Thursday, 19 April 2012
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Digital Media with Michael Fortune
Michael Fortune
Background
Background
Born in rural Co. Wexford, Ireland, in 1975,
Fortune’s artistic practice spans the formats of writing, video and photography.
Working predominantly in video and photography, his work explores the
circumstantial boundaries between art and culture, folklore and interpretation
and fact and fiction.
Fortunes’ practice revolves around the collection of
material. He does not script or storyboard, instead he generates material out of
the relationships and experiences he develops with the people and circumstances
he encounters. Fortune combines the stand-alone idiosyncrasies of people and
incidents in everyday life, with complex and visually careful and contemplative
treatments that adeptly handle the aesthetics of repetition, humour, obscurity,
strangeness and intimacy.
In much of his video work the camera remains static,
where editing is only ever employed out of necessity rather than luxury. Although referring to the form of the documentary, all evidence of
the documentary or narrator is removed. The intimate nature of the relationships
with the people and circumstances he encounters, and the subsequent reflective
treatment of the material at hand is a key feature of his work.
Much of Fortune’s work borrows heavily from accepted
contemporary methodologies of recording, documenting and presenting
information. As a result, he utilises the mediums of home videos, snap
photography and the printed media within his work.
Example of his work
The Kitchen Sessions
http://www.thekitchensessions.ie/Welcome_files/The%20Kitchen%20Sessions%20Book.pdf
Images from the Whitethorn Three Part Video Work 2009
The work I did with Michael was invaluable, he provided support for my ideas, which were numerous! plus technical knowledge and know how. I gained a confidence in using digital media, exploring ideas through to being confident to deliver a digital media scheme in school.
He took us through stop motion animation which I am a great fan of, as it only requires a camera and a little imagination.
First session with Micahel we were placed in groups and asked to make a stop motion animation using props that were in the classroom, below is our version of The Life of Robby the robot by David, Joanna, Jean and my self..
"The High Court has ordered that a 65-year-old woman be sent to prison over her refusal to allow the ESB and Eirgrid access to her land to complete a power line." Irish Times
Images from the Whitethorn Three Part Video Work 2009
The work I did with Michael was invaluable, he provided support for my ideas, which were numerous! plus technical knowledge and know how. I gained a confidence in using digital media, exploring ideas through to being confident to deliver a digital media scheme in school.
He took us through stop motion animation which I am a great fan of, as it only requires a camera and a little imagination.
First session with Micahel we were placed in groups and asked to make a stop motion animation using props that were in the classroom, below is our version of The Life of Robby the robot by David, Joanna, Jean and my self..
Students at work with Michael Fortune
I was asked to produce a piece a work using a photo essay as the format, this was difficult because it required a project based on photographs but about a subject that was thousands of miles away "Burning Issues". I toyed with numerous ideas, and brain stormed to find the idea that best fitted the brief and my personal life, work and interests.I am very practical so when I read about Grandmothers in Uganda sorting out a problem for them selves I was interested in finding out more, I did some research on the charity involved in helping the women get the programme of the ground, I researched the women them selves as well as a wider search into the history of fuel less cookers (or hay boxes).
I found out that they have been used for hundreds of years possibly even thousands of years to help cook food with out the use of fire wood. It is a great way of conserving energy, time and valuable resources.
This made me think about how I could use the same method of cooking my food at home in East Clare and help reduce the amount of fuel I use. I also thought how interesting that people who live in impoverished conditions are aware of the dwindling resources that there are and to be able to do something about it that supports their way of life, makes life easier for them and benefits the local and global environment.
I then compared this " do it for your self" mind set with the women who had been put in prison over Christmas because she didn't want to let ESB cut down her trees on her own land so they could put in large pillion's to carry electricity.
"The High Court has ordered that a 65-year-old woman be sent to prison over her refusal to allow the ESB and Eirgrid access to her land to complete a power line." Irish Times
(This would make a great topic for discussion in CSPE, it has social justice issues as well as national and global implications i.e. deforestation in Africa as well as mono tree production in Ireland links)
I went on to research my fuel less cooker see photo essay below, it tells it's own story:
Monday, 2 April 2012
Observational drawing for painting
Drawing / Painting Project
How to introduce a painting scheme into the curriculum?
Research/ Investigating
First, I went on a reconnaissance mission both around the school and the local area. I found some fantastic little cottage around the corner from the school and visualised each student drawing and painting a cottage each. It is a great location only 5 minutes from school and there is a wall opposite the cottages for the students to sit on while they are drawing. It would be safe, comfortable, and convenient.
If you move your cursor over the photo you can view all the pictures of the cottages (22 pictures in total) at St Flannan's Lane.
I talked to one owner while I was photographing the cottages and ask her if it would be OK if I brought students from St. Flannan’s school to draw her house and I also asked her opinion about the possibility of the students drawing all the cottages, she thought it would be a great idea.
In case it was not going to be possible to take the students outside of the school grounds, I walked around the school taking photographs from different angles and viewpoints. I liked the way this stark building is intercepted by trees and I started to think about combining the built and natural environment in a painting. Often in paintings, the focus is on the landscape or the built environment, in Van Gogh’s paintings the buildings sit in the landscape comfortably in proportion whereas the school building dwarfs the trees, over powering them. The clock tower rises up in the centre of the building and the angles of the roof and walls create interesting shapes. Although I can draw some comparisons with Van Gogh’s work especially in the painting, “The old church at Nuenen or the church at Auvers” but the drawings of George Shaw or David Bomberg try to marry the natural and built environment creating a dichotomy or struggle between the two. I wanted the students to struggle and wrestle with these complex shapes, materials, and colours just as the trees struggle to be as domineering and dominant as the building is.
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| View of St. Flannan's Secondary School |
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| More views of St. Flannan's school |
After a discussion with the Art Teacher it was felt that it would be simpler to draw and paint the school building as this would not require parent permission slips and extra teacher support for health and safety reasons.
Research - Art Appreciation
I looked at the work of Vincent Van Gogh also George Shaw and David Bomberg.
Creating/ Exploring
Van Gogh
“To express the love of two lovers through a marriage of two complementary colours, their mingling, and their opposition, the mysterious vibrations of kindred tones. To express the thought of a brow by the radiance of a light tone against a dark background. To express hope by a handful of stars” Vincent Van Gogh 1888
Van Gogh is an expressionist painter; his paintings are emotive and show vigour and intensity. His brush strokes were different from the predominant style of the period. His brush strokes were often elongated but not exaggerated. His paintings have an eerie but vibrant atmosphere, bold shapes, space, and composition. It is his urgency and dynamism that I want to convey to the students through the work of Vincent Van Gogh.
George Shaw
George Shaw (born 1966 in Coventry) is an Ilfracombe-based contemporary artist who is noted for his highly detailed naturalistic approach and English suburban subject matter
George Shaw has focused most of his work on the ordinary and mundane discovering a language to express his sentimentality and origins. I am interested in the way he treats these semi urban environments on the edge of Coventry city. He conveys beauty and treats the subject matter with sympathy. These drawings are void of human beings and therefore allows us to imagine an empty, forgotten place. Although they are realistic drawings, they are still able to express to the viewer a sense of personal turmoil, a longing to be in another time and place. The interplay between the natural and built environment has been treated sensitivity, and with painstaking attention to detail in the wall and railings, uneven concrete path, leaves and branches, shadows on the walls and path blurring the lines between the constructed and natural environment. I want to show the students his work because it is dealing with the ordinary, everyday views that we all see and ignore, to encourage the students to look again at their school with fresh eyes and to record light and shade, atmosphere, ambience and contrast.
David Bomberg
David Bomberg figurative
style of drawing portrays emotion, a sense of urgency, scale, space and
contrast.
I did several sketches from different viewpoints always combining the built and natural environment.
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| Initial drawing |
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| Starting to add colour using water colour |
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| Details of painting above |
I found a viewpoint from the side of the building that suited my purpose and began to study, draw and paint it from this angle. I used a variety of materials with the aim of exploiting the built and natural environment.
The scheme is going well I have some wonderful drawings the first years have been doing. It is a difficult building with lots of right angles, windows and perspective to consider. See below students work in progress. I encouraged them to be experimental, to use a variety of materials and to capture the variety between the built and the natural environment.
School Students work
School Students work
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| Lesson 1 & 2 biro and chalk pastels |
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| Lesson 3 wax crayon and coloured inks |
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| week 3 lesson 5 & 6 Pencil |
Finished student paintings - note, initially I was worried about the painting scheme
1. My personal painting practice is weak (to coin a phrase used to describe students work by art teachers although it's not a phrase I like)
2. The practical ramifications of taking students out of doors and managing the materials
But on both accounts I needn't have worried, the students loved going out to draw and I enjoyed the process of research drawings and the final painting, although I am no painter!
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| Final paintings by Year 1 students at St Flannan's College, Ennis |
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