#photos used are by katrien de blauwer !

[violints]

i   know   what   i   am   .       i   don’t   care   about   the   terror   of   myself   .

[shortvisualstories]

Katrien de Blauwer’s ‘Painted Scenes’ – “Using pictures and photos from old magazines and papers she gives them a new narration that combines intimacy and anonymity. Her works resemble the procedures of photomontage or film editing, where the cut serves as a frame that marks the essential. The collage effects a kind of universalisation, emphasizing the impossibility to identify with a single individual, yet allowing to recognize oneself in the story. Her work deals therefore with memory. Memory by accumulation rather than by substraction.”

Source – artist profile.

[faraday-my-place]

Reasurch:

Katrien De Blauwer an artist from Belgaian, stands by the centiment that art can be used to heal. It is one that Katrien De Blauwer truly blew in as she describes her artwork as a tool she uses that invertedly tells her about herself.

“The images I make confront me with what is playing in the back of my head; I see a lot of recurring themes and they act as a mirror of my soul” this statement from the artist proves her conviction.

Blauwer started out as simply collecting and recycling images as a means of personal therapy, Which as we know grew into her signature style and her current profession as a collage artist.

She describes herself as acting as an intermediary-She understands she is not the creator of the photos, but only the owner of the compositional ideas that buzz around in her head. re-purposesing the images to be shared and pondered with others.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Analysing artwork:

Blauwers works are infamously known for their subtle erotic imagery and sexual nature. Her chosen photos being male and female subjectsin in nothing but their lingerie or of suggestive snapshots of skin.

Which in composition, these intimate images are disturbed and disrupted by unrelated works and large blocks of colour. Slicing away at the viewers ‘distractions’, making it more than just about the measure of exposed skin.

Tho unsaid the narrative seems pointed in the artists own intimacy i.e. her sexual preferences which become reflected in her artwork, such as body types.

Anonymity is a central theme within her collages as the subjects faces are always concieled, dareriving from the secrecy between strangers on one night stands, in the common sentiment that pleasure is a private, intimate, matter between partners.

These large photographs Are not intricately cut to fit one another they are simply positioned on top of each other in a more direct manner.

Her works are spicy in nature, however the grey pictures of clipped body parts leaves the viewer with a sense of sadness (especially this blue toned one as its a cold colour) once they look past the shocking sights. It’s Simultaneously sorrowful, beautiful and mysterious.

[nelllamb0920]

Evaluation

Linda Zacks 

Zack’s work has influenced my digital outcomes throughout the project. The elements I have take most influence from in her work is the strong colour palette and the use of multiple typefaces. How the colour links between out work is the heavy saturation of the garish colours such as pinks and yellows. Having the bright colours helps my work have a chaotic appearance on first place drawing your attention in. However in contrast to Zack’s use of block violent colours I incorporate pattern as to add the illusion of texture to a digital print. A similarity with colour is the choice of colour, Linda Zacks uses colours emotionally associated with happiness and fun, this in turn makes her work seem positive. To increase my link to her I also used the same or very similar colours with the same warm tones. Typeface is a smaller link to this artist as she uses loads of fonts to build up contrast in her work, however I only use two too three different fonts not to overwhelm the postcard.

Bridget Riley

Similar to my link with Zacks the most inspiration I got from Riley was her use of pattern. Rileys work is all centred around optical art, pattern and shape; my use of pattern on my postcards isn’t optical but taking inspiration form Rileys use of shape and how direction can effect the whole composition has a feature within my work. Repeating shapes but altering the sense of direction can create more of an illusion as seen in Rileys work, however my use of pattern whilst taking ideas from Rileys designs allowed me to incorporate her strong use of shape, especially curved shapes to create a patterned effect. I made my pattern more subtle as I was using stronger colour as inspired by Zacks but keeping the concept of curved shapes to make up a base for me too add text and layer shape as if it was a traditional collage.

Katrien De Blauwer 

The final artist I was heavily inspired by is De Blauwer. This collage artist works with found images and deconstructs them to pair with another image to create a new image with a distorted meaning and composition. She influenced my work in for my experimental drawing lessons that was then carried through to my digital work on Tuesdays. Her concept of only using two images to create a collage allows you to create a cleaner simpler collage without it looking unfinished, due to her method of piecing them together to fit to create a whole image instead of loads of smaller fragments. I used this idea on a postcard taking two finaliser studies from a Thursdays lesson and piecing them together to create a whole composition that wasn’t distorted but complimented each design. This helped me balance out my postcards as I used strong pattern and colour adding loads of smaller individual collage would overwhelm the composition.

Concepts 

The main concept of creating my postcards was to create postcards that would appeal yo people, draw their attention in. Contrasting fine art graphics you can look at the consumer side to your work as graphics revolves around advertising and communication you have to think of what would you as an audience or customer grab your attention. For me strong colour is a feature that grabs and focuses your attention, as my designs are chaotic to degree to read the text you need to look further in and by pulling you in with the colours and patterns I personally would be more inclined to read the text .

Techniques 

The biggest new process I have leant is photoshop and making and altering my work digitally. Using a familiar method of collaging using magazines, old photos and newspapers then bringing that into to photoshop to later and distort but also expand it allows you to create new designs that you wouldn’t achieve traditionally. Throughout the rotation I became more confident using photoshop as I have used it before on my a level photography course, however that as just for altering photos not digitally manipulating work to create a whole new composition. The feature I enjoy most about photoshop is how you can add and take away but also how you can manipulate anything within your composition individually without setting it in stone, this allows you to be able to play around with colour more and experiment without worry.

Thursdays experimental drawing

The most important thing I have leant during Thursday’s lessons how to layer and add to a collage using different materials other than just pictures. Incorporating methods such as sewing and layering tracing paper allow you to bring a new texture and completely alter the appearance of your outcome. I have become more confident in collaging and adding too them in ways I wouldn’t before, these methods allowed me too feel as if I expanded on my work more I could enjoy the process and outcome more knowing I have kept adding and experimenting.

My most successful outcome 

My most successful outcome would personally be my first postcard based around pigs, this is due to me liking the collages I created in the Mondays lesson and being able to bring elements from each of them together and it working well. This is successful as I stuck to a colour palette of pink and monochromatic throughout all collages, I chose this colour them as to compliment the quotation focused around pigs. Having repeated images of pugs help keep the postcard feeling consistent and heavily themed. Not only using magazine cut outs I used ink in some areas of my collage giving the illusion on the post card of different texture. I also enjoyed adding and experimenting with typeface and colour within my text. In terms of work I’ve done on photoshop this postcard is my favourite because I allowed myself to play around with new tools in the program.

Words to describe my work 

Bright 

Chaotic

Lively 

Fun

Inviting

Vibrant 

Saturated

Crazy 

[harveyman-wsc42]

Katrien De Blauwer

Katrien de Blauwer was born in the small town called Ronse in Belgium. being someone with a troubling up brining she moved to Ghent (a city in northwest Belgium) at a young age to study painting. Later on she studied fashion at the Royal Academy in Antwerp which she would then leave. It was at that time she made her first collage books, actually studies and moodbooks for fashion collections. At a later age she began collecting, cutting and recycling images as therapeutic self investigation.

Katrien De Blauwer calls herself a "photographer without a camera". She collects and recycles pictures and photos from old magazines and papers.

From my point of view and from looking at her work I've found it fascinating. Such simple collages which just work so well together even though you might not think it. Its deceptively simple. Katrien De Blauwer’s work reminds me of the saying “less is more” which shouldn't make sense but it does. Her composition skills make her work very attractive to look at. from looking at her work its evident that her personal history becomes the history of everyone. The collages being easy to digest and with its descriptive elements makes her work, in a sense, relatable. The neutral nature combined with her own descriptive elements are what makes her work so good. 

A motif which is noticed in her work is her use of black and white imagery giving it a simple and easy going tone as well as a nostalgic atmosphere and then her use of colour which is noticeable but smooth. Sometimes the textures vary. 

What makes her work pop is the geometric element, with the collages and images she chooses they are almost all rectangular or square but varying in size, another aspect which adds to her “deceptively simple” style.

[daisymyplace]

John Stezaker

This makes the images feel quite unnerving or unsettling, as if they were characters from a fever dream.

I can tell that these creations are highly thought out, as the two pictures put together, although they are two completely different people, they line up perfectly, but look as though they were designed by Pablo Picasso due to the disproportionate people portrayed in them.

Much like Katrien de Blauwer, Stezaker uses two vintage photos and lines them up to create almost like a fragmented memories. These pictures almost feel dreamlike as in a dream, you can’t make out peoples faces, but you can remember pieces of them when you wake up and remember them.

[drawinginwater]

Katrien De Blauwer

Katrien De Blauwer calls herself a "photographer without a camera". She collects and recycles pictures and photos from old magazines and papers.

her work gives a new life a new menacing from deconstructing and  reassembling something a new narrative, she often worked with very feminist outcomes and styles often depicting figurative  styles. she takes a very minimalist approach making her work simple but effective drawing enough attention to the areas that need to be seen. All her work is based upon the feminist art movement and figurative art to which she intertwines within her work.

Her colour schemes seem to be kept rather neutral & plain, mainly showing black and white colours or a few muted hues of greens and pinks making sure the minimalist approach is still there. some of her work can look quite surreal and unique as you can interpret them all so differently see different narrative's and stories behind each one   

Taking the one with the cloud for head, it could have a meaning of ‘head in the clouds’ like day dreaming and thinking outside the box. you could also interpret to be that the persons head is clouded they cant think properly their thoughts are muffled and gone. the meanings and messages behind all the pieces is really up to interpretation of the viewer what they think is what they will see.

her composition is simple never using more than 3 pieces if college she will stick down and rearrange them until she has exactly what she is looking for some are really provocative and make you think and wonder why she did that others are simple and nice give off a nice feeling about it. The scratchy-ness of some of the photos gives it a timeless feel and almost vintage feel too. I took inspiration from her work when creating my own collages i wanted a vintage feel on some of the photos too, so i photocopied some of them and created my own minimalist collages based of her work.

[gabrielleavancini]

“Katrien de Blauwer calls herself a “photographer” without a camera. She collects and recycles pictures and photos from old magazines and papers. Her work is, at the same time, intimate, directly corresponding with our unconscious, and anonymous thanks to the use of found images and body parts that have been cut away. The artist becomes a neutral intermediary: without being the author of the photographs, she appropriates and integrates them into her own interior world, a world she’s revealing in third person.”

While researching for more references I found Katrien de Blauwer’s work. It is very interesting particularly to my project the fact that she finds images and cut out body parts. It gave me good ideas in terms of what body parts I could photograph, positions I could arrange my model to stage for the shots and how I could photograph those body parts. I selected a lot of pieces of her work because they are all very helpful and inspiring.

The first photographs in this post are from “Blue Scenes” followed by “Dark Scenes“. I am going to add more of her collages that I found interested and that I am using as references in the following post.

[manipulatedimagecm]

Katrien de Blauwer

Katrien de Blauwer is an artist that uses old photos from magazines and recycles them to create new work. She describes her practice as photography without a camera. The concept behind her work is to create art that tells her history but still resonates personally with others. She achieves this by cutting away and hiding identifying features of people, leaving only body parts, “intimacy and anonymity”.

Fugue 33 (2017)

Couleur Pâle 21 (2014)

Couleur Pâle 20 (2015)

https://www.katriendeblauwer.com/about

[vickireayblog]

KATRIEN DE BLAUWER

The three pieces above are from Blauwer’s, “Dark Scenes” exhibition. Although the subject matter doesn’t necessarily relate to my project directly, I am inspired by the style of her work. Simple yet busy. I like the style in which the photo’s have been taken. Specifically not just a direct image of a man or women but instead from a different perception all together.  Then layered with the calming tone of brown to add a slight contrast, yet one that compliments the photo’s themselves.

I would like to try and incorporate a similar theme in my own work. Maybe using a different layering pattern or background colour, as well as adding newspaper pictures, clippings and headlines to relate to my topic itself. I definitely need to brainstorm this idea further, but it’s something I intend to work on.

“I like to think of my collages as small personal histories. A union of autobiography and impersonality where I become a neutral intermediary. Without being the author, I integrate them into my own interior word, a world I’m revealing in the third person”.

27/05/18

[rebekahbeasleylevelfive-blog]

K   A   T   R   I   E   N       D   E        B   L   A   U   W   E   R   

Katrien de Blauwer was born in the small provincial town of Ronse (Belgium). After a troubled childhood, She moved to Ghent at a young age to study painting. Later she attended the Royal Academy in Antwerp to study fashion. A study she abandoned. It was at that time she made her first collage books, actually studies and mood books for fashion collections. At a later age she began collecting, cutting and recycling images as therapeutic self investigation.

Katrien De Blauwer calls herself a "photographer without a camera". She collects and recycles pictures and photos from old magazines and papers. Her work is, at the same time, intimate, directly corresponding with our unconscious, and anonymous thanks to the use of found images and body parts that have been cut away. This way, her personal history becomes the history of everyone. The collage effects a kind of universalisation, emphasizing the impossibility to identify with a single individual, yet allowing to recognize oneself in the story. The artist becomes a neutral intermediary: without being the author of the photographs, she appropriates and integrates them into her own interior world, a world she’s revealing in third person.

Katrien De Blauwer gives new meaning and life to what is residual, saving images from destruction and including them in a new narration that combines intimacy and anonymity. Her work therefore deals with memory, basically. Memory by accumulation rather than by subtraction. Her work brings to mind the procedures of photomontage or film editing. The cut being used as a frame that marks the essential.

[nelllamb0920]

Katrien De Blauwer

Katrien De Blauwer calls herself a "photographer without a camera". She collects and recycles pictures and photos from old magazines and papers. Her work is, at the same time, intimate, directly corresponding with our unconscious, and anonymous thanks to the use of found images and body parts that have been cut away. This way, her personal history becomes the history of everyone. The collage effects a kind of universalisation, emphasizing the impossibility to identify with a single individual, yet allowing to recognize oneself in the story. The artist becomes a neutral intermediary: without being the author of the photographs, she appropriates and integrates them into her own interior world, a world she’s revealing in third person.

minimal 

open to interpretation

two images used

juxtaposition

placement 

narrative 

memories