Weekly reflectionWeek 1,2 and 3 (14/03/2022-01/04/2022) The first three weeks were generating ideas and researching for concepts. Therefore, during this time I produced the three major ideas, shown in the blog, analyzed, compared and selected one of them them as the topic for my final piece. During the third week we, also, had a work shop regarding the laser cutter, which helped me to develop my ideas as a new technique and opportunity had been introduced to me. This period of time was quite challenging and intense as I had to focus on the main part of the final piece, therefore the starting point, which was about choosing the concept. Week 4 (04/04/2022-10/04/2022) Week four was, still, about research and working upon the concept of the final piece. However, at this point I had decided the technique and the style that I later implemented in my final outcome; painting in the Sufi style. We, also went on a class trip to London at the Victoria & Albert museum for primary research. In there, I found some extremely useful artworks and idea that has helped me to develop my work such as the amazing patterns and paintings with metaphorical meanings, present in the Islamic art department. Week 5 and 6 (11/04/2022-25/04/2022) These two weeks were holidays weeks, therefore I produced sketches, drawing and proceed with research to develop the ideas further. As mentioned in the blog, during this time period I kept looking for stories and suitable issues to display through the Sufi art style and worked on a range of topics and produced the respective drawings to visually analyze my ideas. Week 7 (25/04/2022-01/05/2022) During week 7, we had another workshop but this about screen printing, so we explored and experimented this technique and created several samples. I utilized this opportunity to experiment the look of the frame that I was planning to create around the main design in the final piece. By doing so, I realized that the design for the frame was not good enough and need to develop it further by adding more patterns and increasing their size to make it relevant to Sufi art. Week 8 (01/05/2022- 08/05/2022) This week was about practical work as my planning was completed and everything was ready to go on the canvas. Therefore, having the concept, the design, the message and the layout ready and planned, I began to draw the design on the canvas but before that I had to prepare the canvas; making it clean by painting it fully white. Week 9,10 and 11 (08/05/2022-27/05/2022) During these three weeks I only worked on the practical making of my final piece, therefore painted all the time starting from the bigger parts such as the rose, leaves or the people to the sophisticated and detailed parts such as the frames and the patterns in it. This was a very challenging part physically and required a high level of patience and was, also, very time consuming a I have worked on it for 6-7 hours continuously, at some points. However, the exhibition took place on the 27th of May and fortunately, I have been successful to complete the artwork in time for the exhibition with working till the last moment. Week 12 (28/05/2022-06/06/2022)
The last week was holiday week in which we had the chance to finish off any remaining work such as the essay and some little missing tasks for me. These week was extremely helpful and needed to check the previous work and make an adjustment if required.
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PresentationOnce the painting was completed, I also had to think about its presentation at the exhibition. Therefore, I formulated 3 different idea on how to display it:
Evaluating and comparing these ideas, made me chose the third one, as displaying it in that way would have created a historical and antique look in my painting and therefore, reflecting the Sufi style. Artist statementBefore placing my painting in the exhibition I had to write the artist statement, which I have wrote with the help of my tutor.
The artist statement was supposed to include my name, course name, the name of the artwork, what I will be studying next year and a brief description about my skills and where I got the inspiration from to create this artwork. The images below show my painting in the exhibition and my artist statement. Now that I had decided the quote and how to convey the message that it carries throughout making some sketches, the only confusion that I had at that time was; how to show "success" as the quote encourages the reader to recognize his/her abilities and work hard to obtain success. Therefore, I began to create a couple of sketches that shows what was in my mind about how to metaphorically represent success such as climbing mountains, which is usually shown in photographs or artworks that highlights the same message as mine; motivation. It, also, symbolizes hard work, facing challenges and going higher.
Although, I could not understand the meaning of these flowers or what the symbolize, but they highly fascinated and after some reflections I came to an end that I will use a flowers to symbolize success and the result of staying motivated, in my painting. As flowers have stems which would stand for the path that you have to walk on if you want to reach the petals which are beautiful, perfumed and attractive and would typify "success". The sketches below show my initial drawings of different types of flowers, before creating the final one that I have, later on, in my final piece.
Frame and patternsNow that I had decided the main design, it was time to think about the frame and the patterns as Sufi paintings are, mostly, surrounded by heavy frames including typical Islamic patterns and flower designs. So, I began my research to find out some Sufi frames design and patterns. I, also, looked at the images that I have taken during (shown below) our class trip to London at the Victoria & Albert museum at Islamic Art department and found out some really interesting and fascinating designs. Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Among all the beautiful and creative artworks above, the one that I found more fascinating and suitable for my work is this "flower shaped" pattern, shown above. The image next to it, shows all the details relating to this artwork. Therefore, I made my mind to utilize this pattern in the frame that I will be making around my main design. Taking in consideration the time in which I had to complete the final piece, I realized that if I repeat this pattern all around the painting to create a frame, than I might not be able to finish it on time as it is quite complex to draw and to paint. Therefore I decided to only draw it on 4 the corners of the canvas and try something else for the rest of the frame. The images below show the cyanotype that my tutor made for me inspired by an unkown piece of tile placed at V&A museum. Experiment 1Experiment 2We, also, had a workshop in which we experimented a new technique; screen printing. This has helped me to experiment how the frame, that I was planning to create, would have looked by repeating the "flower shaped" pattern from the V&A. To make the screen prints, I first had to hand draw the pattern (image 1) and upload it to Photoshop to than repeat it in order to create a frame out of it (image 2) and printed it put on an acetate sheet which, consequently, has been utilized to create the screen (image 2&3) to produce screen prints. The images below show the entire process and the prints that I have created. Some of my prints were successful; accurate, detailed and clear, however a couple were, also, unsuccessful; dull and as sometimes I did not put enough pressure or the screen moved, while spreading the paint, consequently the patterns came out be unclear and missing some parts. I tried different colour on different fabrics, however the most successful were the ones on white colour fabric, as the white background let the patterns be well visible and aye cathing. To make a screen print you have to:
H&SThe link below is of a website the instructs about health and safety awareness relating the screen printing process. https://blog.mclogan.com/screen-printing-safety/ Experiment 3Other making cyanotype and screen printing samples of patterns from the V&A, I, also, looked some traditional Islamic patterns on Pinterest, where I found highly impressive and creative ones. The images below shows some example. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/247979523223507195/?mt=login I have tried to draw out some of these beautiful patterns and flowers but due to limited time I only had the chance to drew the pattern shown on the top left side. However, the pattern that I decided to take as inspiration for the frame, for my final piece, is the one the top right side. The reason why I chose this is because it is simple, comparing it to other typical Islamic patterns, and suitable for my design and the size of the frame that I was planning to create. Starting the paintingPhase 1Now that everything was ready, so I was able to began with the painting. I asked my tutor for a canvas and she had only two available at that moment, one was too big and the second was, exactly, what I needed but, unfortunately, it was used before by a student and had a painting on it. But I took that canvas anyway and started to paint it white to cover the painting that was already present on it. I, firstly, used a brush to paint (image ) but than realized that it was taking me so much time, therefore I used a piece of sponge (image 2&3), instead, to spread the white paint all over the canvas. Following that, I dried the paint using hot air (image 4), as it is visible in the picture below. However the result was not really satisfying, so I did the same process again and placed a much more thicker layer of paint which brought much better result and the surface was clean and smooth. Phase 2Once the canvas was totally dry, I began to draw onto it and to prevent mistakes and keep the it clean, I decided to avoid free hand drawing but printed out my drawings and cover the back of the papers with pencil, stick the papers onto the canvas with the pencil covered area down side and trace the images using pressure, as shown in the picture below. I started with the rose and followed with all the other components. Once I completed the tracing part, than I decided to retrace all the drawing to see them easily and clearly. Phase 3The next step which is, also, the most important one, was to start painting. I was slightly nervous about this phase as it has been long time that I have not painted, therefore I was not feeling much confident about my skills. But when I started to paint and my nervousness disappeared as I began with light and thin layers and continued to add dark, bright and thick layers using acrylic paints, which created the look that I was looking for; realistic. This made me feel comfortable and confident, which led me to create a pleasing painting. Leaves: for the leaves I have used different shades of green, yellow and blue paints. Rose and wings: for the rose I have used various colours including red, orange, yellow and brown. However for the wings I have used only black and white paints. Phase 4The fourth phase was to make the frame, which was the most time consuming and challenging part as it required a lot of patience. So , every step is shown below from tracing to painting and adding the metallic paint to make it look shiny as Sufi paintings are. The colours that I have used for the frame are red, blue as during my research I have seen the majority of Islamic patterns to be in this colour, metallic gold and brown in the background to give it a look of wood. Phase 5
Phase 6Phase 6 was about painting the background with metallic gold paint. The reason why I chose this colour is because it is widely visiblele in historical Islamic and Sufi paintings, therefore to make it look like a proper Sufi style painting. I created three layers with this paint to make look bright and attractive. Final phaseThe last phase was to write down the quote. The first image below show my ideas in the beginning regarding the layout of the quote, however later on, taking in consideration the space available in the painting, I chose the first idea to write it simply on straight lines.
The website below is where I read Rumi's quotes and picked out two of them to work on for my final piece. https://quotefancy.com/rumi-quotes Now, I had the base for my final piece but was not sure how to proceed, how to deliver the message of "staying motivated" and how to visually present this concept. Therefore, I began to research for motivational artworks and photographs, on the internet, to take insipiration from. The photographs below are the ones that I found most interesting and relevant to my idea and concept. Rough sketchesThe sketches below have been made by me after looking at other artists' work and focusing on the selected quotes of Rumi. Quote 1: "Your heart knows the way, run in that direction". For the first quote, I was slightly confused and struggling to draw something out of that simple but highly inspiring quote. But than, I had the idea to pick out words from the quote and draw what comes to my mind looking at those words and phrases. Therefore, I drew a heart, a person running upwards and a mobile phone showing a map with directions (first page). On the second page, however, I tried to compose the previous drawings together to make them more meaningful; a heart in the form of a GPS that shows directions, as mentioned in the quote. Quote 2: "You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?
Once the sketches were completed, I evaluated them and compared them to see which one would have been the strongest idea. And personally, the second one seemed to be more creative and attractive to me, as it is more detailed and shows every phase and, also, because it brings some certain positive thoughts in my mind which encourages me to do not quit but keep on working towards what I aim for.
While producing the final piece, we also had a workshop in which we learned about the laser cutter; how it works and what it can produce. The images below show the artworks that had been made with the laser cutter, utilizing different materials such as cardboard, wood, glass, fabric or even normal paper. Laser cutter is ideal to produce precise, easy, and accurate artworks or patterns. How a laser cutter works;
We, also, had a live demonstration of how this laser cutter works (image shown above). The teacher produced these little rabbit shaped papers and pattern with sophisticated details to show us two different kinds of shapes that can be made using the same machine and technique. This workshop was interesting, informative and useful. At that time, I was looking for ideas and techniques for my final piece and exploring a new technique helped me gather some ideas such as producing something relating to Sufi at or Sufism onto a glass tile, as I had seen, on Pinterest, some similar artworks. H&SThe link below is of a website that instructs about the awareness relating safety when it comes to use the laser cutter. https://ehs.wisc.edu/laser-cutter-safety/
Following the discussion with my tutor, I began to look for contemporary social issues and stories, either from the internet and by evaluating the circumstances around me based on the day to day life. I found some really interesting stories to portray and social issues to highlight, below there is a mind map that shows the topics that fascinated me the most. 1) Ramadan 2022: as that was the time when Ramadan just began, therefore it was among the top stories in the news, in the UK. Also because I belong from a Muslim family and the beautiful experience that we go through during Ramadan is worth sharing and it would have been great to create an artwork emphasizing the concept of celebrating Ramadan in the UK with multicultural people. 2) Ukranian- Russian War; as we are in time where a big war is taking place and we see, on the news, innocent people suffering physically and emotionally, therefore I felt that is was good to create an artwork showcasing this issue as it is depressive to realize that still in the 21st century people have to suffer and loose their lives due to political affairs and interests. 3) Covid 19: as this is a global issue which made everyone suffer around the world and has left countless stories in people's life, therefore it was a useful and interesting topic to exhibit. 4) Malnutrition: while researching for a concept and stories, this issue came to my eyes and after analyzing it slightly in depth I put it on the mind map among the other topics that I found interesting. Once I accumulated a few topics, then I evaluated them and tried to select the one that would go better with the Sufi style. Therefore, among all these topics, I felt that Ramadan 2022 was the most suitable one as both the Sufi art and Ramadan belong to the same culture and religion. I started than to research for some artworks depicting the theme of Ramadan and found a few that are shown below: During that time, coincidently, this video, from the internet, came in front of my eyes which highlights, almost, the same message as mine; unity and understanding among people when it comes to religion, culture or traditions. This video helped me to develop my ideas and decide how to compose my work. Following that, I began to create some rough sketches, inspired by these paintings, to bring my abstract ideas to reality and see how the outcome would have look. In these sketches, I composed all my ideas together and visually presented what I was aiming to create. The lamp and the dates (above) are one of the main elements of Ramadan because people open the fast with dates and traditional Islamic lamps are used to decorate homes during this month. However, the sketch in the bottom of the first page stands for the background that I had planned to draw; a mosque. The reason to why I chose to place the scene in a mosque is because throughout that I could have shown the typical Sufi architecture. The sketch on the top on the second page, is the key element, where people from different ethnicity, background and religion are having Iftaar (opening the fast) together. This would have shown and promoted the understanding and unity between people in a multicultural city like Birmingham. The last sketch represents the lights, as mosques usually have giant lights, which also promotes culture and art. Therefore, I was thinking to add these lights in my painting just to make it look more aesthetically pleasing. I made this drawing of the lights inspired by the ones in the mosque in Turkey called Hagia Sophia. https://www.dailysabah.com/arts/ramadan-as-a-subject-how-the-islamic-holy-month-has-been-reflected-in-arts-and-literature/news https://www.dailysabah.com/arts/discovering-ramadan-bayram-traditions-with-famous-paintings-of-orientalist-artists/news EvaluationOnce that I had produced a few sketches which allowed to understand my concept, the next step was to show it to my tutor and get her feedback.
She liked the designs and the topic but, also, suggested me to explore further, in terms of stories and produce more sketches. At that point I got confused because I had decided what to do for my final piece but now I had to look for a new idea and concept. So, after getting slightly disappointed, I thought to look for something relating to Sufism and my personal area of interest and I came up with poetry. I started to search "Sufi poetry" and as mentioned before, when it comes "Sufism" and "Sufi poetry" there are many poets, however the most famous one and my most favourite is Maulana Jalal ud Din Rumi, also known as Rumi. Rumi's poetry is based on motivation, spirituality and Love for God, so after reading some of his quotes which I found highly motivational, I decided that I will be making my final piece based on the concept of "motivation" as many people nowadays lack it and suffer from mental health issues. Now that I had decided the style, the next step was to decide the content; the message, the components, the presentation and how to utilize the Sufi art's features in my work. Therefore, I started to generate ideas and came up with 3 different ideas (shown above), in which I had planned to experiment different techniques and different layouts. Initial sketchesIDEA 1 The two sketches above illustrates my first idea, in which I was aiming to depict a whirling dervish which would have symbolized serenity, spirituality, purity, inner peace and his dance would have shown that a person is supposed to walk onward on the "path of life" if aiming for an achievement, as same as the dervish keeps dancing to seek connection with God. The quote in the bottom is from one of the most imporatnt and famous Sufi scholar and poet; Maulana Jalal ud Din Rumi, mostly known as Rumi. This quote highlights the importance of struggle in life and the lessons that one learns from the challenges that he\she encounters in a day to day life. The planned technique, that I would have utilized, for this idea was painting, using acrylic paints. IDEA 2
IDEA 3
My third idea was to create a piece of art in the "Sufi art" style as this was also the topic for my essay; "Sufism" and a concept that fascinates me the most and is highly present in my life. Therefore, I began to originate ideas of what my final piece should be including to represent the Sufi art. I started to search of Sufi paintings on the internet, especially on Pinterest, to revise (as I frequently search for Sufi paintings to take inspiration as I create them in my free time) the content of their art. The images below show my research and the content of Sufi art: 1)Whirling dervishesWhirling dervishes are the main element that you can find when it comes to Sufi art. They represent their connection with God, as they dance to achieve his friendship and to show their Ishq (Love) for Allah (God). There are countless paintings depicting these Sufis dancing, usually wearing white garments but also red in some rare paintings, which make them also look aesthetically pleasing. 2)Islamic calligraphyThe second most common element is the Islamic calligraphy which is widely present in Sufi paintings. In this calligraphy the names of the Islamic prophets alongside the 99 names of Allah (God) is written very creatively combined with traditional Islamic patterns. These Sufi calligraphy paintings are worldwide famous and gets massively sold in the Muslim countries and are present in every Muslim house. 3)Youth and Dervish
4)Story tellingStory telling is another component of Sufi art. Famous events or stories (scenes from stories) of the Islamic world are shown in some of the paintings. An example is shown above where one the of the most famous love story of the ancient Arabs is being portrayed; Laila and Majnu. 5)Sufi saints portraitsAs mentioned before, Sufi give huge importance and respect to their Sheikhs or Pirs (teachers), therefore a way to pay them tribute is to create their portraits. Numerous portraits, of Sufi Saints, have been made through the times and nowadays, in some of the Islamic countries, the followers of these Pirs (teachers), keep these portraits in their homes to show admiration and affection for these Pirs. Some example are shown above, where the first portrait represents the Great Islamic scholar of the 13th century, who lived in Anatolia (Turkey); Maulana Jalal ud Din Rumi. However, the second image is a portrait another Sufi preacher of the Indian subcontinent, who lived in the 12th century. Deciding the final ideaExploring the varied concept of Sufi art and understanding and researching it in depth for my essay encouraged me to pick this "third idea" for my final outcome, in which I was aiming to deliver a message (about any issue) throughout a creative form of art as Sufis do. Before deciding the final idea, I compared these 3 ideas and realized that making something relevant to Sufi art would have been a unique and interesting outcome as this style of art is not well known in the western countries, therefore throughout my work people will be able to explore something new. References
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/AUTH229566 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rumi https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sufi/hd_sufi.htm https://www.pinterest.co.uk/salmaaslams7/islamic-calligraphy/ https://www.pinterest.com/jeanniemancini/whirling-dervish/ As I really enjoyed my digital photography project, so I thought that it would have been interesting to explore this further and create a photography or something relating to photography for m final piece. We have learned and experimented many genres of photography but my most favourite were street photography and food photography. Therefore, I began to think about the concept that I would be working on and after several considerations, I felt that creating something relevant to culture and multiculturalism would have been ideal as I live in multicultural city like Birmingham and, also, because I have worked on this topic earlier in my documentary, so I had experience and knowledge relating to it. Therefore my second idea was to capture:
ExamplesThe images below are examples of what was in my mind. Food photography Street photography: capturing portraits of multicultural people.
To start working on the Final Major Project (FMP), the first thing was to generate ideas in order to pick a theme that will be analysed, explored and creatively highlighted and presented later on throughout my art work. I started by looking back at my work to identify the most successful areas; techniques, skills or topics, that could be developed further to create outstanding outcomes. Therefore, one of the parts that I found to be attractive is the "protest and propaganda posters" in which I conveyed a message of environmental awareness and highlighted topics such as global warming and pollution throughout hand drawing and Photoshop. I really enjoyed this project as it has helped me to overcome what I used to find highly challenging; use of software in art and has, also, helped me to improve my digital skills. So, I noted this as my first idea and began to work on it by researching about major issues around the world in order to pick out one of them to explore further and decided to go with "refugeeism". I looked at the UNHCR (United Nation Higher Commission for Refugee) a charity and donation organization and found out some basic and useful information which increased my knowledge relating the issue such as
My plan was to create an emotional and provocative poster using Photoshop and hand drawing, conveying the message of welcoming refugee with open hearts as they wounds and pains are huge. As children are the ones that suffer the most, therefore I am planning to portray a child as the main character of the poster so it would be more eye catching and make people understand the sorrow. The images below are visual examples of my first idea. After some research and combining together the ideas that were in my mind, I came up with the sketch shown below. This sketch/poster portrays a child who is covering his right eye with his hand, which signals that refugees tries to forget what they have been through and what they have witnessed with their eyes and tries to build up a new life with hope and strength when they arrive in new countries, therefore the other eye of the child is wide open and shows hope for a better future which is obtained with the help and support of the people of the country that they land. The arm of the child is covered with a wire, which usually represents war or danger zones in images or posters and the same is here. Due to that wire his arm is bleeding, which shows that these innocent civilians have to suffer physically and mentally due to wars which take place for selfish political interests. The destroyed buildings and houses shown in the bottom represents the state in which the refugees countries are and make the viewer understand their helplessness. I have included a slogan as well, as it is one of the major components of a poster, that mentions: "No one leaves home unless, home is the mouth of a shark." With this slogan, including the metaphor :"home is the mouth of a shark", you can make the viewer feel sympathy for the refugees and make them aware of the circumstances that they are running away from. This is only an example of what I was thinking to produce if I would have considered to pick this idea for my final outcome.
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