Self Audit

30 January 2024

What’s my impact as an artist?

Where can I improve?

What small habits can I implement to build on?

What do I have control over?

Am I happy with the choices I make right now and are they flexible?

For me, I’m surprised at how much plastic is used in the packaging of our art materials. I purchased some water-based oil paints. The reason I bought rather than made is that as a busy mum, working part time and studying full time, my time is limited. Sourcing, and making your own pigments for paints and inks can be time consuming even though it is really therapeutic and satisfying for the soul.

The set of paints were in a cardboard box, with a clear plastic window, when you pull them out they are in a white plastic tray, held in place on the tray with a thin plastic wrap. The irony of a more environmentally friendly medium being wrapped in something that is harmful to the environment and not always recyclable. Even though our local plastic recycling has improved in recent years.

Photography Audit

Digital v Film

Film photography is more obvious with the chemicals used in developing the film and then exposing. However, digital photography has an impact, where are the large buildings that house the cloud servers? How are they powered as electricity is generated by using other fuels. They have to be kept in climate controlled dust free environments

How do I limit the harm done?

Reduce the use of harmful chemicals by sourcing environmentally friendly products or use household products like coffee, bicarbonate soda, vitamin C, to develop the film.

Scan the negatives and print using digital mediums, using water based inks and recycled paper ideally.

I store all my images on a hard drive at home, only recent files are backed up to cloud storage…. the risk is if the hard drive fails on either the backup or computer, I lose my work.

The thing is, we are not the first to have thought about these things and in my research I found an article in amateur photographer that has listed some great ideas and resources.

Eco-friendly printing

The good news is I am already using cotton rag paper and refillable inks in my printer at home.

If I outsource the development of film then my pledge is to ask the questions about waste management and environmental safeguards the company has.

Painting and Drawing Audit

Or should I call it fine art?

Anyway, last year I experimented with making my own watercolours, oil paints and using egg tempra. The only downside to this for me and my current work/study/create v family balance is time. Is it cheaper for me to source sustainable products and work in my day job, being able to pay the bills whilst I study or spend the time creating my own artist mediums?

The answer to that question fluctuates daily, but as long as I stay true to my ethics then I think any change no matter how small is good.

I also try and repurpose hardboard, wood, tents, and any other items that make a good canvas. Even painting over some old canvasses that I started but haven’t finished or don’t like!

I think a key thing here is to use up any old materials I have lying around, before I go and buy new. Even if they are not ideally sustainable, because wasting the products would be just if not more harmful. I’m also careful about disposal of any solvents and left over paint on my pallets.

Paper I use Khadi papers because they are cotton rag or plant based. As an organisation they use waste water to irrigate farms next to the paper mills and re forest and cut plant crops maximising regrowth. They have found ways to give back to the local communities.

Ceramics Audit

Can’t really get more natural than mud…. however I don’t make my own clay. I’m fairly new to ceramics and understanding the chemistry and make up of glazes, oxides and stains.

However, I know its possible to forage my own materials like red ochre and yellow ochre. I just need to learn a little more to creat my own materials. In the meantime I can pledge to source local and sustainable products where possible.

Whilst at Uni, my pieces are fired along with other students work and it may have restrictions on when firings happen. However, need to factor in that this will reduce the carbon footprint of cost of electricity used to fore the kiln.

If I had a kiln at home in the future it would be worth looking at green energy ie, solar powered.

Wow! Lots to think about. I’m sure when I go to the studio and tidy up the workspace I’ll find lots of things to consider regarding my environmental impact.

Posted on 4th Jun 2024 by Helen Louise 0

Sustainable Practice

30 January 2024

For me, I started thinking about all of this last year and researched how to make my own paints and sourcing pigments and other materials.

What is my practice? I’m not 100% sure how to define myself as an artist/creative. I know I love painting and drawing, photography and ceramics. I also know that I am inspired by nature and love being outdoors, even more so since I’ve been a tinnitus sufferer. It’s one of the few places the tinnitus subsides into the background and I have a small respite. When I’m indoors it echoes.

My lifelong passion is horses. Over the decades as a rider and owner, I’ve noticed how the changes to lifestyles and environments around them have impacted their care and changed how we look after them. Nice quiet roads and sprawling countryside are difficult to find as our population grows and the urban areas spread. The ripple effect on our environment is barely perceptible day to day but on reflection over decades are easy to see.

I used to hack for miles on roads to reach off road riding, now those roads aren’t as safe so we load the horses onto the lorry or trailer, and we drive 10 minutes to the beach or safe off road riding. Chicken and egg situation, to enjoy the beauty of nature we do something that has a negative impact on nature.

It’s the same with art, we wish to recreate beauty in some way and share it with others, whilst following practices that are harmful to the environment that inspires us.

Being aware of our how we practice as creatives and the wider impact.

Reduce waste in my own practice

Recycle materials and other items where I can

Repurpose found items

Buy from sources that follow the same ethics with regards to sustainability where possible.

Posted on 4th Jun 2024 by Helen Louise 0

Re Frame Project Day 3

27th September 2023

The weather forecast is a bit grim and today is the photograph your object in a completely different location to where it would normally be day. In view of the forecast one of the year one students took the train home yesterday and took it to the seafront with her family. She managed to get some photos using her own DSLR and large format film camera with the sunset in the background.

Start of the day and we had instruction on how to use film cameras that our tutor had requested from the Photography department. This is the first time I’ve ever really used a film camera since I got my first digital camera. Even then, I only ever really used the point and shoot and take your film to Jessops or Boots to get it developed. Anyway, digressing!

Myself and the other first year took the cardboard train down to Uphill Beach, trying to beat the weather to get some photos. We were quite lucky in sourcing a good location, as the previous weekend had been the beach races so we had mounds of sand to use. Because of the wind we had a few problems in getting it to stand up, so we used the sand to support the back a little bit. The effect of this was that it made the train look like it was coming out of the sand.

When we finished trying different angles to get the images we wanted, we then went back to Uni to develop the film.

This part of the day was the most interesting for me as I love photography and have never really been involved in the developing of my own film. Actually winding the film on the spool in the dark was quite a challenge.

Whilst we were waiting for the negatives to dry, I used the time to develop the images I’d taken with my DSLR camera on photoshop. The brief was black and white so really it was just sharpening the clarity, cropping and changing from a colour image. I could have set my camera to shoot in black and white – but honestly I can’t always remember when I’m on the spot which function menu is which.

Looking forward to tomorrow developing the images.

Posted on 28th May 2024 by Helen Louise 0

Re-frame Project Day 2

21st September 2023

Today was a bit of a trial with regards to how much we needed to get done and how the ideas were or were not being liked/received well by each member of the team. My fellow second year student in my team, wasn’t in Uni. The two first year students, one had almost switched off because she didn’t think her ideas were any good. The other had ideas but honestly didn’t fit with the original brief we have been given and will be difficult to achieve in the four days, or should I say three days we have left. My idea to use the sculpture outside the second year art studio, is a non starter because according to the two first year students “It’s been done to death”.

However, looking at the photographs of elements of the structure started us talking and discussing ideas. The one above made us all think of tracks, lines, paths etc. Somehow we all agreed train tracks coming out the sea would look good! Although we have a railway line going under the top road near the college buildings, it would be difficult to actually go and take photos of the railway tracks for the angle we wanted. That’s when I remembered, having a family of steam train enthusiasts, that I had an image of the Flying Scotsman passing through Weston Super Mare from a few years earlier.

Finally, we have something we all agree on and are happy working with and it still has a local connection even though it isn’t entirely true to the brief. If it was an external customer, this will be a hard concept to ask them to accept, especially if they are set on the criteria parameters for the project.

All systems go to catch up on some lost time, we converted the image to black and white, printed out copies, decided on which elements of the image we didn’t want to keep and then used blank pages in a sketchbook to check out the composition. We all agreed it looked flat so a simple fold along where the train meets the track, just made it look more three dimensional and the train popped out at us.

Next step enlarge, print out and stick on the card. The idea is to go BIG!! However, due to the quality of the image, which we have no control over, we can only enlarge it so much before it looks very pixelated.

We have left it to dry overnight, with just a few finishing cuts to do in the morning. Although it has been a bit of testing day, we have managed to come together as a team.

Posted on 24th May 2024 by Helen Louise 0

Julie Sleaford – The Problem Horse

30th November 2023

This has to be one of most treasured items of research. It is in my view a beautiful hand crafted photo book and it has such a wonderful personal feel.

I’ve attached the link to her website as, honestly, it’s only fair you read about Julie on there, in her own words. That’s where I was drawn into the magic she weaves with her images.

https://www.juliesleaford.com

I think as someone whose only just started out with film cameras and learning how to develop my own images, I find her work very inspiring. Julie is doing what I aim to do, tell a story that touches your soul on some level.

I like the technique she has developed over the years and the lack of the sharp clarity we have come to expect in this digital age, in her images. You can tell that she is involved in the whole process from taking the image, developing them, through to the look and feel of the hand bound book.

Posted on 23rd Feb 2024 by Helen Louise 0

London Trip

25th September 2023

Unusually for a Monday a coach trip to London to visit the Tate Modern. I haven’t been to the Tate for a few years so it was definitely nice to see the current artworks displayed there.

I am intrigued by the link between photography and art and how there is a crossover between the two. Since the dawn of cameras and photography artists have been known to photograph subjects and landscapes for reference ideas and photographers sketch out ideas for photograph ideas.

Whilst at the Tate I decided to have a guided tour and learn a little more about the paintings and artists than the little blurb description tells you.

Francis Bacon – Figure In a Landscape 1945

Both the above paintings were part of the guided tour and I was drawn to the fact that they were both based on photographs. Created 40yrs apart they are both intrinsically layered with politics, dissent, love and loss, and humanity. This is something I aspire to do, be able to portray a moment yet give the observer an insight into the whole story behind it.

I think Rita Donaghs image means more to me because its based on an incident that happened when I was 13yrs old. I remember the news footage of the guardsmen and their horses dead and injured, their bodies covered with coats and blankets. Some things stay with you. I’m also from a generation where we had the best linen and family linen, so to use what biscuits obviously an embroidered counterpane as a shroud over a strangers body, really speaks to me. It’s a reminder of love, family, history, grief, empathy.

I aspire to evoke and convey that much emotion with my art and now I realise that, I really don’t know where to start and imposter syndrome is creeping in with its usual paralysis.

Where do I take my research now?

Do I look at how I feel when I take photographs or when I lose myself in creating artworks?

How do I combine the two?

Posted on 9th Jan 20249th Jan 2024 by Helen Louise 0

Re-Frame Project

20th September 2023

This is an introduction collaborative project with the Year 1 students. We will be working in groups of four, the tasks are to document items in the landscape that surrounds us by either photographs or sketching. Then photocopy, dissassemble, reassemble and create a 3d cardboard structure in a large format and then rephotograph the sculpture in the landscape.

Split into teams of 4. The only downside was the rain – its not much fun trying to manhandle the phone camera with slippery screens and fingers. It was quite late into the afternoon session by the time the tutorial had finished and we had our groups. I sketched the tuba quickly and have some photos.

We brainstormed some ideas on our group chat and I think we all have things to reflect on and do, before we meet around the table tomorrow morning.

Again, I have loads of Photographers and Artists to research as part of this project.

Starting with tonight’s research on whose style of reframe am I inspired by?

Posted on 20th Sep 202320th Sep 2023 by Helen Louise 0

My Artist Statement

19th September 2023

The first module is about research that defines us as an artist, helping towards our developing practice.

“My journey as a creative involves spending a lot of time outdoors with my horses and dogs at the top and tail ends of the day. I witness firsthand the beauty and magnificence that surrounds us in natures backdrop. I fell in love with photography through my need for good quality reference images for my painting and ceramics artworks. I want to engage the observer, using materials and medium that reduce the environmental impact.”

It’s very difficult defining myself. I am considering this very much a work in progress and it will change as I evolve throughout the year. I will be continuing my endeavours to make my own paints, using materials I have lying around at home to create my own canvases. Hopefully reducing my carbon footprint by reducing the mass produced plastic packaged materials and medium purchases. However, I am well aware I have a stack of already purchased materials to use up. For now, it will be mix and match to reduce wastage.

Posted on 19th Sep 202319th Sep 2023 by Helen Louise 0

And we’re back….

A new study year and a different room with a new desk and a view. Wasn’t one of the first in to choose my desk but I’m happy with my spot. Have a board to pin up my work and any research articles this year – gives me a reason to produce more as I work better when I have a little inspiration around me.

The first group exercise what is art? Words that define are to our group.

And then what is genius?

This is my second attempt at writing the remainder of the post as unfortunately my update didn’t save and I lost half the post that I had typed….. starting the year as usual with my technology gremlins.

This module is really aimed at self led research with the intention of developing and defining my own art practice. Can I be specific in my art practice without being restrictive? What do I do? Why do I do it?

During the tutorial we looked at various questions what is Genius? is it a gift or a curse? Is it genetically inherited or can genius be created. 10000 hours theory of learning of any random thing can become a master. Also looking at Nature v Nurture -what if Homer Simpson had been brought up by Albert Einstein and Madam Curie?

The Polgar Family used their own three daughters to create chess masters, however was it flawed with experimental bias? Consider their own genetic make up as both were chess players – would the theory have worked as well with 3 children from different social economic backgrounds? What if you don’t have a natural aptitude for the subject you are learning? And if you didn’t believe that you could do what was being asked? Would that self doubt prevent you from becoming a master. Do you have to be technically astute and good at something to be successful in particular field?

We create from our personal experiences and in our lives we have many passive and profound experiences that shape up us and create emotional responses. Who influences the artists and photographers Hiroshi Sugimoto seascapes 1980 v Mark Rothko Abstract Paintings 1952 . Part of this module is for me to now go away and think about the list of artists and photographers and what their influences and messages are? Can I link them together? Do any share a similar path to me? Who do I find inspiring? I have found some similarities with the work I have done in previous years on synesthesia and music in art and Kandin seems to crop up as an influencer for many of the later artists I have researched.

For me it is really important to stay authentic and true to my own beliefs, that I don’t forget being in the here and now whilst striving towards creating my brand as an artist, and chase that illusive notoriety.

It’s going to be interesting to note how my definition of myself as an artist changes as I do more research, or may it doesn’t? Maybe the knowledge I gain from the research just cements the pathway I’m already on and who I believe myself to be