Final piece evaluation-

 The final piece is over and this project, Memories was undoubtedly the most enjoyable and adventurous art project that I have ever underwent. When we started initially my first interests that were emerging was the idea of summer coming to an end, and autumn creeping in. At the start of the project we explored Warhol and Hodgkin, Warhols memory boxes helped form the basis of our work as we collected stuff over summer to use as inspiration for our return to school in September. Hodgkins abstract approach to colour theory also influenced a vast amount of the earlier work I produced as Hodgkin marked the start of real artistic-conceptual thinking which allowed me to generate ideas with much more meaning and message behind them which therefore saw my work drastically develop. Once I had confirmed that the end of summer was to be my sub theme I started thinking of symbols or messages that could convey that feeling visually. I discovered the Danish artist Peter Callesen who explores life/death as well as other complete opposites (love/hate, summer/winter), I loved my responses,I generated a few very successful ones, including a sunset made out of travelcards (the date of the travelcard was the last day of summer/31.08.13) the TFL logo on the travelcard also looked like a sunset with a large horizon line,a tree cut in half, one side blossoming and one side weltering and a tree made out of a photocopied train ticket that had leaves blowing off it. I wanted to run with the idea of a sunset/summer ending as its a very powerful use of symbolism, so I decided to think of a memory that I had documented in my summer which involved a sunset, I arrived at a concert that I attended where I saw the Rolling Stones. By this point I was using powerful metaphor and concept in my work. I then researched Kandinsky and realised that music and Synesthesia (the neurological condition which creates cross-sensory reactions) were a huge influence on him, I don't have Synesthesia but knew that I wanted to include the idea of music and having a multi-sensory experience when viewing my work, audial , visual, conceptual and so on. This pursuit was seconded by my discovery of Ebon Heath, who uses words and letters on a 3D scale to challenge and alter our perceptions of words once we see them on a grander, 3D scale, he also incorporates appropriate music/sound in his work. I then explored the artist/cartographer Stephen Walter who creates maps that geographically are completely accurate but places personal labels on the contents of the maps, based on his memories, I was very taken by his work as I did a lot of commuting and travelling in the summer and I very much enjoyed responding to him, his way of working was also another way to experience my memory, adding to the senses upon viewing. In terms of reference material I think I gathered enough to create a balanced and versatile final outcome. Materials and in this project were used to a full extent and very wide use- this includes but is not limited to, ink, watercolour, felt tip, fineliner, paper/card construction, oil, acrylic, spray paint, train tickets,masking tape, tooth brushes and pallet knives. Tools were also used but no as widely, scalpels, glue guns and a guillotine. My practical skills have been the thing ironically that have developed the most during this project, although this project was very conceptualised, my skills with acrylic and sketching have improved massively and I can feel my approach towards painting completely evolving as we speak. My conceptual skills have also been put to the test, I find using these skills very stringent and exhausting so it was a refreshing experience to have the chance to improve them. My ability to analyse artists thoroughly and extract as much creative information from an artist have also greatly improved. My only regret is not doing more experimentation, this regret however was pre-destined as I don't personally feel you can ever experiment and explore too much. 

 My final piece was one with huge emphasis on colour, and shape. The use of vivid oranges and yellows sat almost directly next to hazy greens and light blues created a really painterly effect I was looking to achieve, with reference to the sunset and the colours I used I feel it was very successful. The use of line was also abundantly clear in the painting, in some parts, particularly the logo, I used very small, flat strokes to create intricate details, in contrast for the sunset background I used large, expressive strokes to achieve a very desirable effect which I am very happy with, I painted in an elliptical pattern which also gave the piece a sense of depth. I used acrylic on board as acrylic can be very buttery and spreadable especially on board where the brush marks look even nicer in my opinion. I feel if I primed the board it would have been much easier to paint and would have looked nicer when it dried. The underlying meaning of my piece was me using relevant symbols of my summer to capture the essence of the ever imposing autumn, while presenting one of my most vivid memories in the process- combining symbols with physical time and space to create something that says,' autumn is pretty much here, but look at the summer I had', the use of music and visuals was to add clarity and a holistic feel to the piece. Mounting the wires behind the board and painting around it was very difficult, I should have done that last but in my hast I did it about halfway through the making process. I also found it difficult mounting the music symbols to the wires, I actually had to glue gun small wire to the back then coil that around the larger wires, time consuming! I am very happy with my final piece, this is not a sensation I am familiar with either which makes it even better, there is however always room for improvement and the 'improvement' section is very apparent in this piece, in  terms of the logos I wanted them to be more graphic and consistent in their colours, they're pretty much the same colour but I wanted one flat shade of red for each logo, not lots of varying shades. I analyses Steven Walter heavily in the hopes of using him I couldn't however find a way of including him, so I decided against it.
I would not change this piece even if I had the option, I have shown it to people who don't know the message behind it and they derived a similar feeling to what I was trying to capture and show in my final piece.