Monday 5 January 2015

website research: Lisa Milroy

http://www.lisamilroy.net/



Lisa Milroy's home page, of her website is very simple, showing a piece of her work, with her name in large text at the other side. This being relevant to her practice due to the texi and image in the middle of the white background.
Something quite different and unique about her website is that the links to pages/ the menu, is on the bottom of the website, a very simple yet effective way to give the website more personality and make it different from the rest. I feel like the menu is too complex however as you have to click on a specific practice or artwork title to see it, making it so if your just researching or just looking through her work, you have to click on each page one by one.

Ferens art gallery Hull: Open Exhibition

Ferens art gallery is a gallery close to where i live, once every year it has an exhibition called "Open Exhibition" in which the gallery in open for any artist to submit work too. Most being begining artists such as students.



What i liked about last years gallery exhibition is the range of work included, having sculptures, drawings and paintings which all held different theories and practices. For example work that was included in last years gallery included abstract paintings on wood, sewn rabbits on clothes hangers, prints and landscapes.
For this years Open exhibition I took an entry form, showing how the enter the gallery and what kinds of art would be accepted.
It showed how artwork would be put on the gallery walls, giving diagrams with correct framing, what frames to used and what the gallery use's to put work up, called mirror plates.

The entry form gives information such as:
  • who can enter?
  • how many works can you enter?
  • how much does it cost?
  • how do you enter?
  • how will the works be selected?
  • how will you know if your work has been selected?
  • how do i present your work?
  • commission?
  • is your work insured?
The entry form also let's you know that you can win prizes for your artwork and that you can sale your artwork, with a commission of 25%. After looking into this i might enter into the gallery to start getting my artwork and practice out there, not for the prize or to sell but just to see who likes my art and let people see my art.

Bauhaus: Chair designs and research

Researching into the characteristics of Bauhaus for my art 

Developing my art practice on from the topic of memories and experiences, I started to look into the characteristics of line and shape, linking to that of the Bauhaus movement.


Slatted chair 'ti 1a' 1922: Looking into a Bauhaus book titled '50 baubaus icons you should know' I looked at different chair designs in the bauhaus movement, This piece focuses more on the functions of the chair, rpoduction and construction, leading to straight edges, that of Bauhaus characteristics and wooden structures.
Round table, 1913-1924: The round table by Erich Dieckmann focuses more on the artists criteria and intentions rather than that of production and construction, relating more to my work through how it can represent and show the artists work and intentions. Dieckmann wanted to show how furniture could be broken up and constructed to suit his intentions, using wood and other materials in a more natural way to fit his aims of what he had plans to create.
Wassily chair B3: The Wassily chair is one of the most famous chairs in the Bauhaus movement, according to the artist 'Marcel Breuer', he got the idea for the material of the chair from his bicycle hand bars, wanting to create artwork that questioned how to handle and use different materials.

Studio Ghibli documentary: The Kingdom of dreams and madness

Leeds film feastival, artist documentary

During the Leeds film festival I went to go and see a movie called 'the kingdom of dreams and madness'. It was a documentary on the Japanese animation studio who made such films as; Grave of fireflies, spirited away and my neighbor totoro. Looking at the life of director, writer and artist, Miyazaki. The founder of the studio, who was working on his final film before retirement.
The reason I put this in my blog was due to the inspiration it had on me, even though the subject didn't have much to do with my own practice, it still inspired me to start creating work, never give up and how the job industry works outside life at university.

To watch Miyazaki work is amazing as he doesn't create 'art' in the normal way you would think, creating imagery for a story board and randomly making up the story as it goes, the story coming after the character designs and background designs, which are amazing water coloured, quick sketches.
His life is that of enjoyment, living out every day to the fullest, getting into work at 11am and leaving at 6pm, every day on the dot. In the documentary he shows how he gets inspiration, taking photographs of whereever he goes and whatever he see's, creating a large scrap book full of images. At this point he says how he wants to capture the positive time in his life, however once he attemped to do the opposite, taking negative pictures. He then says that he ended up taking photographs of the same things, laughing it off, and giving us a look at his life in a nutshell.
I feel as though lines in the documentary like this, that make you stop and think about your life in comparison, help to inspire you in whatever subject and path you choose in life, and this is why i choose to review this 'artist' so to speak.

Website research: Ferens art gallery Hull and Castle art gallery Leeds

After visiting galleries for personal and profession practice two, i looked into their websites to understand how they advertise and show the target audience, their galleries and artwork.

I found with the Leeds Castle art gallery, that it gives a very simple and white website, linking to the logo and look of their shop/ gallery in leeds. This also works well with the image and imagey. However instead of showing artwork to click on, to then see the artist, a picture of the artist is shown. Making you view the page to really see the work. This works for pages views but not in helping people navigate the website for research purposes as the viewer would then have to click on every artist to find what they were looking for.

The Feren's website however is very unsuccessful in bringing in the viewer of the artworld, more linking to families, due to being linked to the Hull city council. This is both bad and good, as it can bring in new audiences, however can drive others away, being a more complex website, only showing times and dates of events, rather than artists and a page to advertise the event itself.

Sunday 4 January 2015

John Moore painting prize: Emma Puntis part 2 - artists website



http://www.emmapuntis.com/


Emma Puntis's website is a very simple yet well thought out website, showing her style and personality through what the website looks like. Showing a vintage like style through the font type and pain background, linking to her vintage and detailed artwork.

The website's amount of text is limited, drawing attention to her art instead of the text, something to take note of when making my own website. For my own website I also want to get across my own style and practice, just like Emma Puntis.
What i feel could be done better about Emma Puntis's artist website is how its presented with the page, there not being a home page but instead first bringing the viewer to her gallery. I feel that as an artist we should let the viewer know about us and the context behind our work, and at the least our own style and practice, before showing them our artwork.

Website research: John Moores

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/johnmoores/jm2014/


After going to the John Moores painting prize at the walker gallery in the liverpool I began to look at the website for the gallery, researching more into the artists I saw there.
I believe the gallery page gives well informed and easy to find links to the different artists, however not all the artists get a link and therefore are more difficult and hard to find.This is due to only the winners of selected prizes getting links and pages, which was very upsetting.
The website however gives usefull links and formal text about everything in the gallery, making sure that you can find out everything you need to know as a viewer - I feel as though this is very useful and something that i need to take into consideration when designing my own website.