David Choe : An inspiration towards my practice

CONTINUING WORK - 2ND YEAR CHELSEA COLLEGE 

This is an artist that has inspired me through my new series of work in my current practice. His name ladies and gentleman is David Chow. He is a Graffiti artist that has made a name for himself after his commission with Facebook in which he took shares instead of cash, because of Facebook's success, his shares are priceless. 

His work however are too priceless. 

Ive always loved colour, in these pieces, the overall use of colour and colour combinations creates nothing but positive energy when viewed upon. Vibrant and energetic. 

He always has a main subject composed into the image, but surrounded with other visual elements 

His style is so free, variation of movements and use of colour interest me

He is the main artist i have been looking at at being inspired by his work i have decided to create some of my own. 

I continued doing what i did from my last piece. Concentrating on the Graffiti/Street art in London Markets and also unnoticed places such as alleyways, corners and remote locations. 

My first piece was "Bricklane Market #1, 2014" 

Personally i think these pieces work really well. There is a strong depth in the image, and colour use is strong and vibrant. Very aesthetically pleasing to the viewers because it catches their attention. 

 These two pieces i made at similar times. They have a similarity through the use of colours and composition of images, and the balance between text and imagery. 

Painting of my Brother

Painting of my Brother

This was a day painting. Interested in a south east asian artist named Attasit Pokpong

He believes that a facial expression is a window into the soul

I like this saying and believe it to be true

I was inspired by this and followed his technique with the background, single toned colour, but i changed the style when it came to the face. I added a lot more colours, in a rather random notion. I wanted to see what effects the colours would have on the viewers. 

Let me know what you think

I plan to change this technique i used and develop it more. Too many colours in my opinion. or is it?

Routine Canvas

In this piece I was looking at;

Routine

Schedules

Deadlines

Daily Lives

Repetition 

Subconscious Art

I remembered last year, i looked slightly into people and their daily schedules. 

How there is a slight repetition. 

For example, if you go to Starbucks every morning to get a cup of coffee, it is unlikely that tomorrow you would go to Costa and get Green tea instead. 

People being afraid of change. 

This piece, i started off with a note, stuck to my bathroom mirror so it would be a reminder every day.

I would do something, add something to my canvas everyday but the twist is that i didn't know what i was going to do. 

There is NO PLAN!

Each day i would go to the canvas (repetition) and create something subconsciously, completely automatic.

I started this piece on the 23/10/13

Day 1 - Buy blank canvas

Day 2 - Mixture of water and acrylic paint
Automated plashes and spills on canvas
3 colours; blue, white and red

Day 3 - Ink

Used brush to apply and spilling

Day 4 - Rose and Cherry flavoured soap

Day 5 - Quick cut out of a human feature

Red spray paint

Day 6 - Adhesive and Coins

1p, 2p and 5p Coins

Day 7 - Oil Pant applied with palette knife 

Day 8 - Sand with Hot glue

Day 9 - Charcoal 

Day 10 - Conditioner

Day 11- PVA Glue

Day 12 - Rope

(Now as you can see, this is not a full shot of the whole canvas because in fact, i FORGOT to take a photo that day, which happens frequently in everyday lives, where someone forgets a task or two)

Day 13 - Thick lines of Acrylic 

Day 14 - Olive Oil

Day 15 - Fire

I used a flammable liquid to get it going

Burning the ropes and canvas

This fire created a lot of smoke, it would have continued heavily which is why i blew it out before it got carried away. 

Final Look

This is what it looked like at the end of the 15 days

I think it looks rather abstract 

I was imagining how long the Artwork label would be and how that could be fairly amusing to see in a gallery. 

I had to stop after 15 days because I was going up to Scotland and didn't want to cheat, i could see this being a piece carried on for a longer duration. 

Maybe a month? 

On a much larger canvas!

I would place a piece of wood or metal block on the back so i could get civilians to walk on it on the street, leave it out somewhere, bikes riding over it, things involving human interaction. 

Now this is Art !!

Li Songsong's "We Have Betrayed the Revolution"

(Ground Floor Gallery, 6 Burlington Gardens)

This was an amazing visit, best I've seen in a while. 

First, isn't Songsong such a cool last name?

Li Songsong is a Chinese Artist. This is his first solo exhibition in London and I'm am sure it won't be his last. 

This exhibition provides a comprehensive view of Songsong's art and focuses on the essence of his technique and painting process.

These pieces of work portray historical figures and events that happened in China.

What i truly loved about his work was the process. the way he painted.  

Doesn't this look like a Bruce Lee modelling for Calvin Klein Underwear?

Songsong began with found images sourced from a media such as newspapers, magazines, or the internet. 
He reconstructs the image square by square building layers of paint. He uses oil paint in his paintings, he must have mastered his technique during his BFA in Oil Painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. 

People interacted with the pieces in 3 different ways. 

1. From a distance to see the overall image. 

2. Up close to see the smaller details.

3. Even closer to see the mix combinations created within the oil paints. 

The oil was so thick it made me slightly light headed, seeing the heavy usage of oil paint being built up on top of each other made me feel heavier....inside, like subconsciously. 

There was so much oil, i doubt that they were dry. I have tried using oil before and it was only a small piece but that took weeks of drying plus hours of using a hair dryer. 

Which begs me to a point, whilst viewing these pieces of art, the temptation to touch it is indescribable. Maybe it's just me but it was dragging me into it. 

In a painting, i look for the brushstrokes, i try to find the smallest amount of details made by a brush.

In this, the strokes were so wide, so big, there was hardly any marks made delicately but as you stand back, you can somehow see more than expected. It was like a deception of perspective. 

Li Songsong said 

" Everyone knows the story. The important thing is the way that you tell it. The way depends on your attitude, and attitude changes with time. As society changes, attitude changes accordingly."

Bright vibrant colours mixed together upon layers and layers. 

Unlimited amounts of texture. Nothing is ever the same in any part of the panting. 

This is called " Zhong Nan Hai"
Oil on Canvas

This is a bird's eye view of a location based in China. It looks really detailedly drawn, but as you get closer and closer, it doesn't seem as if the artist put in a vast amount to time in applying these details, or it may just be the process.

Its like playing with my mind.

I was so drawn to these pieces that i was considering buying one.....or all. 

Then i realised that requires money, money i know i don't have 

:(

I also like the fact that he adds in different colours, he adds in energising colours to liven up the situation painted. 

 So far, this was my most enjoyable visit to a gallery in London. The space was near perfect.

Ceilings high.

Pieces fitted on the walls well, wasn't surrounded by large empty spaces. 

Enough space for you to walk back and view from a distance.

Not all paintings were painted on canvas. 3 out of the 12 paintings were painted on Aluminium panels. This was an interesting contrast in material usage. 

The aluminium was a much thicker material, which stuck out of the painting much more. This created shadows which created images within the image painted on. 

Definitely a show or artist to see. I am sure he will continue surprising me with his work

Someday i will have one of his pieces up on my wall!

On till 9th November

Central Saint Martins - My Foundation Year

Central Saint Martins - My Foundation Year 

Im only going to do one blog entry about my entire foundation course at Central Saint Martins showing you only a few pieces of work that i experimented on and what i ended up focusing on. 

I decided to do a foundation year because i truly didn't know which area of art i wanted to pursue in, i mean i liked all the areas. Product Design, Architecture, Landscape design and Fine Art. 

As the course went on i steered towards Fine art, however i didn't steer towards one principle, i worked with all the principles involved in fine art. 

Just one example of a sculpture i made, i was working and merging domestic products and fusing them together to create something out of the ordinary, in this piece i wanted to see how people would react to this product, Would they still carry it like a beer or use the handle? 

Sculpture:

I also did some photography, in this piece i was inspired by the controlling affects of colour, the colours came from a traffic light but the idea of this was: do the colours make you think a certain way about a photograph? 

The subjects within each photograph are rather random, but the focus is on the colours. 

What does red make you think, yellow? blueish green?

Every individual colour makes you think of something, an emotions a meaning

Below i try to further prove that point 

Do these seem right to you? Thats the point. 

A few drawings:

Lined drawings

I also experimented with technology and media.

What i did in this series of work was use technology to text someone a question. I would then receive a response. 

This question was "Would you ever kill someone?"

"What would you do if there was no internet tomorrow? How would you react?"

"

"What gets you out of bed in the morning?" 

"What is missing from your life?"

"What was the worst thing that happened in your life?"

Before this foundation course i was painting, this year i tried to stay away from painting. I wanted to explore all other aspects of art therefore i barely painted. 

As i progressed, i ended up doing something i found really fulfilling. It was installation. 

My main medium was masking tape, coloured making tape. and my number was 4. In a sense i was trying to create a painting on the site i was in using coloured masking tape. 

Abstract, Painting, Installation site specific. 

This was my first test piece. 

I believe this piece was with red insulation tape.

It is a very precise process, everything has to be measured and spot on. 

Cutting the masking tape needs to be done with a sharp knife for a crisp edge. 

What i like about this is that it creates space in space. The wall is a big empty space, but in that space is a whole other dimension of space. 

This is what i was going for. 

More installations: 

More:

  

One more: 

This i photoshopped, I wanted you to understand what i was aiming for, space inside space. 

and for my Finale piece i used the exhibiting space for our final year show and worked in the site provided to us. 

First to inspect the site, see what I'm working with/on.

Checking to see if the masking tape sticks nicely, incase i need to sand down the walls..

Doing some repair work. 

Getting started 

Working onto the window too, part of the site 

Crisp edges 

Precise measurements 

And here it is, this was new for me, one of my very first times doing an installation piece, took me out of my comfort zone which was great. Here goes the end of my Foundation Diploma at Central Saint Martins, London, UK.