Keith Haring and Grace Jones

Keith Haring and Grace Jones worked together on two of Grace's music videos. This collaboration of art, music and fashion is something I want to capture in my work. This idea of a painted one off garment also interests me, perhaps having part of the garment painted directly onto the skin. I liked my previous more expressive paintings but now I am interested in starting to fit these shapes to the body as Haring has done on Grace.

I'm not perfect but I'm perfect for you:

Vamp:

Large Scale Paintings: A1

Keeping Haring in mind I produced these pieces to music but kept my colours to three simple primary colours. I am very happy how these turned out, I can see clearly how these could be translated on to fabric via screen print print. I am especially happy with 'Grid' as I like how the squares and the black brush strokes overlap, playing around with perspective. I enjoyed working on this scale and I am excited to work like this more especially when thinking about painting my space.

Clean cut geometric shapes

Expressive brush strokes

Grid

Negative space

Keith Haring: Pop Shop

The Pop Shop were stores that sold voluminous memorabilia of artist Keith Haring's designs. Haring originally opened two Pop Shops; one in SoHo (which closed in 2005) and one in Tokyo (which closed in 1988). Every area of the store was devoted to Haring's work including floor-to-ceiling murals, which provided a clubhouse atmosphere. I like Haring's use of colour, only uses 3/4 colours at one time all complimenting each other. Also looking at his bold murals inspired me me to try some larger scale more expressive pieces.

Jim Lambie

When thinking about my exhibition space and how to fill it, Jim Lambie immediately sprung to mind. His way of playing with the space and interacting with objects with in it is very interesting and captures the eye. I love his monochrome work, it reminds me of Keith Haring's installation pieces. I am also found of his subtle use of colour, I find the yellow below very captivating.

Kusama

Kusama is a Japanese artist and writer. Throughout her career she has worked in a wide variety of media, including painting, collage, sculpture, performance art and environmental installations most of which exhibit her thematic interest in psychedelic colours, repetition and pattern. A precursor of the pop art, minimalist and feminist art movements, Kusama influenced contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Although largely forgotten after departing the New York art scene in the early 1970s, Kusama is now acknowledged as one of the most important living artists to come out of Japan, and an important voice of the avant-garde. Kusama can influence my work in the ways she uses pattern and repetition but also in how I will exhibit my final collection, for example it could be interesting to play around with the idea of camouflage and making my collection more of an installation piece.

My Photography: Lights

My research has started to steer me in the direction of music. All aspects of music has come up in my initial research, for example when looking at 80s fashion and life styles and through my own drawings and photography. To continue in this way I decided to try and capture this atmosphere through photographing the night life whilst on a night out. These images have inspired me in many ways, in colour and also in atmosphere and energy. I would like to try and capture this dynamic energy and so looking at these light trails could greatly improve my designs.

Matisse: Cut Outs

My inspiration for my previous cut out designs came primarily from Matisse's cut outs. I like the simplicity of these designs and how he uses colour.

Experimenting with Shapes:

The following images I have created by taking basic shapes from my own photographs and started to manipulate them and play around with the contrast of the expressive brush marks and the geometric structured shapes. In choosing my colours I took inspiration from Anna Lomax and also from my own graffiti photography. I like the monochrome idea with accents of colour, this theme also fits into the idea of the 1980s style 'body map'. In terms of textile techniques I can see these designs being translated into screen print but also into appliqué. Using appliqué could add a whole new dimension to my work.

The black inky drawings in the background of the following images I have drawn with the idea of the gridded speakers in mind. I have used masking tape and free brush strokes to create them.