‘1960s Dollhouse’

Oil and collage on wood

@katiebragg_art

‘1960s Dollhouse’ is a painting that displays the nostalgia I have for the ‘60s. I created my own fantasy ‘60s world in order to escape the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. I photographed myself as my ‘60s alter-ego and collaged myself into invented interior spaces. COVID related newspaper clippings can be seen in the windows, invading my dream state. I wanted my work to have a painterly appearance so I incorporated abstraction; this can be seen as patterns derived from wallpaper of the period that bleed into the ceiling. The doorway on the right leads to another one of my paintings causing a sense of inception. I want my paintings to resonate with a viewer’s own desire to escape our current reality into a nostalgic and more vibrant illusion.

Destination: Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Leeds Arts University

‘Giving Back’

@forgettingjudy

This was a piece of art created around the concept of 'giving back'. I took colour and shapes from my surroundings and used these to create this design which I later reinstalled back into my environment. The piece is a digitally assembled composition, containing the numbers 0-9 created in oil pastels based around my own two colour palettes. I strived to put colour into my locality in an attempt to increase the rapture in my once faded surroundings. As an artist, the use of colour is very important to me as it helps me express myself through my materials.

'Chaos Grids'

@mollyflavellart

My project focuses on the idea of logic vs chaos through imagery of grids that progressively become more abstract. The concept is, are we constantly surrounded by logic and order or is it all chaos? This is presented in the form of an artist book, the further into the book you go the grids become more abstracted and therefore more chaotic.

I planned to create two different exhibitions, one that was indoor and focused around the book as an object, and one as a guerilla exhibition. The guerilla exhibition would showcase projections of my book pages on buildings undergoing construction all around Leeds.

Destination: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leeds Arts University

'Repetition and Difference'

The series depicts my interpretation of the theory of ‘Repetition and Difference’ via the subject of tree formations. The structures are composed of groups of repeated angular motifs, taken from branch formations of trees and recreated with angular lines using the side of my hand/fingers. The theory, written by philosopher Gilles Deleuze, explains how differences will always occur within repetitive processes. I linked this theory with tree structures via the natural processes of entropy and evolution, both of which occur during tree development. To show this evolution, each individual work is a series of its own: the same structure is layered in each repetition but small details such as angles are slightly distorted and the process documented photographically. The unevenly textured surface, some areas rough and ridged and some smooth and flat, reflects the concept of a natural entropic breakdown.

Destination: BA (Hons) History of Art, University of York

'Tadcaster: Mental Map'

White acrylic and black ink on board

@erinfurmingerart

I have explored psychogeographical approaches to creating art and how to use them to represent specific locations. This piece is based on my home town, Tadcaster. I layered my final piece with personal memories and stories, including those of the past, with illustrations based on certain buildings and events that hold a meaning to me. I have combined these with factual research and drawings of Tadcaster maps, buildings and history of the town along with other relevant information. The cartoon–like personal symbols, combined with the circles of packed writing and drawings, I felt represented the way in which we understand the complexity of our memories and experiences.

Destination: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Nottingham Trent University

'Ordered Chaos'

Acrylic on canvas

'Ordered Chaos' is a series of paintings which resulted from an exploration into grids. I became interested in the order within grids, and enjoyed subverting this with chaos. The series is a result of explorations in which I manipulated different grids, breaking this order and developing a series of motifs which repeated throughout the whole project. The series combines both order and chaos, initially appearing complex, with order appearing through repetitions and consistencies. This juxtaposition is a feature of my practice as an artist as I frequently work with juxtapositions and change.

Destination: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Liverpool John Moores University

‘Unfiltered’

Through my research into socially acceptable stereotypes of femininity, my work aims to explore what it is that makes up ‘femininity’. I explore how I can challenge those stereotypes through the representation of the female form - poses, details, markings and use of beauty products.

With this series of final sculptures I think I have represented the diversity of female body types. With the use of beauty products on these truthful forms I hope that the viewer considers the affects the beauty industry has on society.

Destination: Level 2 Beauty at White Rose Beauty

'11 Dreams'

My final piece is a composite of distorted faces and features that defy perspective, painted in a psychedelic and surreal style. It is inspired by imagery from my dreams and the verbs to stretch, to enlarge and to add. I have focussed on using a bright analogous colour theme to create the 3D illusion.

I want my work to express the symbolic images and bizarre characteristics that are created by imagination, dreams and emotions when dreams rebound.I want my artwork to be so distracting, whatever the emotion the audience feels towards it, positive or negative they just focus and live in a moment away from reality.

Destination: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Liverpool John Moores University 

'White Painting'

Mixed media painting on canvas

This white painting explores the beauty of nature without the distraction of colour. Its textural and detailed qualities express the surfaces within nature that people don't always see. I am exploring these surfaces with the absence of colour so that the viewer can see the materiality of the painting for what it is. 

Destination: Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Leeds Arts University

'Memories'

@amber_artx

'Memories' is a series of abstract pieces that use the circle as a physical form to express the metaphysical idea of memories. I created an alphabet of circle forms - the characteristics of which evoke the different feelings experienced by each memory. I have also explored the symbolism of a circle and the scientific approaches to understanding how memory functions. This has given me a logic to the process of how my work is made and composed. The aim of my work is to allow the viewer to have time to reflect on their own individual memories and to consider how memories make us who we are today.

Destination: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leeds Arts University

‘Higher States’

@helenaspellsart

‘Higher states’ is a portal that uses relief in pattern to express human experience through the characteristics of formal elements.

This piece is a visual story about the stages of addiction to recovery, which are identified as pain, abuse, contemplation, the tower moment, death and rebirth. I wanted to provide an immersive experience through my hierarchy of colours (blue, purple, pink) to symbolise the period of change in this transformation. This idea of an immersive experience relates to the idea of escapism, which is why people seek relief through addiction. By working with relief and using a portal shape I want to encourage a desire to touch or jump into the piece.

Destination: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Liverpool John Moores University

'Untitled'

Oil Painting on masking-tape

@harvey.s.stapleton

This is the final painting in a series of paintings that make the connection between the accumulation of paint and texture with our accumulation of objects to which we feel attached. The painting is an expression of my own relationship with material attachments. Material attachment is any kind of attachment to an inanimate object. The base of the painting is a highly textured surface made up of hand rolled strips of masking-tape, stuck together into clusters. Bringing all the clusters together into a single surface created a sense of busyness and clutter representative of the masses of stuff that fills our lives. 

Destination: BA (Hons) Painting, University of Edinburgh

'Subjective Absence'

Graphite on paper

I want my drawings to be a visual translation of the contrast between less and more through the concept of subjective absence. I want the viewer to notice the impact the absences have on the rest of the images and how absence still has presence.

I want the viewer to feel at first confused because they can’t specifically recognise what's missing. However, the longer they look the more they notice: the absences are almost a vessel for their imagination.

Destination: Foundation Diploma in Art & Design, Leeds Arts University

'Hypnotic Quips'

ajtartist.wixsite.com/portfolio

Hypnotic Quips is a series of 13 poems inspired by phrases that I have collected over 5 years. The quips often came at random times (such as spotting things on my bus journey home) or as a way to vaguely communicate my feelings. The visual and typographic form the poems take is deliberately hard to read to make the audience recognise the difficulty of remembering memories.

The book of poems is encased in a handcrafted box which is proposed to be sent out to the people who inspired each of the poems. Receiving a box would be a bizarre experience as a white box, sealed shut with ‘I’m fragile’, is put onto a billionaire’s desk. Inside the bizarre box is a bizarre book of bizarre poems about the childhood of a fine art student they’ve never met but one they are going to know very well once they spend the day reading the mysterious book.

Destination: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leeds Arts University

'Untitled'

Charcoal, graphite and white pencil on wooden panels tinted with an acrylic paint wash

@eviewilsonart

This series depicts a range of hand drawings which vary in detail, shadows and highlights. The series shows a clear use of Chiaroscuro, an Italian term meaning the contrast between light and dark, through the harsh and obvious juxtaposition of the shadows and highlights. I used Chiaroscuro to show ‘more or less’ within my series by adding or subtracting detail and highlights. This creates a further contrast in style as minimalism clashes with enhanced realism.

The work is to be viewed in a series, from left to right, or right to left. As one direction increases in tones, when looking the other way, a decrease is shown. One of my most prominent pieces in my series is the beginning drawing. The drawing is exhibited on the lightest background of them all, with a simple white outline creating a hand shape of negative space. This is an opportunity to allow the viewer to imagine the hand in real life and all the details which are currently lacking. However, the viewer is quickly pulled from their imagination when viewing the second hand on the panel as it is overwhelmingly detailed.

Destination: BA (Hons) Fine Art, Leeds Arts University

'Glissando'

Mixed media drawing

@larasarttt

Through my research into synesthesia and music I became particularly interested in Abstract Expressionism and how I can visualise music and emotions through drawing. My aim was to explore how I can respond to the song ‘I’m made of wax, Larry, what are you made of?’ by A Day To Remember, through 2D abstract languages (mark-making, colour). My work expresses how you can visualise music. For me, music can be a physical thing that you can see and feel. It can have a great emotional and physical impact. You should think about the music you listen to and why you listen to it. What would your life be like without music?

Destination: BSc (Hons) Mental Health Nursing, Leeds Beckett University