Week 9: Everyone can be Van Gogh!
Date: 16th May, 2025 (Friday)
Time: 4-6pm
Venue: Pats upper foyer
I must say the workload that both Genie and I are encountering at the moment stressed us out, as all our deadlines are around these coming few weeks. Unlike meeting in earlier stage of the project, I don’t think we planned too much on items that we need to do at a meeting after Easter break. We often just kick off on stuff that we think we need to do on the spot. After spending so much time on audios, Genie and I have decided to work on the visual element of the project this week. This meeting took place after my music project performance assessment as that is the only time that we are both available. Therefore, I am rather knackered. However, this turned out to be a very meditative and enjoyable section that cure our troubled minds amidst these few weeks of hustle and bustle.
Talking about planning, the only things that I have planned for the meeting to bought two acrylic (Black and White) online, bring them to the meeting and asked Genie to bring us some washing sponge. Genie and I have talked about our thoughts on the visual about using black and white to represent night and day before but I have selfishly made this decision on using acrylic. It is merely because acrylic is one of my favourite medium in painting and the painting would allow us to create some textures according to the techniques and tools that we use. Due to limited budget, the tools that we have on the day is several washing sponges, 2 toothbrushes that we got from the shop on the spot and obviously our our fingers. Despite the deficient supply of tools, we still manage to create some amazing product.
As soon as we decided to hit the ground running, Genie asked me was “How are going to do this, are we doing are particular style or..” and I remembered I just said “Let’s just go crazy and see what will happen, shall We? I beg at some point we get are very similar style. “.
The drawing process is quite interesting. Genie is definitely an anxious and chatty painter. She asked me if we shall sketch a draft on the paper and was talking to me this entire time about her uncertainty on her approach, or whether it looks good. Whilst I am tried to reassure her that her painting is awesome and silently do my work. Of course, there were times that splash of paint landed on places where I did not intended (especially when I was doing the spray painting with the toothbrush) but I just tell myself that I was meant to be and carry on. The surprise turned out to be a gift, it looks better that what I have initially think of. Genie and I used pretty much the same amount of time (I even took longer time at the end on my finger print painting), but she ended up did one more picture than I do. But I guess doesn’t matter as much. I focused more on the process of “ putting on whatever I wanted to put on the paper” and how to deliver ‘me’ within the drawing.
My Masterpiece
To be very honest I didn’t put in too much on how I should construct these pieces, I just follow my heart and let it conducts my action and denounce myself thinking how the piece should look like. It is like what Csikszentmihalyi in his book, the attempt being creative through accident, surprises and luck (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, 52). The order of my piece comes from left to right, top to bottom. Starting with a chalk-like texture on the first by layering black and white on top of each other, whilst maintaining distinctiveness of the two colours with less attempt of mingling the two together. The second one next to it on the seems to be progression from the first one but the black and white fused together. I often call this painting “the mouldy wall “as it looked just like it. There is a change of approach and tools here on the third painting, which looks like star wars or space. Instead of using the washing-up sponge, I went to the shop and grabbed as 2 tooth brushes as our tool. Tooth brush create this uniques splash colours on the paper but of course some time too much paint fall on it which creates some dots of paint in the picture. The other wobbly fragments is done by brushing the white painting on the black backdrop. To be honest, my painting approach on the day very much a “Michelle thing”- it is very volatile. I probably have lost my mind in the last finger and I thought it would be a good idea paint with my fingers. The thought of painting is already not about how to incorporate black and white, it is more about putting myself in the painting. At that moment, I guess my initial decision is that my finger print could do as no one can ever have my finger print. Therefore, I ended up finger painting my last work with black and white, which I must say it’s really cool.
Genie’s Masterpiece
Very different approach from Genie painting was featured more creating shapes, whilst I am more about intergrating colours. I would say her pictures are more vivid in general, it seems to suggest a sense of movement through the shapes and how it is laid out. Genie’s pictures are forward and extrovert, the images comes to you. Meanwhile, my painting more timid and introvert that are more open for audience to interpret. Our different approach somehow reflected our personality.
I must say there are times after the section that I doubted myself about my decision of “we shall see what will happened” as we do ended with very different styles of paintings but they are all very unique in different ways. I guess this might be something worth to look into further later on.
Reference
1. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996) Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Collins. Available at: https://inspiredbyislam.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/creativity-flow-and-the-psychology-of-discovery-and-invention-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-z-lib.org_.pdf (Assessed: 20th May 2025)