I have been thinking a lot about what I would like to focus on and how to do so. I have made a MURAL board filled with art I find inspiring, while keeping a coherent aesthetic. I have also been doodling whenever possible, creating self-expressive pieces specifically using bold lettering to communicate my feelings on relationships, appearance, mental/physical health, and subsequently, what it means to be a woman. These words are alongside many messy self-portraits as my appearance is something I have struggled with over the past year or so. As much as I love portraiture, I regret not having used it to the extent I would like to, therefore this will be a significant part of this project with myself as the subject. Furthermore, because this past year has been particularly stressful, I wanted to choose a subject or aesthetic I know I am passionate about – which I hope will make the process more enjoyable overall, especially when feeling lost.

My research will mainly be carried out online due to resource issues in lockdown. So far, my inspiration has been centred around Tracey Emin, Ines J., Ellen Levine Dodd, Louise Bourgeois, Cy Twombly, as well as some names in the fashion world such as Ann Demeulemeester and Anna Osmekhina. The media and processes I have been using in my early development have mostly been drawing in pencil and coloured pen as they are quick and often made in a moment of emotion. I also plan to use old drawings and dairy entries either for inspiration or directly in my work, as well as photography to aid my self-portraits. I hope to include collage at some point too as I have found this technique to be successful in past projects. Influenced by the artists mentioned above, I plan to create tapestries as well as clothing embellished with the technique of hand embroidery as my sewing machine has recently broken.

I am using a variety of techniques and will spend a day dedicated to contextual research before using each technique, concluded with a blog post. This is particularly important due to my themes subject matter of being a woman, and I think it is crucial to understand each method’s history as this will aid my contextual understanding and may influence how I create.

I am confident in my time keeping skills and ability to follow dates in my timeline, but this does sometimes feel more difficult to continue with when working from home. I aim to create a blog post at least once a week as a way of following my plan and evaluating my work so far, as well as keeping a notebook filled with thoughts, ideas and observations I find while creating. I am excited to use my blog to document and follow the process of my work and research.