PAP 2 part 3 Thought processes

Just a quick word before I get stuck in, thank you so much to all those people who dropped in on the previous PAP posts and left their wonderful encouraging comments.

I've now gone back in time to finish my PAP 2, part 2 of the proposal for which was submitted here.

"In part 2 of my preparation for this assessment piece I started working on the model for Mary Tudor. "



After reading Sian's critique, I had plenty to think about , not least 'the story' I wanted to tell in this piece. It was not going to be a historical replica.

When I first presented this image of the doll half finished, Sian thought that maybe I was going to use it like this with a reference to disability. So I thought I'd see if this would work.

I had also been looking at the idea of the pressures that there are now on women over a certain age to maintain the illusion of eternal youth.

My original plan was to give the piece an uncomfortable juxstaposition of beautiful finery and miserable decrepitude (as in Mary Tudor)

So with all this in mind I started playing with ideas for the one legged, one armed doll.


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I didn't really think this was going to work as the doll was too predictable a medium to use.

I tried sketching it and discovered that the face was far too dominant, so I started to rub it out and finally obliterated it completely.


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Next step was to gather some of the metallic samples completed in module 2 to see if they gave me any help as regards the type of textiles I might create.


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Low and behold one piece jumped off the board.


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It was the area highlighted that caught my eye and it reminded me of the exhibition I saw at Chambord chateau in 2010, by Manolo Valdes

It was these images that came to mind immediately.


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And this is what struck the right cord,


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Although these works of art are historically familiar they are at the same time very contemporary and this is what I'd like to achieve in the piece, and I now know that this is what fired my imagination and delight when I saw the exhibition.


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This painting helped me with the sketch in pic 2 and gave me the idea that maybe I didn't need facial details.

With all this running around my brain I made a couple of loose sketches, to try and identify a shape for the piece.


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With these Valdes sculptural heads in mind I went back to the original sample that started me off, and sketch it.


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While working on the sketch I cloud see voluptuous shapes, often associated with older women, beautiful sparkling lines, soft wrinkle lines, sharp assertive lines, blemish areas and boring areas. So this gave me the story, beauty, blemish and boring.

Do older women handle the ageing process by accepting the inevitable blemishes of a life lived and still dress beautifully, and feel beautiful, or do they dress in boring colours and styles in an attempt to become invisible.

I hope this line of thought will keep me focussed on the piece in the same way as my 'story' of entrapment/support worked so well for the previous PAP.