Christmas window displays

 The Fortnum and Mason window displays are gorgeous. They have been based on paintings from the national gallery. It's like they've taken the gallery to the streets and have made 3D paintings using models and objects. A must see for everyone!!

Little Bits of Everything

I visited the Gagosian gallery today to see the 'Pop Up' exhibition. I felt extremely happy when I walked into this exhibition.  I saw the works of Andy Warhol, Dexter Dalwood, Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Edward Rucha, Damian Hirst and many more. There were posters, catalogues, limited editions, artists'merchandise and, of, course art work. There were even a couple of handmade books which could come under the section of book arts. It was visually stimulating to see so many different styles of work under one roof. And to top it up, Dexter Dalwood, the artist himself, was there signing off copies of his new monologue.

Learn fom everyone
Follow no one
Watch for patterns
Work like hell

                 from the video 'Scott Mclouud on Comics'


                        

Really amazing work!!  http://kronikle.kidrobot.com/pencil-tip-micro-sculptures-by-dalton-ghetti/

http://www.logosdesigners.com/

http://welovetypography.com/

Typography

The film 'Helvetica' was really inspiring. As soon as I left the lecture theatre, I started guessing and evaluating all the typography I could see around me. It motivated me even further to invent my own typface, and I'm sure this dream will become a reality soon enough!

Crossroads 2

I had always liked fine art, and I thought that I would specialise in it. I came on this course, the foundation diploma in art and design, to enable me to still have a choice in other areas of art and design; in areas which I had yet not experienced firsthand.

I think that this decision of mine has been a good one. It has greatly helped me in making my choice. My first eight weeks of rotations involved a wide range of experiences, some good, some not so good. 3D / spatial was interesting. It included building models with different materials. However I could not see myself making a career out of it. Fashion and textiles was more playful. We experimented with different patterns. Yet, all this while I kept waiting for the fine art and visual communication rotations. Maybe fine art because it was in my comfort zone. I was familiar with it and I knew that I enjoyed painting and drawing. As for visual communications, I had done a summer course learning the basics of graphic designing, and I quite liked it. I was excited about being free in fine art, but it wasn’t what I expected it to be. I did indeed enjoy making my work, but something was missing.

 I realised that what I had been treating as ‘fine art’ all this while was in fact a very different view of the subject. I was mesmerized by the age of Rembrandt. I wanted to be able to paint like the great artists of the Renaissance. I, personally, enjoy painting realistic works. Fine Art now deals more with ‘out of the box’ sculptures or works of art as opposed to the quality of the painting itself.

I was disappointed. However, I grew to love visual communication in the two weeks I had to experiment with the various facets of the subject. I love everything about it – it incorporates all the aspects of art I enjoy – drawing, painting and designing. I also love the challenge of working against a deadline. Visual communication offers an artistic and creative avenue for the communication of ideas. The idea here is concrete. It has been offered to the artist by the client, and the artist has the task of converting this idea into something beautiful and creative!

As a part of the course, I read up on the works and lives of graphic designers and illustrators. I was particularly inspired by Alan Fletcher, Saul Bass, and Miles Donovan. Their works were visually stimulating, very colourful, and buzzing with life. The other designers which I liked included Nina Katchadourian and Dominic Wilcox. Their ideas were extremely clever. They sent out their messages in very different, yet simple ways, putting out their ideas to the public very creatively.

It has been a trying two months for me. But finally I have decided to pursue a career as a graphic designer. I am confident this is the best choice for me, and I cannot wait to get going!

Treasures from Budapest

I absolutely loved this exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art. It consisted of paintings, drawings and sculptures from the 15th century, right upto the 20th century. There were some beautiful works, incredibly detailed and each with a story behind it. The exhibition consisted of artists such as Rahael, Goya, Leornado da Vinci, and Rembrandt. There were over 200 works of art. I spent an entire evening there, but I still feel that I can go visit it again.

The Turner prize exhibition

 I enjoyed this exhibition, especially Dexter Dalwood's work. I liked his use of collages and the fact that he painted both realistically as well as abstact, for example, using flat colours. Susan Philps's audio installlations were also captivating.

Exposed

Is it really ok to invade someones privacy, to take graphic photos and pictures of war like scenes? What impact would it have on regular or even innocent citizens? To answer these questions (and because i like seeing exhibitions), I visited the famous Tate Modern's exhibition titled 'Exposed : Voyeurism, Surveillance & the Camera'. It was a huge collection, featuring various photographers : Weege,Nick Ut, Walker Evans and Bruce Naumen, to name a few. As soon as we entered, we saw photos of people in subways, all who were unaware that they were being photographed. Moving into the other rooms, the tate gives us a taste of a variety of topics such as celebrity and the public gaze, voyeurism and desire, winessing violence, and surveillance. It opened my eyes to the different ways and techniques of taking photographs- hiding cameras in places such as handbags and walking sticks. There was one photograher who had called up strangers and asked them to come to their home windows, in order for him to take their picture, there was another that had taken photos of the same thing at different times of the day, making a kind of visual diary. In answer to the questions mentioned above, I think that it is still a controversy; it does give us insight into an array of things, but the question is whether it is worth invading privacy and exposing secrets.

Fashion and textiles

Its quite unbelievable that three weeks have past already. Now we are in week two of fashion and textiles, and I am enjoying it. I liked moving on to 3D and the way it challenges me to think out of the box. I am looking forward to next week though - fine arts is more 'me' i think.