The End

My work is based on the theme of The Urban Environment. I choose to base it on maps and bikes and however different they are, the chaos they both make is remarkable.  I began on this concept as I was walking around Limerick City and became interested in the maps of the city. I wanted to get to know the area better and walking down one street, I passed a bike shop. The window was filled with bikes, both old and new, and I loved he chaos and clutter of them all. I noticed this thought carried on through my love of the maps and so the inspiration of my project had begun.

When starting a piece of work, I begin by whatever comes naturally at the time. This is usually doing a scribble with a pen or drawing a line of some sort. I love taking an object and translating it through a different medium, be it doing a line drawing or making a collage. I want to capture attention to ordinary things we would not usually consider beautiful. When translating a piece of rust for example, I try to use different materials to get the viewer to actually think about what they are looking at. When I work with different materials I am reminded that I don’t have to stick within the box that I was thought in school. I can look outside and use everyday materials for sewing e.g. tinfoil, cardboard and I can print onto material rather than sticking to paper.

This project was as challenging as it was enjoyable for me. I did hit some walls with my train of thought throughout the project and this makes me so frustrated. It is tricky trying to think of new ideas constantly and trying to show the work to back it up. But when I am happy with my work, I work very well and quick. I really enjoyed exploring different ideas in this project. When my work is going well I seem to enjoy what I am doing more. By doing this project,  I have realised that whenever I think that I am finished, I have to add one more piece until I am perfectly happy with how it looks.  When people see my work, I firstly want them to enjoy what they are looking at but then also to ask themselves what exactly they are looking at. I want them to be challenged when looking at something like my prints.

3D Bicycle Wheel

Seeing as I had barely any 3D work done, I thought it was time to make something other than a flat A2 or A3 piece. I decided to make a bicycle wheel using only paper and of course, the trusty glue gun. Here are some images of the process and the finished piece. Unfortunately the wheel is no longer in existence and the following day i came into college and it was crushed :(

The finished wheel was roughly 3 feet wide.

R.I.P. bicycle wheel....

Print series

I decided to make a series of the same print but display it turning the print around. You can see here that each print is the same as the one next to it, just rotated 90 degrees.

This is the whole series of 8 prints. By turning the print once each time, they go arond in a circle and the cycle continues.

Cast of my woodblock

Using Latex I decided to make a cast of my woodblock.

Some of the wood of the block came off onto the latex making a cool effect!

My studio space

I decided to take a couple photos of my studio space at this moment because over the next couple days, I will be replacing this work with my hopefully newer stuff.

Contextual notebook

Through the course of this project we all had to keep a record of different artists that inspired us. These are a few pages from my notebook which I thought are quite interesting.

David Lillburn 
Les Madias Ras - this is seven drypoint prints which together form a map of Dublin.

Cathy Prendergast 
In 1992, Kathy began working on this series of city drawings. Each map consists of delicate lines that depict the main thoroughfares and streets of a city as though they were the veins and arteries of a human body.

Leah Evans
Leah's quilted wall hangings are based on imagined places. She shows evidence of humankind's effects on the landscape while letting the viewer come to their own conclusion while keeping her commentary on enviromental impact subtle.

Vasco Mourao
Mourao's architectural drawings are a  fascinating journey through cityscapes of an original imagination and a busy hand.

Susan Giannantonio
This series "Bike Jam" consists of bright and cheerful watercolour paints applied to a canvas.

Yuko Nishimura
Yuko's inspiration comes from the simplicity with which paper art can be created from just one sheet, and without ever being touched with a tool.

Felting Heaven

After doing a textiles workshop, I decided to try lots of felting and knitting techniques.

This was me experimenting with felting and sewing. I made this swatch of felt using wool, hot water and washing up liquid. I then had the idea of sewing maps onto the felt to see how they turned out.

This is a map of Limerick sew onto some felt taht I made.

And this is a map of Paris sewn on. I think the map of paris really resembles the wheel of a bike. The circular shape surrounding the outter area and all the differnt roads resembling the spokes of a wheel is one idea that I would like to play with.

These, then, are some experimental balls of felt that i made.

This final felt ball really looks like a globe!

As part of my giant mixed media collage, I decided to make a large piece of felt and sew on a picture. This will eventually turn out to be part of a bike and basket so watch this space!