Final Piece

I have deiced for my final piece that I want to create a skirt that involves fur. I have added various initial illustrations and samples to show the kind of skirt i would like to create. I have also made 9 A3 size samples with various techniques which i will use in my skirt. I am planning to have a skirt with different panels so there will be a range of techniques.

Dennis Basso

My final designer who I would like to use in my final piece is Dennis Basso. He is a American Designer who used fur to create his pices. He has many designs and i am particullary attracted to his skirts which I may involve in my final piece.

Back To Shepard Fairey

I have added more pages to my sketch book. I have added in another Artist who I was originally going to use before I changed my mind on the Direction of my sketch book. It is Shepard Fairey and I have included him because his Obama art has messages like 'Help' and 'Progress'. I have tried to link this to protest and have primary images to link also.

Samples

I have made 6 A3 samples using a range of techniques. I have followed a theme throught my samples and made them all American flags. The techniques I used where

• Applique
• Weaving, one weaved through chicken wire.
• Tie Dye
• Burning
• Soldjering Iron
• Layering Material then tearing down the middle.

Katherine Hamnett

The designer I looked at was Katherine Hamnett. She was one of the first designers to produce protest message T-Shirts so she is very relavent to my project. I recieved both secondary and primary images, retrieving my primary images from a top I own which is a similar style to hamentts and got one of my firends to model it for my portfolio. I also made a page full off keywords which i sowed into my sketch book.

Human Rights

After looking at Protest i thought about things that people may protest for. The main thing I thought of was Human rights. I looked at in how America especially Black people were dined the same rights as White people and the segrigation they went through. This lead me to look at 'The KKK' a group of people who acted in extremist way towards black people.

Protest

The next few pages in my sketchbook I have looked at protest. I made a page of keywords that I think of when i say protest. The words I thought of were Goverment, Strike, March, Boards, Anti war and pacifist.

Also I went to an actual protest in which I retrieved images and I have added in small images of the people and signs there. This has helped boost up the amount of primary images.

This lead me to look at my first Artist Brain D Morgan. He looks at american soliders and I think his work really represents my sketchbook well. I then tried to reproduce his art by using a model and american flag on her. I then put the protest words in the back ground like Morgan did in his image.

Viet Namn

After looking through my time line I decied to use vietnam as an event to look at in further detail. I talked about how Americans though that the soliders stayed in viet nam for too long and how they came to disagree with the war. This lead me to think about incorparating protest in my work, since a lot of 'Hippys' protested against it.

Insperation & History

In the first two pages of my 'new' sketchbook I have looked at what inspired me to choose look at America and American History.

On my insperation page it is still the same as I wrote about earlier in the blog, Marina and The Dimonds and her music video Hollywood. I talked about how her vintage clothing and props in her video really intrested me and that I would like to achieve something similar to this in my final pieces.

On The American History page I found a time line of the internet and I then went throught and added the dates and events that I thought were the most important and relevent to my project. These were

• 1492 - Columbous founds USA
• 1793 - First Textile mill opened in US.
• 1876 - Telephone invented
• 1914-1918 - WW1
• 1920 - Women given right to vote
• 1929 - Wall street crash
• 1941 - Pearl Harbour
• 1942 - D-Day
• 1954-1973 - Vietnam

I chose to use a timeline becuase i could then pick events which i could take further on in my portfilio and devolp and minipulate them.

New Portfolio

Since in this unit it is a personal specification you have to feel pasionate and intrested in the work your doing and my sketchbook so far has not intressted me. So I have changed my layout and started from fresh. I have looked at the bright blues, reds and whites of the American flag and used these as my background, using different media in these colours to give my portfolio more texture. I feel that with this change of layout and style it has got me intrested in the topic again and has gave me passion to start to look at new areas for my sketch book.

New Layout

I have decied to use a new layout because the one I was using didnt portray my sketchbook the way i wanted it to.

50's

After looking at Andy Warhol I have moved my sketch book on to look at the fashion of the 50's. I have found some images in Nylon magazine of a 50's inspired photo shoot which I am going to put into my sketch book as secondary research. I have also got some 50's style clothes and garments actually from the 50's to have a photo shoot of my own. I will then develop these primary images and make them into Andy WaWarhol style images the put them in my sketch book. This will help me to find designers from the 50's and help me go down a more fashion orientated route.

New Artist

After looking at Shepard Fairey in depth I decied that I dont think he is as suited to my project as I want, although his art does relate to America I think that it doesnt allow me to go down as many roots as another artist. So the other artist i have choose is Andy Warhol because I can rlate him to America since i can go down the root of pop art then relate that to the 50's then look at 50's fashion since fashion is the root i would like to end up focusing on. I can also make my primary images from taking pictures of people in 50's clothes then editing them into a pop art print. I could also use mono printing to make some samples.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary artist who I choose to look at mainly for the Barack Obama poster 'Hope & Progress' that he produced. I also feel he fits into my work because of his contemary style which will allow me to look at some other also contemporary artists and designers.

Shepard Fairey has not only produced the Barack Obama poster but also many other famous pieces of Art. One of these being the 'Andre the Giant' which was a piece that he produced at the start of his career. I will look at all his art in my sketch to show his wide range.

Summer

Over summer I have did various things for my project. Firstly I retrieved primary images from my holiday. I took them from different places in America and I plan to look at certian images and see how this portrays America. For example I have photos from San Francisco of tall, industrial buildings which shows the city side of America, then I have photos from California showing beaches and sea which shows the laid back lifestyle of the country. I also have collected a series of both second and first hand images of things that realted to America. I have retrieved my primay images from a festival I went to were Marina and the Dimonds played, and she is on of my insperations. My secondry images are from magazines and the internet, and I intend to use these images to create a mood page in my second sketch book. The artist I am going to focus on at the moment is Shepard Faire, who i mentined in my statment of intent.

Inspiration

One of the main insperations for my Unit 3 was the fact im going to America for a summer Holiday. Then I started to research into America and found a music video by 'Marina and the Diamonds' called 'Hollywood'. In the video there are people dressed in cheerleading outfits and there are American flags hung all over. This lead me to wanting to recreate this scene as a starting point for my primary research and images.

Statement Of Intent

In unit 3 I am going to study America. I want to look specifically at vintage and retro America, looking at flags, cheerleaders, football players, American eagle and things associated with USA. I received my inspiration from the music video ‘Hollywood’ by Marina and The Diamonds since it has people dressed in flags the theme of the video is all red , white and blue. A brand I would like to look at is Levi’s. There old American history I think I could look at and see how they have developed to fit modern day USA. I also would like to look at Las Vegas and look at the glitz and the glamour. When looking at Vegas I could receive primary images form when I go in summer and get photos of the main strip and the hotels/casino’s. I intent to receive the rest of my primary images by taking lots of photos of landmarks when I go on holiday in the summer to USA. Also I may purchase cheerleading costumes from thrift shops since I have seen then before and I think in my project I could include a photo shoot of someone with the outfit on and set up American flags and make it very patriotic to reflect my original inspiration of the ‘Hollywood’ music video. I also would like to look at the music of America and the artists like Elvis, the Rat Pack ECT. I would then look at modern day artist and people who reflect the rat pack and how they have changed as time has when. Also I would like to look at old fashioned films like Calamity Jane and Blazing Saddles and look at clothes worn and the fashions of that time. I could also look at the ‘American Dream’ and how that has developed over the years. The American dream was once that they are based around money and being successful, then looking to see if people still believe that by being in America this dream is successful. I could then look at the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and his poem ‘Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful people in Mercedes’. This poem looks at the segregation of black and white and if the American dream is achievable for everyone or just for the most privileged. Also it questions whether it is achievable nowadays or whether for most people it is only a pipe dream. This could lead me on to look at the new president Obama and whether he is inspiring a change in USA. I could then look at American history and past presidents and see the difference in Obama. I could then look at Shephard Fairey since he produces several different pieces of art with the images of Obama, Hope and has put it into a pop art fashion. Also, another idea I had was to have 50/52 pages in my sketch book, one to represent each state and naming the page that particular state. These are initial ideas I have for my Unit 3 and will most defiantly alter as I progress through the unit.