Brainstorming; the importance of...

I thought I'd do a quick post on brainstorming. I did design in college, in which brainstorming and mind-maps were a pivotal part of the creative process. It's something that now comes as second nature to me - I am a major fan of brainstorming. I am also an addictive list-writer, so this may be part of the reason that I find brainstorms to be so helpful. When I was in school though, there was a tendency among all of us to go with our very first idea. Prep sheets were seen as nuisances to be completed after a project, for the sake of ticking the boxes and fulfilling exam criteria, nothing else. They weren't really regarded as something that would inform our work, or that would ultimately better our work. This kind of attitude is something I still see all the time in the classroom. I think we're all inclined to have a burst of inspiration at the beginning of a project, and perhaps we get too scared to move away from this idea, for fear we'll lose or forget the concept. This is not true though!!!

Ninety percent of the time, if you let yourself explore a concept, you will usually decide on a course of action that was not your initial idea. Now, sometimes we really do have a lightbulb moment, and we might decide to go back to our very first concept. Most of the time though, that initial idea is just the beginning. When you look at a person's artwork it is so easy to spot the ones who have actually considered their piece, and those who have jsut gone ahead with the first thing that popped into their head. It's only common sense that the more you think about a theme, the more ideas you will develop - the more facets of a theme you will explore. For the Irish Junior Cert art curriculum, students choose a theme and create three finished pieces based around their chosen theme. (Those of you in the middle of this process will be well aware of how it all works.) This project stretches for pretty much the entire year, and is designed to encourage students to explore the theme in a personal and in depth manner. Now, unfortunately a lot of students do fall into the category of making the finished piece first, and then doing the prep later. I admit, when I was in school I may have fallen into the same category. However, this doesn't save you time! I don't know how many times I have asked students what medium they will use to do their 2d piece, and they don't have a clue. Mind you, this is after they've mocked up their finished piece! When you do your brainstorm and your prep, you play around with different mediums and ideas, so that by the time you've mocked up your finished piece, you know exactly how you will do it, and what colours to use, etc. It's simple and logical, but so many students neglect it!

So think of it in a cooly logical way - what do you need for your piece? Base your prep work around what you need - this is where writing a list will come in handy. It will direct your prep work and brainstorming, so that you're not wasting time exploring things you won't use. For example, if you're doing a poster - what will you need to do?

You will need to look at:
- typography (your type should somehow reflect your theme. There could be several styles that suit, but you must test a few and then choose the most appropriate. Remember, it needs to be legible! A poster is useless if it doesn't COMMUNICATE A MESSAGE.)
- imagery (the pictures or drawings you might use - try out a few different ideas. Don't copy from an existing picture - you can take inspiration but you should always try to make your design unique!)
- layout (how you will arrange the different elements on your page, whether your page will be portrait or landscape)
- colour (what colours work best together, and suit your theme? There could be a wide range of possibilities - you need to try a few to know you've chosen the best selection.)
- medium (paint, marker, pencil, pastel, mixed media? Try out a few and work with what you feel most comfortable with.)

That's your basic list - you do a bit of prep and exploration on each heading and you'll have your prep done in no time! And remember - your prep work has to fit on an A2 sheet, so don't go creating huge pieces of prep-artwork. If you're drawing an animal like a fox, and you're exploring different media, you don't need to recreate a whole fox over and over - just take a small section, say a part of the face. Do that on a small scale using your different materials. Then you will have shown that you've tried and tested a range of different ways of doing the fox, but you won't have wasted a huge amount of time on them. They will also be able to fit onto your prep sheet - you won't need to sacrifice any of your work to save on space.

Doing all of this means you're using your time in a very productive and efficient manner. Tick off each item on your list as you do it, and you will get a great sense of having achieved something, as well as keeping track of your progress and what you still have to complete. This method of working is the same when you're doing your 3d and then your option. Depending on what you're doing, the requirements will change slightly. For example, if I was doing a clay bust, I wouldn't need to consider typography. However, I would need to consider all the different angles of my piece - the front, sides, back and top (something I wouldn't have had to do with my poster). So take a look at your discipline and make a list of the elements you'll need to consider. Let yourself consider a range of ideas, and inevitably you will choose the best one!

Another sure-fire way of coming up with lots of ideas for a project is research - something that is so simple with the internet! Look up an artist you like, and see if you're inspired by their work. Find a new artist that you like, or look up ones who deal with a similar theme to the one you're exploring. Ask your art teacher to point you in the right direction - they'll always have an idea of someone who might appeal to you.

And that's it - organise your brainstorming and you'll fly through the project! None of your time or work will go to waste, and you'll avoid making any mistakes when it comes to your finished pieces!

Dublin Contemporary!

Luckily, I got a chance to get to Earslfort Terrace and see more of the Dublin Contemporary exhibition before it ended. There was mountains of work in Earlsfort Terrace, and it was a really great experience. One of my favourite pieces (being a teacher) was this mad classroom made out of plywood:

This piece was great - made me wonder what kind of lessons would be taught in a classroom like that! Unfortunately I can't remember the artist's name, and even though I bought the guidbook, this particular piece isn't featured so I'm not sure who the artist is. Apologies!

The whole experience was very positive though, although there was an awful lot of work. I did it all in the one morning, which was a bit much really. Generally I find that you can only absorb so much art at any one time, and so the best way to visit an exhibit of this size is in stages - say, taking one floor or corridor at a time. Then you don't get burnt out. I know, it sounds strange to describe the relatively passive action of viewing an exhibit as tiring, but it is mentally exhausting. There are a lot of complex ideas and thoughts being projected in any exhibition, and to take them all on over the one visit can be quite hard. I admit that by the end of the visit, my friend and I pretty much raced around the remainder of the exhibits to get them all done. We didn't have the luxury of coming back and revisiting the space another day, because the exhibit was in its final day. Of course, when you have to pay into an exhibit, it's not always possible to make multiple visits. In that case, it's a good idea to research what you'd like to see the most, and create a list for yourself of must-see pieces.

Speaking of art and exhibits, I also visited the Wexford Opera Festival in order to see the art on show. All over Wexford town there are little galleries featuring mainly paintings but also some sculptures from around the world. Some of the paintings on display were absolutely fantastic. Again, I have to apologies because I stupidly didn't make a record of the artists' names, but I did manage to take some sneaky photos on my phone of my favourite pieces. The most striking of these were paintings of urban spaces. The subject matter made these images so compelling - what seems like mundane and less-than-savoury views of contemporary living spaces or factory premises make for some really unique paintings. There were a couple of artists featured who dealt with this kind of urban landscape. The colours used are fabulously muted and bleached, and the pictures have such a strong sense of atmosphere as a result: the lifeless abandoned warhouses and the decrepit residences felt so authentic as a result. The pictures I have featured are the ones (obviously) of warehouses and factories. They in particular capture the strange sense of abadonment and silence of a factory after-hours.

So, I've been busy lately trying to visit as much local art as I can. This has put a bit of a hold on my own work, which I will get back to this week!

Motivation!

So, I spoke in an earlier post about keeping busy, and how I had a number of little projects that I've been working on; cards being the main things. They've certainly been keeping me busy. How to get motivated to keep busy though? At the moment, there's a major contemporary art exhibit in Dublin - as of yet I've only had the opportunity to see a few pieces, but it's definitely a good way to get motivated! There's only so much that online surfing can do for you - sometimes the only thing to do, is to go and see an acutal physical piece of artwork. It's so completely different to looking at an image in a book or online. I suppose it's all to do with Walter Benjamin's 'aura' of art.
But anyway, the exhibit features a number of artists, and is located in various places around Dublin, including Earlsfort Terrace, the National Gallery, the Hugh Lane Gallery and more. This is an exhibit that would really appeal to students in school, because it is worlds apart from traditional art - it includes graffiti art, sculptures made from books, and much more. www.dublincontemporary.com/
One of the pieces I did get the chance to see in the Dublin Contemporary was a really great piece, (Liam O'Callaghan): a semi-circular section of a room was cordoned off with large wooden dividers which were lit with hundreds of white fairylights.

The fairylights were then covered over with sheets of tracing paper. There's a little seat in the centre for the viewers, and the effect is fabulous! The light emanating from the screen is really soft because of the tracing paper, and the semi circular enclosure gives this feeling of peace and tranquility - it's a kind of womb-like atmosphere. I absolutely love art like this, that you can interact with in a physical manner. It's a very different experience to looking at a piece hanging in a frame, although that can of course involve a different type of interaction. This piece was exhibited in the National Gallery, and I would highly recommend it. I would have sat there just staring for hours, if the gallery hadn't been about to close when I got there! It was absoltely stunning.

This pink and orange piece is also in the National Gallery. I love the combination of drips running both up and down the canvas, as if defying gravity. There were also a couple of sections devoted to graffiti art, where the graffiti was sprayed directly onto the gallery walls. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the small plaque displaying information about the artist was also sprayed over.

I'm dying to get back up to Dublin and check out some more exhibits before it ends, on Halloween. In my opinion, the more interactive and shocking the pieces, the better! But then I am a huge fan of contemporary art, and it's not everyone's cup of tea. Students sometimes find it a bit confusing, and the whole 'what is art' debate often arises when I show images of very abstract or unusual contemporary pieces. But this is one of the triumphs of contemporary art - that it encourages students to question and think about art, and not just passively accept it.

Christmas Cards!

Ok, it's been a while since my last post. I apologise1 I've been keeping myself very busy with a number of little projects - namely creating card designs. This all started becasue my mother was complaining about the incredibly dated designs that charity Christmas cards used. Seeing as I am currently living at home, it seemed like the perfect project to begin - creating my own Christmas card designs. I think in the last post, I mentioned the artcardsireland company. Well, since then I have completed my two designs, and sent them to the company to be printed professionally - envelopes, cellophane wrapping - the lot! I'm so excited! I've only ever got things professionally printed for college, so this is a new experience for me. And even though it's costing a bit of money, I think it'll be worth it.

So here's one of my designs. I know it's ridiculously early to be thinking about Christmas, but in order to get them printed and delievered on time, I needed to allow a minimum of four weeks. The images are done in oil pastels. I absolutely adore working in oil pastels - they are so expressive and fast! You can tell by my style that I am very influenced by illustration, particularly children's illustration. During my degree I wrote and illustrated a children's book; it's somthing I've always had an interest in. I'll upload some images by illustrators who I find particularly inspirational soon. In fact, anyone who's interested in illustration must check out illustrationweb.org - it is an absolute mine of great illustrators and their work - it's definitely worth a look!
So, anyway - designing these cards has kept me motivated over the past few weeks - so motivated in fact, that I am branching into general occasion cards; the designs of which I'm still working on.

Keeping Creative!

Ok, I'm gonna forget the essay-writing for the moment. Lately I've been really trying to keep myself busy and creative, something that can come quite naturally when you're inspired, but that can be a bit harder when you're not. Luckily I've been quite inspired by the time of year - my first creative venture is Christmas cards. Why don't I ever make them? Well, for the past six years I've been in college and up the walls with assignments. But finally I'm finished college, and because I'm woefully unemployed, I have plenty of time to get cracking. I had considered doing a selection of hand-made cards - you can buy multi-packs of just balck bits of card and envelopes. But then I decided to go bigger - and more costly - than that. I'm actually going to get my designs professionally printed! And I don't mean just printed and then I bring the images home and stick them onto bits of card - I mean professional cards, envelopes and cellophane wrapping - the whole shibang!

So I started looking into it, and I found a great Irish company that will do just that for me. I'm currently waiting to get a sample of the quality of card in the post before I send off my designs and commit to the project, but this website is inspiring nonetheless.

http://artcardsireland.com/cards/

Because I come from a graphic design background, this site really appeals to me. Also, I'm really interested in supporting Irish businesses at the moment, and it's really great to see an Irish company creating cards that are so beautiful and unique. So, I'm hoping to get my own selection of Christmas cards printed by that company...Will upload my initial image ideas soon! :)

Moving on from this, Halloween is also around the corner! I adore dressing up - I think most artistic people enjoy it. This year, I'm aiming to dress up as...The Mad Hatter. Now, haivng no money I needed to get something that would work with what I already have in my wardrobe. The Mad Hatter idea is perfect: I have the basic outfit: purple dress, black blazer, tights and boots, as well as gloves. All I needed was the hat - which I got in Claire's Accessories for only 8.95 or something. So then comes the creative bit -the hat came with a little lace and a little skull on it already (http://www.claires.com/store/goods/Teens/cat650043/Ghoul's-Best-Friend/p94854eu/Skull-Crossed-Hat-Headband/), but I wanted to make it stand out a bit. So, I got to work adding some lace, playing cards, ribbon, feathers and buttons, and simple as that, my Halloween outfit is sorted!

And speaking of trying to keep inspired and creative and all that - I've had some pretty cool artists recommended to me by family and friends lately, and I have to say, that seeing another artist's work is definitely one of the best ways to become inspired and to want to work on your own stuff. My brother recommended Ruben Ireland (featured below): his stuff is fantastic,and really appeals to me because I really love portraiture and faces.

Responses...

To go back to the idea of art illiciting a response in the viewer - as a teacher, this is something that I really try to highlight. If anyone out there is studying art history in school - here's a tip: think about your response to the piece. I find that it's much easier to write about something if I have a real reaction to it. It doesn't matter if it's love or hate, but as long as I'm not completely apathetic towards a piece, I can write about it. Learning how to analyse and dissect your responses to a piece of artwork will not only make your essay-writing more compelling and engaging, but it will make the learning much easier for you. It goes without saying that the more you're interested in something, the easier you'll find it to study.

I found that the best essays I've ever written are the ones that were slightely controversial, or those that had a topic that I was really personally invested in. But it's important in an exam situation to be able to write as if every topic is of interest - or to at least justfiy your opinions if you think it's not.

Art history is such a vast subject area, that it's impossible to love everything. The important thing however, is to be able to explain WHY you like/dislike a particular piece. In an art exam, it's perfectly acceptable to say that you don't like something, so long as you can explain why. For example, is it do with the colours used? The composition? The subject matter? Try to pin-point what about the piece turns you off, and you'll find it easier to discuss. If you just have a vague disinterest and don't try to delve into the reasons for this, then whatever you write will be equally bland and listless.

Fountain, Signed R. Mutt. By Marcel Duchamp. 1917

Welcome!

Hi! I'm NJ, and this is my blog. Welcome!
I'm a secondary school art teacher, so this blog might be of interest to you if you're a student, or if you're just interested in art.
So, I've been toying with the idea of creating a blog for some time now, but being a Gemini, I'm highly conflicted and I could never just pin it down to one topic. But as of today, that's exactly what I'm going to do: here is my blog, and it's about ART.
All kinds of art - animation, painting, drawing, sculpture, literature - everything that I can find that is of interest from  a personal or teaching perspective.
I guess I'll start by giving a little background to me and the areas of art that I'm interested in. As I said before, I'm a secondary school art teacher. I've also a Masters in Modern and Contemporary Art History, and a BA in Design. I love art that is provocative and different. I love everyday art - graphic design, grafitti, scribbles on notebooks. Above all, I love art that provokes a response - art that inspires me, makes me think and question, or simply makes me happy.
To set the tone, I think I'll put up a clip by an artist I really admire, who combines drawing with photography, animation, music and history: William Kentridge. Take a look and see what you think!