For my first day of this project, I started by looking through newspapers. After circling a few stories, I settled on a international article about a mass shooting which took place in Texas just two days ago (August 31), which tragically left 7 dead and 22 injured.

After writing a few initial and quick responses (above), I started mind-mapping ideas as seen in the following;

My main subheadings were safety, death, gun laws, violence, mental health, and authority. These were the main links I thought related to this specific story which would help me to develop my ideas further.

I then made a few sample pieces of textures which related to guns, using charcoal and marker pen on tinfoil. I also used white crayon and pencil on black paper to try out some colour ideas.

I decided to specify my project towards safety. I made a second mindmap which branches off into ideas related to this word. Security stuck out to me – and I began thinking about what it means.

Security makes me think of two very different sides of a spectrum – the man made security we use for protection (chains, metal, locks, cameras etc.), but also the vulnerable side to this us as humans. I wanted to use heavy man made materials to resemble protection and restriction from harm. Looking into the more vulnerable side, it took me to the route of innocence in children. I wanted to resemble this in my piece.

I first experimented with paperclips and hot glue. This allowed me to explore how I wanted to use these materials regarding shape, and position.

I tried to make the childish aspect as obvious as I could using colour and pattern.

The chain and padlock resemble protection over the vulnerable and innocent.