Some initial images, thoughts, and ideas for final project

Images and ideas and aspects of art I am currently working on is a more reflective approach to looking at art... Philosopher Alain de Botton describes as Art as therapy...he describes how "Art can save your soul." Botton says in the 19th C we are no longer able to bring our fears and anxieties into the Modern Cathedral(of Culture).Going on he says..."Art is a vehicle through which we can do such things as.. recover, hope, develop empathy,laugh, and wonder. see his talk below.....on ted



 www.ted.com/.../alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler...‎

Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure  and questions the assumptions underlying these ...

 I have also been researching artist Claude Monet whose large scale works (some) were given to the French Nation after the 1st world war and were considered as works to heal the nation after the traumas of the war, though I have never seen these ... works in the Gallery one hears that their scale creates a sense of  immersion, and a sense of calm and peace is evoked, taking the viewer out of the stresses and demands of modern day life.  

SOLIDARITY

Solidarity our thoughts are with the people.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8901945099625745268#editor/target=post;postID=3493102751385918569

 

Post also on the a-n site Journal Blog for critical Review

Today was a continuation and a pushing forward into exploring new ideas after renewing my last studio work space yesterday... feeling at a loss..so time to look at a different perspective...  Not sure where it will take me I am hoping through the exploration and constructing a form to get inspired !! . looking at a more abstract form, having acquired interesting waste material from a photo machine with the faint echoes /imprints  of images from peoples everyday lives on the waste material its self....As  can be seen from the last post I started to explore angle, shapes and colours and how they interacted when I placed the material in certain positions  in my studio, Then, having hired the white space felt it was time for a new large scale ... The work itself reminded me of "barriers," having the images on the material alerted me to the socio- political and economic structures that, although for the most part are not perceived,do shape, constrain and dictate our choices and the shaping of our social lives. We imagine we live in a free society but that freedom is exercised within very limited parameters that are constructed by one dimensional systems,  and social norms. This socialisation enables the powers that be to control.. at a distance as we internalise... ( something that Foucault had theorised over) and perform. This leads us to conform to certain structures... reminds me of Herbert Marcuse's words,"One dimensional thought is systematically promoted by the makers of politics  and their purveyors of mass information ,their universe of discourse populated by self validating hypotheses which incessantly and monopolistically repeated become definitions of dictations." Herbert Marcuse 1991,p14 One Dimensional man . London:Routledge.

scale of image

[enlarge] Exploration of ideas

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' A time to look at reviewing and explore

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# 5 [5 February 2014]
I have just reread my last two posts in an attempt to give myself a  boost and a belief that what my work has dealt with and what I am attempting to communicate is something I can continue to address...Today we had a group studio crit which went really well alot of positive encouragement helpful suggestions and feed back .Talking in a group doesn't come naturely to me but I feel I have grown more in my confidence as time has gone on. The thing I am finding difficult at the moment is where or more so what I am trying to address  say and communicate through my work. Through the summer of 2013 I read a book called the Abu Gharib effect which was a powerful portryal of the images that broke out,from the Iraqi prison 2004 not an easy subject matter to handle- which made me realise how artists that do deal with and respond to difficult subject matter probably do so from an informed and sober perspective Susan Crile is an artist who has researched on Abu Gharib and went onto produce powerful pastel images. Crile talking about her work said" First you are drawn to something akin to beauty and then to you feel the despair, the cruelty."  http://www.artnewsnviews.com/view-article.php?article.
I have a real sense of unease at present into how to communicate issues that affect me and go on to produce art round my chosen subject in someway. I find a real sense of searching and questioning of this subject matter going on within me ... this sense has culminated over the last month or so, I am not sure of the way forward though having the student crit today was helpful in one way  as it has confronted me with my growing deep sense of unease..(about what I was hoping to produce for my end of year show) I know I now have to confront these issues and make some decisions about a way forward. Having researched and produced my dissertation looking at art with social meaning in the context of Golub and Roslers work emerging from the Vietnam war, I have found by doing the dissertation I had a  passion for the subject matter and found it impacted my understanding immensely beneficial toward my understanding of art with social meaning in the context from which the artists I chose  works emerged the dissertation has greatly impacted and informed my understanding of state and media portrayal of issues that arise concerning state policies through  researching sociologists such as Judith Butler and Herbert Marcus (also a philosopher) along with writers Dora Apel, Suzi Gablick, John Bird,I have learnt a great deal this will stay with me but I do need to take stock and plan a way forward, I probably need to have a chat with tutors. I am going to explore a more abstract perspective. see studio space work before. exploring new ideas from an abstract perspective