Teddy bears picnic

So, since my last post I've become a Daddy and have been working my socks off to produce work for the end of course exhibition at Modern Art Oxford. The tack I had initially taken in response to Faisal Abdu' Allah's work, using photographic imagery as a basis (See attached images) has changed fairly radically.

The original intention was to link to Faisal's central theme of identity and create a number of photo / mixed media pieces in response to my impending fatherhood. This work progressed quite nicely, with some successful experimental trials transferring photographic imagery and working with paint and ink in, what for me, were new and exciting ways. I was really enjoying the making process and producing work which I thought was quite cool.

It was only upon going through the first critique process around February time (incidentally coinciding with the birth of my daughter) that I started to realise that, whilst the imagery was cool and I was having great fun making it, it's meaning was fairly superficial. It no longer represented what fatherhood was all about. The initial imagery, which had been squarely centered on me and my feelings now seemed irrelevant. Fatherhood now seemed to focus more my daughter and the joy she had brought and the potential which awaited her as she entered the world. The photographic approach also seemed somehow crude and dark, unlike my usual art and indeed my personality. Infact, some of this photographic work became so dark I was in fear of showing it to my wife lest she think I'd been body snatched!!

So, I began searching for an alternative take on the idea. I was still keen to pursue the angle of fatherhood and what it meant to me but needed a new angle, a new edge...