Statement of Intent

I have decided to not continue with last year’s themes within my artwork, as I want to develop and gain new skills as an artist. I have decided to venture out onto a completely new them that I’ve never experimented with and that animals I have chosen the theme: Endangered Animals/Species, as I find this subject matter very interesting and think that others should too, I think people should have more awareness of the values that specific animals/species have on and could have a lasting effect if they become extinct. I also want to show the beauty of these animals within my artwork, as I believe that animals are not respected enough and suffer from pain, or even death from certain selfish acts of humans.

I intend on using studio practice very different this year as I want to make sure that I get the most from what the studios can offer. I want to take advantage of the size of the studios by making sure that I produce artwork large in scale. I also want to take in an advantage that third years are with us, so I will ask for advice and opinions from art peers. I also want to take advantage of the open times/ closing times for the studio spaces because I can produce masses of work in the time frames that the studios are open to and from.

I need to research on how other artists have explored the theme of endangered animals, I also want to look at the activist side of it as I think they send powerful messages and it can/will benefit my studies on producing powerful and meaningful artwork based on this taboo subject. I want to work with materials that could potentially be killing the specific animal/species and I want to produce artwork that will get the audience perceiving it, to question it. I want to experiment with different materials, especially ones that I do not feel comfortable with as it will help with my skills as an artist. I also want to experiment with photoshop to help me plan and gain an idea on what would look good as a final piece/ finishing product. I also want to experiment more with the digital filming aspect as potentially I want to ask for permission of filming in a zoo to capture endangered animals and to show how they are trapped in cages etc.

I want to gain confidence in talking about my work in greater depth in front of peers and large groups of people, I think this will benefit me in the long-term run. I would like to move away from working on smaller canvases and branch out onto using larger scaled mediums, as well as using other materials other than canvases as I’m not confident with using other mediums. I also would like to experiment with 3d elements within my work as I think it will give my art pieces a more powerful message and will make the audience engage with it more.