A link was given to us by the university to support us through out our unit 2 assessment, it is from University College, London, and it has all essential information about personal professional development, which is fundamental in our MA practice. I read it and highlighted all the important key points that I need to take into consideration upon completing my unit 2 Symposium and 500 word written post.
Below is the PDF summary of the document:
First of all let me briefly explain the direction of my new approach. After the first assessment results and feedback, I started taking my own pictures, luckily I was in Amman for the X-mas break, so I took pictures of the natural environment around the house, we live in a very quiet area surrounded by oak trees and green hills and mountains. I intentionally tried to take the most attractive photos which had an aesthetic value in my opinion. I have a very strong relationship with land, with the environment I live in. it’s personal and universal at the same time, I believe that the peace of mind a person gets when he’s around his roots (where he lives, his family, his land) is worth everything in the world, and I also believe that no one has the right to take this from any human being. I also believe that we come from nature, and their is a very intimate relationship between humans and nature.
Acorns and nature mean a lot to me, I used to collect acorns and dry leaves and branches when I was in high school and created statues of musicians and other figures in my leisure time… I admire nature so much. So, after I took my own photos I applied the Arabic writing in an abstract unreadable way; meaningful, yet hard to read even by an Arab. Trying to have a high contrast level, I intend to have the writing with soft textures contrasting the rough textured background.
Sandra: so meaning is not important?
The meaning is extremely important and the writing has a very close connection with the painting.
Yes Sandra the abjects on the ground are acorns.
Lionel: I think exploring further how the type interacts with the image more than seeming to be placed on top might be worthwhile.
Yes Lionel, this is a nice idea, I really wish that I can start taking up the Photoshop intermediate courses in order to develop this aspect further! We’ll see maybe soon 🙂
Sandra: where there an internal story you were thinking when you took these images? Or are the objects Symbolic in any way for you?
When I start taking the pictures all what I think about is the aesthetic value from my personal perespective ( tones and colour, textures and details, contrasts…) I also select objects and elements that I find dear to me, like the acorns, the symbolic meaning of the earth and land (Homeland), and natural effects on natural and man-made objects…
Having an international language is essential in my work… the elements do have meaning for me…local and global yes Sandra.
Lionel: I’m not sure that non-Arabic type as abstractions- I think they are just more likely to concider it type they can’t read- I think you should push the abstraction of the calligraphy much further…
I have in some other pieces, Ipoint taken into consideration.
Aha, well maybe because the cracked soil has more dramatic effects and the digital manipulations took it to a new level, however, I must admit that some of the pictures were more of an experimentation, and they don’t have this strong connection with my emotional aspect.
Lionel Openshaw: I would say, push the abstraction until it’s barely recognisable as type at all – play with that boundary
me: I want to achieve more layers and still maintain the level of contrast between the textures and the meaningful text. I still see that the writing has to develop in a way that makes it stands out more yet retain its simplicity. Sandra, I don’t paint on photographs I paint on the prints.
Thx Matt
Sandra: Just a thought, written directly on the ground with your paint, or even a material that has more meaning for you
I admire the natural rusted metal textures so I was thinking to make my own calligraphy designs and textures on metal sheets for the final show. After working on canvas prints, wood and stone, I think metal should be my next step. I wanted to do that when I made the other prints but I couldn’t because the printing services company couldn’t provide them in such a short period of time. I don’t think it’s going to be an easy process or even a quick one, but I really want to try. we’ll see how it goes 🙂
Firts of all I collected data on how to make these rustic effects on metal, and I found very inspiring photographs on this blog:
http://cssdive.com/freebies/examples-of-rusted-metal-texture-designs/
Rust is a term used to describe iron oxides, which is the chemical reaction between iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture forming red oxides.
I need to wait until I travel to Amman in the Easter break to try metal printing. In the mean time, I am working on my 4th photographic print on Styrofoam, surprisingly, painting on it has been a joyful experience, the smoothness of the surface allows achieving several transparent layers, contrasting with the main printed background. This is the main photographic print and my first painting attempt:
Photographic print on foam board 40×50 cm
Acrylics on photographic print 40×50 cm
Digital photographic print
I further developed the print by painting on it using acrylics, adding more contrasting tones and emphasizing the dryness of the land by adding more roughness and hard edges on the background.
Acrylics on photographic print 40×50 cm
Using multi-editing filters I came up with more appealing digital prints…
Digital print
Digital print
Digital print
I just wanted to see how would all the digital manipulated pieces look when displayed one whole piece, so I made this final attempt:
Final piece:
Acrylics on photographic print 40×50 cm
Digital Photographic print
Digital Photographic print
Yesterday was my 1 on 1 tutorial with Jessica Barr, an artist, a former student on the MA course, and a teacher at the Institute of Education in London. After our conversation, I felt that I started to have all my ideas and thoughts settled in my brain in a way that relieved me. There were several essential points that we discussed and went through:
• My latest approach: in terms of composition and contrast level.
Jessica supported the idea of integrating Arabic calligraphy, which is constructed with a flat surface (smooth texture) with the natural effects background, which demonstrates rough textures. This contrast between the smooth surface and the rough background has been found very attractive and desirable from Jessica and Jonathan. She also found the photos I took of a variety of natural objects and effects on manmade objects very interesting. She supported using a restricted palette too.
• Printing options: weather to transform my work into a traditional painting or digital print.
We discussed transforming my digital copies into traditional paintings, which is the way I’ve always worked with, and also we discussed printing them out and see the printing effects with the outcome. I would like to do so and compare the two results.
• Recommended artists: Peter Doig, Andy Warhol and Chris Ofili
Peter Doig uses photography as an inspiration for his work, yet he doesn’t use photoreastic techniques, nor he imitates a photograph, he mainly uses photos, movie scenes, newspaper clippings, and even the works of other artists as reference material. He works with several layers and constructs his work “by proxy” and depicts sceneries from an unexpected angles. The way Doig depicts nature is very inspiring, and allows me to explore more options with natural sceneries.
Chris Ofili incorporates elephant dung into his artworks. His paintings are rich in rough textures and an inventive use of different materials, he paints with an intricate ornamental style and adopts simple pared down forms and a simplified colour palette. After taking a look at Ofili’s work, I felt that I got the courage to use and incorporate different materials into my work. I admire nature and natural objects, I lived in a house surrounded by oak tees and decayed leaves ground, I used to collect natural objects even when I used to travel, and transform them into organic sculptures. However, inspite of my deep strong desire to incorporate natural elements into my work, I’ve always been intimidated to do so because I dint know if this approach is appropriate in painting, I’ve always felt that I have some kind of restraints that forbade me from doing what I really wanted do because I was afraid of criticism in regards the painting composition.
Jessica recommended Peter Doig who’s work is similar to my work
• The final show display:
– Projection of final pieces
– Projection on natural surfaces, such as rocks, flat metallic sheets…
– Light box display.
• Using digital technology to manipulate the original pieces.
Jesseca supported the idea of using different mobile apps and Photoshop to manipulate and alter my paintings, however she advised to adopt Andy Warhol’s techniques in terms of having slight differences between each copy in order to make the work more mysterious. Now as I am in Amman I’m looking forward to :
– Find out how to print out my digital designs
– Collects natural objects from my surroundings
– Find more digital options to manipulate my artworks
– Take few more photos
–
My Research Paper (PDFResearch Paper ):
After My voice chat with Jane Madson, I became more focused and I chose a more focused area that is relevant to my work, which is Photorealism Painting which I find very inspiring and impressive. All my paintings are based on photos that I either take by myself or collect from the internet. I believe that artworks must consist of the essential element of aesthetics, which is reflected by the natural environment around us, weather it exists naturally in nature or on man-made objects.
My research was quite an enjoyable experience and extremely enlightening for my art, however a stressful one!! It took me two months to complete researching and almost 10 days to do the citing and bibliography. I hope that I was able to generate a successful cohesive argument that is knowledgeable and informative.
I have been gathering information about my research paper topic which is the importance of the artist’s intent in his/her artwork.
So far I collected 11 posts and read through while high-lighting the essential and relevant points. I saved the research as a PDF document which you can find here: reserch paper content
Last Monday’s chat was facilitated by Edward Kelly, the Associate Lecturer on the course. The chat session was an introduction about using code to create art and processing. I must say that I had no idea what processing is and never experienced it before, however, I found out that when I fist enrolled in the course I was introduced to many videos created using processing. I would love to learn how it’s done, although it is obviously very time consuming. I started with the beginners tutorial and learned some primary steps. I also used the examples to create simple drawings. I hope to develop my knowledge further in this field.
I found this article about ugliness from an artistic side of rusted and busted walls and doors in Tomar while I was looking for old rusted doors and walls. I found the article very interesting and relevant for my current work and explorations, I also fine the pictures extremely beautiful containing a high aesthetic value. this motivated me to start exploring real materials from nature, like rusted iron boards or rods and old rotten rocks and study them further.
I find the way the door became rusted and scratched deeply over time visually appealing, the contrast level between the tones and the mystery hidden behind the doors, all this complexity of the content is pleasing to my eye.
I took these pictures of objects I have at home, I took a close up photo to show the natural effect on each.
Rusty metallic cover of the barbeque old copper jar rock wood Mehbaj
goat hide drum An old crock
Image of two Gaza children killed in Israeli strike wins World Press Photo prize
Personal feedback on some of the comments
techniques, such as HDR, are now to be allowed in photojournalism competitions…I believe that eventually with more digital software options photographs will be manipulated with all means of human and digital creativity and will be accepted and praised.
novelty of the technique, in the context of photojournalism, detracts from the ‘message’
I think.
unworldly quality, but then I’m not sure making it ‘artistic’ (if that’s the word) necessarily makes it questionable. Agree
for photojournalism. is this considered an art piece or a photojournalist image??
All these comments arouse the same question… it photography considered a form of art??
I personally see this photo as a form of art, digitally manipulated in the way the artist finds appropriate, depicting a tragic moment that is taking place in Gaza. Technical issues shouldn’t be the focal point, however may be added as a further analytical aspects in regards to art criticism.
Artists’ Influence:
I am interested in these artists’ works of art; there work is such an inspiration!!!
– Khaled Shahin
I like the colours that the artist use in his paintings in terms of vibrancy and saturation, and the hard edges make the writing stand out very well. I also think that the composition of the painting is very strong.
– Victor Wang
I love the technique that the artists use, I find it extremely superior! The application of different values and the contrast level is just perfect. I also admire the depth attained in the painting through the rough texture that gives the form an authentic look as if they are sculptures.
– Ismael Shammout
I love the detailed work in Shammout’s artworks. The painting is like a novel, it tells a long story, there’s a lot going on in some of his painting, and the stability of the colour values gives it a sense of serenity although there’s a lot going on. His paintings are definitely of an expressionist nature, and some has this dramatic effects that I find very appealing.
– Leonid Afremov’s work is absolutely unique and brilliant.
I like the high contrast level and the vibrancy of the colours and values. I also like the dramatic experience in most of Afremov’s artworks.
Gregory Thielker:
I was impressed when I firsts saw Thielkers inspirational paintings, as a photorealist or hyperrealist, his works enlighten my path for a more focused and confident artistic approach. All my artworks are aided by photographs which are my inspirational tool of the natural environment around me.
Ala'a B. 