Catherine McCaw-Aldworth

Alternative Studio part one We were given a new brief for spatial practices, which consist of three parts. The first to use the pocket as a studio to create work and to be a part of the work. The second to work with a cardboard box for a week and the third to create a piece of work on public transport. These short week-long tasks were given to make us explore the studio as an unconventional space, to explore the environment of making work outside of the conventional walls of the studio. For the first project of studio in my pocket I was quite confused and frazzled to start off with, I wasn’t sure which direction to take the work in or how to make work in such a small and confined space. I started thinking about things I keep in my pockets, I also asked other people and compiled a small list. Money, phone, keys, headphones, tissues, wallet, feminine hygiene products, cigarettes, lighters, gum, tickets, etc. I also thought about how many germs must be in pockets that have tran...

To finish off alternative studio we had to make a piece called cardboard atelier and also a piece about transport. For the cardboard piece I was thinking a lot about homelessness and how they use cardboard as shelter, this developed ideas and got me thinking a lot. I decided to make a replica of my room at uni, but small enough to be almost a shoe box size. it was quite easy to make and reminded me of when I was a child and would make my own dolls houses.   I used a hot glue gun to stick it all into shape and to glue the furniture down. I then wrote onto the cardboard things I asscociate with certain areas of my room, like on the floor I wrote “where drunk friends pass out”, on the bed I wrote “where nghtmares happen”, desk “where I should do work” and I wrote like this on the entire box, but not enough to fully cover it, it was quite subtle. I am happy with this piece, I don’t think that it is my strongest work but there is always room for improvement. For the tran...

One of the many things I love about UCA is that all the students there are of a creative mind. You get to meet people on various courses that will somehow be able to help you and influence your work. I have many friends on the film production course and one of them was kind enough to help me complete my installation piece by helping me hang the many origami birds around Farnham. She was also able to help me by recording the day’s events, but also professionally recording the movement of the piece when installed which adds a greater layer of depth that cannot be seen in the still photographs. I decided to call this piece caged as it was in some way how I felt about the piece being somewhat limited but also because these paper birds are not able to fly, they are forever stuck on a piece of string to be watched by the public. They are caged.

For the second part of the high and low brief we had to make 6 pieces that expanded on what we had already done in the first half of the project. I decided to focus more on the mind and memory in the second high and low. It was more influential for me as my grandfather is currently suffering with dementia and so it is something that I am trying to understand with my own art practise. There is also theme of identity that can be seen in this project, which I think comes from a fear of the future. Something I wrote in my sketchbook while putting together ideas was ‘the brain is meant t be this amazing piece of the body. Its meant to be powerful and strong and yet it fails us every day. My mind is my own worst enemy, it creates the thoughts and all my insecurities. The brain is the thing that gave my grandfather an amazing life but it is also now a curse that makes him forget his life and me. The mind is a beautiful tool that can create amazing things but the humanity of the brain ...

Contemporary art practice – component two The second brief we were given at university was named High and Low. We were asked to create 15 pieces considering altitude, viewpoint, mood and cultural register. The 15 pieces had to be large scale, no smaller than A1 and they also had to be 2D: drawings, paintings, collage, etc. the idea for these pieces was to reverse logic and also look more in depth to the meaning of it. I took inspiration from many artists and from things that surround me, as well as from my own emotions. I have written brief summaries on each piece and attached a photograph to each one. Angelina Jolie For the first piece I wanted to do something familiar to ease myself into the project, but I also wanted to experiment with new materials. Growing up I took influence from strong female characters in movies, Angelina Jolie is one of these women and even to this day I admire her work and the way she is so open about mental health, physical health and her life i...

 Contemporary Art Practice- Component one In this brief we were asked to site a work in either Farnham, Aldershot or Alton. We were asked to make six pieces and develop one final piece to be left behind in our chosen site. As a class we went on a day trip to explore these places and get inspiration from the neighbourhood. I didn’t get much inspiration from Aldershot, there was a sense of a wide community but it also felt very run down and dirty. I thought about creating a piece to bring light and purpose to the area but in the end, I decided to take a more meaningful look into Alton and Farnham. Whilst in Alton, I came across a doorway which had been covered in painting. After researching the historical content of the area and asking my lecturers I found more information on the painting, ‘Jane Austen rice portrait’ by Ozias Humphry 1788. I found this painting quite interesting as it was hidden away on a road that wasn’t pleasant or aesthetic. It was surrounded by colourful ...

Following on from my last post, as promised here is a complete run through of my final piece for my first unit of rotations on my foundation art and design course. As mentioned in previous posts my project was all about mental health, especially anxiety and depression and looking at how this distorts and deforms peoples health.  My final piece was developed from the scanography, which I loved creating and I ended up making a mixed media collage. I captured all the progress and stages on my camera, it took me around a week to ten days to create this piece and I am extremely happy with the outcome.  So, to start creating the piece I selected my favourite scan, which was the one with caution tape around my mouth. I feel this represented my anxiety well, I have to be cautious of what I say because I don't want people to pity me and/or think I'm crazy. There's always an underlying fear that when I open my mouth a hole will open beneath my feet and I will be sucked in wi...

Following from my last post on scanography I recently finished my project on the human form. I further developed the scans into ink pieces, collages and prints and I am very happy with the amount of experimentation I did.  Below are the images of some of the pieces of experimentation I created.  On the ink pieces I placed rock salt on while it was still wet. The rock salt absorbs the pigment from the ink and creates an interesting effect and texture in the ink on the paper. I drew with black marker pen around some of the features to define it more, it didn't turn out the way I had hoped but it created an effect that reminds me of graffiti. I prefer the bright blue ink piece to the darker one as I like how the ink has run down the back and created unplanned patterns on the paper. I particularly like working with ink for this theme. I am focusing on mental health especially with anxiety and depression. Using ink and letting it flow without control makes a drowning sensa...

Following on from my last post another artist who I was asked to research was Jenny Saville. I'm not sure how I feel about her work, I'm torn between liking it and being disturb by it. I love her use of colour and the way she makes the skin appear but there is also something about her work that I don't understand and I'm not even sure what that is.  Inspired by her "squashed" style paintings i started researching and experimenting, playing around with scanography to gain the same type of effect.    I have chosen to concentrate on the distortion and deformity of the human form and after experimenting have decided to stick with the technique of scanography and further adapting to different mediums.  Below are a few examples of what I've been working on so far, over the next few weeks there will be more to follow.