Blown Away Art Challenge 3/3
I’m here with a fun extension of the Netflix glass-blowing competition show – Blown Away. Watching the show gave me wild ideas of finding a glass-blowing studio and filling my home with amazing handmade glass! When I got serious with myself (and the logistics!) I realised that fantasy firmly falls in the ‘probably-not-likely-to-eventuate’ realm!
I wanted to make sure the creative fire, lit by the show, was still put to good use! The aim of this post is to allow us to join in on the weekly challenges, no matter what creative realm we play in 🙂
RULES
Loose rules to approach the weekly challenges!
1) Watch an episode – pausing once the judges explain the theme. Allow around 15 minutes to come up with an idea – this is based roughly on what appears to happen on the show!
2) Complete the challenge before watching the rest of the show but if you want to watch the show first I promise I won’t call you out for cheating 🙂
3) Try and stick to the time length given on the show
CHALLENGE
“Design, create and present a piece of art that is inspired by a glass invention that you think made a huge difference in the world – it could have a social impact, a scientific one, environmental, cultural – it’s all fair game.”
I decided to adapt the glass-centric challenge to a more open-ended creative challenge!
“Present a piece of art inspired by an art innovation.”
If you’re completely stuck I have a pinterest board of various art movements filled with artists that have created visual innovations!
Length: 5 hours
Evaluation Criteria: Design/Concept/Technical Skill
MY CHALLENGE
I decided to roll with the first thing that popped into my head and that was ancient Egyptian art and their stylised method of drawing the most recognisable side of an object. I really wanted to pick a contemporary subject (to bring it out of the set time period) so I choose a store-bought bouquet of flowers. In the past challenges I haven’t pushed my technical skills, so I decided to try a technique I’ve never done before – a Gelli Print! I ended up making my own gelli pad using glycerine and agar agar via this recipe and then I watched a few videos on the printing process. I was most intrigued by the ball point pen idea by youtuber Yeates Makes so that’s the technique I ended up going with.
Critique
Season three, episode three, had resident judge Katherine Gray, alongside glass artist Chris Clarke. Technical skill was a recurring comment, Chris mentioned he’d rather see an artist go smaller and the work be well executed than push for scale. Katherine made comment that she wasn’t too sure what one of the artists was trying to say with their piece. They both appreciated when an artist showed off a range of skills, took risks, and wasn’t being too literal or gift store-esque!
My own critique: I’d probably be booted out of this episode or at least the bottom three. I get points for taking a risk and pushing my skills but I think my initial concept and the final piece just weren’t strong enough. I don’t think I was able to convey the tie-in with the art movement/innovation. Luckily I can’t get booted off my own blog series 😛
