Workshop 1 Report

My first workshop took place yesterday, Monday the 8th of October at Crawford College of Art and Design main campus in the Photography Studio. There was six participants present including four females and two males.

Prior to the beginning of the workshop I had prepared a process method schedule, a short choreographed warm up, meditation dialogue and calm music. The reasoning for this was to ensure the smooth running of the workshop. All lights were set up in a very comfortable way. The room was very quiet and all that could be heard is the piano music playing softly in the background. This was playing before people entered the room. Six chairs were laid out in an equal positioning allowing space for the movement exercise and also allowing each participant to be present in the frame of the camera.

Participants arrived at different intervals between 6.50pm and 7.05pm. In the future, I will wait for everyone to arrive before they can enter the performance space.

I began the workshop with a little introduction whilst keeping the grounds as vague as possible. Each participant signed a release form. I described the schedule of events up to the end of the dialogue meditation.

I then continued with the exercise. The goal of this was to relax the body and its muscles and zone the minds of the models into a comfortable and blank canvas focusing them for the following exercise.

I found that as I was speaking in the same tone from the very beginning, the music was uniform and the lighting didn't change, concentration was kept and the progression was smooth and effective.

During the course of the dialogue there was very little movement and even less sound. Through the distressing parts of the dialogue reaction was minimal however I will inspect this further with the recording.

On awakening the models all gave me the impression that they were totally zoned out. The time went comfortably and reached about 7.35 at this point.

I then gave out a blank sheet with a crayon of their choice to every participant and gave them a few minutes to draw anything that came into their mind. After doing the exercise I asked participants to turn them face down and passed them along to the end.

Thereafter I cleared the room and began the improvisation part of the workshop. Everyone left the room and individually I gave characters to the participants concluding in a family structure. I began with small scenarios to get the building of the characters and it developed greatly with the evolution of time.

Tutorial development 1

IAfter a very positive and constructive tutorial with Jessie Jones last week, I went off to get something cohesive on paper. After disaster with the booking of rooms in college, my scheduling went up in a heap but all I can say is that everything happens for a reason. I now have scripted a concise dialogue for my first meditation workshop. The aim is to develop the dialogue throughout the workshop in acknowledgement to the ongoing motion and body language of the participants. The workshop will be recorded - the camera will remain static at all times with the lens open to allow a full focus of the entire body.

After this workshop I want to experiment with the dialogue and see if it worked well. I want to eventually experiment with the combination of the scenarios in actuality and the silent response brought forward by the participants at the workshop.

Thematically I will be dealing with the concept of family relationships. The language of the script will be very ambiguous. It will be driven by emotional triggers.

Having has a follow through tutorial with Tony McClure, I am now in a good position to go forward with my first experiment and look forward to having something visual by next week!

Mystical World - Thoughts

A place where the bees do not sting and the lions do not roar; where one can carelessly walk through nature. No fear. No stress. No time constraints. A beautiful place where dreams can wonder. The colours of dusk glisten in the air; brilliant blues and starry whites enchant the visitor. The sound of sweet magical music flows gently within the very soul.

EAMONN SHANAHAN

An Introduction to 'A Mystical World'

The beginning of a Mystical World

The formation of my new world is now underway. My inspiration comes from the modern day film makers including that of Tim Burton, with his quirky and dramatic set work and multimedia animation; Disney for what he is, a master of the film world but also an artist in his own right. The Socorers Apprentice shows this exactly like many other of Disney's films - Beautiful, positive, musical and magical all describe his work and I want to try and achieve these very aspects in my work.

I wanted the underlay of this painting to be dark for one primary reason - to highlight and emphasis the lighter features in the painting. The trickling water in the far background is the focus in this painting. However it should lead the eye swirling around the soft blue tones of the painting to reach the foreground - the red and darker pigments.

 

 

I have not achieved what I want to achieve as of yet. The point of 'magic-ness' and musical mystery is not as evident as it should be. However what is present and what will be carried forward is the movement. Movement is certainly illustrated in this painting through the large brush strokes, the direction and flow of colour and the falling of water. This will be further emphasised in the future and I hope that the influence of the figure and natural aspects will aid this also.


The combination of my performance work, the addition of textures such as sand and plaster to give dimension and with the idea of the mystical world is the direction that I'm aiming towards.

Today

Today I am working with two main ideas with the hope of merging them together. Before I continue I will just briefly explain these.

PERFORMANCE ART

In Spring of this year I wanted to focus my work on dance, music and art as a whole. I began working with oils, using music sheet paper as my canvas and applying the paint delicately. I created an image of beauty and perfection to represent that in the art of ballet refuting it with the natural beauty of the world. However as the imagery that I was creating was that bit too beautiful and 'Disney' like, I took the opportunity to change medium and import myself into the picture.

Nature Vs Ballet

Music & Lyrics

To do this I began working with performance art. Using digital photography I self-shoot solo-performances of myself dancing. It was suggested to use a Video Camera to record it however I preferred to get the results of a SLR Digital Camera in that it would miss the in between frames and pick up on the flaws as well as the perfected movements. The positioning of the images in the presentation of the work was also very important which is clearly illustrated in the images below. I believe that the placement of the prints was vital for this project to work, it added another dimension.

 

Influence of Materials & Raw Setting

Original Studio Shoot

Rihanna S&M

I am currently developing this concept of performance art, pushing it to the next level.

A MYSTICAL WORLD

Tim Burton, Walt Disney, JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer and James Cameron all created a new world. These creations all feature the four main elements of fire, water, air, and land which are necessary. However I would like to create a world that you can feel the music present in the 2D painting, without presence of physical sound; If you will, a world for the deaf. I believe that my performance work could aid the creation of this new world and therefore I would like to eventually merge these two main aspects of my work.

...AND BACK TO TODAYMy influences from the start included such artists as Degas, Richter, Duchamp, Rembrandt, Disney, Burton, Muybridge and even touches of the great Renaissance artist Caravaggio. With these influential people along with my own primary research in the photography studio I have developed into a new aspect of the photographic sessions. Dance and music is certainly still present yet aperture and shutter-speed setting alterations allowed me to create a moving image in one single shot. I wish to transfer these images to 2D paintings to push them further. But prior to that I will further explore the graduation I have made since my initial photo-shoot in the Spring, seeking out other color options, clothing, setting, moving objects and natural life, figurative expression through dance and acting etc.

A New Development

Expressive Emotion