goodbye chelsea.

hello whatever's next.


http://alyssa-phelan.tumblr.com/

eval.

             A feeling of uncertainty was present throughout the majority of my project, despite the research I had carried out; my project was to document my time in London, take photographs, and play around with cinematic imagery to make my work bolder; I had observed, drawn from and thought about a variety of films, and had used up at least seven rolls of 36-exposure film before I knew my main focus. My methods for what works would turn out successfully were “trial and error”.

I began by documenting where I had travelled, and social situations I would find myself in. I kept a log to keep a note of where I had been and my thoughts at the time. After a talk with tutors, I realized my work was far too broad and it needed a focus to have continuity between each painting. From there, I have focused on the reason I moved to London: the vibrancy of the city. I create loud, messy paintings, and I wanted to link this in with the experience I have had. I began to take photographs embarking on specific journeys around busy areas, most being by foot.

The methods I used for creating the paintings were not far out of my comfort zone, the main variant between each one being the material I was painting onto: either canvas, cardboard or wood. I prefer my paintings’ waxy texture when working on wood, however quite a few of the canvas paintings had been successful. Each painting would consist of composing the photograph(s), surrounding and layering these with oil bar, and then drawing and painting onto acetate to top them off. The resulting painting would be a glimpse of the urban fabric; the gestural abstract paintwork, the use of colours and shapes interact with each other and the sharpness of the photograph, showing human interaction and movement I had come across.

            Influences from other artists have helped shape my work; I feel I have drawn a lot from Merlin James, Dawn Mellor, and Willem De Kooning stylistically.  

            I didn’t refer to my action plan much throughout the project, because I knew in my mind what I would need to do after each step, as well as there being different obstacles that could change specific dates, for instance, if I could only afford so much film to be developed in one week.

            Overall, I have learnt that it’s better to try to focus on a stable idea from a week of thorough research, allowing more time for that idea to develop further, rather than working on broad ideas for a lengthy time. I will improve upon this in later work for the fact that I have grown in confidence and I have a better idea about which of my works turn out more successful. All in all, I’m very proud of my FMP work, it being my strongest collection of work yet, and I cannot wait to grow from this point. 

some new work;

It's been over a month since i last posted, which is pretty awful, but a lot has come up. We've ofcourse had this FMP business unloaded to us which has got everyone working on overtime. As well as this, i've had a few visits from friends, a visit from the boyf and then a trip back to Oxford to spend time with him. My mac broke which was a massive bugger and got me to points of boredom i haven't reached in a long long time. Interviews here and there, and a couple of rejections later, here i am. Basically two more weeks of college left. Two weeks of Foundation. Mental.


My FMP started out as a plan to just gather things i've taken and experienced from my time in London and whop it on a canvas; it's very important to me as living in London was my dream and i've finally done it. These canvases are thought out ofcourse; i struggle to explain why i make certain marks, but i know which marks i should make and i have a good idea on what i think looks good in my head. Putting that across to the tutors, however, is another matter. On Monday i was told i need to stop talking bollocks and change my subject matter from being all over the place to one specific subject/focus. In this case, i've decided to document the journeys i take daily. Always carrying a camera, i shoot things that catch my eye and try to record what and who i see. I don't know how i can explain this in an exciting thrilling way but surely my work should be doing the talking anyway, rather than myself. 
I understand an artist needs to have a sense of what their doing and get used to talking about works, but these artists are usually interviewed and asked specific questions; when i get stood in a corridor with my work lined up for everyone to see and just get stared at by my tutors and expected to talk, i stutter, panic and literally no words or nothing exciting can come out. Knowing this, i have my Chelsea interview in about a month from now and i'm literally bricking myself and holding no real hope that i'll get in just due to my sheer lack of confidence when talking about what's infront of me. I can't tell you why i find a certain composition interesting, or why certain colours happen to stand out and appeal to me. 
If i don't get in to chelsea, my only real option i'd want to take is a gap year to work full time and do art in any spare time i have. BA is so appealing because you're just left to your own devices to experiment, a lot like foundation, but it's a continuation of this, and that's really what i need to develop and take my work further. The fact i may not get in because i can't talk is incredibly unfair and it's really bummed and stressed me out.
That last paragraph turned into a bit of a rant, really.
Anyway, the FMP is now on journeys and i'm hoping i have a good collection of work by the 31st. 


PowBYE .x

hello. i just realised i hadn't posted any of the few pictures i took whilst at the ICA gallery the other week.

so here are some;

a film containing birds. 9 minutes with an outdoor abandoned feast. guess what happens.

i liked this sculpture piece.

this work resembles the work of Peter James Carrington. I adore Carrington and similarly adore this.

Cute little random postcards. i diiiig. i can't collage.

so that sums that up. 

I also haven't noted what i've done socially as of late. I went to see Metronomy at Heaven the other week, that was pretty nang. I ate shitloads of takeout; i feel pretty fat now. I also bombed my FMP and ended up feeling coldy and fluey and wanting the fuck out of London so i could see maaa mandem.

Went down last thursday and spent the whole past weekend back in Oxford. I basically lived at my boyfriends house the whole time, we watched films and listened to music, went out for a meal with his fam and had the most beautiful valentines day together ever imaginable. I cannot stress in enough words how happy and content i am with everything and how much i truly love him.

Back up to London for assessment; has been a rushed day, and after taking all my work from the past few weeks without it even being looked at, i left with my head up after receiving a very healthy pass with probability of it being a Merit by the end of the year. Tomorrow i have to really think about my FMP ideas and go out and take photographs, look out for little things people do not normally see. I also have to further artist research and probably watch a few films.

...Which reminds me! Watched 'Let the Right One In' the other night, a swedish film following the story of a young bullied boy who falls in love with a Vampire. Sounds like your corny 'twighlight-esque' sort of story, but this was actually very good and very moving with some beautiful cinematography.

Roiiiight. think i've updated this enough. 

buying the new Radiohead LP this coming saturday so i'm going to be immersed in that record for a good while which will put on a large delay to blogging. .x

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Forgot to add to the second last blog; a trip to the Saatchi Gallery with my darling pal Ellie took place! We were going to hit the East End but after doing some intense portfolio prep and the fact i had to rush home before work meant that we just stayed at Saatchi, which was interesting enough; there were many artists that shared links to my work; i plan to read and research these artists through at a later date.

 Tis a spacious beautiful gallery.

Artists who inspired: Dan Perfect, Nicholas Hatful, Ansel Krut, Robert Fry, Gabriel Hartley, Nicholas Byrne (for using Plexiglass), Carla Busthil, Richard Wilson.