Starting Something

Through watching the one show on Monday, I was given the name of a Scottish artist who I knew about, but just completely forgotten the name of. Through that show, I found out the artist was called Paul Cadden, and he is by far one of my favourite drawing artists.

Caddens work is within a genre called "Hyperrealism". Hyperrealism is a genre of painting, drawing and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting paintings, drawings or sculptures. This is something which I am a long way from achieving, but it is artists who work in this way that inspire me to improve not only the overall look of my artworks, but also to improve the methods which I use within the creation of the work. Artists that work in this way, as well as Cadden, include Chuck Close, Robert Bechtle and Ralph Goings.

Below you can see an example of some of Cadden's work.

As you can see from the above, the images resemble a photograph in their realism and their intensity, but the images are created using pencils, in fact exactly the same pencils which I use. Cadden also uses the same technique to replicate the photograph that I do, by using a grid system, which then makes it easier to accurately replicate an image, especially when working one a larger scale than that of the image you are working for.

The most interesting thing that I heard from listening to Paul Cadden speak, was when asked "Aren’t you just copying from a photograph?" his response was "Aren't photographers copying from life" and I believe this is a very interesting point to make for anyone who works from a photograph to create work. To find out more about Paul Cadden's work, click here.

Through seeing Paul Cadden’s work again, this has inspired me to create some work for myself, but not only to create a drawing, but to look at how that drawing is created, and looking into every aspect of my drawing with a lot more detail, time care and attention in order to create a more realistic image. So, I have decided to look back at the idea of celebrity and idolisation to look at someone who I have been listening to ALOT over the past year, Ed Sheeran. Ed is a singer/songwriter who has been my music of choice for a long while now...and as of yet, I have not created a study of him.

Today I started this drawing, and just under 4 hours in, I have created a basic outline, to which I am going to begin working into. I expect this study to be complete in 2-3 weeks, but I am hoping to update this page a lot more often, so keep checking back for updates on my progress.

Below is the image I will be working from:

Installation of "I'm Your Biggest Fan"...

So, this week I have been installing my final piece of work of my university course, and in my opinion, my best work to date. The work is concerned with not only the idolisation of the celebrity, but also the decline of traditional drawing techniques in contemporary art. The presentation of my traditional drawings of Dave is the contemporary aspect of my work, contrasted by the traditional drawing seen in my work. The piece has 208 drawings in total, which is a play on Dave's date of birth:

3/10/1983

310 -19 -83 = 208

Here are some images of the work...

Day 1- My Space

Day 2- Gum Strip

Day 3- New Wall

Day 4- Installation commences...

Day 5- Installation Complete

Day 5-

Day 5-

Day 6- Minor Adjustments

Day 6- Finished with painted floor...

Greestone 42

Here is my image and statement for the forthcoming exhibition- Greestone 42...

THE CELEBRITY + THE FAN + THE REMOTE BOND

“The celebrity is a part of the fan audiences everyday life and as remote as imaginable. The celebrity is thus both intimate and distant.”[1]

I create work focusing on my idol: Dave McPherson, through repetitive drawing to give the sense of the “obsessive fan”. Although each drawing is completed separately, it is when the drawings are all viewed together that they speak of this obsessive nature. The binding element of the work is Dave's music: creating an equation of three elements: Dave (the celebrity), me (the fan) and his music (the remote bond). The drawings then become an attempt-by the fan-to reduce the metaphorical and literal distance discussed by Nayar, while also trying to imply the construction of intimacy between the fan and idol.

[1] Nayar, Pramod K. Seeing Stars: 2009; 159

"I know you probably hear this everyday, but Im your biggest fan..."

So, above you can see that I have (partially) decided on a name for my piece. There have been many little logistical twists and turns in the background to this idea, and although the main concept is the same, and the drawings continue, I am still finalising things like how to present the work, how to install, and other issues.

Below I have posted some pictures trying to show this, and my most probable means of presentation. The idea here is that horizontally I will present the drawings that I did that day, next to that will be the drawings on the following day and so on. This then shows the daily influence of the idol on the fan that is discussed in my statement.