identity.

Fiona Banner.

I came across the artist Fiona banner, i recognised her name, she was short listed for a turner prize and her piece 'war porn' reminded me of the effect i was aiming for with the writing within my work. Her work varies with experimenting with words,letters,sentences and film transcripts and military aircraft inserted within instillation's. I was instantly drawn to the hand writing, the kind of clumsiness behind the letter and the labour evidence behind the words. It made the piece very personal.

Where as her pieces with stenciled letters are more structured but still affective.

In her piece 'Nude, leaning' she approaches producing a traditional nude painting in a new and original way, by doing it through 'word scape'. Transcribing the vision she recieves, instead of actually drawing the shapes, she describes the nude in attempt to define and describe the scene. She uses the source of words very intelligently and cleaver and produces a succesful piece of work. I really like this idea of describing with words instead of just copying what's in front of you, it also gives the imagination some work to do.

Laura's story.

I finally finished my first version of the recent idea i had of combining the information i received off a person with an image of their feet and that through combining photography and stitching. I was missing a bit of crafty work within my project so going back to the sewing machine was refreshing as well as a challenge as I've never used a sewing machine to sew words before-especially a whole a4 image of words. It was a long process and took allot more of my time than i originally assumed it would, but now at least i'm prepared to the days that goes into producing of of these for feature reference.
I love the way the black and white image contrast with the bright pink. I would like to experiment more with layering different colours of writing next but in a similar manor to this one as i feel it has turned out well and how i wanted it. I'm hoping these could build up to being a sucesful series of work, although very time consuming. Im happy to be producing real life pieces as well as the insole blog as i found being on a computer and collecting images of shoes a bit tedious.And i enjoy making more than photoshop-ing and i find it easyer to enjoy my work more when i have put hours into producing something.... hoping that other people can aprechiate the effort too.!!!

Kay Rosen.

As i came across some artist work that use typography within their art, or even is their art, i started thinking more into why i want to combine words and stories into my work visually and it not just being some information that i collected during the project and not reveling. Kay Rosen is an artist that produces combinations of letters and words and experiments with wordplay and colour as her art work. She explores language interpretation and visual tricks with the way and words she chooses to work with. Her work is something i enjoyed looking at and triggered my mind to think harder about the importance of one letter within a work and not to just place word wherever and however.

I also started thinking about the importance of colour within the work as I've chosen a path of combined black and white images alongside vibrant colour text and layered.I need to think why i do this and if its mainly for a visual impact or decorative reason.

My work isn't meant to be making a statement its meant to be more about discovery and identity so i don't feel as much pressure on the writing as its a collection of people's own words and stories, but i am contemplating producing some pieces in welsh and see if indulging in experiments with different languages- how would viewers react to that.

sgwenu.

I wanted to take my idea further so got a person i know to write me something about themselves, i then wrote this down on a transparent paper so i could put it over different things and see what worked. I previously had taken pictures of her feet and experimented with editing the background, making the picture black and white and all sorts.

Black and white. Laura's feet.

On photoshop , i layered the photo of the feet with the writing and layered about with transparency and see how strong or faint i wanted the words to be and what worked better.

I also thought of doing the same things with hands but i think hands is a bit of an obvious identity source. I also tried out a variety of different things behind the writing, such as faces, in colour and black and white.

Gwyneb Elan.

I like the way this looks. Experimenting with these has opened up a new source of ideas that i might engage in further, as i was beginning to worry that id be stuck in a rut and develop and obsession with insoles... It was a new experience for me producing allot of digital; work and having to depend on luck and photoshop for my ideas to work as i imagined them. But im definitely happy with the progress i am making with this project.

I decided to experiment with my idea of feet-i.d, so started taking pictures of feet and wanted to neutralize the photos or make they black and white so i could experiment further with the photos. I wanted collect a good amount of them off different people- although finding people who like their feet enough to be willing to let me photography them is proving to be pretty hard.

I made the photograph black and white before trying to change the background and see which one is more affective. I want the people i get to do this to writ or tell me stories or facts about themselves so i can project on their feet.

I think the feel are allot more dramatic in black and white i will also see if it works better with/without a background or a faded one or i was thinking about getting writing involved, that either projected on the feet

Share your sole.

By now my shareyoursole blog, witch was the original idea for this project is up and running and I'm actively collecting and receiving emails with pictures of different people along side a bit about the shoe or themselves. I advertised with posters up in shoemaker's shop as well as spreading the word through email. I'm not depending on this element of my project to feed it all but i hope ill come across some interesting facts through collecting the information.

I started thinking about other paths i can take but sticking to the theme of shoes or feet. I liked the idea that someones identity could be through a different part of their body except their face or personality. The shapes on the bottom of shoes also amuse me and i would like to make something out of them too.

I kept the shareyoursole blog simple. The main logo at the top then the pictures set up as some kind of list. Ive not yet decided what to do with the information i have about the shoes as I've just posted the up images only and thought it looked quite good and minimal.

I kept the background simple and plain so that you're immediately distracted to the images. I hope this blog will continue to develop and ill get some ideas from it for my practical work.

sgidia.

Here are some of the shoe sole pictures i have received by people. i also did receive information about the shoes - where they origionated from, what their main purpose was and wher had they been, but ive not yet decided how to use that information within the wok.

project name.

As I've decided to create a blog of some sort will a collection of images of insoles that i will collect from people, i thought it would be important to try and produce one as professionally as i could. That meant coming up with some sort of name for the blog so it could represent some sort of 'logo' for the project.

I started experimenting with different names , after researching into some of the names i had come up with i noticed that some of the best ones such as 'sole 4 soul' already existed as charities. Some of the ones i thought of were also a bit lame. But eventually i did come up with ones i liked and started experimenting with backgrounds or how i would display the name.

My two favourite were 'discover my sole' and 'share your sole' as i thought they seemed to explain the purpose being the project quite clearly as well as being catchy am memorable. I also experimented on photoshop with different backgrounds and colour, keeping it simple and trying out different layouts.

I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and minimal as i wanted all the attention to be on the photos of shoe soles and if i decided to have writing next to them or not. I quite liked the idea of no identity to the shoes too to make people's imaginations work.

I liked both attempts- the digital photoshoped logo and also the hand made sewn one.

adar.

cychod.

Boats in the docks. Dubrovnick. Croatia.

Close up of stitching.

my insoles.

I decided to start experimenting with working into insoles in different ways.Painting, pastels and stitch to see if they turned out successfully and if it was an idea that could evolve into something more. I drew some as pictures and took inspiration from images i took over the summer of different places. I made some drawings beforehand then tried to adapt the images to fit onto the insole as well as trying to keep the texture of the insole.

Elan.

I enjoyed working onto a different surface and a strange shape, it forced me to work harder at choosing what i wanted to show by editing out some things that weren't relevant and that wouldn't ass anything to explaining the story behind the sole.

hel syniadau.

During the summer i began to gather thought on ideas for my final year project. I produced allot of work combining photographs, sheep wool and stitch. Carrying on with similar work that i began to produce for my exhibition at the end of last year. I came across allot of interesting work and exhibitions in wales as well as on my travels to different countries.

I wanted to work with an object, so i started looking at shoes, and the bottom of shoes and insoles. I began to think how a shoe could tell so much- a story of where it had been, what it had seen and so on. I did some research into charities who collect shoes, shoe designers and historical shoe history. I also thought back to a piece of work i saw in the Eisteddfod in Wrexham over the summer, a piece by Bedwyr Williams. Carved wellingtons, alongside photographs and sculptures.

His carved wellingtons,stuffed with straw had little images all over them. I liked the idea of them telling a story or showing what they had been up-to/used for, and along side the photograph of the Hill farmer witch indicated the theme, the combination for all the pieces worked well and there was a strong welsh vibe achieved with simple pieces.

I wanted to achieve something similar with my project, a simple idea nut with strong impact.I started thinking about creating some sort of website where people could maybe post stories alongside pictures of the bottom of their shoes, or even donate me their insoles so i could produce work using them. Pretty quickly i realized how difficult making a website was, and started thinking of other ways of getting my hands on what i needed.As well as starting to think of a name for my project that didn't already exist.......!

24 hands.

Coleg Menai.

An exhibition held by Coleg Menai's second year degree students. It was all up to a very high standard and was a good collection of pieces varying from a fishbowl to a poster to a set of televisions playing footage of budgies in their cages which gave you a very colourful and quirky welcome as you entered the room, at The Galeri, Caernarfon.

(apologies for the crap quality photo's- my beautiful new camera will stop this happening in the future)

There were so many exiting pieces of work that i loved, its difficult to chose favourites. But a couple of pieces did steal my attention due to the detail and scale, Mel Cunninghams work all looked fantastic, some framed and one being a large circle piece that could have worked just as well in the room if it was empty. They were a collection of dry point etchings, the main one being her own re-creation of the last supper. The detail was immense of the characters and background in the piece, as well as the blue colour giving the monotone piece a moder outburst of colour, also worked well alongside some of her less busy pieces.

Eva Hoyle's piece 'She' was also one of my preferred pieces. A delicate collection of framed neutral paintings/ ink of a woman figure.

The exhibition also had a large sculpture piece by Miguel of the standing figure. He produces work inspired by the human body and uses his experience of living with partial hearing as motivation to produce deep pieces, varying from ceramics to this plaster combination sculpture.

As a whole, it was a very successful and refreshing collection of work, and reminded me again of the high standard Coleg Menai students continue to reach. The work was ambitious and professional. I thurely enjoyed viewing high quality art as close to home.

New camera.

AT. LAST.

i have at last a decent camera i can use to photograph my work and other things.

As i don't really have anything to photograph at the moment. I took some pictures of my new kitten.

I'm sure you'll enjoy.

that is all.

last assesment.

For my last assessment i wanted to remind everyone of the previous pieces that i had produced at the beginning as i did put allot of effort into experimenting with lots of different ideas, and also to show how far my ideas had develop towards what i ended up producing for my exhibition.

I'm now going to try and think of a simple marketing strategy for selling my exhibition work over the summer. And proceed to produce my work on pillowcases, to maybe experiment with placing pieces on more useful and practical surfaces. And try and exhibit some of my work over the summer in local venues/ restaurant's.

Two in One night.

Same night as 'relationship', this exhibition held at the student union. Once again a large variety of pieces varying from film to room- instillation's. I liked Rachel Armstraong's film instillation piece projected on three wall's, i thought it was a refreshing way and successful display.

Tom beech's sound instillation made of a collection of glasses filled with different mounts of coloured water, and the interacting side of it - the posters explaining how to make different noises out of the glasses, was also good fun.

I ended up buying one of Hannah Boulter's broaches. They were made to perfection and to a high standards. Quirky little things. Would make great peasants and it was nice to be able to purchase someones work.

Tasha's piece was also an interacting instillation piece, that strongly reminded me of Nicholas Hlobo's ribbon maze that was at the bluecoat, but that Tash's work was dealing with body-image issues.

I was also pleasantly surprised with how they made the space at the student union work as it was all very light, but there was plenty of hidden corners and rooms for everyone to work with.

I enjoyed the whole thing. Two exhibitions. One night.