Multiculturalism And Prejudice, Elizabeth Catlett

Inspired by one of my favourite illustrators Katarina Kerekesova for the graphics workshop :)

A marionette of the Moon which I've recently finished. I made her with salt dough and sewed her dress. I have never made a puppet before, so this project was very interesting and enjoyable :)

I started off with planning her out. She is inspired by The Spanish play ‘Bodas de Sangre’ by Federico Garcia Lorca’. In this play, the moon is a character inspired by Spanish magical realism and represents wisdom and fate.

I made the body out of wire and salt dough To link all of the separate joints together I put wire hooks into the pieces, hooked them all together and then out them in the oven to cook. The dough cooked for a few hours. However, some parts were still uncooked when I took it out of the oven so some hooks slipped out. I put these back in with a glue gun and left the whole body on a radiator for about a week to allow everything to dry through. After it was all dry, I painted the face and hands and created the dress which I painted with water colours. The colour surprisingly came out quite well on the fabric. Some came off onto my hands when handling the puppet but apart from that, the paint overall stayed on well. I also embroidered stars onto the dress with white thread and added dots of silver paint, to represent the night sky.

To attach the strings to my marionette puppet I glued hooks onto her hands and head and attached the strings onto two sticks. This worked fine and you can move her head up and down and her arms and hands. I planned to put strings onto her feet too however it was difficult to string the marionette up under her dress and it was also unnecessary as the feet aren’t really visible. 

I loved this project a lot, I’m happy with the final outcome. :)

My work for the Addams family brief. I did some character designs, a pencil portrait of the whole family and then a poster design too :).

My poster of Wednesday Addams is inspired by the painting by George De la Tour ‘Magdalen with smoking flame’. I was inspired by the under lighting in this painting and the darkness with the only source of light visible is the candle. I took some of my own photos of my sister (bottom right of mount board) holding a candle to light up her face in different ways. This gave an eerie and gothic effect. Inspired by George De la Tour and my experimental photos, I created my own poster design for the Addams family show, of Wednesday holding a candle, under-lighting her face. (Oil on Paper). I also created an underlighting effect on the writing too.

My small illustrative piece was inspired by a quote from Morticia from the 1964 Addams family series. She says ‘Life is not all lovely thorns and singing vultures you know’. In my illustration Wednesday is cutting rose heads off of their stems which is something that Morticia does as part of her gardening routine in the Addams family movie.

I enjoyed experimenting with different character designs and creating a board based on the famous and gothic Addams family.

My animation called, ‘My New Home’ inspired by Lauren Child’s book illustrations and animated stories about ‘Charlie and Lola’. The theme throughout is about our ever changing environment and the environmental issue of sea pollution. I loved making this animation and I especially enjoyed taking all of the photos, Sooooo many photos :). I used a light box to create a slightly translucent effect. The piano music was composed specifically for this animation and played by my sister Zuzy.

Lino cut which I am currently working on. Inspired by folk patterns around the world to make one design

Printmaking workshop,

We printed with oil based inks after sticking the design onto some board, by using the printing press. I photocopied my favourite coloured print and reversed its colours on the photocopier, I love the colours that came out, pinks, purples and yellows. I also really enjoyed creating the black print and printing it out onto coloured paper which I think looks really effective. Overall, it was interesting to try out these new processes.

I am currently working on making a Modrotlac print, which is a traditional Slovakian way of resist dyeing with indigo. I have been trying to recreate this way of printing for a garment that I intend to make as part of my ‘Then and Now’ project. However, this process has been a lot of trial and error so far and it hasn’t gone as planned. I made a paste out of rice flour, plain flour, water and glycerine to act as the resist for the dye. I printed by patterns from stencils that I cut our from acetate and watercolour paper (acetate worked better). Then once the patterns had dried, I dipped the fabric into some navy blue dye. However, the flour mixture came right off. I have already tried to recreate the Modrotlac prints by using hot wax but this didn’t work either. I am going to try a new recipe for the paste which I am hoping will work, if not, then I will have to try hot wax again but in a different way.

Sculpture workshop : Today I cast my sculptures in plaster and after painting them with shellac, I covered them in PVA glue and sprinkled them with copper and oxidized it so that in a few weeks they will go green. This will give an old feel to the sculptures. I am also going to paint some with acrylic paint and some with shoe polish

Some illustrations inspired by the contemporary illustrator Katarina Kerekesova and also inspired by Russian and Czech vintage matchbox designs. These are for my Graphics workshop poster 

What does the Sagrada Familia’s form tell us about its function?

Antoni Gaudi, La Sagrada Familia, Basilica

The Sagrada Familia is a basilica that has been under construction since 1882, designed by Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi dedicated his life to this masterpiece and near the end of his life he even lived in the Basilica. When Gaudi died in 1926, only a quarter of the construction had been completed. Construction is estimated to be finished by 2026. 

Gaudi was always inspired by natural forms and once said ‘originality consists of returning to the origin’. He stayed true to his words and did not include straight lines in his designs as nature has no straight lines. The Sagrada Familia is one of the most well known buildings designed by Gaudi and inspired by the natural world. It’s function is to be a place of worship, however Gaudi uses the idea of nature to uphold religious values and reflect biblical moments. The inside of the Basilica has been designed to look like a canopy of leaves while the pillars, which are 22 metres high, are intended to look like huge tree trunks. So that inside it feels like a forest where the canopy allows a lot of natural light to shine through. Another fascinating feature of the Sagrada Familia are the two main facades. One façade is the Passion façade, and the other, the Nativity façade. These two represent the birth and death of Jesus Christ. On the Passion façade, the stained glass windows are green and blue, which when the sun shines through them, drench the whole Basilica in blue melancholy light, to reflect death. On the other hand, the windows on the Nativity façade are red and yellow which then allow orange light to shine through to represent birth. These aspects of the natural world are used by Gaudi in his architecture to give the impression that we are in a natural space. 

The Sagrada Familia’s appearance reflects the importance of the natural world and brings us closer to the origin which is nature itself. When approaching the Basilica from the outside, you feel overwhelmed by the monumental scale of the construction and the details of the façade. This building gives an instant impression about it’s function, as a place of worship, glorifying something higher and sublime.

~I have used my own photos.

Sources:

https://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/15-amazing-facts-you-need-to-know-about-la-sagrada-familia/

https://blog.sagradafamilia.org/en/divulgation/stained-glass-windows-how-they-were-created/

https://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/gaudi/sagrada-familia.htmlhttps://time.com/sagrada-familia-barcelona/