Dawn Dupree

Dawn Dupree – The Wilderness

Dawn Dupree is a contemporary textile artist based in London who is centred around the concept of urban living. Her work absorbs the gritty nature of city life, expressing it in a way that is both beautiful and jarring. Dupree has been making unique textile artworks for nearly 25 years, highlighting overlapping narratives that forces the viewer to deeply inspect the pieces for intrinsic meaning. The artist uses a significantly expansive variety of printing techniques for her wall hangings, from traditional photo-emulsion screening to actively engaging with the screen in hands-on interaction.

Dawn Dupree – Turbulence

Often, her work depicts abandoned urban environments, bringing a sense of beauty to these deserted scenes. These images call to mind their rich history; what happened here before people left? What will happen here one day? Another significant aspect of her work is dealing with death and decay of cities and how that relates to the human experience. Cities are uniquely able to examine the progressive nature of a human life cycle. In our urban centers, constant construction is juxtaposed against that of our deconstruction, and Dupree’s images supplant objects for human figures.

This very textural based artist and her work has ignited a great urge to have a big mash-up of dying. Her work is so beautiful and very abstract yet still evokes a great atmosphere. She specializes in Wallhangings and this is something I am thinking of creating withing this project.. Definitely an artist to remember!

Shannon Gowen

Shannon Gowen – Portals of Misconception

Shannon Gowen is an artist based out of Austin, Texas, who utilises textiles in her mixed-media installations. Gowen is a versatile artist, who is adept at design and photography in addition to her fine art endeavours.

Her site-specific installation “Portals of Misconception,” a collaboration with carpenterAldon Mines, challenges many concepts of what sculpture is, blending traditional barriers. The work forces the viewer to connect seemingly unrelated scenes, so that each experience is truly individual, and of course, each is not truly correct. “Portals” builds upon the human experience and shows how people’s individual conceptions of everything in life are skewed based upon their lives.

Shannon Gowen – Portals of Misconception (detail)

Her work often centres around the concept of the individual mind, with its truth and belonging. Her astoundingly intricate piece, “Memories of Calhoun County” does this especially well, with a farmhouse interior covered in the pages of books, an overturned bathtub, and an imprinted shadow of two figures sitting together. The work powerfully shows how memory is both intense and flawed, and that after long periods of time, memory is the only place that continues to hold truth.

I felt truly inspired by this piece of work and feel that it bounces of my ice theme pretty well. Although the subject matter is different I think the look can be translated. The geometric shapes remind me of my sketchbook drawing:

This piece of contemporary art will definitely be something to consider when producing my main exhibition piece.

Pinterest

So I've decided to create a Pinterest account to log down any inspirational imagery and techniques. So here is the link! 

https://www.pinterest.com/carlaheselwood/ice-textiles-project/

This should keep my project nice and organised!

Ice Photography

As mentioned in my previous post, I really felt it was necessary to produce my personally taken photographs based around ice..

Using my phone I took a series of photographs, These images were taken of ice formed withing the hoof imprints made by horses.

I took a series of macros images focusing on the textures created by the freezing of water. The image below depicts ice forming around grass. This particular image really captures my attention.

After taking pictures of the natural structure of ice I decided t break a few pieces and layer them above one another, the above picture is what I achieved through this method.

This photography session ispired me to continue in this direction. I felt that these images could be used later to be digitally manipulated and printed onto fabric to produce an icy set of scarfs.

The above print are what I was envisioning. II feel that something like this will work great as silk scarfs.

Water & Ice Module Two

An Icy Follow Up

So as a follow on from the first semester theme of elements I am continuing to explore the theme water and Ice. In the end of the previous semester I had decided to create a needle bonded piece of textile art based on watery landscapes. Here is what I produced:

I based these Items from the following moodboards that I created, Although the photography isn't owned by me the imagery provided me great inspiration:

The Idea was to create quite an atmospheric feel through my textile pieces. I wanted use quite typical colours within my pieces to symbolize the water and ice. By molding the purples and blues around the "ice balls" I felt it would add an extra dimension.

At the end of the module I had decided that I wanted to create a piece of textile art as my main piece with silk/polyester scarfs as my sale-able items. The pieces will be displayed as part of an exhibition. 

Taking from the previous module I new that It was key to do research and organise myself throughout the module and to really throw myself into drawing and painting first and foremost. As well as taking my own photographs.