Met Quater Competition

Sketchbook One and Two

Man Ray Presentation

Man Ray and his wheelbarrow

Man Ray's approach to art is very diverse. He has created many pieces of work in his lifetime and he is an extremely versatile artist. He has worked in areas such as painting, illustration, photography, sculpture, filmmaking and fashion. There is a continuous flow of images that he has composed throughout his life and all have been influenced by the Dada and surrealist movements.

Man Ray considered himself as a painter overall, but was most famous and successful in his photography. He created some of the most iconic photographs the 21st century. Man Ray was so successful because he used his own emotions and desires then expressed them in photography. He was apart of the new photographers, innovating new ways to use photography. They experimented with new processes and styles. His best discovery was the photogram, using objects, light-sensitive paper and no camera. This way of working was difficult to gauge in advance and the outcome were ambiguous.

Man Ray experimented all the time and another area of his work that was successful was his portrait pieces. He found portraits to be very profitable and started to dedicate more of his time towards it. This also gave him a positive reputation quickly. During this activity Man Ray got to network with painters, poets, sculptors and musicians of great distinction. He then created portraits of the brains and beauty of his time. This will be incorporated into my body of work. I want to photograph the wheelbarrow in interesting portraiture shapes and create a body of work.

The areas that have most influenced the visual thinking project are his photography and film making work. His photography has influenced the way I am going to create a surreal outburst during my film. His surreal approach to creating a new method of photography will be apparent in the film. Rayographs of the wheelbarrow will be shown during the film and resemble Man Rays approach to Surrealism and experimentation. The films that Man Ray has made are helping me to create a film with his influences. It will not have a significant narrative story, but will follow the wheelbarrow and look cinematic.

References: Man Ray by Roland Penrose, Photography, a concise history by Ian Jeffrey.

David Shrigley

David Shrigley is an artist who crosses between art and comics. As I research his work, I find myself liking it more. My favorite part about Shrigley is that he adapts to different types of design and illustration very easily. This is demonstrated well for example, in both his blur music video and a selection of his photographs.

I think that it is positive that he experiments in more areas than just illustration because I believe that this is an important element within today’s art and design market. I feel that his animation work is his most successful pieces and shows off his illustrations best. His pieces work well with music or amusing stories and the imperfect drawings come alive and fit into the modern day art world. I find that Shigleys' weakest area is sculpture; his simplistic style is not as appealing in this form. It seems more adolescent than his drawings and animations. His intelligence and wit does not come across as it does in the other areas.

I think that Shrigley illustrates in some of his drawings what people really think, and what we can relate to. In what I am and what I want, the illustration of a floppy disk and written on the label is my entire life. It is sometimes how people feel, their entire information and life on a disk, a computer or even a mobile phone, this is statement about the changing society towards digital media. Shrigleys' main talent is finding the niche at the right time. I feel he can illustrate a modern society and the opinions of people in a very simple way, so that if people can see past the basic style of drawing then they can find his work entertaining and realistic and therefore the simplicity of the drawings become irrelevant.

Shrigley has made people think different about what illustration is and that a drawing does not have to be lifelike and photographic, it can be expressive and just simply to express a thought and humor. This is why people are drawn to his work and is a major factor in his work that appeals to me.

Because of the nature of Shrigleys' work he has produced books and DVDs that are affordable to the general public. This may have furthered his success and more people aware of him that are not directly connected to the art world. By doing projects for the BBC collective and Blur which are mainstream medias it makes it accessible art, therefore people may not feel alienated, as they might by high end art.

Shrigley also appeals to me on a personal level because of his linear approach to drawing. Although I prefer my own illustrations to be slightly more detailed, the idea of black pen, white paper and linear drawings are similar to my own style. He will be a positive influence throughout my work.