A Blank Canvas

It is no secret that I like to dye my hair.

When myself and best friend Ellie (EllesBelles) were around 14 or 15, Ellie made a little diary for our school's time capsule about general Towers School life for her. In this, she wrote a profile about me. At that time we counted 18 different hair colour combinations. I'd been dying my hair for 2-3 years at this point. 6-7 years have gone by since then...how has my hair not fallen out since then!!

Whilst studying art, people would say "haha, your hair is like your art" I'd just think "well yeah!". I remember hearing my dad talking to someone, "the blonde is only there as a base in between colours, like her blank canvas"

So,

Post-uni-art-thinking made me decide it was about time I used my hair as a blank canvas and design a series of hair colours showing something to do with colour theory in art.

I'm not big on reading long giant books on theory, prefer colour for dummies or just the basics of colour so I can experiment at my own free-will.

Taking all this into account, I decided on using quotes or sayings from artists or art historians or theorists or general people and turning them into my hair!!

If you get what I saying here...

To show you what I mean, I did a practise run of the first idea.


"The splash of Yellow, says more about the purple than just having a plain field of purple" Danny Rolph, 2016.

 Step by step:

1. Bleach the shit out of your hair..looking for wispy white in colour and fried ends.
2. Separate hair into the sections you want coloured. 
3. Yellow first. Smear dye all over the area. Forget that tip about vasaline on your forehead - going for the Simpson look - leave in hair for a couple hours for stainiest finish.
4. Wash out. Dry. Reseperate the blonde from the yellow best you can the you don't mix the purple with the yellow. 
5. Cover blonde section  in purple hair dye. Realise you don't have enough so throw in a bit of old blue to top up. (Pretend this was all deliberate) yes it was meant to match the tattoo....
6. Leave again for a couple hours. It's semi-pernement it won't do much damage.
7. Now condition the fuck out your hair beca use we want to remind our hair that we love it.
8. Wash out conditioner after another hour and dry.
   
   

I dunno, just trying something new here.

(I was also meant to upload this about a month a go. oops!)

Thankyou, Jack Black!!

I got a 2:2 for my degree.

When I started my course, I remember my tutor telling us about how Brighton students studying fine art cry if you get anything lower than a 2:1.
It’s pretty much a 1^st or nothing.

I didn’t cry.

Here are 5 reasons why:

1.   I gave up with the grade ages ago. I decided about a month into third year that I didn’t care about the grade. I wanted to make it through the year without dying. I made it…sort of.

2.  At the time I had a job that didn’t require my grade, just that I am creative…that fell through so not sure if it counts anymore.

3.   The amount I argued with my tutor, I’m surprised he didn’t fail me.

4.  I did better in my dissertation than my studio practice. Everyone is shocked at that one. F*** you dyslexia!!

5.   Finally!

 My main point. The only point for this blog post. I made the artwork I wanted. I created what made me happy. “Rock isn’t about getting an A” well neither is art. We paint because we love to. 

Unfortunately, that has to be graded at some point and unfortunately, that is in the hands of other people. Unfortunately for me, that decision was left in the hands of a person I did not see eye to eye with. Don’t try to control my creativity!! 

But, I did what I always do when authority pisses me off. I said f*** you and carried on making what I love.

I didn’t suck up to anyone. I didn’t change my art to please others.

 At least I can honestly say I love the art I made at the end. I really do. It makes me happy and that is all that matters.

What to do now?????

Get a tattoo expressing your anger for the system. That’s a punk thing to do!!

Hmm...