Part D: Arts apprenticeship arts

My finish Bodies project: http://www.flickr.com/photos/site-education/sets/72157625068297038/show/

My mini project will be taking pictures of people laying down (looking dead) in peculiar places such as on steps, on Fargate ete... I will involve the whole group in the staged photos so there is a wide range of people contributing to my project. I might risk it and ask some members of the public to contribute (like students...they're up for owt), the people will follow these rules;

1. you must be laying limp and looking dead
2. be creative and do it in a really unexpected place.

First I went and just took pictures of people laying down at home, but on the Monday I went out and took several shots of the same place at different moments (some with dead person, some without) and merged them together in Photoshop so that it looks like everything was happening at once.

I went to the train station and near the university where most of the people look busier and more odd because on the final image there will be a person laying down "dead" on each picture and all the people that are walking around won’t be looking at them, where as in a real life situation that wouldn't happen, the people would react straight away.

I chose this project because I was interested in how you could make someone look dead but the rest of the public (strangers) don't care where as in the real world if someone was dead on the floor there would be lots of people, police, ambulance and commotion so there would be lots of attention but my project shows a kind of surreal parallel universe in which people don’t appear care. A bit like we are when we see the news.

We had a few complications when we got to fargate at lunch, one of my friends sprawled face down on the floor and a man passed her and muttering the words "faggot" which was really rude, and lots of people gave us funny looks or walked past the camera whilst I was taking a photo.

I’m really pleased with my finished work. I took a lot of photos and have created about 6 that really give the affect that I described about. Visit my project here:

Part C: Exploring an artist

My interview with well-know cartoon based artist, Pete Mckee: http://www.radiowaves.co.uk/story/151005/title/BethanGoodheadinterviewsPeteMckee

The local artist that I will be interviewing is Pete McKee who got his break in his 30s after selling a piece of his work to Noel Gallagher from Oasis:

My research of Pete's has mainly came from his website http://www.therealmckee.co.uk/

Pete McKee was really nice and welcoming and happy to do the interview. I interviewed him in the kitchen area of his gallery (In a month of Sundays), where the walls were draped with drawings, sketches, and photographs.

He talked about how he has always had a passion for art and music and how his favourite piece of art he has done relates to him and his mother (who passed away when he was 7) at castle market.

He said that when you look into his work there is always a meaning and that there is always a child on their own because he was lonely as a child as all of his siblings were older than him.

I really enjoyed doing this interview and I’m proud I got to interview success an inspiring and successful artist.


These are some of the question I asked him:

- How would you describe the art that you create and why do you think people are so drawn to it?

-there's a lot of humour in your work, have you ever considered anything dark and serious or is there a bit of seriousness hidden in the humour somewhere?

-what inspires your work?

-what jobs did you do before becoming an artist and what other careers would you have considered?

- how did you come up with the name "a month of Sundays" for your new gallery?

- what do you think stops people from visiting galleries more often and have you considered that with "a month of Sundays"?

- what types of art, if any, don't you like and why?

- what is the favourite piece of art you don't like and why?

- what is your favourite piece of work you have produced and why?

- what has been your proudest moment in art so far?

- is there any commissioned work you have, or would you refuse of principal?

- what advice would you give for young artists who want to make a career out of art?

Part B: Visiting an exhibition

The gallery I will be visiting for the Part B of my Arts Award is going to be Pete McKee's gallery "Month Of Sundays" because I am interested in Pete's work liking art with a humorous aspect rather than serious work with a complex meaning. I’ll also be interview Pete himself so this will help me understand his work better.

I especially like his work because he puts a piece of writing with it to explain it which all adds to the humour, but I think it wouldn't be as funny to people who don't live in Sheffield or the north because the art work is like an inside joke and related very much to being working class and has echoes of old industry like steel working and mining....well that’s how I see it.

The gallery was great. It was set up just like a house and it felt so homely and comfortable .There was a kitchen and a living room full of his art work and this spread over two floors. We were greeted by a brolly bucket which was much needed as it was chucking it down outside and the staff and Pete were really nice and welcoming.

I took pictures of the work I liked (which was practically everything!) and I also took pictures of the tags that went with them. The prices seemed to be really high for prints (anything from £300-£2000) but it was really good art so I don't blame him. On the street when you can see it you are immediately drawn to it. A beautiful pastel turquoise with a McKee dog above the sign saying "A month of Sundays", it subliminally gives you an idea of what Pete's work is about. Check my interview out to hear with Peter had to tell me about his brilliant work:

Part A: My challenge

For my challenge I have learned and experimented with Photoshop making serious and subtle changes to photos and merging them together for my final project. I also wanted to create a final slide show learnignt o bput my images together using panning and music in a piece of software called Photo Magico.

In this two weeks I have managed to learn most of the tools and how to use them such as the filters, contrast, selections, layers, colour correction, sharpening and blurring, cloning tool and how to merge layers. I have had the focus of my final Part D project images which has really helped me improve and apply my skills.

I’ve also improved my general photography skills taking into account the "rule of thirds" in composition and this is reflected in my final project too.

I’m pleased with how my new skills are reflected in my finial project work. Both the set of images I edited and the slideshow I created. I feel confident I’ve learnt some solid new skills for the future.