jslucas

JSL Folio

2009-10-09T16:55:00.004+01:00

My .com recently vanished. I'm not so sure I even understand what happened, but even so, I'm currently trying to get it back. Until then, I have added a small portfolio of my work to this blog, and I imagine I will use this as my .com in the future. I'm starting to see the importance of a blog, I will take advantage of just how much easier it is is to keep up to date as opposed to a website built from scratch. As much as I enjoy the CSS, I'm just not sure I have the discipline to form a regular routine.

I had my first one-to-one with my print tutor yesterday, which left me with a pretty positive outlook for the year. She seemed to pretty much grasp exactly what I was hoping to achieve, so I'm optimistic. I hope for a change from digital, artificial colours to a more natural palette. I want to experiment with transfer processes, film photography (a recent passion for light leaks is a huge inspiration) and photoetching. The buzz is a big one... as I do love this stage.

I nice unicrons

2009-10-05T23:57:00.002+01:00

A Sunday afternoon spent at The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, absorbing the art work/sea air. It is a reminder that I could have perhaps pushed myself harder this summer, and had my own work in the space, but even so, it is a good way to begin a more productive autumn. Maybe it's more of a reminder of what I know can be achieved, which can be a pretty inspiring thing.

35mm summer photos

2009-09-03T23:48:00.000+01:00

September has appeared much quicker than I expected, well, I'm lying really, this summer has crawled! If I admit to that though, I'd have no excuse for why I've not updated my journal, and even worse, why I've not been making art.

I've had a full time office job for the summer to increase my bank balance and to experience the "real world". It's not only left me with very little time to actually make or see any art, it's also stifled my creative head and left me feeling pretty numb to my art in general. Wow, it seems even sadder in writing...

My saving grace of the summer has been my colorsplash, which has at least added a little bit of colour to an otherwise pretty drab summer. I'll share some of my oh-so-juicy favourite shots from the past few months.

Masculinity Exhibition

2009-06-19T20:07:00.000+01:00

My exhibition is up! I wish I could say that it is running smoothly, but I'd hardly walked in the door opening night and I was rushed to my space to fix my video, it turns out that one touch of the touch-sensitive screen could send the whole thing flying. The place was packed so for the rest of the evening it proved to be pretty problematic, to say the least. I couldn't get a good photograph of that room, but I have plenty more to see in the college:

500 Postcards!

2009-06-11T18:54:00.000+01:00

I've had some postcards printed for my upcoming show - excellent! Unfortunately, my website is undergoing some baffling problems which means I can't update it - not so excellent...! The timing is perfect, as I've had this website for over a year now and it has worked perfectly when I haven't had 500 postcards advertising it. I thought of even forwarding the website to this blog, but it won't even allow me to do that. Luckily, I do still have a page, which is preferable over a blank page, I just wish it was an updated page.

For those curious:

JSLucas.com

Peacock study

2009-06-05T01:17:00.000+01:00

A study of the flamboyant masculinity of peacocks for a video I'm working on. I'm a real sucker for blurred abstract imagery, the shape and tone and colour works very nicely in video form and the television scan line texture really makes for a trippy experience. When I'm able to, I'll share the uploaded video, images for now.

Zombie stag

2009-05-29T17:14:00.000+01:00

Along with my drypoint prints I'm pretty sure I'm going to exhibit the scratched plates that made them. A few weeks back I was keen to get them as clean as possible, hoping to get the original shine of the aluminium, like the image I posted earlier. I pretty much realised there was no chance of that happening, and gradually realised that actually, the dirtier the better. As a result they've completely taken on a different atmosphere, of some kind of blood-thirsty zombie stag that creeps me the hell out.

They look too good to clean.

Life drawing

2009-05-29T17:01:00.000+01:00

I've been attempting to introduce some kind of order into my old work, I started with all the larger papers i rarely actually wade through, and I stumbled upon a whole bunch of life drawings I had completely forgotten about. I have some that are too big to store without folding, until I find a way to store it rolled and safe I guess I will be putting up with the image of my life model towering over me on my bedroom wall.

Oh, and my room isn't really that blue... my camera just seems to be a bit poorly these days and Photoshop is fixing the images.

This one I don't really have a reason to post, but I like it (regardless of it's somewhat poor proportion)

Creative Summer Show

2009-05-26T21:39:00.001+01:00

I'm going to be exhibiting soon for my degree end of year show, I can't bring myself to share a graphic as the design is pretty horrific, to say the least. But here is an all-informative link:

Creative Summer Show 2009

I'm going to be showing 2 bodies of work, my recent work on Masculinity and a previous project, The Malfunction of the Screen, which looks a little like this:

This is my first proper opportunity to show my work and I'm pretty excited. I'm keen to see how it turns out, it should be a good show.

Scratch scratch

2009-05-20T23:42:00.000+01:00

An evening of scratching at aluminium boards has left me with a metallic taste in my mouth that makes my teeth buzz. But it's all for the greater good, as the result is 2 pretty well looking stag heads (which as it turns out, are really hard to photograph...)

It seems to be a task to draw deer without them becoming Disney-esque. I will have to figure out what it is in my technique that turns each one into a Bambi reincarnation.

Drypoint Ram

2009-05-20T00:53:00.000+01:00

Drypoint excites me, I'm always a fan of detail so I could not pass the opportunity to play with this technique (even at this late stage of my degree). The scratching petrified me, it's a little too permanent for my perfectionistic mind to handle. But I coped, and the results were worth the sweating:

That's print #2 of 2. Print #1 was maybe more experimental (and I can say that now because it didn't work so well):

There's a definite quality to it, it can't be denied, I like a bit of atmosphere but I guess at the expense of a technically good drawing it's not such a wise thing. A happy medium between the two would make my knees weak, a perfect grey. I'm almost there, but not quite just yet. The slight embossing from masking the drawing is pretty awesome though:

I think I'm really going places here... this is working for me. The detail I can achieve is so exciting, and the inks make for such an atmospheric drawing. I just have a while to go to perfect my technique before I get there.