My family, and other strangers

I think I got a little carried away this week with my inkblot spraying. I discovered black ink on white paper does some amazing things when you blow it around with a straw. Then I discovered that using compressed air allows for even more flexibility and creativity (added bonus: not falling over from hyperventilation!). I loved it so much that I spent most of the week playing with that instead of paying attention to my homework. By Saturday morning, I realized I didn't have anything to bring to class and had to whip together something, fast!

The brief was focused on an article written by a woman with Asperger's syndrome. She focuses on the theme that we shouldn't use any known 'models' of normal to categorize her or others with autism, as well as her experiences with synaesthesia. I wanted to somehow incorporate her idea of 'among them, but not of them,' concept, and how she felt she was a stranger amongst almost everyone. I also wanted to use the concept of models and had the idea of dolls on a conveyor belt.

Using the same ink spraying technique from the week, I created four 'dolls.' Individually, I loved each of them, intact as they were on A4 paper. Then, as I began to cut them out and glue them into a sort of montage, they became disjointed somehow. Every time I cut, it hurt a little more, and with each cut I realized how far from the target of the brief I had strayed. The brief was supposed to be an editorial piece on autism and synaesthesia. Instead, I gave a 'disneyfied' piece that could have been an advert for children's art supplies, or characters from a kid's tv series, not at all usable in an editorial fashion.

It was a complete failure, and if this had been 'real' school, I would have received failing marks. Sue even said so. In the morning group critique, she actually finished with, "but thank you for at least bringing something to show us." How humiliating! Sometimes it's good to royally fuck up. In my arrogance I had become self-indulgent, and I am again humbled.

On a positive note, my instructor loved the dolls, loved the use of sprayed ink and thought several of the dolls were 'sexy.' She gave me some sound advice for where these images could appear as published work, and advice for my final project, which I have three weeks for, and is self-directed.

The long image of the four girls was the piece I submitted. The image of five pictures are the initial sketches and colour studies I did in the first week of the project. The others are doodles (hence the messiness).