Clare Won and Nan Goldin

30/09/13 Our rainbow group went well today, I had the sketches done- no presentation pressure.  Clare won the hurling so there were colourful stories of tribes mixed in with the great discussion that we had about where and how artists can get their ideas.

Here's a taste of the tribal colours near where I live


Claire came in and we had to pick an artist randomly out of a bag to research and do a mind map and presentation on.  I got 'Nan Goldin'.  We had to only use books for the research and had to visit the library.  John was saying about the joys of losing yourself in a book.  I love reading; but am pretty slow so when I decided to throw myself into reading about Nan this wasn't the best idea (for me).  I came out of the library as I was feeling a bit hungry and checked my phone and it was 13.50!!! I'd missed lunch and was 20 minutes late for life drawing.....  I guess in future I will have to keep a closer eye on the time.

I really enjoyed the focus and investigation of the research.  Not only do you get an insight into what the artist does, you get to see the context, what was happening at the time, influences, politics, life experience, other artist connections, inspirations etc.. it's fascinating. 

Something that is also interesting is that in the space of a week you can feel that you've discovered something new, something that you weren't aware of before and know that there is way more that you don't know that is there if you want to find out.  And even better that you can evolve any of those ideas, thoughts, images into your own way, your own ideas, views etc and those in turn can be worked on, by yourself or someone else who takes the baton and runs with it.

Here's my Nan Goldin mind map and also a Nan inspired photograph, entitled "Niam Drinking Hot Chocolate In Butlers"

I would like to make the images a little bigger; but I'm still having a few glitches with the blog so will have to keep it as it is for now....go away gremlins!