Week1/2 - Cy Twombly and mark making

 

During this week, we have looked at other students' work and described it, looking at meaning and who we think the individual is as a person. We took these words and formed paragraphs about whatever we liked. We chose specific words to write in different mediums of our choice. I decided to use charcoal and chalk. I used a fluid movement to portray the word 'joined' as this is a word of unity. I used my fingers to write the word 'transfer' as I wanted it to look like it had been literally transferred onto the page from another object. Also, I wrote 'cell' repeatedly and formed a circular shape to mimic the shape of some cells.


We went on to look at Cy Twombly, an artist who is inspired by Mediterranean history, Greek and Roman mythology and literature. I particularly like the piece called Ferragosto V, 1961, Rome. Ferragosto is when the Roman Catholics celebrate the assumption of virgin Mary into heaven. This is a popular festival and so I think that this piece presents how chaotic the 15th of August is in Italy. The long marks show how people try to travel quickly on this day and take long weekends. The layering of paint and other mediums like wax crayon and pencil presents how people emerge from across Italy to celebrate this event and visit the museums there. Twombly often writes literature or emotions in his work and responds to them over the top; this creates a lot of depth to his pieces.

I went on to layer emulsion paint onto my work, using different mark making techniques using cardboard and my hands. I used a circular emotion surrounding 'pressure', with the paint becoming more opaque on the outskirts. I then went over this with graphite and wrote 'conform' as I believe that people feel pressured to conform. I also experimented with letting the paint drip on the page, which I liked as it doesn't make a determined mark. I liked this because it can show lack of control or the sporadic nature of something. I made different marks with the paint, for example short rigid ones that could be used to present alarm. From this task, I can now see that marks can have a big impact on the meaning of a piece.