Working Practice - what I do in Art

As you can see from the works to the right I work in colour! From the day I walked into Art College at Walsall I remember saying to one of our tutors that I was interested in colour.

This interest has grown into a passion about what colour does to us and how we have become acustomed to reading meaning into colours because we have become conditioned into doing so in order to survive, e.g. traffic lights.

But all this is just what we have learned to do. My work over the last few years has focussed on the use of colour in relation to musical scores. Many of us have learned to read music. When I was a youngster I used to play the 'cello and I could read the music on my stand and make a noise which saounded something like the tune which the composer had intended. But what if I used a different set of rules for reading that score? What if instead of using sound, by reading the dots and making noises, I rather read the dots and created chunks of colour........ well that is the basis of much of my recent work.

As you can see my works have been placed on walls and buildings....... my colour is located in architecture. This is a key element to many of my creations and it is extending the boundaries of painting beyond the canvas. For some people this is confusing and 'not art' as you will see if you read my diary for my final major project at Walsall - the unions were up in arms because I was doing the work of a 'decorator' because I was painting onto the wall surface rather than a canvas......

The diary of my Walsall Projects can be found here.

COLOURED LIGHT
My wall pieces capture a moment of music flying past the ear and the brain and display them before our eyes for ever! As you can see in my LIGHT work ther real-time dimension of the music is brought into play. The snippet from Event Zero playing in the top left hand corner of this website shows an example of this in practise.

The major achievement of this work has been my reinterpretation of a Beethoven Symphony as Event 1. A 23 minute colour experience is played out before our eyes. The piece was designed to be viewed at a size of 4m by 6m in a dark room. The overwhelming sensation of colour was to match the over whelming sensation of sound when confronted by a symphony orchestra. If you wish to view this work on your computer it is in the MA application pages.

Using coloured light also means that temporary pieces can be created by projecting them onto architectural spaces rather than painting them on.

Further formal text on my Working Practice for my MA application ....

My current working practice is based around the utilization of systems of colour. The particular focus I have most recently been concentrating on is the translation of musical notation into visual experience. This use of sound in art is in contrast to the work of Iain Mott, Marc Raszewski and Jim Sosnin who have sought to use environmental sounds. My work starts with the musical score and reinterprets it – redefining the process of reading a score. What I find most exciting about this work is that we experience a cross-sensory adventure when something which is generally intended to be experienced with one human sense is alternatively experienced e.g. we are required to see what we would customarily hear.
My pieces are applied to architectural spaces for which they were developed. In this way the process of the painter relates to the physical environment of the work. The painting becomes part of the architecture as well as expressing something of the place in which it is set.
In order to provide temporary architectural interventions/interactions with colour I also utilize digitally generated colour. Using light as a working medium adds a further dimension to my work - when projected the works do not physically exist. The pieces are perceived by virtue of something - a screen, wall or other surface… intersecting the progress of the light rays. This work has developed from studying the practice of Thomas Wilfred in his Colour Organ, James Turrel’s use of natural and generated light, and in the contemporary context David Bachelor’s use of bought coloured lighting tubes. By projecting my pieces in different places the human interaction with the light rays creates an intervention with what is otherwise an ‘invisible’ work.
I have a PGCE & taught in the state sector and later studied for the Foundation Diploma in Art & Design. This work and experience has caterpulted me into the MA. I was a creative lead during my time with the Aston Training Scheme for adults. Coming from an initial engineering background I have cross disciplinary skills to manage the complexity of my proposed project. Working in abstract, conceptual and theoretical theological arenas as an anglican priest I have developed intellectual skills necessary for this course of study. I have the interpersonal skills necessary for building bridges between disciplines to forge valuable academic relationships.
I believe that my disparate life experiences and training as an engineer, theologian and educator are being synthesised as I continue in my development as a contemporary artist through this studio and theoretical research programme of study.