that you cannot ever tell what the image was.  A jigsaw to me signifies different aspects of someones life, different events, chapters, people, history and experience. All of this makes that one person. Using something simple and perhaps 'child-like' in a professional and mature way supports my idea of going forward with idea from birth to adult and the idea of laser cutting - this is all very exciting!

lateral thinking.

Part of Les' talk this morning was about lateral thinking and sourcing inspiration from unlikely sources that can have even the slightest of impacts you. It could be a colour, it could be a question, it could have nothing to do with what you are doing as long as it ticks into your mind and allows it to relate to your theme in one way or another...

Love the cut out shapes, reminds me of one of my scissor drawings negative space.
Also contrasting repetitive prints.

Fendi Spring/Summer 2012.

metals-part of the objects i've looked at all contain mechanical parts like bolts, screws, nuts, springs and metal materials.

metal made feminine.

I think i have learnt how to repeat pattern PROPERLY in photoshop.

Today has been a good day, a much better day than yesterday. I had a lecture first thing this morning that was held by Les (lesbicknell.blogspot.com) and his lectures he gives are a real mind blowing experience. He makes you think so deep into things that you even begin to think into things that you would have never though possible. After an eye opener of a talk, i took a very brave step into the oppostie building at university and stepped into the digital design room. Considering i am never in this building let alone in a computer room on my own, this was a step forward (literally!) and i learnt a few tips on photoshop like how to edit a dawing, how to adjust levels and how to make sure they are the standard of which is good to print onto acetate with. I got these straight into the print room ready to be put onto a screen of which i aim to do next week! Between this and 3pm i had spare time of which i put together 2 layers of kodatrace for another type of print, pat of this project is exploring all of the different types of repeat that print can offer, obviously the list is endless but i want to explore as many as i can as print is something i am very interested in learning about. I had my tutorial at the end of the day, and learnt that my strengths lie with my drawing and that i should continue to gain imagery from my drawing as this opens up so many options for me - print, stitch, repeats, digital art, illustration and acts as a source of inspiration. I also,after this caught our photoshopteacher who taught us more photoshop and for me clarified up all of the points i was obviosuly missing for why my repeats never repeated properly. I am pleased to say they are going well so far tonight and i feel much more confident and better about the project already this just proves to me that all my sleepless nights and negative thoughts stem from that fact that i was getting very stressed over the dreaded p word. I am going to continue makng repeats after i have posted this, i am very excited and motiated right now to explore more printing repeats. Here are some of mine so far...

I will definetley put more time into refining these but i was a bit excited over the fact that i have learnt how to repeat without a line showing, and how they repeat and not knowing what the actual repeat is.