In this post I will be documenting why I chose the Banksy image ‘Follow your dreams, cancelled’. I chose this because it stood out to me as being the opposite message. I took this image and turned it around to suit myself during this time of my life. I interpreted it as being ‘ Follow your dreams, accepted’. This is because I am currently following my dreams of pursuing an art career as I am studying a fine art degree at Cardiff Met University. I was asked to swop images with Tash and make an artwork based on her image. She chose her image because it is very personal to her. She chose a photograph of her home town in Chester. I wanted to use the same idea she had for choosing this image in my artwork. I was fascinated with the shadow in the photograph because the shadows were very man-made and consisted of lots of straight lines. My home town is Cwmbran and I thought about how different it looks where I live to Chester. I live by a mountain so the shadows I see are very natural and they come in all shapes and sizes. My artwork became shadows of the trees and leaves. I wanted to include this practise in my blog because this helped my with my Banksy image. From doing this task I thought back to how a piece of art or image relates to my personal life. As the Banksy image spoke to me because I interpreted it as being ‘Follow your dreams, accepted’. But with the image Tash chose I interpreted it as what my surroundings are like where I live compared to hers. from doing this task it only made me realise what I was doing with the Banksy image and I realised why I chose it.
I then had to make a piece of artwork like I did with Tashes image and make an artwork based on the Banksy, ‘Follow your dreams, Cancelled’. I took this image and played around with it in different ways. I made sketches of the idea that I am following my dreams by going to university. I also changed the slogan to ‘Follow your dreams, Accepted’ , as if it was a challenge that I needed to fulfil. I then made a final artwork and changed the idea completely. I wanted tackle a serious idea like Banksy does. As Banksy is known for bringing forth dark humour, works of political and social commentary that have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities. I wanted to do this but with my own social idea that I believed need addressing. I wanted to address race and racism. This is because I am interested in this topic. I have learnt about the Civil Rights movement in America and how much power they had to bring forth equality. As Britain is a multicultural country I decided it would be good to remind everyone how far we have come as equals but still be reminded discrimination is still around in other countries around the world. I decided to draw a woman of both races and across the face graffiti the word ‘accept’ . Accept because its what I feel is very important. This doesn’t just mean we should accept people of all races and ethnicities. We should be reminded to accept everyone for who they are. I realise this is not my best piece of work, I feel now looking back it would have worked better with photography, rather than my drawing. I struggled to capture the idea of it being street art. I did not this this piece was a success and quickly moved onto screen printing the word accept. However I have learnt so much from doing the task of swopping artworks and images with Tash because I realised how I interpret artwork. I realised no matter what artwork I see I will always try and relate it to myself. It was a good image because it was good to experiment with but I have realised that trying to get artwork that everyone can relate to like Banksy can isn’t what I’m best at. I will make artwork that relates to me and is personal to me as I feel this is how I can achieve a better outcome and artworks.
Charis' Fine Art Blog 