I’ve had a look at Chuck Close.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close
Really like his stuff. He ticks SO many boxes. Love the photorealist work. It’s why I love the preRaphaelites. And I really like his squared portraits. They are SO like the squared pictures I did of the mountain in terms of structure. He is definitely someone’s work to keep in mind.
Beverly Semmes.
http://www.beverlysemmesstudio.com/images.html
I can appreciate this – but not really my cup of tea.
Alice Kettle – I’d already looked at her for my Case Study. But felt her work was rather too similar than mine in some respects, and needed to look at someone who was more of a challenge.
I REALLY like her work. Particularly the machine embroidery pieces and the looser stitched work. I also really like the pieces that interact with the ceramics.
David Grenier
http://www.davidgrenier.ca/david grenier.htm
There are some elements of his work I really like – such as the installation – because of the use of colour in this piece. I very much like putting colours next to one another – to see the interact and affect one another – and to create order and structure from them.
Caroline Broadhead
http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/artists_stories/single/61026
Couldn’t find a website for her. Mmmm not sure. I understand the sculptural quality of it though and like the ghostliness.
Cathy de Monchaux
Likewise I couldn’t find a website for her. Really not sure. I love the complexity and subtle textures and contrasts. But really don’t like the subject matters. The all seem very aggressive and combatative. While that has it’s place, it isn’t in my work.
I NEED to create pieces that are beautiful, ordered and calm. I need to create a calm that is often missing in my own life and head. The process (I realised when speaking to Jo K) is something that is also important. Furious felting and knitting appeases my aggression and chaos and allows me to leave the piece at the end of studio time calmer. Both processes are very medidative for me.
I was really interested in Angela’s suggestion that some of my pieces (the squares ones) make you feel like you are IN the landscape rather than looking at it. And I’d really like to explore that further as that is something I endeavour to show in my work. I want people to feel that they WANT to be there too.
Joseph Beuys made some work in felt in large scale (covering items etc. – a Christo of the textile world and product of WWII).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Beuys
And I’ve looked up a bit more about the material.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felt
But there isn’t much to say about felt. You can take the fleece from the sheep (I did this in Skye – picked up bits of fleece stuck in thistles, washed it and needle felted it into a coaster) and wash it, card it (when you brush it out so all the fibres lay in the same direction) and then either wet or dry felt it, by layering it up and either ‘washing’ it to make it stick (i.e. massaging the surface with soapy water to keep the hands slippy, but making the fibres stick together) or stab it with a barbed needle to make the fibres felt.
Moomin likes to felt herself. I am always picking matts out of her at this time of year. I have a prefect circular one this week. Her hair is long and very very soft – and I’ve often thought about felting with it, but it seems a bit macabre! There are many people that do this though with long haired pets. I might make this one into a brooch or something as a nice keepsake. But a whole jumper or piece made out of her hair (apart from it being grey and white only) just doesn’t seem right!
Amelia Wilson Art 