Juggling a bit now.. planning the end stages of the placement with zine prep, research and a pop-up exhibition

 

I signed up for an online "creators in conversations" talk at the Lowry between Julian Gray and Hicks, because they were discussing representation in comics.  I thought the focus on representation would be useful research in relation to my zine.  There was a glitch with the live feed so I'm being sent a recording soon- hopefully in time for consideration when I'm creating the zine.  

I've started playing with images for the zine.  I have some ideas about text content, focusing on Dolly.  I'm thinking about how she was at the beginning of a blossoming professional career as an artist muse and I wanted to include positive accounts of her but I want it to be predominantly visual.

Today's blog image is 2 studies combined - I really like the effect and it plays with different versions of Dolly that I've found through my research and by making multiple studies. 

I'm in a place now where I need to start wrapping things up.  I need to focus on the deadline for submitting this Placement Pack (and I'd wanted to include as much as I could before the submission) but also, there are other deadlines looming for the semester.  I'm really pleased that my placement has dovetailed so well with my practice  - but now I need to wrap the placement up in the right way.  There was a lot of consideration at the proposal stage and I want to be as organised and professional with the ending as I aimed for in the beginning.  I'm a little more mithered now because I feel like I'm juggling lots of balls but I'm trying to draw on how I managed my time in previous roles.. Everything goes into my outlook calendar and I'm assigning times to tasks at specific times to make sure things happen.

Learning from the proposal pack submission - I want to allow myself lots of time to convert everything to PDF because that was a real challenge. 

My studio space - with work focusing on the representation of motherhood and intersectional feminism - I'm starting to make connections with the research and artwork from my placement.

I've contacted PMAG today to propose that I evolve the pop-up studio space into a pop-up exhibition space next week.  I've selected 6 of the Dolly studies and will exhibit alongside prints of Portrait of a young girl and Witch with an artist statement that gives an overview of my research and the intended context.  I'll use this as an opportunity to share some more content for social media -  and I think it ties it all up neatly.  I'll leave the exhibition up for a week and leave the comments book out and try and get some feedback.  I don't think I'll be able to get lots of feedback before I submit my Placement Pack for assessment but I'm learning- that what doesn't fit in here, will still fit into my Context and Studio Practice module... and it's the right thing to do- to do it all properly.  

The selected studies - numbered to reflect that I've translated Dollys features into a lino print, and then developed a range of studies with mixed media.  It ends on a sketch because it felt more youthful and honest.  During my research, I'd thought about versions of the truth between the different depictions of Dolly, the movements specific to different artists developing their own practice. In the sketch, I was simply looking for common denominators in Dolly's facial characteristics and a sense of the young age that she was when she died.

This is the start of new work in my university studio, trying to keep what I have in the sketch but translate it into oil paint. 

I've also been able to start firming updates for a store tour with the curator of the PMAG - I'm dead chuffed to be able to do this and it looks like it'll be before my assessment date so I'll be able to include it. I had considered an extension for the project -because it started later than I hoped due to Covid, and because it's taken place across several weeks which encroach on the period when ideally I'll be writing everything up, but I've learnt so much and it's fit into my practice so well that I'm just going to record what I can and finish things outside of the assessment date - I'm still going to get so much out of them.