OUT OF THE CONFESSIONAL BOX

For MY WALK we had to present our project in a out of the box fashion.

I chose to do mine a a wee speech in a confessional box as it really fit in with my ideas. I hope you enjoy

My piece of writting to go with my projects is a quote from Vincent Price (my favourite actor) which sums up about the idea of being good to get into heaven:

"Doing a religious picture is a boring thing because everybody is on their best behavior - hoping for the keys to the kingdom, I guess"

COLLECTION

In MY WALK project we have to use complete primary research so only photos or pieces of writing or drawing that are complete our own. I decided to take some photos of religious items.

My idea was to take photos of items like the crucifix and rosary beads and how they have become a total fashion statement. Shops like Urban Outfitters and Topshop are selling t shirts with crosses on them, and rosary bead to "complete" your outfit and with the rise of Lady GaGa more and more young people are jumping on the "Blasphemous" BANDWAGON!
I have collected religious items and imagery for years....pretty much since i was 10 (I even still have my Holy Communion rosary) and it frustrates me in one way as I hate "hipster" kids thinking it is all "cool" and "unique" but on the other hand I can add to my collection haha!

My friend Ruby on a night out with a cross tattoo on her wrist

Lighting fixture in Paramount bar, Aberdeen

Becky with old school wooden crucifix necklace

My favourite band My Ruin's sticker

Novelty soap

BGD Necklace that was custom made for me

A band necklace with crosses on

My Holy Communion rosary

Rosary with broken crucifix

Fashion jewellery with skulls and crosses

Jesus Plasters....BEST THING IN THE WORLD!

Mary and Jesus glittery money boxes

My nun porcelain doll

MY WALK

During the series of lectures with Charlie we have been asked to record a walk. This doesnt have to be a actual walk but has to be a journey.

I have decided to do my journey of religion...specifically Christianity and Catholic. 

My story is basically this:

I was born Emma Ann McMahon, in to a Roman Catholic Irish family in 1987.

I went to a Roman Catholic primary school called Saint Anne's then left there when I moved to another Roman Catholic school called Saint Clare's. It is here where I questioned beliefs at a very early age.

I was always keen to make an impression in church and be a good two shoes, sitting with my knees together, hands together with thumbs crossed over, always making sure my thumbs were against my chest, as I always thought my prayers would only count if my hands were against my chest, close to my heart. 

During school you have to do your Conformation then your Holy Communion. 

Conformation is where you get a blessing and can then go up to the alter during mass to get blessed (I felt grown up walking with the adults) this happens before you get your Communion (which is where you can finally be "grown up" and get the bread and wine) BUT.......

The week after my Conformation I was at the weekly mass and I wasn't paying attention to the teacher and we were told to lined up and walk down the aisle to the alter but because I wasn't listening i didn't cross my arms over to get blessed and I kept my hands in praying position, which resulted in me getting the bread and wine...................

Lets just say when the teacher found out, she marched my back to the school called my mother and repeatedly told me I was "going to Hell", I was "the worst human being ever" and "Satan would get you"

I WAS 8 YEARS OLD!!!!

This just made me think, is this what I want to be told for the the rest of my life if I did bad things?

I completed my primary education in Saint Claire's and went on to a normal secondary school.

Even though I basically renounced my faith I still love religious imagery. I even have a a sacred heart tattoo on my arm which reads "Mi Ruina" My Ruin

It reminds me that religion is my ruin but it can't bring me down.

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM...

Dream Diary

 Remembrance and oblivion, dreaming and sleeping, resonate in Chiharu Shiota's performances and installations, together with a preoccupation with home and homelessness and the loss of childhood. Mysterious and sometimes frightening objects - as various as dresses, burnt-out pianos, charred chairs and hospital beds - become the unreachable focal points of psychic spaces, trapped within impenetrable and disorienting meshes of black threads."When I dream... I feel the dream as reality. I can't distinguish between dream and reality. When I wake up, I have the feeling I'm still dreaming."

Broken Cup - I came back to Aberdeen only to find one of my housemates had broken my pug mug (a mug with a pug dog on it) I was really upset about it. I tried to make a new one but I couldn't draw the pugs on it.

Moody - I had a dream but I don't remember much all I remember is some famous people but I woke up feeling upset and uneasy. I hate waking up like that.

Spiders -  Dreamt I had a huge spider on my ceiling and it gave birth and they started crawling all over me. Safe to say I woke up instantly.

Bitch -  Had a dream about a girl who irratates me coming in to my home and not even saying hi so i decided to go to bed.

The Cupboard - There was a cupboard above my bed and i opened it and loads of creepy crawlies fell out of it on to my head....this is the second time i have had a dream about this.

Beardy - I was having a cig with a big bearded gruft man and I was pretty much just letf smoking the filter and said "that's not how you smoke the filter" and then continued to show me how to smoke the filter until the whole cig disappeared

BLOODY SPIDERS - I had a dream a a huge spider was crawling about my boyfriends room and i told him to put a glass over it and he didnt do it properly  so it was crawling with the glass on it then it escaped and we found it crawling into my boyfriends trousers and i finially got a glass on it but it was too big!

CREATIVE TOOL BOX

My creative tool box, I would say doesn't have too much in it, although that's not to say I don't allow new exciting things in it.

The main things I use are books, I love reading stories and just imagining the images in my head.

I also like unusual materials as they drive my creativeness!

Materials like bone, latex and metals.

NOO NOO

noology - The science of intuition and reason as phenomena of the mind.

MIND

INTELLECT

CREATIVITY

UNDERSTANDING

DESIGN

TRUST

EXPRESSIVE


IMAGINATION


























I really think all these words go hand in hand when you are thinking about design and art, you have to have a mixture of all of them to produce something successful

GIRLS ON FILM!

Over all I think me and Karyn worked really well as a team. She definatly added a new way of thinking that made me really think outside of the box. I do believe we could of done a few things a little bit better or experimented a little more but with the time constraint we did a belting job I think.

BUTTERFLIES

As mine and Karyn's "idea" was butterflies it was a good opportunity to research images of butterflies and also about the behaviour of them too. The reason Halloween has the colours orange and black is because of the monarch butterfly migration, the sky is just a sea of orange and black in the month of October in Mexico.








Just a wee post of images of butterflies.

VIKTOR AND ROLF

I looked into Viktor and Rolf for inspiration due to their way of thinking. It is very girly and all about innocence and I think that is a way we could go.

GILBERT AND GEORGE

Me and Karyn looked into Gilbert and George for inspiration for this project as they are not afraid of colour and push boundries.

COLLABORATION

We have had a few lectures about collaborations of artists and designers and how they work and let their creative process intertwine to work with ideas and subject matters to make pieces.

And this week we were told to collaborate with someone in the class and see how we get on.

My partner is Karyn Stitchell. We have actually known each other for 4 years but always wanted to work on something together and this seemed like the best time!

Me and Karyn

Karyn is very expressive and loves colour and textures and i am really looking forward to seeing what she can bring to the table.

Our envelope we received with and idea in was "BUTTERFLIES" a little bit generic and boring but we both thought lets go for it!!!!

So lets see where we go!


(We also had Lisa join our group and help us where she could and had input into the process too)

PUT A LID ON IT!

In the second lecture we were asked to bring loads of materials like brown paper, masking tape, post-its and markers etc and with this mixture of materials we had the brief to make a hat. I know it might sound silly, making a hat out of paper and card but it is all about the process and how we chose the materials to represent ourselves and what goes on in our head and our creative process. This was very much based on Thomas Hirschhorn's "Walking In My Mind"

"Thomas Hirschhorn describes his sculptural environments as 'collages in the third dimension' and explains that this means 'putting things together that are not meant to be put together'. Created from the most basic everyday materials, his monumental works are concerned with issues of justice and injustice, power and powerlessness, and moral responsibility.
"To me, the cave is in your brain, the cave is in your mind... You have to build this cave in your mind and to struggle with what happens in this cave, in confronting it with the world."

I drew a really quick sketch of how I wanted my hat to eventually look, just to give me some sort of image to work for.

I proceeded to cut and draw and make lists (like I always do!!) and this is what I came up with

GET YOUR CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING

Well thats me back at uni. To start off we have a series of lectures with Charlie a textiles tutor at Grays which are dealing with the human brain and how we percieve the world and how creativity is pretty much shown through the individual.

I feel these lectures will help with pulling out all my imagination and help me to build up ideas into a concept. Ideas don't need to be just beginning and end it is the middle that is the most important, the development the creative part that can determin what is a mistake or a good mistake.
Tuesday the 27th was the start of these lectures where we looked into a group of artists/designer/thinkers and how they use there creativity and imagination to develop their ideas.

I will go into some of the artists/designers/thinkers in future posts.

At the end of this lecture we were put into groups and given a piece of paper with a artist on or a word assosiated with these artists and we had to write down what words or practices these artists/words use and how we can use these for our own personal practices too.

This is what we as a class came up with the heads with brains represent the artists just incase you're wondering WTF? haha.

I will continue to post with updates from this lecture and posts that have ideas and inspirational themes to keep my juices flowing!

BACK TO THE FUTURE!

Well that is me offically back at uni.

Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things.

At this present moment in time I am so motivated, almost like I have had 30 cans of Relentless, and I really want to shine and so what I am made of. It became clear this is now my CAREER!! I need to knuckle on down like a big gorilla and power on through.

I will be updating alot more about my progress, my good days and my disaster days.

CAROLINE

Picture this, tall trees bending and blowing in the wind, birds chirping away feeding their babies and the smell of the damp ground in the canopy of the under growth....now that is what I was experiencing on Wednesday. I had a photoshoot for my 'Caroline' A/W Capsule Collection.

I was fortunate enough to get my very talented friend Barry Conlon (www.1414.me) to be the photographer for the day. He is graphic designer with a flare for all things creative and it was just inspiring to work with him and to get his artistic eye on my ideas.

My model for the day was the beautiful, 19 year old dancer Erin Schepers. From the moment we met that day we just chatted and chatted and got on like a house on fire! BURN BABY BURN! With her being kooky and creative herself she understood what I wanted from her from the start. She sat patiently while I painted her face with MAC and Urban Decay make up and twisted her hair and pinned it like a cinnimon bun on her head....make up and hair is something I love doing!

We got in to the car, my lovely boyfriend volunteered to drive us that day and to try and help, he ended up being the lighting guy pretty much!

We drove to the GORGEOUS Tentsmuir woods and beach. I love this place, it is always one place I can just go and forget everything so it was only fitting I went here to have photographs of this collection!

We had a few different locations within the woods from uprooted trees, ferns and even a little stick den someone had been there the day previous making, it is almost like they did it for us!

Anyway I am going to stop babbling and show you the pictures!!