Month: May 2025

MA U3: Building my sustainable art practice

| elizarawlings

CREATING ‘MY PLAN AFTER MA’

METHOD

I have been planning how to continue to develop my art practice after I finish my MA. The key for me is to ensure I work in a way that maintains my interests with variety and balance to keep up the momentum so that it is sustainable in the long term.

As a starting point, I have created a MindMap where I have captured my aims as well as resources that are available to me. I have tried to create a balanced plan covering the following areas with a structure that I hope will help to establish a rhyme after my MA:

– Personal / Self-development: Attend in person classes, e.g. continuing my monthly Chinese painting lessons, as well as online learning. I have identified around one year’s content (with 3 to 4 hours per week starting with cultural theories) on Future Learn that I have just subscribed to and I plan to attend those online modules every Thursday afternoon in place of the MA weekly classes to keep up a learning rhythm.

– Reflective practice: A key part of my self-development has been my reflective practice. The structure that I have built into my blogs has been invaluable in helping me to develop my practice. It offers a safety framework that I can return to especially when I feel a bit lost or uncertain. Writing the reflective blogs has put me back on track time and again when I have been stuck. So I plan to continue with the blogs because they help me immensely and I have set myself a goal in the frequency of blogging.

– Professional development: I plan to engage with an art mentor having a session once every two months. I have been recommended a mentor used by several Spike Island Associates and I have connected with him. It’s my way of holding myself accountable and forms part of the rhythm.

– Profile exposure: I need goals to work towards in order to maintain my momentum and I have set myself targets such as attending one artist-residency per year – this could be self-funded if I do not get accepted onto a competitive one as I don’t want to give myself an excuse to not do it. I feel the act of attending a residency, making art away from my environment, would open my mind and expand my horizons. In addition, I want to show my work as a way to keep my thinking and my work ‘current’. I will look out for Open Calls that are aligned with my work and if that doesn’t work out then I would create my own ‘show’. That could be in whatever capacity, even just displaying my work in a park in my neighbourhood – the purpose is to have an event of some kind for me to make work for and aim towards.

– Community connections: Although I enjoy my own company and can happily make work in my studio without seeing anyone. I appreciate that being connected with other artists is important for my development and well being. Hearing others talk about their work always gives me inspiration. Talking about my work to others is also a healthy thing to do. I am fortunate to live in Bristol where there are many artist communities that I have always found to be friendly and supportive. So I will definitely continue to connect with them regularly (e.g. attend events with Spike Island Associates).

Below is my first draft MindMap plan showing my plans and aims for each element. Items within the map are there to feed into my art-making; to give me inspiration, to deepen my knowledge and to help me think.

The plan is work-in-progress and I will continue to build on it over time. I may not even fully follow it, but having a plan in place is important for me to have a starting point, so that I am not faced with a blank calendar and feeling lost the day after graduation!

I will follow the plan for as long as I enjoy it; if I stop enjoying it then I will revise it. I hope as I travel on this journey, other things will come up and the plan will evolve as my needs change. I will be very sad when my MA course ends but I am very excited to continue the journey with all the new skills, knowledge and friends that I have gained on the programme.

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REFLECTIONS

A few things that were said to me recently have got me thinking about my MA…

A very good artist friend said that she noticed I have been talking about ‘my practice’ and about ‘being an artist’. I remember when I first joined the MA course, I would only describe myself as ‘an art student’. When asked if I were an artist, I would reply, ‘not really, I am just an art student’. Then sometime during the last two years and I don’t remember exactly when, I have started to talk about being an artist. I had not noticed it until my friend pointed it out to me and I am pleased to say that I feel comfortable about referring to myself as an artist now when I was certainly very hesitant two years ago. I believe it’s the MA course that has given me the confidence and encouragement to do so.

Another comment came from a photography tutor. I have attended a few one-off photography workshops locally and have got to know the tutor well. Earlier this year, she asked what I was planning to do after my MA and at the time I said I wasn’t sure – it was before I created the above MindMap and I was considering doing another taught MA. She said, ‘I am sure you are going to do something because you can’t waste an MA from Central Saint Martins.’ That really made me reflect on what an opportunity and a privilege it has been to do this course (in fact, to do further education of any kind). I do not have ambition to be a famous artist or to have gallery representation, that was not what I came here for. I came here to develop myself and to learn. I have thoroughly enjoyed the course and I am loving making art. So I am just going to keep on making and be true to myself in my art – as David Bowie said, ‘don’t make art to please other people’. I hope that is enough to not ‘waste’ this excellent learning opportunity that I have had the privilege to enjoy.

LEARNING

In addition to making art, I will continue to explore how I can use ‘my voice as an artist’ and I hope the MindMap plan will help me with this. I have always wanted to broaden my practice to examine societal issues so I plan to build on my ‘News’ art – my ambition is to make large scale industrial-style ‘News’ art installations. I am excited to see where all these will take me.

NEXT STEPS

– Follow the MindMap plan after graduation – revise it if needed. But always have a plan to maintain the rhythm.

– Explore how I can use ‘my voice as an artist’.

– Continue to make ‘News’ art – scale up.

– Keep on making art, be true to myself and keep on enjoying it!

MA U3: ‘News’ art – Why The FT? Is it the right choice?

| elizarawlings

BACKGROUND

One of the key learning from my MA is to think carefully about our choice of materials and the content of our work. Especially if it is to be exhibited in public. We need to be sensitive to the audience and have reasons for the choices that we have made in our making. When I first started thinking about making work on newspapers, an important decision was which newspaper or newspapers to use. I have become very disillusioned with the news media in recent years so it was hard to choose. I have had a long relationship with The Financial Times (FT) because I always felt it was more balanced and factual than most media channels – it’s one of a few newspapers that I could bear to buy or read. I used to use The FT a lot for work when compiling economic reports about the UK for international meetings. I was happy to stand by its facts and figures as they were considered credible. I am increasingly tired of unsubstantiated claims by news media as well as those in public life, hence I crave a news channel that I feel I can trust. I wanted a non-controversial newspaper as I don’t want the choice of newspaper to dominate the conversation rather than the art.

Also, the salmon colour of the paper works very well with the Chinese black ink. I believe aesthetically it works better than the usual white newsprint paper. Hence I started to paint on The FT.

Now that the ‘News’ body of work is growing and I am committed to using The FT so much so that I have purchased a print-subscription, I feel I should do some more background research to ensure I have chosen the correct newspaper.

METHOD

I have become very aware that I should have a reason to choose certain materials in my making. Since the choice of newspaper is such a key part of this body of work, I feel I should retrospectively verify that my instinctive choice of The FT was correct.

I should start by considering what I would want from the newspaper in this body of art work:

– Trusted: My aim is to express my grief for the lost world order in recent months and to share the grief of those close to me whose lives have been deeply affected. I do not intend to be overtly political – my art is not a political campaign in an activism-way. I want to look for news headlines that are to do with this topic and bring attention to them but I will leave the viewers to decide for themselves how they feel about it. To do this, I need news headlines and articles that I can trust to be as factual as possible as I just want to present facts and figures. I am not planning to influence the viewers’ judgement. That means quality journalism with substantiated facts. I cannot fact-check every article, so I need a journal that I can trust in general. I don’t want to be anyone else’s mouthpiece.

– Uncontroversial / unbiased: I am despaired by the political polarisation that exists in our society and I do not want to contribute to that as it is not the aim of this body of work. Therefore, I want to choose a newspaper that is not too controversial, perhaps as politically-central and unbiased as possible accepting that it is not possible to be 100% unbiased when a newspaper has contributions from many people. The aim of the art work is to share what has caused my grief. If the newspaper has to have a leaning then a liberal leaning would be preferred especially regarding the topics in question.

To start my research, I did several Google searches – for the most trusted and unbiased news media channel in the UK. Below are screen captures of some of my findings.

Firstly a 2023 YouGov poll result:

Link to above webpage:

https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/45744-which-media-outlets-do-britons-trust-2023

I then researched the bias of the top three newspapers on the trustworthy chart (shown above by YouGov) for comparison using this website:

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

Results for The Financial Times:

Results for The Times and Sunday Times:

Results for The Guardian:

There are additional supplementary reports on The FT that largely reflect this finding and they are shown at the end of the blog.

From this quick online research, the findings showed that The FT was found to be the most trusted and unbiased UK newspaper relative to other newspapers (relative position as derived from the YouGov poll) with a central position politically.

REFLECTIONS

This research was done as a sense-check to ensure I have chosen the correct newspaper for the purpose of my art work – I believe I have because The FT findings showed that it addresses my requirements for a newspaper for this body of work.

However, as one of the reports said ‘central does not mean it is good’ and I feel that is an important point. It is not my intention to make this body of work overtly political, hence requiring a centrally positioned newspaper with a balanced view. One could argue that could contemporary art be truly central? I think my position on that point is that I am not ready to pick a political fight with the world – yet. I want to find my way into this part of the art world in a way that I feel I can manage especially given a lot of my ‘News’ art has been about my emotions and grieving – I need to process and make sense of that first. I am not ready for political debates. Hence remaining central is a stance that I want to adopt – for now. The most important thing is the trustworthiness and unbiased reporting of the newspaper which I believe I have with The FT.

Also, it is salmon colour. So I am relieved with my findings and satisfied with my choice. I will continue to use The FT whilst continuing to monitor its credibility.

LEARNING

I am glad I carried out the research. I believe that if I am going to show my art in a public place (Degree Show), I need to be doubly careful about the content and my reasons for choosing the materials. So this research has partly been to prepare me for the Show as I anticipate someone would ask me ‘Why The FT?’.

The main learning here is that researching all aspects of the materials used is essential. Especially when the subject matter could be sensitive, political or emotionally-triggering in any way. If I want to take my art practice onto addressing societal issues as I do, then I need to be more careful, considered, informed and mindful in these respects. I don’t want to rush into something that I am not ready to handle or my credibility as an artist could be called into question. Hence research and preparation is important. This is a key learning for me.

NEXT STEPS

– Continue to use The FT for my News art.

– Carefully consider all aspects of the materials I choose for my work and be thorough especially with exhibited work.

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ADDITIONAL RESEARCH RESULTS

Below are additional reports found online on The FT.

Report #1:

https://adfontesmedia.com/financial-times-bias-and-reliability/

Report #2:

https://www.allsides.com/news-source/financial-times-media-bias

MA U3: ‘News’ Art – developing ideas for MA Degree Show

| elizarawlings

BACKGROUND

Since my recent re-evaluation of my art practice to enable me to respond to what has been happening in the world, I have been making a new body of work – ‘News’. I feel the urge to show my new work at my MA Degree Show. This blog is about the development of ideas and a plan for the Degree Show.

METHOD

Firstly, I wanted to explore if combining multiple sheets of ‘News’ would make a good composition. Since each sheet was made as an independent painting, I needed to see if they would ‘make sense’ together. So I stuck together a few paintings and put them up against two glass doors to see how I felt. I was encouraged by what I saw and felt there was potential in the concept. I then proceeded to design the installation – how should the paintings be presented?

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Below are some mock up ideas that I prepared to discuss with my tutor:

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After discussing with my tutor, we felt that the first option had the most potential for the CSM site. So I proceeded to think about how to create one large painting by combining multiple newspaper paintings together that would be appropriate for the Show both in demonstrating the concept and that is robust enough for a public exhibition.

My tutor showed me an installation by a previous student who stitched together pieces of paper to form a long drop. I liked the idea of stitching together the pieces rather than just taping because I think it would be more robust and also reflect my wish to mend what’s happening in the world through my work – somehow.

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I then tried out different ideas on my sketch book and decided a narrower long drop (rather than a wide one as in the original idea) could work well to resemble how newspapers are printed and processed in the factory. Working so intensely with newspapers and examining newsprint so closely has reminded me of my time as a young engineer working on control systems for newspaper printing presses including many Fleet Street titles. I remember vividly how exhilarating and awe-inspiring it was to see the newspaper webs flying at high speed between feeder rollers around the monumental machines (see example image below). Since my art practice is about exploring my identity and engineering has been such a large part of my life (35+ years), I wanted to make an installation at the degree show that incorporated elements of my memory from those days.

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I experimented with the ideas of using three tubes to represent parts of the printing machine. Initially, I looked into buying used feeder rollers from printing press refurbishment companies but they were costly. Then I considered using mild steel tubes (not stainless steel as they would be too shiny). Below is an initial design idea which I used to get some costing. A key objective was the ease of installation knowing how busy the build up would be with such a big student show.

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Then I wondered if three tubes would be too many and considered a two tubes design. In all cases, one or more flood lights would be used to illuminate the artwork from behind. Here is a two tubes design:

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After further discussions and advice from my tutor, the final design was to use 3 x copper plumbing pipes as the copper colour would complement well the Financial Times’ salmon paper. The second pipe on the floor would be placed behind the painting giving the look of the newspaper feeding into the wall. I considered using two small flood lights, but I might go with a dimmable flood light instead because I have found that the back-illumination light level could be critical – too bright and the images became saturated and if too dim then the reverse side images would be hardly visible. Hence a dimmable unit would give more flexibility for an unfamiliar site with unknown ambient light level. Here is the final design:

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The next task was to test out the stitching and the wrapping of the newspaper around a pipe to see how the paper behaved. Also to determine the optimum pipe diameter to use.

Using a sewing machine for large sheets of paper could be challenging because unlike fabric, the paper could not be bunched up to fit around the sewing machine body. Hence I rolled up the newspaper around a plastic tube and held the roll in place with a large paperclip so that it could be fed into the machine without damaging the paper. The two sheets of newspapers were held together using dressmaking pins just like I would do when binding fabrics.

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The machine settings were as follows with the stitch size fairly small for strength but not tiny as it might rip the paper:

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The paper was then fed slowly into the machine for sewing. Two rows of stitches were made to ensure strength of the bind:

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Completed sewing and with paper hanging vertically:

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Below are close up images of the stitching and how the paper wrapped around the tube. This tube was of 40mm diameter and the paper wrapped well around it:

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I tried wrapping around a smaller diameter tube (22mm) and it felt too tight and obviously would require more revolutions of wrapping and I felt that would introduce more risk in the paper not aligning and looking untidy:

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Another example of paper wrapped around a tube. This time with painted paper only as an experiment because the installation for the Show would only use unpainted paper to wrap around the tube.

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Since I am planning to create a painting size of 2 x double page spread broadsheets, that is approximately 1.36m wide and it would be difficult to feed into the sewing machine in one go, I created the following stitching plan to do the stitching half way, then turn around and do the other half from the opposite direction. I might try to do it all the way with some spare newspaper as an experiment to start with.

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Final selection of eight paintings to form a composition for the Degree Show:

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Mock up in front of flood light to test concept:

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REFLECTIONS

I started to re-evaluate my art practice just before the Low Res in March and I started to make ‘News’ art at the end of March which is less than two months ago. I cannot believe how much has happened and that I am planning to show this new body of work at the Degree Show. During my recent tutorial, my tutor said that everything I have been doing as well as my commitment to interrogation have been leading to this and it does feel that way to me. I am feeling a momentum that I had not felt before and I am very excited (and somewhat nervous but in a good way) about showing this work at the Show. I do not know if it would work out or if it would present itself as I imagined. But I take confidence from what David Bowie said in this video where he was giving advice to artists:

https://youtu.be/JRtZc_Nmo5w?si=PYU871rvIuJu7wjo

My main takeaway from Bowie’s video was when he said, ‘…Always remember the reason you initially started working, you felt there was something inside yourself that if you could manifest it in some way then you would understand more about yourself and how you co-exist with the rest of society… If you feel safe then you are not working in the right area. Always go a little out of your depth, when you feel your feet are not quite touching the bottom then you are just about in the right place to do something exciting.’

I sincerely hope that Bowie is right and I look forward to finding out!

Another point that I have been reflecting on is that this new body of work is aesthetically and topically very different to my last body of work, The Cheongsam Series, where I was making oil paintings on dress-shaped canvases to explore my transcultural journey.

Much of my work in the last two years have been about my transcultural identity, but I knew that at some point I would want to go beyond just talking about my transcultural journey onto issues about society – issues that are still related to me, my lived experience but about other aspects of my identity. I mentioned this in my Study Statement from Unit 1 as my intention, but as I was making my transcultural work I have at times felt bounded to that topic and I was unsure of how to progress or transition onto the next body of work without seeming incoherent. Then when the ‘calling’ came to make work about the rapid change in world order and how people close to me were being affected, my urge to move onto the next body of work felt like a natural progression. Of course, there was much time spent on reflecting, agonising, experimenting, observing and reflective-writing that led me to making ‘News’ art. I am very pleased that I have gone through the transition process from one body of work to the next while I was still on the MA programme. This is because I felt safe and secure in trying something completely different in a supportive environment and I made it happen. I have learnt that I could do it and it wasn’t as scary as I thought it might be. Guided by my reflective process and taking it step by step meant that I felt in control of the transition – not necessary in control of the making but in control of the change process which gave me a solid platform to take risks in the making. This learning experience has been very important for me as I now feel confident to do that again independently after the course. I feel I can move onto the next body of work when the next ‘calling’ comes. I know I can rely on my instincts guided by my reflective process to make it happen. I expect I will return to my transculturality work at some point because there is still much to explore and I certainly have not exhausted the subject yet – far from it.

LEARNING

I have learnt that I now feel able to transition from one body of work to the next and take risks along the way. I will follow my instincts and use my reflective process to guide me. This has been an important realisation as I go forward to develop my practice.

As for the Degree Show, there has been a lot to think about in planning for the show and I have really enjoyed the challenge. Especially looking at sourcing the right materials for the installation – I learnt a lot in that process, such as to consider the materials’ behaviour, the aesthetics and planning for a site that I am not familiar with including all the contingencies to consider. It’s all good experience for any future exhibitions. Creating the paintings is only half the work, presenting it properly and all the site considerations require just as much work which is something to bear in mind in the future. Planning and allowing plenty of time is key!

I have also learnt that I needed to introduce a new process of organising my materials – namely the newspapers! Especially considering news has a life span. My ‘News’ artwork needs to be about the here and now and can’t be left on the shelf for too long or the news story would have expired. So I needed to create a system to sort the newspapers so they don’t end up piling up in my studio. I decided to organise my newspapers as follows.

I found it helpful to have a specific topic for selecting the newspapers to paint on. In this case, it’s about the sudden change in world order due to the US Government’s drastic roll out of damaging policies.

So when I get a copy of the newspaper, I sort the pages into the following categories:

– Selected pages for painting – with the appropriate headline, perhaps an interesting image and not too much advertising especially not big dark blocks.

– Spares: top priority / second priority / good for practicing

– Not selected

Out of all the ‘News’ paintings that I have created, they were sorted into ‘possibles’ for the show and ‘not selected’. Then I continued to make more paintings until I had enough ‘good’ ones that I was happy with for the Show.

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NEXT STEPS

Make it happen for the Show!

Always remember Bowie’s advice!

Maintain my confidence, follow my instincts and reflective process to develop future bodies of work.

MA U3: ‘News’ Art – exploring compositions

| elizarawlings

I have continued to work on my latest body of work – ‘News’. I decided to explore different crow expressions to use in my compositions. In particular, more expressive, angry or ones in flight. So that I have a wider variety of expressions to choose from when responding to news articles that I see.

METHOD

Lately, whenever I feel unsure about how to proceed then I have been returning to drawing. I find the process comforting and grounding. So I started with a few drawings on expressive crows using my non-dominant hand.

Angry crow:

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This one was meant to be angry but actually looked anxious:

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I then went onto painting on newspaper. I used charcoal to mark the outline of a crow that I wanted to paint. The newspaper was chosen especially for this composition – a shouting crow:

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I then painted the crow – staying with my non-dominant hand. I was going to paint the wing behind the man’s head. But then decided to cover up the head. This was the finished work:

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The painting was held up to the light. The man’s head was slightly visible despite being covered. What came through was a woman speaking on a microphone on the reverse side of the newsprint which made the composition more interesting.

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Then I experimented with a crow looking in despair up to an article about the tariff trade war. Perhaps it was not totally in despair, but certainly questioning what’s going on:

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Again the finished painting was held up to the light as a metaphor for holding someone to account. The images on the reverse side made the photograph of the cars under the trade tariff headline more ambiguous.

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Crows in flight going in different directions:

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Putting together paintings to start exploring combined composition:

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Another shouting crow under the headline ‘We are all affected’. The crow was in line with the gun held up by the man on the left page. Then I noticed a large capital letter ‘O’ on the crow’s body – like it had been shot by the man in the photo. I added a pine tree around the greenery on the photo on the left, but I don’t think it worked. It distracted too much from what the crow was going through.

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A few landing crows:

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A large landing crow going for a prey:

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A screaming crow in flight aiming at a photo:

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REFLECTIONS

As I made more work, I became more confident about this new body of work. My confidence increased in both the concept and the process. My recent tutorial was very useful in helping me to reflect on my thinking behind the work and the progress so far. My increased confidence meant I was able to go for a more freestyle approach to my Chinese ink painting in the work listed above. The freestyle approach enabled me to be more expressive and spontaneous. The last few paintings shown here were done without needing to use charcoal upfront to mark out the composition which I was pleased about.

I was not happy with every outcome here, some of the depictions were more aligned with my intentions, some not so. But I was trying not to overthink it at this stage. Just wanted to keep making as I know from my Chinese painting class that it would get better with practice.

I continue to find Chinese ink painting ‘unforgiving’. I have written about this before and it still has not changed – it is just part of that medium and again, practice helps. ‘Just keep making’ is the key.

Also, I believe painting with my non-dominant hand has helped me to not agonise over my work too much because it’s not meant to be perfect. It will be what it will be! I have found it liberating to paint in this way and I plan to continue this exploration.

LEARNING

I am gaining confidence in the making process through practise and more importantly – I am pleasantly surprised by my confidence in tackling a completely new body of work that is very different from my previous transcultural work. I am happy that this major change happened during my MA course because the guidance available gave me the courage to do something completely new and experimental.

Also, the structure of my reflective practice has really helped me to realise the concept knowing that if I got stuck then the reflective process would help me to find answers or a way forward.

I feel very excited about this new body of work and I am really enjoying this way of making. It continues to help me to respond to what’s happening in the world through my practice which is very important for me right now.

To build on this, I want to think more about why painting with my non-dominant hand has become so important to me. Also I want to understand more about my overall process – from buying the newspaper to completing a painting.

NEXT STEPS

Think more about my reasons for using my non-dominant hand – especially think about this as I paint.

Start to be more considered when moving from one step to the next in my process to better understand the process with the aim of future improvement and development.

Keep making and think about what to do for the degree show.