Category: The multiple facets of personality
Making the Film Cont.
For an ending to the film i filmed myself wearing the proggy mask. I filmed myself sat still wearing it and also me moving my head about in it. I layered these two clips on top of each other, again playing with the opacity.
As much as i am pleased with the outcome of the film, as it was more of an after thought to the project it didn’t get as fully developed as it could have done if the idea to create it had come earlier in the project. Below is the film in it’s current finished form
Evaluation
Multiple Facets of Personality Evaluation
In the beginning of this project whilst creating the project proposal I feel that I had so many ideas of what I wanted to do and produce. I almost had it all pictured in my head of what I wanted it to be, not the specific imagery I wanted but the basic concept of the work. However, when it came down to it I really struggled with this project more so than usual. I started off doing a lot of research into different artists and areas to help me prepare for my work, something I often do very little of in previous projects as I often find it almost pointless as it doesn’t help me in my practice, this project was different and the research made me develop how and what I could produce. This project I felt more prepared and willing to look into things to find inspiration. Next came the actual making of the pieces. This is where I started to really struggle. I think that the main issue that I was faced with within this project was the fact that even though I have looked into my Anxiety and Depression in previous projects, this was my current ongoing mental state. So where I was normally looking into my past experiences this project was and is my current on going struggle. Over the summer I ended up retracting into myself a lot, having more panic attacks than I have in years, and even having a self harm relapse at one point. The feelings are still very raw and new to me, so I think what I struggled with most was the expressing of these, as I was in my shell throughout the most of the time period of this project. I needed to break free of that and just make work. But with the anxiety of what to make, what imagery would I use, how would it end up looking. The whole uncertainty of the project made me shut down a bit too much, where I hadn’t produced any physical work up until the final weeks of the project. This was hard on me to produce the amount of work, and experimentation of my ideas to life.
Once I finally got some basic ideas of what I could make, the project got a little easier, giving me a starting point of what to make, that could change and it wouldn’t matter. Coming up with the idea of the dress was small, but it was the start that sent me off in the correct direction to produce the depression piece, a piece that I feel ended up being a strong stand alone piece. I still feel that I didn’t explore myself to the extent I wanted to and had the intentions of doing at the very start of the project in the production of the proposal. I was just a bit to ambitious in to what my current mental state was able to handle. From the production of the Depression piece came a stand alone film, this was to show the repetitive catharsis the technique gives me. With the film piece and the photographs of the proggy mask I feel these ideas came a little too late in the project and I didn’t get the chance to fully explore the ideas behind them and quality and substance of them further. With all that said I am pleased with the outcome of the film and photograph pieces where they currently stand.
I feel that if I had more time to expand this project I would have been able to have come to terms with all my emotions, and come out of my self inflicted shell. This would have helped me to be able to create more pieces that would have explored more of the aspect of my personality. Much like what I had proposed in the beginning of the project. What I am going to take from this project into my next project is to not dwell too much on my ideas and what the final pieces will look like too early on, as producing more experimental work whether or not they end up working. This is better than barely producing any work at all. Another thing that I will take on from this project is the use of the proggy technique, as I feel it is one that I feel confident with the outcomes of, and I feel there is more experiments I could try with it. Perhaps not in the next project so that I can let loose more and become more experimental. That all said I think the next project also needs to be less personal, at least to the extent of my current feelings and mental health as it was very hard to get out of the self made rut I ended up getting myself into half way through the project. Most of my previous work still has that idea of exploration of self, but from a more unconnected standing point.
Literature Review
Grayson Perry Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl by Wendy Jones
This book is a biography of Grayson Perry’s life, focusing mainly on his journey to becoming the transvestite and artist he is today. Although it is written by Wendy Jones it is written in the first person perspective from Grayson Perry. Over the course of six years they put together interviews to produce the book. This book shares all the experiences within Perry’s life. It goes into detail about his parent’s divorce when he was only five years old, later leading to the abandonment by his father a few years later. To block out what was going on in his life he created an imaginary world with his teddy bear, Alan Measles. This teddy bear is still seen as an important object within Perry’s life and work. Grayson Perry lived in this imaginary world up until the age of fifteen. His mother soon remarried to the milkman she had cheated on his father with, this man had a bad temper and would often be abusive towards him and his mother. By the age of fifteen he had started to wear woman’s clothing while home alone, and even on occasion had left the house in them. Perry found a way to get back in touch with his father after eight years of not seeing him, his mother kicked him out of the house for this. He moved in with his dad and stepmother, he was kicked out of their house a few months later when they found him in his stepmothers clothing. During sixth form one of his teachers suggested he joined an art school, this sent Perry on his artistic journey. He joined a foundation course at Braintree college, then later moved onto studying at Portsmouth University. During his time at university he became more experimental with his transvestite alter ego ‘Claire’ gaining more confidence to wear make up and wigs. One artist Perry was inspired by was Henry Darger, who saw the world as too painful and used his art to create an alternative one. Perry related to his use of escapism as it was something he had done from a young age.
What I feel this book does is show how Perry grew not only personally but within his artwork. Showing us all the experiences from throughout his younger life and how they impacted him not only at the time but still today. You can often see small parallels within Perry’s works. What I have taken from this work is that the personal lives of an artist can effect their art; the style, the meanings, the media and more. Also from reading this book I feel like I have a greater appreciation of Perry’s artwork, that at times I didn’t fully understand. I also understand more of his eccentric personality with his alter ego, who often is in more childish over the top dresses. You can see how the bad things going on around him growing up effected him in a way that he used escapism similarly to Henry Darger.
Proggy Mask
Below are some of the images i took wearing the proggy mask, and the ‘anxiety’ mask. These images didn’t work out so well as the background was a bit too distracting in them. Also the ‘Anxiety’ mask was supposed to show how i struggle to talk in front of people, however because of it being only over the mouth it did end up looking more like a beard.
I retook the images on a plain background. These images worked a lot better, however as it was me taking the photos on my own, it was hard to get the framing right as i couldn’t see through the mask.
To take these photos further i decided to experiment on photoshop and layer multiple on top of each other to create a more blurred figure.
Making the film
I filmed myself creating a proggy mask (photos in next post) The full clip was around 20 minutes long. I sped up the timing so that it was around 5 minutes instead. i also removed the background noises. 
I also filmed myself from a second angle creating a half mask. again the clip was around 10 minutes so sped it up so that it too was around 5 minutes long. I also removed the background noise from this clip. 
Once i had the two clips at a similar length i then worked on the opacity of the top layer so that both clips were visible simultaneously.
I am happy with the outcome of the film so far however i feel it might need something else. I am going to try add in a clip at the end of me wearing the mask to see if thats what it needs. i also need to consider sound for the piece. does it need it? is it better with or without?
Depression Piece Cont.
To go with the bed sheet i wanted to make a brain and a heart using the proggy technique. Using a combination of red and black fleece fabric strips, this is to show the inner struggles. To start the pieces i did a relatively quick google search to find the correct size of a human heart and brain so that they would be proportionate.
From this i found basic images of each and traced them onto some paper, keeping the sizing into consideration.
I then cut the shapes out and flipped them over to trace onto the stretched hessian.
I then went around the edges of each piece with two rows of the red.
I then started to fill in inside of the shapes with black. for the heart i did solid black but for the brain i had it more scattered amongst the red to show bad thoughts that i have.
Once finished i sewed around the edges of each piece so that the hessian wouldn’t fray like it did when i attempted the strips of it. this was a difficult process as the thick proggied material got in the way of the needle. If i was to repeat this process i feel that i would stitch around the shape prior to doing the technique
Once the pieces were cut and stitched i turned them over to view them however they kind of lost their shape a bit as the material flopped over. I think they will still be recognisable once on the main piece.
Below is the final piece all put together. I feel that the shapes did end up working once in the correct position on the body. 
Making the Depression Piece
With this piece I wanted to show my own personal struggle with depression. As previously mentioned when in a state of depression i tend to struggle to get out of bed. I chose to use one of my actual bedsheets for the piece. i got my mam to draw around my body in a somewhat foetal position to mimic the dress piece. the bedsheets was put inside out and we used a marker pen to give me a basic outline to follow.
Due to the bedsheets being stronger fabric than the dress i was really struggling to do the technique as it was hard to get the fabric pulled tight enough. i tried using wood clips to hold it in place however this didn’t get in tight enough so the process was too hard.
next i tried to do thin strips of hessian that i could then stitch along the outline of me once i had done the proggy technique on it. However after doing only a couple of rows on the hessian started to pull apart.
Finally i got the idea to use an embroidery stretcher to pull the fabric tight. This worked a lot better, i continued to use the wood clips to keep the rest of the fabric with some tension. it wasn’t as easy as the dress but it was still doable.
The way i did it was to poke a hole using the large embroidery needle. Then using a knitting needle i made the hole a bit bigger and pushed the fabric through the hole. i repeated this for the entire outline.
Here is the backside of the bedsheets showing the working of the technique
And here is the correct side of the bedsheets. I left it as just an outline to show the feeling of emptiness that accompanies depression.
Making the Dress
For this piece i dug out one of my old dressed i used to wear pre-pregnancy. I also got my scan picture, i chose this as my imagery as it has less detail to work with so it wouldn’t matter that i would be using random strips of my sons baby clothes.
Using this frame that i found in a charity shop that is used in the creation of textile pieces i stretched the dress over it. The loom was perfect as i could resize it so that the dress was at the required tension
I transferred the scan picture onto the dress in reverse, so that when the dress it the right side out it wouldn’t the image wouldn’t be backwards.
Using a large embroidery needle and cut up strips of baby clothes, i pulled the fabric through the dress much like the regular proggy technique. This however took a lot more time than the regular technique would be on hessian. but it still worked all the same.
Once i had done the whole shape with the scraps of fabric i turned it back right side out. and it had lost its shape due to the floppiness of the fabric.
i reattached it to the frame and worked some red fleece around the outer edge of the piece. i added two rows of this to bring the shape in tighter together. once finished i tend it back the right way and the edge definitely helped bring the shape together
Callum Colvin
Callum Colvins works are unique in the fact that at first look they seem to just be regular paintings, however they are intact carefully constructed 3D sets that are painted in a way that when photographed from a certain perspective they show an illusion of a two dimensional image.
Colvin often uses old masters paintings as his illusions. Specifically in a series called Sacred and Profane. Pictured right is one of Colvins works from that series based on a piece by William Etty; The combat: Woman pleading for the vanquished. This series was commissioned by the National Gallery of Scotland. There are other artist inspired works within the series such as Titan, Rubes and Canova. Colvin is giving the viewer a new viewpoint for these masters paintings. Mixing modern contemporary art with historical works.
What i 
really enjoy about Colvins works is all the objects he choses to use within his ‘sets’ that are then hidden and disguised by the paint. so the more you study the pieces the more individual objects you stat to be able to make out. I also like that even though the paintings are often copied from existing paintings they still have Colvins own personal painting styles within them.
Maeve Dawson Art 