collaborationprojectblog

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April 24th 2020,

EVAULATION

There is more information on this collaboration when I tried to collaborate with the UHI History department, written on this blog.

This was a succseful collaboration not only was I able work with an actual working artist but i was able to gain valuabel information.

This, by far, has been the most relaxed and easy collaboration because I was working with the collaborator every day and continuously getting feedback and input, so the project was able to move along much quicker.

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19th April 2020,

This is what the metal looked like before and after the engraving:

This was a long process but the outcome is very satisfactory.

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11th April 2020,

Back in janurary I did an external collabnoration with artist Loz Atkinson when I was doing my placement with her.

This collaboration was a one week venture, she gifted me spare metal from the world war 2 engine she was working on which I cleaned and using a dremmel engraved floral patterns into.

During the week when we were in the studio Monday-Friday 12 noon -7pm I was working on these pieces cleaning with vinegar and engraving with a drummel.

The concept of doing floral patterns came about while we were talking about the war and how the women were doing their bit at home while the men were fighting. The feminine strokes to juxtapose the masculine war metal, whilst working simultaneously like the men and women did in the war.

During this is taught me how to clean the metal, use the dremmel, and come up with ideas of what to do on the metal pieces.

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11 Aptril 2020,

Evaluation:

This internal collaboration was a success due to it being finally complete however it was a failure because of how late it was done. I enjoyed working with Jessica and am greatful for her time and talent but I don’t wish to do this ever again. I do think in the future having a more concrete timeline and schedule to work with would be beneficial in the future I need to have a concrete timeline plan in place not a vague 2-3 week window.

Working with someone who is also studying like in my first collaboration with Kirsty I was able to use that experience to make sure to not overload on requests for artworks or progress updates. However, I do think I shouldve been a little more on the ball and requesting these updates regualrly, but given the current COVID-19 outbreak that was a far cry form being practical.

Yes, I enjoyed this collaboration and have very pleased with the outcome of the paintings; it has also sparked an interest to practice painting more often. However, I still do not want to collaborate ever again if I can help it.

The majority of pitfalls are due to my negligence and lack of self-discipline, not having a stricter schedule in place and having a time and day each week to check in with Jessica to see where we are. In the future, I will need to work on this more.

All in all this is my official internal collaboration but it is good to have the failed Histroy department one to look back on to help my self improvement.

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11th April 2020,

I have just recieved the final image from Jessica of her version of the fear of success in digital art format and posted all of our paintings on my instgram she is doing the same on her instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-1w_Rsg1Im/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rowanne (@natureofdisney) on Apr 11, 2020 at 5:10am PDT

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10th April 2020,

I haven’t heard much from Jessica in the past week, she has been focusing on her Graded Unit project which is understandable, and I’m sure that she is also worried and stressed from the current COVID-19-19 pandemic.

I am texting her today to ask if she’s been able to do the painting, and to send me the pic when she’s done so I can make a post on my instagram with all our pictures and a little text explaining what the project is and what each painting represents.

I am STILL against collaborations unless it is an exchange of knowledge or a more relaxed advice feedback giving environment. I like to be able to just do my project and get it done and not wait on someone else to do their part.

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4th April 2020,

my repsonse to Jessica’s painting:

These are done using acrilyc paint on paper, using a mix of paint brushes, cotton pads, and my fingers. This is my interpretation of the fear of failure.

We decided to do one more where we paint in a grey colour scheme and use a pop of the other perons colour here is my rendition of the fear of success using acrilyc paint and paint brushes on paper:

I am proposing that we post images of these paintings on our Instagram so we can show our works to a broader audience and our practice can get more coverage.

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29th March 2020,

Jessica and myself have been in corospondece via text and email, in the begining we finalised the theme and fears and shared contact information, blacked out for rpivacy and safety. She also has sent her first painting done digitally to visulise her take on the fear fo failure.

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29th March 2020,

In the past couple months there has been the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak causing personal stresses and worries with my own dad being high risk.

I have been slacking in telling Jessica what is happening because of this but in the past week we have been getting back on track, and the project is due to finish very soon.

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29th March 2020,

Internal Collaboration breif –

I will collaborate with a student, to create a collective series of paintings depicting a fear in a monochromatic colour scheme.

I have gotten in touch with lecturers Frank, Alessandra, and Karen to see if any of their students would be interested in this.

The collaboration would consist of myself and the student/s, discussing which fears we have and are interested in depicting. From this, we will choose one or two fears to paint we will be painting the same fears. The painting will be mainly abstract focusing on shape and colour, and the monochromatic colour scheme will reflect our artistic style so that mine will feature black.

As we are depicting the same fears, the driving source of individuality is showing our style. We will communicate with each other through emails as being from different classes and myself living in Aberdeen being in Inverness is difficult.

The first few emails will be to get to know each other’s style as well as which fears we’d like to depict. The entire collaboration will only take a couple of weeks, with the first few days getting to know each other and deciding the fear we wish to use then a week to get the paintings complete, all while keeping in touch with by emailing progress pictures and helping each other out with feedback if required. The final few days will be to send photographs of the final paintings to each other and discuss how we each depicted the fear. These paintings will then be used for our end of year shows and to expand our portfolios.

I will also come up with a series of questions for a questionnaire about peoples fears within the UHI and see if Student Support can help me send it out, this questionnaire will help me inform my practice more thoroughly with what fear is most common within the UHI and what are least common along with possibly finding out some unusual ones.

From this collaboration, both parties get to expand their portfolios and create art within an unusual theme.

Frank has contacted me there is a student from his second-year class that is interested in the collaboration: Jessica Talmer. I would like to get started on this collaboration with Jessica as soon as possible.

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29th jan 2020 - 19th Feb 2020 cont. (evaluation)

This collaboration didn’t work because I wasn’t quick and efficant enough to contact the history department, and therefore it is my fault that the collaboration didn’t go ahead and I am left scrambling to finish things off.

In the future I will need to act faster when putting together a collaboration to ensure its success. The next steps I am making is to find a new party to collaborate with taking what I’ve learned here to hopefully improve the outcome.

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29th jan 2020 - 19th Feb 2020 cont.

Because of not getting a response from the history department all I have is the finished engraved metal pieces, with the elegant line work and information that goes with them: they are from a WW2 Halifax Bomber that a farmer in York found on his land which he sold on EBay to Loz (Engine, landing strut, propeller) whilst on my placement Loz gifted these smaller parts to me as she doesn’t have any use for them and as we both have flamily connections to the RAF thought I could create art with them or just have them. The pattern is to signify the women keeping the country running while the men (the metal) were fighting for the country.

This type of work is my favourite, especially the dark metal parts.

If tomorrow or later today the history department still wants to do the collaboration or just get the information I have on the plane I will do that. It will still be an exchange of information. If they flat out refuse I will accept it because it was all very out of the blue and last minute. I am completely prepared to take any consequences that are MY fault from this collaborative experience.

I wish I knew form the beiginnnig that we could’ve used a student for the collaboration as I would’ve gone to Laura and asked if she’d like to do a collaboration of abstract mark making paint work focusing on use of colour and shape. At least then it’d be all completed and done and I’d be dealing with minimal stress.

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29th Jan 2020 - 19th Feb 2020,

I started this collaboration late due to being unclear on what to do for it, in terms of requirements and how to go about a collaboration.

Whilst being on my placement with artist Loz Atkinson she helped me figure out an exchange of information style collaboration with the history department. Because I can only post a maximum of 10 pictures per post this experience will be spread out over a few posts. Ranging from sketchbook pages, emails, and to the final product.

These pages outline what I wanted to do with this collaboration initially being a loan of WW2 trench art I created with some spare WW2 Halifax bomber plane parts Loz had from her engine she bought off eBay from a farmer in York who discovered the crashed plane on his property.

I have mentioned in my sketchbook my concerns with continuous miscommunication within the UHI but I am learning more and more how to be self sufficient and do things alone, which will help me a lot in the real world after completing the course. I don’t want to be spoon fed information and be told what to do exactly but some guidance or knowledge of who my lecturer is would be appreciated. Because of my late start I shot myself in the foot so to speak because everything had to be rushed, once again if I was more vocal in class and emails to lecturers I would’ve avoided all this.

Above are screenshots of my corospondance with the history department, whose email I got from Rachel and the course info team at UHI. In these emails I am proposing that we collaborate via an exhcnage on knowledge and a loan of the artworks. However, becuase the department is in Dingwall this isn’t suitable to go ahead.

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17th November 2019, possible departments to collaborate with

1. History department: Get correct information from them about Historical period to aid in creation if a piece that depicts story in a contemporary style.

2. Physiology department: To gain understanding of the human mind in certain situations that endure fear and have them aid in making of artwork.

3. Bio-science department: to get accurate information on the human body reaction to fear and then make work based off it.

4. Intro to counselling: get information on various techniques that people use to cope with fear use this to make art.

I have chosen to collaborate with the history department as it relates to my personal practice well, because I use hisotry to inform my art. Having a collaboration with the history department will hopefully improve my artworks.

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22nd October 2019, evaluation

Overall the project was a success, Kirsty and I got our final pieces finished as well as being able to work well together. The initial back and forth of sketches was a very good exercise as it helped me understand how to visualise each fear as well as come up with solutions to more obscure and complex fears such as Kirsty’s fear of disembodied hands.

Our relaying back and forth of information though sporadic on my part was very informative and encouraging as not once has either of us had and quips about the project.

The only main hiccup in this process was down to the general lack of communication within the UHI and through the respective lectures of this module. It is not Kirsty or her peers’ responsibility to remind Inverness of deadlines and dates or question when things don’t match up, nor is it the Inverness students responsibility to find out either.

At the beginning of this module I didn’t like the idea of collaborative work and working with another individual. Although I have been very lucky with getting paired up with a really nice person who I consider a friend now I still don’t see myself willingly doing collaborative work unless it’s mandatory like this project to pass a module for a degree.

This being said with all its ups and downs I can say in my eyes this project has been a success because both Kirsty and I have created images of the other persons fear and their solution.

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22nd October 2019, my final piece

My final piece is painted using watercolour paints taking Kirsty’s colour story of black and purple I blended to two together to create a dark mass on the A5 page. Then turning over the paper I used to bleed of the paint to my advantage and adding yellow to accentuate the expulsion of the dark.

The watercolour is very wishy washy and the adding of acrilic would’ve helped the colour payoff but I didn’t have any to hand nor could I afford to buy some.

Again the simplicity and minimalist look of image works well just as with Kirsty’s final piece.

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20th October 2019, beginning the final piece production

Kirsty has sent me her final piece idea for the project. We have agreed to do our pieces on A5 paper and have the fear on one side and the solution on the other.

Kirsty chose my fear of strangers and the solution of having a friend around.

The simplistic style is really striking allowing the audience to focus on the fear rather than the media.

I am going to use her fear of what could be in the dark coupled with the solution I came up with of light. Again using the same minimalist style.

I have been reluctant to keep in contact with Kirsty due to my own fear and insecurity of being behind schedule or not having my work be to the standard she is expecting. Yet after discussing things through this is not the case. I am realising that to effectively put together a collaborative piece of work there needs to be excessive communication. I also discovered that we both are in the same boat of stress and confusion.