Grahams seminar and first artist talk.

Today I had a seminar with Graham to discuss where we were at on our project. He told me to question why people portray the human body as grotesque. He also gave me a few things to look at including the Marqx idea of Alienation. We also discussed Francis Bacon which he told me about a conversation with David Svester and Francis Bacon. We also discussed a brief histroy about Goya which could help.

We then had a visiting artist called Ben Cove. He uses mixed media including Video, Paint and sculpture to do his work. His paintings are usually place on wheels which assists him moving around the paintings in the studio. His work from the past involves the superman from the 70s. Christopher Reed was palarysed sometime after the superman film. Ben Cove uses this to mark the end of the American dream. Ben is mainly influenced by his interest in archetecture and makes this well known in his work, sometimes even using archetecture drawings. He has been in many exhibitions which includes a talk on record about the future of archetecture. He makes the record spin the opposite way in the video. One of his recent works involve skulls wrapped around with cotton which are placed on top of spikes. This could represent tribal cultures or making territories. Ben also uses the Bauhuas as a source of influence to generate his drawings. Artistic influence comes from John McCraken, Phillip Guston and Steve Claydon. Bens work comes from Abstract and Expressionists technique for his work.

I found that the whole ideas he had with sculpture mixed with painting to be very interesting. I myself might even try to do this sometime to experiment more between the two. Even if it mixes mediums across to each other.

My next plan of action for tomorrow will be to:

• Start making more drawings of my photographed figures
• Try and use different techniques on the form
• try to create a stage using the expressions the figures give