Website Continued

Still connecting a domain to my Wix site this failed the first time, so I have had another go just updating again the hostname and Ip address it takes another 48 hours to complete this again so hopefully this will work this time.

I then looked at my site on a mobile device and adjusted this to make sure this worked well - here is my site on the mobile.  My home page works and it is clear who I am and what I do. 

My about page reflects me as an artist and tells a story about who I am 

The portfolio contains digital work from this term and older work 

I am adding the stories and text to go with the work to give it context and introduction so that the  viewer can see what the work is about

Contact page which is visually interesting and easy to use and send a message

I still have quite a bit of work to do on this (not least ensuring that it is live) but it is starting to come together, it is consistent and the works will be for sale once it is live. 

Website Update

As my old website was about to expire I decided to redesign my own personal site and this is what it looks like so far:

This is the new homepage I thought I would continue with the doll theme for the moment with this image.  I am using a single image as there are many images within the portfolio.

 My updated About page I am using a similar biography I have just cleaned this up and added a new image.

 This is the page that gave me the most trouble the front page of my portfolio - I wanted it to link to my portfolio galleries however the images consistently were not showing up or were slow to show up.  Now it is linked through the button and the image so the viewer should be able to click anywhere to access. 

This is where I am selling the images when you click on buy now it takes you to the art store and you can buy these not just as prints but as T-Shirts, bags, and mugs etc. 

 This is my links to the writing I have done online. I wanted to keep this to show my work further.

Finally the Contact page - just a simple page where people can email me.


Overall I am happy with the changes here - there are still many tweaks that need completing, however, everything works as it should and now I am just waiting for my domain to connect to make this live and then I can start working on the SEO and metatags. I will also add social media links that are useful.

The End of The Army: A Funeral Pyre

I will begin by using this image of a funeral Pyre from a helpful blog posting on how to build Funeral Pyres by Jared Unzipped

Source: Jared Unzipped (2015) How to build a funeral pyre

I then used the curves tool just to brighten the image a little and then I started to selecut cut and paste parts of teh now naked army of dolls.  Although this des not look promising I will change this into the dismembered pyre that I am after.

I started to move the limbs and body parts around and I ended up with about 46 layers of parts so this is what it looked like in the end 

This is the layers and the selected parts being moved around and below is the final piece. 

I think this could be better and I could spend more time making this more real and to meld better with the landscape so I did try this also in Black and white 

I do think is looks better in Black and white and as a set I could try all of these in Black and white to see if this would be a better option.  Now this is the end of my army and my process and I will begin to consider my final pieces. 

Hans Bellmer: The Doll

'Hans Bellmer (1902-1975) is one of the most illustrious names in the field of erotic art and Surrealism' (Bellmer: 2005 Insert) Bellmer's creations are based on a girl between childhood and puberty, Bellmer physically creates these strange creatures and photographs them.  They are often dismembered or put together in a disturbing formation.

Source: The Tate, Hans Bellmer, The Doll

This doll above is described by The Tate:

'Bellmer completed a second doll sculpture in the autumn of 1935 and photographed it in different stages of dismemberment in over a hundred different scenarios, often shown wearing little white socks and the black patent leather shoes of young girls. The present photograph shows a version of the second Doll with no arms or legs, hanging from a tree. Her torso is actually a second pelvis placed back to front and upside-down on top of the central ball joint, which forms her stomach. The photograph is taken from below in a way that emphasises the doll’s breasts and genitals, while her face is partially obscured. Bellmer presents us with the aftermath of torture or abuse.' (Bottinelli G. 2004)

Here is another example: 

Source: Hans Bellmer, The Doll (1934-36) Wikiart Visual Encylopedia

Here the doll is missing limbs and has been deconstructed or unfinished so that she looks like she has decayed.  These creatures are perhaps showing a corrupted vision of a society, of woman but perhaps mostly the voyeuristic viewer.  these dolls were fetish objects, sexual and uncompromising and the viewer stares into this deranged vision.  I chose Bellmner as my next piece will deconstruct my army, my army has to be dismantled.



References
Bottinelli  G. (2004) The Tate, Hans Bellmer, The Doll [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bellmer-the-doll-t11781 (Accessed 11/08/19)


Bellmer H (2005) Translated from the Geman by Malcolm Green, Atlas Anti-Classic 14, Atlas Press, London.

Lichtenstein T (2001) Behind Closed Doors: The Art of Hans Bellmer, University of California Press, Berkley, Los Angeles, Calfornia.

A moment of quiet...

The dolls are taking a rest and their leader has stopped to enter a beautiful lake at sunset.  She hovers in the water and here is how she got there..

  I selected here again and added her to the image.  I then used the eraser tool to remove the bottom half of her body. 

  I copied her again and rotated her - I then used the opacity to make her more transparent as a reflection in the water.  I then wanted her to slightly blur as the tree to make the image consistent so I used the Filters in Photoshop and used the fragment to slightly distort the reflective image.

I was quite please with thsi result quite a gentle image and so I checked output and printed this on Semi Gloss oyster paper at A3 and then framed this image (I will show you this in class) ...

Checking output and how I willl add these for the final outcome is important as I want these to be high quality prints and high-quality images to show on my website.  More about my website next...

The Army at Stonehenge

The Army has arrived at Stonehenge home of The Druids (however Stonehenge does pre-date the Druids) The Druids are a secretive religious order who believe in the love of the land earth and wind and every year they celebrate the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge as this is a holy place of worship.  There are around 10,000 Druids practising today.  For more information on the Druids please see references below. 

My Army has come to Stonehenge to increase their power, they have come as a pilgrimage to the ancient stones as they believe that it will give them strength...

For this image I followed the same steps as the previous one at Avalon - I got the image from Pixabay so it is copyright free - This is the final image

I will begin to prepare my website and look at the galleries to ensure that my artworks can really be showcased. 


References

Visit Stonehenge (2019) Stonehenge and the Druids [Online] Available from: http://www.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/druid-order.htm (Accessed 10/08/19)

English Heritage (2019) History of Stonehenge [Online] Available from: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/history-and-stories/history/ (Accessed)

Beginning to Create: The Lake of Avalon

The Army of dolls are here and they have begun their journey at The Lake of Avalon.  The Lake of Avalon is a mythical place that is part of the story of King Arthur.  King Arthur's Excalibur sword was believed to be forged there and this is where King Arthur goes after being injured in battle to be healed with the magical waters of Avalon.

My Army of Dolls have started their journey here to collect the healing water ready for their forthcoming journey.

I began my journey with the dolls by finding a military uniform barbie doll that I could alter - this is her:

I then changed the colour of the uniform - I used the selection tool using the plus and minus controls to create as perfect selection as possible and then I used the adjustments to adjust the hue and saturation of the uniform like this:

I then needed to change her head so I simply cloned out this dolls head so she was essentially headless and then added my dolls head like this - again I used the selection tool and I copied and pasted this head and resized to fit here:

My Master army doll was now complete and now she needed a location so I found the Lake of Avalon and added her to the scene

Of course now she needed to be replicated so I duplicated her several times so that my army could get started.  I simply used the duplicate layer option her and then the transform controls to move the dolls into position.

As you can see my dolls had got to the island and some had remained at the shore - I look forward to seeing where they will end up next!

References 

Ancient Origins (10th March 2017) Avalon: A Real Island Obscured by Legend, or Just a Legendary Island? [Online] Available from:  https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/avalon-real-island-obscured-legend-or-just-legendary-island-007685 (Accessed 10/08/19)

Short Interlude: Creating a Doll Database

Although I am intending in this project to sell the artwork I create.  I am going to practice how to create a database of customers here and a database of Sales figures to demonstrate how these databases would work in conjunction with with website.

For practice I am going to sell 20 different types of dolls at different prices.  Also I need a database of my customers details so  I began by creating this customer database:

To create this I followed the following actions:

Open Excel
Open Blank Sheet
Start adding the titles in row two of what I would like to fill in in each column.
I then started to add the details for each column until my table was filled with the correct data.
As I wanted to be able to filter and add formulas to this and to contain this on my spreadsheet I made this into a table so I selected from a row one to 12 all of my data and clicked on table.  This created a table around this

I added a title and changed the colour by using the colour filter and I merged and centred the text using this on the top menu. 

I now had my customer database as above.  I could now investigate that database by applying a filter.  For instance I could find out how many of my customers lived in London so I would go to Filter in the top menu and then click on the arrow over the address column and then deselect all and just type in London and the excel sheet would only show me customers in London like this:

ADD LATER

I then created a sales database - it looks like this:

My sales database included the following information:

Product ID
Product
Quantity in Stock
Sales to Date
Current Sales
Price
Reorder Quantity

I completed the same process for this as my customer database however on this one I wanted the database to add up the totals and to complete a sum so that I could know how much stock to reorder.
I also again wanted to be able to filter this so her is an example of a filter - say I just want to know how many products were just £10 I can apply a filter like this:

I also on this chart added up the totals just by going to Autosum in the top left hand corner and completing sum and did this manually by creating a sum and using insert formula: =SUM(C3:C22)
To work out my reorder quantities I used the sum - =SUM(C3:C22-E3:E22) and this told me how many dolls I had left in stock or needed. 

I then also created pie charts so that I could then show this information in a more visual form to investors, employees etc. 

Although this database is fictional it does show how data can be organised for business purposes and how useful this would be to the business to ensure that things ran smoothly.  Obviously this does rely on human input however if this was attached to a website much of this would be automate as sales were made.

I am going to play about with this further and I will look at how to attach a database to my own site for future use!

Project Plan

As I have taken some time out this term my plan is a little more disjointed however certainly still a good one!  

Alice in Labyrinth Dolls

The Army of Dolls: Project Plan & Timescale

Week One

Develop ideas and research these ideas, try something out to see what could work as a project and could be completed in the timescale.

Week Two 

Research and complete a development piece of work on the doll and start to experiment with that work. 

Week Three & Four 

Away 

Week Five 

Complete project Sign off & Plan of work - clearly I am a little late with this!  However Now back on track

Week Six 

Research further into Hans Bellmer, The Chapmans, & Bernard Faucon 

Start to create the first piece of work 

Week Seven 

Process, keep creating and blogging work as creating it with technical aspects 

Week Eight

Reflect and review all work and start to finalise this work 

Week Nine

Create a gallery online on the website, update website and showcase final pieces with a good written introduction

An Army of Dolls: Project Sign Off

As I am just signing myself off I thought I would just write this post to clearly outline my intended outcomes for this project and the skills that I will be developing along the way...

An Army of Dolls

Working Title: Army of Dolls

Progression Route: Photography

Intended outcome:

To create at least Four final scenes for my army of dolls.  Using Photoshop to create the landscapes and scenarios and developing an aesthetic narrative for these art pieces.

Aim to create work that would be sold in a gallery

Final Pieces will be showcased on my own website. 

Intend to maximise my Photoshop skills and update skills that I have not used for some time. 

I'm Back! Jack & Dinos Chapman - Doll Obsession

Yes after my break I am back!  Technically I have been back a week however I have not yet had a moment to write this.  I discussed in my previous post-Jack and Dinos Chapman briefly so I wanted to go into more detail here - as my work is definitely going to be using the doll that I posted. 

Jack & Dinos Chapman by Rachel King (2018) Source: Blain Southern

Jack and Dinos Chapman use many dolls, dummies, models and mannequins in their work -these all create the disturbing nature of their work as these dolls all look so human yet are not human - why does a child love a doll because it is like a human companion it has eyes that look  back at you and although the flesh maybe plastic it represents us/you. This work below Forehead (1997)  is a disturbing idea of a woman with four heads and a play on the word 'forehead'  There is a humour to all of the Chapmans work. Kupper writes in his article on The Chapmans; 'The Chapman brothers create works that are artifacts of this existential catastrophe of our own making. But what people most misunderstand about the Chapman brothers is that their work is hilarious – a laugh riot, an obscene and brilliant joke. If you don’t laugh, you are missing the point all together.' (Kupper 2017)

Artist: Jake and Dinos Chapman (British) Title: Forehead , 1997 Medium: fibreglass, resin, pigment, wigs and training shoes

Looking at the work of The Chapmans is supposed to be challenging and what is clear that what they create is created out of our world which is chaotic, disturbing, and at times hateful, sickening and funny.  The Sum of All Evil encompasses all these ideas and by looking at this work there is a monumental quality to it and as I consider this in relation to my own work I do think my army of dolls now have more direction - there is much more I can achieve by using them - I like the repetition of them, their face over and over again in a landscape, maybe they can talk to God, or have a spiritual revelation or maybe it will be a digital breakdown - I can't wait to see how my army develops! Just as below the feet of God stand above the destruction and He is destroyed in this nightmare vision!

Holy war … detail from the Chapman brothers’ The Sum of All Evil – part of In The Realm of the Unmentionable at the Jerwood Gallery, Hastings. Photograph: Felix Clay

References

Kupper, Oliver Maxwell (30th January 2017) Autre, Brothers Grim:An Interview of Dinos Chapman on the power of Humour and Violence [Online] Available from: https://autre.love/interviewsmain/2017/1/30/brothers-grim-an-interview-of-dinos-chapman (Accessed 04/0819)

Jones. J (24th October 2014) The Guardian,Jake and Dinos Chapman review – a hilarious, horrifying orgy of darkness [Online] Available From;  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/24/jake-dinos-chapman-review-hastings-jerwood-gallery-realm-unmentionable (Accessed 04/08/19)