BOW progress and feedback (1 Viewer)

[clairethebear]

Well, we had to hand our works in for school marking about 2 weeks ago. I didn't really get very good feedback on mine. I spent a lot of time doing mine, which is photography. One of my pieces is a giant board consisting of a newborn baby, with the umbilical cord still attached, with a lot of other pictures showing the first few hours after birth. I was originally going to put photos of the actual birth in, but decided against it thinking it might be too graphic. My other pieces are of still lifes etc (mostly plants, flowers and insects) and the relationships these things have with man made objects. Anyway, my teacher thinks I should scrap the birth ones, and he wasn't too happy with the still lifes. I have shown many people all my pieces, and they all love them for the content and not the techniques or style.......some like them for that too. My teacher says they're too personal. What am I supposed to make of that? Do I go by what the teacher says or what the majority of people think? Personally, I want to keep them in it.
What does everyone else think?
Plz let me know, they're due in 2 weeks!

 

[tash]

erm well you're teacher should know best- i personally don't know if too personal is good or not. try talking to teachers from other schools perhaps?

 

[clairethebear]

that's a good idea, thanks tash

 

[saladsurgery]

i think, if you like your idea, stick with it. get a few second opinions and stuff though... other art staff, teachers from other schools, if you know any practising artists etc...

but the birth thing sounds really cool + unique. if you think about it, there will probably be a fair few other still lives (in photography or painting/drawing, whatever), but how may other people do works around the process of birth?

and plenty of people do personal stuff. firstly there's frida kahlo, every man and his dog studies her in art at one time or another. everything she did related to her life. and if you look at old artexpress catalogues, there's always at least one person who's done a series of images of their friends/teachers, or stuff relating to them.

if the only reason your teacher doesn't like them is because they're 'too personal', i don't think that's really a valid reason.

i think go with the birth one, really. but then you risk a low internal mark, cos your teacher apparently doesn't like them... also, perhaps, if you have a really good reason for including the actual birth photos (it'd better be pretty tight though, you couldn't just make something up), you could include those too.

nothing wrong with a bit of controversy (eg. Ron Mueck, Dead Dad, 1996; Marc Quinn, Self, 1991; Marcus Harvey, Myra, 1995, Mat Collishaw, Bullet Hole, 1988, and pretty much anything by Jake and Dinos Chapman (Zygotic Acceleration, Biogenetic Desublimated Libidinal Model (Enlarged x 1000), 1995; Great Deeds Against The Dead, 1994, Tragic Anatomies, 1996, etc...), or Damien Hirst (This Little Piggy Stayed Home, 1996; Some Comfort Gained In The Acceptance Of the Inherent Lies In Everything, 1996)... alot of these works are pretty graphic/violent/disturbing/controvertial, but they're still pretty famous.

 

[clairethebear]

Thank's a lot saladsurgery, that was really a confidence booster!!! The reason I wanted to put those photos of afterbirth in was because it shows the part of birth that most people don't see......including the mother - who is the one giving birth! I thought creating a bit of controversy would go well with the markers too. And you're right, we have studied a lot of those artists in class.....like Ron Mueck and Marc Quinn. I especially like Ron Mueck, he also is trying to show the less favourable side of situations in life, or the side not many people see.
So thanks very much for your help!

 

[Belle]

Speaking from personal experience, if your teacher wants you to seriously modify your work, do what YOU want to do.

Between the beginning of the year and about a month ago I went through about 15 different ideas, no exaggeration - all because my teacher told me they weren't good enough. 'You're not good enough at painting/photography/sketching/sculpture/graphic design.. to do that', 'It's not sculpturally sound', 'It's not good enough', 'I don't like this and this, oh and this bit sucks too.'

You name it, I've heard it. I wouldn't have an artwork in progress at all if I'd listened to my teacher, she's full of crap. Honestly, I made a huge mistake listening to her, and I wouldn't want to put anyone through the same thing. Now I'm doing my own thing, and while my teacher's telling me off every lesson, I don't care.

Basically, my point is, it's your work. Pointers are fine but don't let your teacher turn your art into his art. It's not worth it.

 

[clairethebear]

That's right you know, my teacher says the exact same thing.."it's not good enough" etc.... thank god I'm not the only one copping that! Maybe the rest of NSW has to put up with teachers who set their expectations too high!

 

[silbi]

our teacher has never put us down. even if our work looked a bit tacky his always been there to help us out and figure out how to make it that one bit better~