Private View and Butley

The last couple of days have gone quickly, starting with Monday where I went into college to talk about the course with a group of my peers to the external moderator. This was very much a waste of my time, as it involved driving to and from Norwich, which is a two and a half hour round trip. I mostly talked positively about the course, how valuable a tutorial is and how grades within art aren't important. Making art isn't for anyone but yourself.

Yesterday was my private view, which was fun. I went to Wensum Lodge in the morning to fulfil my allotted time of invigilating the exhibition. Unfortunately the head of the course had neglected to carry out a few essential tasks that needed to be completed before the evening started, like labelling the work and putting together a board outlining the main parts of the course in general, to inform visitors about the type of things that happen there. So myself and my peers were told that we had to do these jobs. After we had finished with that our time was already up, so sitting down among the artwork and observing visitors coming and going was no longer an option, which was a shame.

I then went to see Mad Max: Fury Road with a friend. This was my second viewing of the film, so it enabled me to pick up on some subtle plot points that I hadn't noticed the first time I watched it. That being said the film has very little plot to speak of, so I probably should have just went to see something else instead, but there was nothing else on. It is still a thoroughly enjoyable film though.

The actual private view went well, I enjoyed seeing people looking at my work, as well as touching the pieces and using the books to see which sculpture was linked to each of the 30 emotions without having to place a sign saying "Please Touch". I also heard someone call my work pretentious, which was funny to me, rather than hurtful. I did also get a few nice comments about the piece. Unfortunately I didn't take any photographs of the private view, otherwise I would display them here. I'm really happy about how far my art practice has come during the space of the year and hope that my work keeps improving as time goes on.

I came home to a package which had come for me earlier in the day, which contained a kindle. I had been deliberating over whether to buy one for a few weeks and decided that it was a good idea. This was due to the fact that every time I go on holiday I end up packing my backpack with books, so with the kindle my luggage will be incredibly light.

Today I was working at Butley, in the morning I opened up all the moulds that had been poured the previous day, and then proceeded to hose all of the bronze pieces down. This is a hard process, taking a lot of time and effort. Hosing down the bronze is the worst job in my opinion, but it is a necessary evil.

This is a Snapchat that I took of the water spraying process.

Later on I opened up the head moulds that I had poured on Friday, They came out well, which is good, as I was unsure if the new cement had worked well or not.

After this I was free to carry on with my work, so I opened up my own moulds that I had poured on Friday, the two wax ones and the cement one. These were all successful in their own ways. The thin wax sculpture showed me that poking a hole in the bottom of the mould works to create a bigger dip, but I do need to experiment more, to see whether this was just a fluke or not. The fatter wax piece showed me that leaving a door open when liquid wax is setting is not a good idea, as it creates ripples at the top of the work. Obviously this may be a good thing if I choose to incorporate this into the work, but for the moment I have learned not to leave the door open when pouring. The cement sculpture showed me that as the material dries it doesn't create a dip, which is a shame, but is another good piece of information to discover, as it tells me that I shouldn't use cement as a medium for this work anymore.

I then spent the rest of my time making more moulds, unfortunately I couldn't pour any as I didn't have any tape. I did try to put together a wooden mould, to make the wax piece less bendy in form, but I was yet again unable to pour. In the next few days I will put the mould together to see whether the wood one is better than the cardboard. The wood does take significantly longer to make, requires a band saw to produce, and an incredibly steady hand. So I don't know whether it will be a viable material or not.

I think that my new project is going well, and am glad that I am using this time wisely, rather than sitting at home and not doing anything fulfilling.

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