For our first task we were asked to make a few collages/mood boards for our theme. We were given a few words to pick from and base our work on. I picked boundaries because it felt like a very personal and thought evoking word. It made me really think about what I wanted these series of artworks to convey, what emotions, what meanings and what is the main message behind them. I planned out a couple of different Ideas starting from female rage and the way that it is conveyed in modern day media. I also explored the fragile being that women are, we go through so many though battles and yet our bodies still stand untouched. I finally decided on my final vision for this project, I wanted to do something that was definitely pushing my boundaries as a person. I never had a great relationship with religion, and I wanted to show that you can’t force someone to submit to a religion they don’t believe in. I had many strong emotions behind this idea, and I felt like it could lead to amazing artworks. I wanted to fully let myself go and allow my mind and heart to decide on what my art should look like.
The first four sketches were based on the. Ideas that I had before deciding to focus on religion because I wanted to see if those ideas could come out with a better result. I made a few quick drawings briefly stating my ideas and adding some notes beside them but somehow, I always seemed drawn back towards to original idea of religion. Although as you look through my work I do take some snippets of each drawing and incorporate it to my final piece. I really enjoyed exploring the ideas and I felt like it was a worthwhile and beneficial task because it just showed me all the different routes I could have taken.
Then I started sketching up my final idea for my big painting. I first wanted to do a portrait, but I was advised against it and to try something different which was a difficult approach to me because I always loved drawing portraits and experimenting with the face, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone and pick and object instead. Whilst we were researching different books in the library, I came across a candle holder that had the resemblance of legs and it really enticed me because I wanted to show the nuns pushing boundaries and disobeying their “way of life” I knew that this object had to be my centrepiece of the painting. Another interesting fact about this candle holder is that it was made with materials, when combined, would release a highly toxic gas, and could easily kill. This really stood out to me because it made me think that if you combined a non-believer into a convent of nuns, the reaction will not be pleasant almost like its forbidden. So for my main idea I wanted to turn the moulded candle into legs that are sprouting out of the candle and that there would be different elements of drugs and other forbidden features in the painting.
For my sculpture piece I wanted to create something that was a modern representation of how nuns can rebel whilst still keeping the old school ways of the church. The church keeps repeating old lessons even though we are in the modern age which is so outdated and just not right. I could rant and tell you so many other reasons why I dislike the outdated lessons taught to nuns, but I would be sitting here writing this for hours. I wanted to create a newly converted nuns table and how she still does not want to change from her old ways and that it is just making her life worse. There was a book that I read that stated that some churches in the United States allowed the use of drugs to “communicate” with God and it was completely legal but when a patient with cancer was dying and requested marijuana to help soothe the pain they were told no. so I wanted to show that there definitely were drug aspects in the olden day practice of nunnery. I did make changes to make it look more colourful and sparkly so that it would seem like it’s as fun and enjoyable thing to and that it should be almost encouraged. The money is printed to a larger size so that I could play around with scale and show how properties of new nuns were taken away and the church had full control over them, this was something that I read in a book about nuns in the 19th century in Ireland. I wanted to convey how desperate this girl was to escape this “cult” and also how she discovered new paths through the torture she endured whilst devoting her life to a make-believe figure.
I did further research that was inspired by different ages of religious statutes and practices one of which was an artist called Damien hirst and he is known for some of his more controversial artworks which fit perfectly with my theme because religion is known to be quiet controversial topic and I felt like I definitely needed to be talked about more. I also included two of my artworks so that I could maybe incorporate them into the final piece. I am so happy with how everything turned out especially my final sculpture because it really was everything that I was expecting and I loved and enjoyed adding all the little details to the piece. I was absent on the day that we had created the collages but I had made one in my own time, it had references of the past ideas that I had and some new ones, mainly I just collaged some newspaper clippings and added my signature eyes to the piece to show that there was always someone or something watching you.
