Out of Focus

On Wednesday I went to the opening of Out of Focus: Photography at the Saatchi Gallery. The floors are usually filled with strange sculptures but this time the rooms were empty but some huge photographs on the walls. My favourite images were in the first couple of rooms. Firstly by Katy Grannan and, in the second, the colourful mountain scapes by David Benjamin Sherry. 'BP Cardon Refinery, California' by Mitch Epstein was also on show, an image a love which is also at Tate Modern.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/photography/

 

Close ups from a series of stop motion films looking at symmetry.

Symmetry

On Sunday I made this simple prints using acrylic paint and the good old folding paper trick. I really like the results and am going to look at symmetrical patterns as a way of making prints but somehow incorporate animal skin textures into them. The overall underlying thought is that patterns, repeats and grids are everywhere in nature.

Today I went to the Damien Hirst exhibition at the Tate Modern. I noticed the butterfly wings are symmetrical although it's not really an animal I particularly want to study during this project.

Sympathy in White Major – Absolution II, 2006

Looking at warping an image by cutting lines and twisting the paper. Next step will be to do this to an image of an animal skin and then look at using grid and warping digitally using lines and grids.

For this week's tutorial, I made a few collages using imagery of animals found in encyclopedias and the National Geographic magazine. I'm trying to work out exactly the route this Final Major Project should take. Using fractals and geometric shapes in combination with animal prints and skins is what I'm currently working on. My original interest was in cat skins, like cheetahs and tigers, however, the more a delve into the animal kingdom the more interesting and exquisite the surfaces become.

Mary Kataranzou

I've been looking at print designs by Mary Kataranzou with regards to research for my Final Major Project. She has just launched a collection for Topshop. Her bold graphics are a good place to start looking if I'm interested in going down the digital print of fabric routes. She explains that he prints are made to exaggerate the contours of a woman's body.

Researching patterns in printed fabrics. These are from various countries and periods, I particularly like the yellow swallows and the Japanese interlocking carps.

British Museum

 Gilded terracotta plaques. Tarranto. 340-300BC.

 Gnathian baby-feeder in the shape of mice.

 Nebamun viewing his geese and cattle.

 Mummified cat, above, and mummified kitten, below.

 Tales of Ise. First print editing of the illustrated book. 1608. So beautiful.

 Close up of Tiger on a Rock by Gan Ku.

 Lucky God of Jurojin and a deer. This is one of the Netsuke which are carved toggles worn by Japanese townsmen.

Home

£4.20

Metro from West Jesmond to the coast





Tynemouth market




Vintage toilet roll

Henry's choice bones

Mum

Lunch at Marshall's - the best fish and chips