for 'The Urban Environment' I chose the word maps and then I created a personal map of my daily journey from college to home.

Happy New Year !

Since my last blog  I have moved on from colour and texture, [my 'comfort zone'],  looking more at  the actual  'skeletal' shape of the fuchsia, which is, I think,  far more interesting than the flower itself. I found a book, [accidentally] in the library on microscopic marine organisms, the name of the book is 'Art Forms from the Sea'. These forms make up a fantastic variety of incredible shapes, a lot of them look like kitchen utensils, collanders etc others look as if they are chain-mail helmets and hats and there are even a few lampshade lookalikes !The book is by Ernst Haeckel, a German scientist and artist who was absolutely passionate about his work, all the illustrations are done by himself. I copied these shapes by making holes in card using a six-hole paper punch and to make even smaller holes I used needles. The finished pieces were redolent of something being corroded or eaten into. On a canvas I stuck down metal washers of different sizes, I also used white thumb-tacks. I wanted to see the same effect on fabric so I cut various sized circles out of wax cloth ,normally used for making table-cloths. I did not want to use a softer fabric as the resulting effect would not have worked. I prefer to cut curved lines for their fluidity and flexibility. I spotted a plastic shape that holds  beer-cans in place, the shapes are perfect and they can be pulled and stretched etc so I am collecting as many as I can from local shops and an off-licence. They're not easy to come by  because the staff in these places probably think I'm nuts, I am thinking of getting in touch with the Bulmers factory in Clonmel or C&C  in the hope that they would send me a few hundred, I'm not very hopeful but it's worth a try! I am enjoying this part of my project and am delighted to have moved on from colour using only white or opaque materials. This is somewhat of a revelation! I looked at the work of the artist Tara Donovan which is in the Stephen Friedman gallery in London. Two of her instalations she made using white paper plates and styrofoams cups respectively, it is all very white, bright and airy. whereas I don't yet have the vocabulary to descibe her work I can say that I have really surprised myself by loving it.