I enjoyed the presentation to the group, possibly because I was comfortable with the topic and my own thoughts on it but also because I felt the information would be helpful to others, the questions I asked were ones I knew other people had previously asked. The feed back was positive, the group as a whole liked the work by my chosen artist Andrew Curtis, but I got the feeling that abstraction may not be to all of their tastes. I could have improved the presentation but slightly misunderstood the brief as I thought I was doing a power point so had to print off many cheap A4 images of the work. This was my error.
The second part of the process was to take notes an a fellow students presentation. Harry interviewed a self taught sculptor he knew called Michael Barter who’s practice revolved around using discarded waste material found in skips, building sites or the beach. He then sold this work through his website http://www.bartswork.co.uk Michael Barter also ran art workshops for school groups and young adults at a local museum. The works were either a combination of materials making an assemblage or intricate carvings in breeze blocks or house bricks. Many of the works were of a naïve style but others were very classical or with mythological themes. As an environmentalist Michael was keen to reduce the wastage society discards and to try and educate people into sustainability.
The third task was to revisit three other students presentations, I chose Rupps who interviewed Danny Rolph, Loren who interviewed Susan Merrick and Ellie who interviewed Sam Westbury.
Rupp’s presentation was well put together with a strong visual element which was individual and captured some of the movement of Danny Rolphs paintings. She gained good knowledge of his work ethic and routine and I felt it had a professional finish.
Loren’s presentation was very informed and precise with much in depth knowledge but was very light on imagery with only 1 picture which was off the artist with a few works in the background.
Ellie’s presentation was again very detailed and precise with a quite extensive knowledge her artist. It was just done on a laptop so was hard to see the text or images well from the back of the group.
The summary of the whole exercise was positive, I gained good knowledge from my own research and interview and definitely learnt from the peer group interviews.
Three things I would improve my own work with would be a better final presentation, interviewing a completely new artist rather than one I already knew and choosing a different discipline ie not a painter.
Michael Palmer 