Wednesday 13th April 2011:

I decided that I would carry out the idea given to me in an informal peer review and create the word ‘beautiful’ using gold leaf, but to add a distressed, old look to it.

I think that this has worked out quite well and shows nicely the contrast between something beautiful and something distressed. There are quite a few messages which can be taken from this piece. For example, the difference between the bully and the victim, because of the difference in the word ‘beautiful’ in gold leaf and then the elements around it. Also, it could represent that although someone may be ‘beautiful’ on the outside, they may not be on the inside. This could portray someone such as the bully who may seem nice but actually they’re mean to others. However, it could also represent the victim who may be a ‘beautiful’ person on the inside, but when they’re surrounded by distressed, ‘ugly’ things, this in turn makes them distressed too and could therefore show the transition between being the victim and then becoming the bully. It could also perhaps show that even if someone is distressed or ‘ugly’ in the bully’s eyes, they may be ‘beautiful’ on the inside and that there is no reason to bully this person. I also like how in certain lighting, the word ‘beautiful’ looks really dark instead of shiny and gold. This could also represent how victims and bullies could perhaps be ‘seen in a different light’.

I therefore feel that this contrast is important to explore within my work because this a large part of bullying. Also, it’s important to look at the similarities between the bully and victim, and this piece also shows how it could be representing either/or.

I could explore these similarities and differences further within my work to try and understand the bully and the victim in more detail and the relationship between them.

I also looked back at the work of Ros Rixon and decided to respond to this. I especially liked her work where she linked pieces of paper together to create rings. I thought it would be interesting to explore this using results from my questionnaire. As the consequential emotions inside the victim are just as important as the bullying situation, I decided to type out (in a typewriter style font, like Ros Rixon uses), their bullying stories/situations on one side of the ring and then the emotions which they felt from these situations on the inside of the ring of paper. I gave them all a distressed brown background to give them the effect of looking old. I then printed these out and linked them together. I noticed that I had actually created the ‘infinity’ sign when linking some of them together. I hadn’t done this on purpose, but was actually quite a good ‘mistake’ because it could represent how these stories and emotions can affect the victim for life.

I then wanted to explore photography further and felt that these would look quite effective when photographed. I experimented with difference effects, and even used my MacBook when taking some of the photos to create even more effects. I especially like the ‘comic book’ and ‘x-ray’ effects because they really help them to stand out. Although some of these effects make the words hard to read, they’re still attractive and work well.

I also experimented with the exposure and created a ‘red glow’ by putting my hands near the lens, etc. This looks quite effective and makes the image more interesting.

When taking the photos, I tried to pick out particular words and sentences to make the main focus, so when the viewer sees the photo, they want to read what the rings say and can understand what they contain even just by reading parts of sentences.

I think that these turned out really well and make the viewer want to read what they say and so I will consider using something like this in my final piece.

As this piece is 3D, I was thinking about perhaps creating more, perhaps larger, versions and to hang these in my exhibition space to make it more unique and to add more visual aspects to my space. I’m not too sure about this and so will have to experiment and consider this to see what it could look like.

I also used the work of Ros Rixon to inspire my sketchbook and decided to use these same sentences with the situation on one side and the emotions on the other side. I cute out a square in on of my sketchbook pages and then placed these strips of paper across the page so that the emotions could be read from the other when the page as turned. This looks quite effective and unique. I wanted to explore cutting into and out of my pages further and so this was quite a simple way to experiment with this. I also like how it’s quite fragile as this could represent the victims and their vulnerability, and how the strips of paper could act like bars trapping the page behind it. This could show the victim and how they may feel trapped at times.

Target for today: Create the word ‘beautiful’ using gold leaf, and make it look old and distressed, etc. Look at the work of Ros Rixon and respond both in sketchbook and with the use of photography.

Target for tomorrow: Take photos of self, inspired by the work of David Bailey and previous anti-bullying campaigns, to represent the victim, the bully, the consequences of bullying and take photos inspired by the work of David Bean and his anti-bullying campaign.