Recording

Over the next few weeks I will be updating you with my works in progress. This is to reflect the continual process of painting in relation to tasks in the workplace. By the end I hope to have a large number of canvases to display, showing the repetition the two processes have in common.

New proposal

I've been re thinking my plan for the degree show. here is my section for the degree show group catalogue...

Rather than defining her art identity solely as a painter, Pip Preece prefers to be thought of as an arranger, a collector of thought processes and at times a narrator. However she still finds that the methods of painting allow her to express these mechanics most powerfully.

Preece translated the detachment of Manet’s bar maid at the Folies Bergere into her own scene of contemporary ennui.

Alongside her studies Preece has worked at a local off licence, giving her a sense of the ennui the contemporary workplace brings. The experience of menial activity influenced her to consider how in an environment of ennui one begins to see myopically, viewing aspects of the setting from a restricted viewpoint, rather than the wider picture. Tasks such as stacking shelves, serving customers, counting money and cleaning become second nature activities. These processes have infiltrated Preece’s studio practice.

The physicality of the nature of painting and time devoted to painting as an action reflect the working environment. By considering areas of the workplace and reducing them visually in terms of line, colour and angle, Preece shows how the mind simplifies its perception of objects one becomes over familiarized with.

The arrangement of mundane imagery creates a methodology of repetition; in both the production and presentation of this Preece hopes to reflect the repetitive process of menial labour.

David Fulford

David Fulford is an artist I became aware of at the last Liverpool Biennial. He exhibited this piece 'Near The Site' at the Walker Art Gallery for the John Moores Painting Prize. Although the concept behind the work is totally different to my own I really enjoy the layout and presentation of the small canvases, and was wondering whether to attempt something similar for the degree show. By presenting a number of paintings of my workplace in this way a methodology of repetition, compositionally,  pigment-ally and subjectively. This repetition I hope will reflect the repetition of the act of working in such a place.

Bruce Nauman

To me Bruce Nauman is the King of video installation. Particularly his 'Feed Me' piece and 'Clown Torture'. There is something about their set up that absorbs their whole environment. I will certainly be considering Nauman's practice when making the decisions for the presentation of my own films.

Edward Hopper

It might seem an obvious place to start, but I've been considering the work of Edward Hopper to get a better understanding of the tensions betwwen charaters and sense of ennui in his work.

Gregory Crewdson

I really like Gregory Crewdson's cinematic photography. There is something about the eerie familiarity of his work that really appeals to the story teller in me. I want to create a narrative for myself. Its amazing how he can achieve so much in just a single shot. Its a scene but it has essences of the pre scene and keeps us in suspense about the post scene. I think a lot of it is down to the camera angles and lighting, something I would like to develop in my own work.

the STOP and THINK post (traumaticstress)

I have been rethinking what my project is at this moment in time and what I want it to be.

Since the last presentation I have been considering ways to move my project forward. I've had the artists' equivalent of writers block. Everything I've been doing has been strained, forced and quite frankly unnatural! and you know... I had been convincing myself that it was vanity, that I fancied myself as a painter and that I was being stubborn by not moving to another medium. But actually when I REALLY think about it its not that at all! It's not a matter of it being, vanity, stubbornness or that fact that other media are 'out of my comfort zone', it's actually the desire for my work at the degree show to reflect my identity as an artist so that, in some way, visitors of the show will leave knowing me (through my work) a little better. 

Now you might say, 'THAT IS VANITY!'. I disagree. Vanity would suggest I wanted people to look favourably at me, that I wanted to show off in some way. Not at all. I want people to see my work and what I produce in a realistic way. Thats how they'll know me. and If they like it then thats a positive, but if they don't I'll still be happy because at least I've produced something that reflects my practice openly and honestly.

My work has been through a few twists and turns over the past few weeks. Thats part due to a lack of confidence, and part due to the fact I don't really know what direction to move in and part because of the combination which I was referring to as writers block before.

I was recently lucky enough to have a one on one meeting with a very successful artist, James Iverson, who really picked me up and gave me some inspiration. But I'll save that for the next post.