Teaching myself to code.

I've been wanting to learn to code for a while, There are thousands of websites to help you out there. I will be starting an MA in September and they will be teaching me how to then, but I am a very impatient learner. I want to know everything now! I know a lot of tutors and mentors have found it hard to for me to slow down and listen, if I'm uninterested or find the lessons to slow I will go down my own path and to find out everything I can as soon as I can. As I get older I am starting to understand that patience is a virtue and I will slow down if I have to. I do however think coding is hugely important and being out side of education for another year, as I have been I figured whats the harm in catching up a little more the very basics.

I know a little coding already, thanks to such websites as Blogger, Tumblr and of course at the very beginning Myspace. This all uses the simplest HTML coding, I would like to build this skill. you can get many different types of langues for coding but the two I would really like to focus of in JavaScript and Python. There's a few really easy to understand websites like w3schools.com and some boring but good to know Youtube channels. This is where I learnt how to set up my raspberry pi computer. I don't know fully what I want to achieve from the coding I'm learning but I believe it is something everyone should learn in this modern age we live in.

So far I've learnt how to create alerts, titles, fonts sizes and buttons but the only place I can practice this is on a few websites but I haven't ventured outside of these little coding boxes yet. If someone has a easy, safe program I could download, please let me know.

In my final dissertation for my BA I questioned whether every day objects or everyday life could be considered sublime. The study defines the sublime in contemporary terms as a fundamentally transformational experience of order and disorder in which the stability of what we think we know is disrupted (Morley, 2010, p.12). Writer George Perec (b.France, 1936-1982) describes the everyday as “the banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the habitual” (1978, p.12). This ordinariness has potential for disruption when everyday objects are used in extraordinary ways, which creates these overwhelming feelings.

I wanted to understand how the art movement, Sublime, started and whether the human race is taking everyday life for granted. My conclusion in the art sense was that everyday objects, grouped together or arranged in a certain way would be in fact considered sublime. I choose this subject to help me with my personal practise in creating a modern day sublime. I want to recreate the thoughts and feelings I get when looking at such artist as what I have looked at in this essay. I enjoy working with and studying The Everyday as I like the idea of creating something sublime from something other people would normally dismiss.

In my first chapter I wrote about the everyday and how it can become extraordinary. In conclusion I have argued that using everyday objects in unusual conditions within the art gallery enables them to transcend banality and become something more. Further the fact that both artists exhibit large numbers of otherwise valueless, ordinary objects furthers this change of identity. In response to the works, which overwhelm the viewer, they experience awe, shock and surprise as the objects lose their function as both a useless, valueless pile of refuse in Song Dong’s case, chairs in Salcedo’s. Instead the everyday transcends into the realm of the sublime as the viewer struggles to comprehend and rationalize the objects. In this transcendence I have argued for a theory of the urban sublime, extraordinary, expansive displays of ordinarily singular and uninteresting objects make awesome and wonderful.

I was luckily enough to go see this exhibition in the Barbican, in London. The shear mass of the objects was mind blowing and even though their was a lot to read about the objects it still left you with more questions. For example, how was all the objects transported to London from China, how many actual objects were there and what will happen to the objects after their purpose has been for filled.

For my final major project I wanted to connect the 18^th century Sublime practised by such artists as John Martin and William Turner. In this time era only the rich could travel, the everyday individual may have only travelled to the next village to trade but didn't know about how huge the world was or what was beyond the horizon. When artists started painting these huge mountains, angry seas and exploding volcano’s, things the average person would have never even thought about it made the viewer understandably feel small, overwhelmed and in awe. It thought people the world they have been living in was far bigger and greater than what they once knew. This was also linked to the idea of God, how mighty he is and how small you are.

Now we can just Google a place and travel all over the world while sitting in one chair and moving our finger tips. I wanted to create a modern day sublime. As the original sublime was about the unknown I wanted to create the same fear and awe William Turner did in the 18^th century. I did this by connecting the viewer to how huge a wonderful the world wide web is. Most of us know how to use it and in that modern day we have to face it to communicate, world and create money to survive. We use it to learn, organise and even shop.

With this idea I wanted my viewer to realise the extent of their use of technology and the internet, the freedom it gives us but I also wanted them to question whether it was taking our human instincts away or even trapping us in a scientific, unevolving society today.

I created a few art pieces from this theory one, an installation where I collected everyday objects, painted them white and hung them on string to represent that the internet was connecting us like the string on tin cans used as phones but we was taking advantage of it and not seeing the full amazing technology behind it. The objects were to represent everyday life being lift behind the more me put ourselves on line and being in a virtual world.

Two, I created another installation piece were I created a geometric shape on the computer, the “perfect” shape with straight lines and accurate circles. I printed it off and framed it to give the computers version of “perfection” true meaning and a statues of excellence. I than I tried to recreate it in my own calligraphy using stick and ink and Japanese paintbrushes. I crumpled up my many recreations of the geometric shapes to make the viewer question whether the human version, being to pure with mistakes, is better or worse than the sublime but simple with no personality, computers version.

I do not currently have the image for this as my “perfect” computer has died and I can not as present retrieve anything that has been saved on it until I pay money to fix it.

Three, I created a computer game. In the game you start off in a room with four corridors you can explore, each corridor will take you back to where you started, one of the corridor has a locked door and one has a key that does not open the door. This is to represent the question, could we be stuck in technology? Stuck in the evolutionary stage and loosing our selves in gaming and social media.

The viewer is meant to get frustrated and confused by the game as its tricking them into thinking there’s a way out if they just keep paying the game but there is no way of completing the game and its a huge waste of time. I am in no way saying technology is a waste of time and I believe technology is now our way of evolving but some people might argue the way in which people choose to use it might be considered a waste it time.

With this I would like to continue the with the these theories and apply it to what I have learnt since graduation. I have become very political as a grow older with the media and what the average person understands of the world. The rich and the poor, the educated and the social net workers. I would like to create some illustrations from this but this is not my main priority. My main focus would be to understand technology more, maybe learn to code and create unbelievable things through technology. I have in the past made my own computer using a Raspberry Pi. It wasn’t very advanced but I can surf the internet on it. I'd like to go further with this and reach others with the amazing things I've discovered.  

Bibliography/Reference List

Georges Perec (1978) Life: A User's Manual, London: Vintage.

Simon Morley (2010) The Sublime, London & Massachusetts: MIT & Whitechapel Gallery.

The last Art in the Warehouse.

ITS OVER!

Milgis have stopped the art in the warehouse forever. It is sad times.

But I was asked to illustrate on their warehouse walls before we said goodbye for the final time. Many illustrators got involved. sadly I had a PGCE to study for so I couldn't spend all day on it. I did rush it a little bit but I think it came out well in the end. Better

small painting.

At the moment I'm working on a collection of painting to create an exhibition with. This is the 3 peice of work I have created for it. Its also the smallest but the longest to create. I will finish it by the end of next week!! 

Paw.

This is the scond painting I have complited. I'm not so pleased with this one, I fee like it coud have looked better without the paw but I created it for my sister who is a dog lover. The painting sybolises friendship and love for all creaters. 

I added gold dots on top of the painted background to add to my signature artist style, I think this really adds to my painting. before it was a little to plain. Not only is the background inspired by my patchwork but I also had the idea from an art peice my sister wanted to buy from a shop. I told her I could do better. Thankfully she thinks I achieved that. 

I really love the detail in this painting. Hands are particually hard to draw, that is why I insist on getting them right every time. No one can tell me what I can and cant draw! I will draw it! And it will look good!! 

or you'll never see it. 

painting inspired by patchwork.

I love this painting. I've developed a new style, blurring the lines of illustration and my new love, painting in geometric shapes. I'm still sticking to my dot work, realism illustrations of body parts but I thought it was time to move on from going no where with my drawings. 

The background is inspired by my patchwork, did you notice? 

I've never been a very strong painter. I've always given up before even trying new styles. As for now, I have found a style I love to work with. Its so simple but the amount of colour I use is really effective. 

I enjoyed creating this canvas, it had a religious inspiration behind it. Its inspired by the Virgin Mary, with my use of gold and the stain glass window effect I tried to do in the background. I'm really pleased with the out come. 

It is now sitting on my living room wall. 

I got better at patchwork.

I've just been looking through my blog after a very long time and I've realised how far I've gotten with my patchwork skill. So I thought I'd show them off a little. My first post about my patchwork was awful!

I've been working on this one for a while now, it takes a very long time but its great fun once you get going. God knows what I'm going to do with it when I finish or how big it will be. I'd love to make a big art peice with it, maybe add an illustration to it in fabric paint or stitching. we will see when the time comes. 

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