Op Art!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11791205

God bless the BBC. I knew I had them as a homepage for a reason.

Bridget Riley has always inspired me right from my year 7 art room. Small squares were arranged in a border around the room featuring different artists and their most recognisable piece of work. Of course, a graphic print of black and white is always going to stick out against the realistic painterly approaches of so many other artists before her. Even now I can remember myself gazing and daydreaming at that small image on so many occasions.

And I suppose in a way, this is where my first love of graphic art came about.

My Dad has been a major influence in my artistic life, educating me, in particular with abstract expressionism and post impressionism - which will always remain a firm favourite of mine. But this op art was a little bit of me, and sharing this with my Dad was just as good as learning from him.

I was influenced by op art in my project in second year of uni, on an essay based on "The respect for tradition to a multimedia designer". Basically, I think that the people for this argument are those with a history of fine art; aka me. This essay gave me an opportunity to really express my feelings. As much as I love graphics, a lot of people can get big headed very quickly. Coming from scientific parents with an astro physicist brother, yes I am a black sheep, but along with my Dad's interest and their views on life I felt like I had a much better argument.

The way we are taught in the design area, especially in GCSE and A level, is very scientific. There are specifications that you have to meet, such as research, development, which , in essence, is exactly the same as meeting requirements in science and mathematic test papers. In summary, we need tradition because nothing that we create can come from

thin air, furniture, technology, all products are produced by judging the success of something before it.

I may have rambled slightly, but this is an important opinion of mine.

Anyway, back to the point. I used op art because my theme was "going round in circles". I've always been intrigued by things that make your eyes go funny and illusions that you can only see if you look in a different way - which sounds crazy!

Basically, Bridget also proves the point of being "simple yet effective" which is probably my most used phrase when writing essays. But it is so true! And so strange to come from art when it is probably more relevant in design.

To see Riley's inspiration from Seurat is even more warming, as I used him in my A level art as well. That woman is right up my street.

I think my main aim of this blog is for graphics designers to appreciate the roots in art and design. Inspiration is a key factor in anything that we do, and there is so much out there that we miss.

Li

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Sunflower seeds

Ok, so haven't been on for yonks, surprise surprise.Last Monday we went on a graphics trip to London, and even though we spent 5 hours to travel there and back, which left us with 2 hours to look around, I'm still glad that I went.

My Dad told me about Ai Weiwei's exhibition last month, something very relevant to him because his line of work is ceramics. For me it was also a personal exhibition because of my trip to China this April.

First of all, the sheer volume of 100 million handmade sounds so enormous, yet I was overwhelmed at how insignificant it looked in the turbine hall. Compared to others like Rachel Whiteread's 'Embankment' and Carsten Höller's slides, 'Sunflower seeds' was just tucked away in the far corner. I love how every single one is so individual yet so insignificant, and I think it says a lot about the world we live in today.

Ai Weiwei definitely has guts, sometimes its hard to comprehend how different are way of living is to that in China. But I suppose its like the different battles that the seeds have in different sections, such as on the bottom of the pile or on the edge. Saying that, the Chinese are some of the most kind hearted, hard working and warm people that I've ever met.

Li

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M&S Milk Chocolate

So, being the talented cook that I am, I decided to make a chocolate rice crispy cake the other day. Marks and Sparks was on my way home, so even though the prices are a little extravagant for my student budget, I was lazy enough to give in. I got two bars of the milk chocolate, and immediately appreciated the subtlety and cleanliness of the packaging. Simple, yet easily adaptable, M&S I salute you for your sweet concept. Apologies for the baaaad quality pic.

Li

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Street Art Exhibition

So today I went over to the Herbert Gallery in Coventry to go and see Mr Ed Miliband. Yes I'm pants with politics, but I suppose I wanted to look intelligent. Aaaaanyway, we couldn't hear much, so my friend Jonny and I went to see the Street Art exhibition.

I know many of my friends are into the likes of Banksy etc, but I've never really looked into it much. And I must say I struggled a bit. With abstract painterly approaches you can interpret what you like, and make your own assumptions. With street art it has a solid thought behind it, you either get it or you don't. I'm thinking that I need to read the Times a bit more.

Anyway, before I start blabbing on, a few pieces caught my eye. The first was a film by Pahnl, a short story of a dog. Very cute, but I'm thinking I shouldn't be appreciating it if it hasn't got huge depth to it. I liked Jonny's perception of the dog representing how our society is today, but I think I've been spending too much time at the Tate. More importantly, I stood by it thinking "I wish I was into blogging", and so here I am.

Here are a few examples but check out the website http://www.pahnl.co.uk/index.php

Someone else who caught my eye was Jeff Soto's Storm Clouds. I love his colour scheme and scribbly painterly textures. His subject areas of lust may be predic

table but I like the idea of fears because these are so personal and widespread. Basically, I miss illustrations like this within graphic design, especially in the studio at uni.

Lastly, it's Newso. I think here I enjoyed the composition, layers and colours. This was a great triptych. (or am I trying to be too poncy again) At the moment I quite like the zooming in of pictures and finding new shapes and directions, so this was right up my...no, I'm not going to say it, erm, this was bang on.

Anyway, here's to more blogs.

Li

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