I first focused on my surroundings - after all I live in a historical building that was built in 1809 and sticks out like a sore thumb with being red bricked and all.
But I thought that wouldn't be enough to just produce a peace from. I wanted to give it a deeper meaning. So I thought to myself, I haven't always lived here. I went back to my original home, which has been used as a source of inspiration on many projects.
Built on an estate in the countryside. There was once a castle but it became decapitated and was blown up. Part's of it can be found all around the place. The only thing left standing is the foundations.
Ever since I was a child, I loved these windows, there beautifully crafted, honeycomb windows.
In this photo, you can't really see the door. It's a grand old looking thing - the key to it is an antique and the only key to the house.
There was one time we almost lost it, down the crack of the pavement to it but thankfully we fished it out or things could have gone sour fast!
So now that I'm looking to my past and my current flat, I thought I would break it down. For my new home, I focused on the roof which was rich in textures and colors.
Being such an old building, now the tenancy have to battle the conditions of the eroding building. You can see in the photo above the original squares and on the right, the protective layer, that is now need to stop the moisture from seeping through.
Behind this wall is a room and once you could peak through the window but now someone has covered it. When I saw in it last, it gave me the chills - the walls were painted a light blue and a child's drawings were scribbled across the wall. I know for a fact there are no children living in this building now but it's creepy to think a child used that room as a play house or could it have possibly been a room?
Who knows. This building has a lot of untold secrets but it has a lot of atmosphere.
I set to using a canvas and applied Gesso to prepare the surface.
I liked the idea of using mixed media, like so many other artists. So I started working on sewing the years of a tree. I got to the number eight, realizing that this was the number of years, I had been with my partner. Which is also another big change in my life, as last year we got engaged.
Once I had finished sewing, I cut around it and sewed a final circle to stop any fraying of the materials edges.
I then glued it to the canvas and glued strips of denim on the bottom, painting it with more Gesso.
After that I glued one final piece of material before starting to paint.
Using ink, I let it run down the canvas in all directions and then left to dry.
From this photograph, I know I've missed crucial documentation. Only from memory I remember how I added the brickwork and pipe.
The brickwork was built up using modeling paste and the pipe was a mix of glue and shredded pieces of paper.
Above is a photo of the final finished piece up on the studio wall.
I also walked around the studio and took photo's of the other student's work (but sadly no one, not even myself had put our names next to our work).
From the outside, this looks like a box, screen and tent but when you crawl in side - it's so much more!
From the inside this contraption, mirrors the image of student's walking by the lens and then it is transferred to the screen as you can see in the photo above.
There were so many other pieces but I forgot to photograph them all.
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