FMP - War For my final major project I decided on the theme of war, hoping to capture concepts and ideals through historical and modern warfare and display them through visual means. I will be looking at how war has evolved and certain relatable politics but my focus of the projects will remain on the themes that are most present throughout was historically such as violence, methods of destruction and the impact war has on human life. My methods of displaying these themes will be through developing my drawing and painting techniques and also incorporating paper manipulation as a means to create sculptural pieces that metaphorically represent the fragility of human life, I will manipulate paper through deconstructive purposes to show destruction and violence.

I completed a mind map to further my ideas and concepts for research. I thought about what wars I would pin point for research historically and what art pieces they inspired at the time. I also thought about looking at peace, revolution and religion as counter points for my theme and see how these could contrast visually. I also considered looking at the political side of wars and what art pieces are used as a response to these events.

Research – painters and drawers I chose a few visual artists to look at through my research. The work I want to create for this project will have a sculptural element but I want to incorporate a certain level of painting and drawing elements to further my skills and create a more visual response. The first artist I looked at was Danny O’Connor, as I found his process of visual communication chaotic and destructive, linking to my theme of destruction for this project. I completed a variety of visual responses to his work using painting and drawing.

Paper manipulation I started looking at ways to manipulate paper in a deconstructive manner. I started looking at an artist I found online who uses scrunched up paper to create textual pieces, I implemented this style into two layered samples that I created by scrunching up paper and drawing over the creases, then cutting out sections and layering it over other pieces I applied the same technique to. I used this technique on cheap plain paper then again on watercolour paper.

Jen Stark I began to look at paper layering concepts and work by artist Jen Stark who layers many sheets of coloured paper to create sculptures. I re-created smaller samples in my book to get an idea of how the technique is used and I plan to re-create on a larger scale the idea of many layers of paper.

Further paper manipulation Looking at Matthew Shilan and other artists I found online I kept creating samples using cutting and folding. I also experimented with mark making with paint mixed with gasoline and oil to incorporate constructs that are associated with deconstructive ideas.

Coffee painting I came across this image by artist Godfrey Caleb who paints with coffee. I like how his work makes his pieces look organically historical and I wanted to create pieces that contained this concept. Combining with techniques I picked up from Jen Stark I created two samples that I stained with coffee and scrunched up, to create a piece that incorporated deconstructive elements too.

Paper manipulation I decided to further explore this technique by tracing over an image of a desolated building and then photocopying the image six times. I then proceeded to paint each one entirely with coffee to give it a worn look and then cut out the centre of each one to create a layered affect as seen in Jen Starks work to create a multi layered textual sample.

I will now take this concept further by creating this piece on a larger scale using a1 paper. I will attempt to create a more sculptural feel for this piece by adding more 3d elements as well as alternative forms of deconstruction such as ripping burning and using objects associated with deconstruction. I will also begin to think about using my research gathered so far and form it into creating more 3d sculptural pieces as well as further my drawing and painting research to visually depict elements associated with war.