Every Englishman Should Have a Shed

When I started this project I said I wanted to explore the relationship between engineering and art but I also wanted to explore the relationship between me and grandfather. I believe that I wouldn't be doing what I am now if it wasn't for his influence, so far in this project I’ve looked at the relationships between disciplines and objects, for this little side project I’m looking at an interpersonal relationship. The emotion I want to explore in this work is something I will synthesis into my final piece but want to outwardly explore in a piece of work first. Now pretty much every piece of art I have ever made has been influence by the teaching of my grandfather so for this piece I plan to create a work which depicts the place I was taught, a shed. My Grandfather was ardently middle class and had risen to the height of having three sheds and a greenhouse, One of these three sheds was a woodworking workshop which I have very fond memories of. I decided to create this homage to one of my greatest influences by building a model of this shed in my favoured medium of assemblage sculpture. No so far in this project I've avoided making anything that could be even loosely related to a dollhouse but I am going to regress to my past works and create one for this very special emotional piece.

Hillock Shed

A few weeks ago I wandered down the road by my college with minimal interest in the world and maximal interest in myself and tripped over a car mirror. said car mirror had an appealing shape as seeing as it was but the side of the road I decided to give it a new home. It spent a few days sitting in my workshop until one afternoon when I decided it would make a prime hillock. I've looked at the work of Oldenburg as an aware that some of his works were great from objects he found on the streets of New York, I’ve also been pondering exploring sheds. The resulting work of these ideas is a shed made of various junk objects which its wonkily on a car mirror hillock. I source a lot of art supplies from various source but the road side is a new area. The work explores the idea of me just using a pile of objects to make an object and the premise of art materials finding me instead if me seeking them out. The work was successful because I used it as a chance to explore ideas and induce the flow of creative juices for my main shed piece. The work has influenced my idea for the model I plan to create of my grandfathers shed, I’ll use similar materials and design techniques.

Lego 3D Model

For my Hillock Shed I started with a bundle of materials and made something from them but for my main shed piece I will be basing the piece on real life place so I’ll need to make it authentic to the original. I don’t have any picture of the shed I hope to create and  want the model to look as much like the real thing as possible, with this in mind I decide to create a digital model of the shed before I started making it. I used Lego Digital Designer to create a model of the shed which I could adjust and edit to make it as realistic as possible, the digital model I create was based on memories but with a lot of trial and error I came up with something that looks very familiar. By doing some planning designs the final product with be far better, if I had gone straight into making it like I normally do with piece I wouldn't have had something as accurate as I’d like. By using Lego Digital Designer I could adjust the prototype As I went along and view it form numerous angles, the 3D render was much more of an in depth plan than if I had simply done some sketches. 

Shed Construction

I will now talk briefly and uninterestingly about how I made my shed model. The basic frame of the shed is made of foam board, I used a paper mache for strength and texture as an outer layer to the shed. I painted the shed first using a sponge and acrylic paint then  used an airbrush with semi acrylic pigment to bring out tonal variation. I've recently started using as airbrush to create some of my artworks, it’s excellent for paint small pieces and its good in association with acrylic spray paint. The use of an airbrush and spray paint in the piece is evident as it has more depth and authenticity than some of my earlier works. The interior of the shed is created from various objects, most notable tobacco and kitchenalia tins are used to create man of the work benches and appliances which link to my grandfather love of both food and smoking. Many of the material choices and object within the shed reflect aspects of my grandfather’s personality and my relationship with him, the work is meant to explore the emotional side of the work I create and to lay the bedrock of the emotional aspects of my final piece. Notable parts of shed include back bench which I made from small blanks of wood and then painted, the power tools which reflect ones which were in the shed of my memories and the shelving at the back which was actually made by breaking up a piece of dollhouse furniture and reusing the wood. Every aspect of the model reflect the original as is shown by the similarity between designs and the final result, the materials I used to make each aspect reflect the emotional ideas I’m encapsulating.  Penultimately and as a personal aspect of interest the water pump outside the shed is made from several parts most significant of which is the barrel of an airbrush which broke during the making of the shed. Finally the foliage outside the shed is made from a medium which for me makes a debut in this piece, it’s made from dried lichen a natural moss which has an excellent effect because with the scale adjustment it looks like larger plants. 

Shed Built 

The purpose of this happy little diversion into making sheds was to explore the emotional aspect of my final piece by create another final piece quality work. My final piece will look at the relationship between artists and technology and explore my personal transition between making things for a function and making things for art. Now that is all well and good but I also like for all my piece of art to have a personal emotional aspect, I can’t create a piece of art about engineering, technology and myself as an artist without thinking about the relationship between me and the person who taught me all about making things. I wanted to create a homage to my grandfather who was my mentor and the reason why I started making thing and I decide the best was to create this was by making a model of the shed he worked and taught me in. So this piece is visual exploration of the emotional aspect of my soon to come final piece, it’s an opportunity to explore and improve skills and mediums and it’s an excellent dry run for the real thing. I’m calling it, this is the most multifunctional and important piece of art so far in this project. This piece came from my Hillock Shed piece which in turn was spawned from my research into Oldenburg so he acts as my heaviest influence, however this piece is beginning to draw together all the research and experimentation up to this point in the project sop there are little nods to everyone I've looked at so far. I think this piece is very good, my dollhouses and assemblage works get better with everyone I do and this is no exception its great and I’m going to really use it as a influence and hint at what’s to come in this project because I’m very pleased with how it’s all come together and the overall zeitgeist of the work. Next in this project I’m going to create a prototype of my final piece, then talk a little more about materials and techniques then I’ll bring all my research together in one big happy lump of text.