Monday 14th March 2011:

Today, I went back to my research to see what I could use within my development work. I had another look at the image I had found where the sentence ‘the deepest scars are those we cannot see’ had been written on a girl’s face in what looks like black marker pen/ make up. I then decided to find some images where I could write words onto the faces in this sort of style. I wrote words such as ‘trapped,’ ‘abandoned’, ‘ deserted’, ‘revenge’, ‘angry’, ‘lonely’ and

‘depressed’. I think this works well but isn’t as effective as it could be. I could take this further and write on actual faces and take photos, and maybe use makeup instead of pen to make it stand out more. I also feel that the previous page where I had cut the words out of the people has more of an impact visually and gives out a stronger message.

I then went on to look further at the artist Joseph Loughborough and used his work as inspiration when creating another page in my book relating to emotion. I worked over an image and feel that this piece is quite emotive and I like the minimal use of colour. I like how the person could either be the bully or the victim. The bully may feel like this inside (and therefore goes on to bully others), or the victim may feel like this after being bullied. I may try this same effect using different colour palettes and draw my own images to make it more personal.

I also looked at the work of Clay Sinclair again and used the piece ‘judge me (by my…)’ when carrying my idea of saying ‘don’t bully me because of my…’ instead of ‘judge me by my…’. I then wrote words such as ‘looks’, ‘ethnicity’ and ‘intelligence’, using different type styles. I still need to work into this piece further and complete it so that it stands out as an overall image.

During my research today, I came across an anti-bullying campaign (The Bully Suicide Project: Giving Victims of Bullying their Voices Back) presented by Campus Harmony. Words had been written on the victims faces (which also relates to my sketchbook work), and they’re holding a large card in front of them saying things such as ‘I’ll stand up for you’ and ‘my scars echo your hate’, which are quite strong messages. There were also a few with facts on and I think that this is an interesting way to present facts in a way that would make people read them. I will consider these visual ideas and will look into this campaign further to see how it could influence my own work. I also discovered that Barack Obama has recently started an anti-bullying campaign, and on the 10th March, they held an event in Washington where they welcomed students, parents, and teachers to talk about how best to combat bullying. This recent issue shows how ongoing and common bullying is, and motivated me further to help. Continuing to research this should help with my project and can help to influence my work.

Target for today: Research artists further and complete more sketchbook pages relating to feelings (that the victim feels), and work influenced by artists’ work.

Target for tomorrow: Begin to produce questionnaire (to give out to students). Complete sketchbook page (looking at Clay Sinclair), and continue with sketchbook work relating to bullying situations and emotions (looking at Claire Brewster).