Megan Rodgers - Evaluation

Immediately after the FMP launch presentation I asked one of my tutors Richard for a tutorial to reflect on my work so far and how I can progress. We discussed my strengths – exploration of subjects, quantity of work produced and my drawing technique. We also looked at aspects for further development which were working up in scale and being prepared to re-work my drawings.

My initial idea was identity and looking at my relationship between me and my family. I experimented with exposure on manual setting to produce blurred/ distorted images so that I had something to work from. Also I made a short film of my brother to take stills to draw from, looking at the relationship between me and my brother. This lead to my tutor showing me the artist Richard Billingham. I didn’t follow through with my plan because I didn’t want to work from images, I wanted to work from direct observation.

I travelled down to a UAL drawing conference at The National Portrait gallery in London with Jamie which explored how individuals both in and outside art, use drawing. I found Ali Mawle’s and Colin Wiggin’s discussion inspirational. They talked about the work of Jenny Saville. Taking inspiration from masterpieces, she made reproduction drawings after Leonardo’s ‘The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and John the Baptist’ I learnt that this work was about her experiences in motherhood. Multiple impressions are drawn, erased and super-imposed. Their relationship is expressed in a series of dynamic poses and it shows how Saville struggles to keep control of her struggling child. They also discussed the work of Frank Auerbach in particular, the drawings he made of the artwork around The National Gallery which were short studies. This work is now displayed in the Galleries café. I was inspired by these drawings especially Frank Auerbach’s because I felt I could relate to his drawings by his use of materials. I had already known about Frank Auerbach because I saw one of his self-portraits in the National Portrait Gallery earlier in the year which is what I think inspired me to do my self-portrait.

I feel like my work started to progress further after my self-portrait and after my experience at the drawing conference because I think they both gave me more confidence in my passion for drawing. This is when I began working larger in scale. I also began thinking about how I could move my project further by asking other students to pose for me who were willing, as I had been drawing mostly at home. I realised I had been drawing family and friends because it was an environment I felt most comfortable. Drawing others at college had its challenges because I had to adapt to much shorter poses as I work from observation and I can’t expect students to pose for long periods. However, I did go back to drawings and re-work them. I find it much more interesting working from observation because I think it gives the work a more personal insight as I learnt through reading ‘Tom Phillips Portraits’ book. He practise's over many sittings as he is a slow worker, which gives him the opportunity to get to know his subject in depth; their personality, moods and expressions because over many sittings the sitter will start to relax into a natural pose. However my drawings are more immediate.

I began to look at other ways of drawing. I drew with wire from observation in the life drawing class which lead me to make portraits from home as well. I took professional images of these in the photography studios which I used to support my drawings for my entry into Wimbledon college of Art & Design.

After working with wire in two-dimensional form I felt confident in experimenting three-dimensionally. However, I made a small clay figure just to get used to working with other materials first. My plan was to make a large wire sculpture of the human form after researching into some of Antony Gormley’s wire sculptures. Before this, I tried using thin wire to make a large sculpture from observation of one of the other students in hourly sessions but it didn’t have any support at all. Rosa Verloop is a sculpture artist who works with stuffed stockings and twists them into a human figure. I was inspired by the textural qualities and began experimenting with the heat gun over tights on a ball of wire mesh and soldering onto wire however the solder wouldn’t stick.

The copper wire mesh became the best option because of the support. I was able to photograph the life model and worked from the photographs that I had taken at the different angles I needed.  The head had enough support but as I progressed onto larger parts of the body, I started to lose the support. I asked my 3-d tutor and she suggested trying to manipulate the body more like I did with the head. I struggled and started to think I was too ambitious. I placed my sculpture in different parts of the exhibition space and found that placing it onto a plinth against a wall gave the sculpture more support and experimented with spot lights. The spot lights made the sculpture glow and gave an effect I liked so I decided to leave the sculpture and consider it finished when lit.

We had a budget for framing in the exhibition and agreed on 2xA0 and 1xA1 because I needed large frames for my drawings. I knew that I would need a large space for my three frames and sculpture. People who needed booths got their spaces first because they needed certain spaces to accommodate their work. The show was successful because it was curated by staff and students rather than everyone just being given a space or a board. This allowed us to learn about preparing, curating and hanging an exhibition. This final learning will prepare us for the next level at university.