Evaluation

For my final major project, after exploring themes such as the war in Ukraine, artificial
intelligence, mental health services, eating disorder awareness, the metaverse, feminism and
abortion, I have decided to go with the theme of Girlhood. I wanted to explore the concept of
girlhood and what it means to others and the transitioning stage of blossoming into
womanhood. On top of this I have researched many artists that work in different ways such as
photography, painting realism and expression. Some of the artists I want to research are
Georgia O’Keeffe, Justine Kurland, and David Hockney. I have worked with different
mediums and successfully portrayed the nostalgia and memories of being a young girl and
what makes us unique. Through peer reviews and weekly tutorial with my tutor I have
reassessed and improved my project.
Through gathering primary research and capturing everyday situations, I furthered my
understanding of how I wanted to develop the project. I have managed to learn about the little
things that represent Girlhood to me and others. For some of my primary research I have used
photographs from my childhood to learn about what girlhood means to me. I have
experimented with a variety of material tests and approaches such as ceramics, I’ve spent 3
weeks down in the ceramic department learning throwing and finger modelling. After
learning this new technique, I have decided not to taker it further due to the limitations it had
compared to painting, such as not being able to capture the same feelings and emotions that I
wanted my final piece to portray. On top of this, I’ve struggled with getting the thickness and
texture of clay right and even though I tried many techniques, it just wasn’t for me. I hope to
revisit clay in the future and develop my skills in it further to be able to successfully
communicate my future themes. For painting, I have experimented with different surfaces
such as mirrors, paper and board and I have also experimented with different styles. I tried a
more expressive style which I really enjoyed due to the emotions it has captured compared to
my usual style. This has led me to understand the properties of the oil paint I use instead of
focusing on what I can paint with them.
When I was exploring themes, I was considering going with a mental health centred theme
focusing on eating disorder however after research it and thinking more about, I decided not
to. Even though I am extremely passionate about eating disorder awareness and how the
UK’s mental health system needs reworking, I wasn’t sure how I could portray this without
being triggering or upsetting to students and maybe even tutors who might’ve struggled with
disordered eating. Body image and other topics within this theme can be traumatic and
upsetting so I thought it would be best to choose a different theme instead. After careful
consideration, I chose to explore Girlhood instead.
Throughout this project I have explored what Girlhood means to different age groups, trans
females, non-binary people, and different cultures. I have done this through asking my friends
and family members to learn what it means to them. My whole family, including me, are all
first-generation immigrants, therefore I thought it would be interesting how different the
meaning of Girlhood is to British culture compared to Polish culture, especially to my mum
who has grown up during when Poland was under the communist government. I have learnt
the struggle she grew up with, like curfews, monthly food limitation, and limited access to
clothing and other store-bought foods. Due to the issues with the communist government, my
mum was forced to make her own clothing and beg strangers for bread, even ending up
homeless at the age of 15. It was hard having to listen to what my mum has been through
compared to what I had; however, I am extremely grateful to the sacrifices she made to
ensure I had a comfortable and happy childhood even if it meant leaving her brother and
mum behind in Poland.
I have tried to consider sustainability in this project however it was hard to ensure each piece
that I have created was sustainable due to the effects and feelings I wanted the audience to
feel. It is hard to make art sustainable, however I have managed to explore it in some parts of
the projects such as the mirror I used for painting and the mirror I have used for my final
piece. Both mirrors were second hand which saves resources and reduces waste through
giving them a second life. It also gives less income to the huge companies that take advantage
of the environment through fast fashion.
Through my artist research, I have come across different styles and techniques I haven’t used
before, such as expressionism with both oil pints and water, I have also come across different
styles. Georgia O’Keeffe, Justine Kurland and Frida Kahlo have strong feminist themes and
concepts throughout their pieces which greatly links to the theme of girlhood. David Hockney
has also been a great influence due to the saturation and flat feeling of his pieces which I have
employed in my final pieces.
The research I have done this project has supported my creative thinking and development
through the exploration of the meaning of Girlhood itself. My personal meaning is different
to others which I have explored through asking people and researching articles, such as one
about the affects of the 2023 Barbie movie. I have used this as a great example of exploring
the feelings it has caused in the audience. When I was still considering going with the mental
health and eating disorder awareness theme, I’ve explored articles that have showcase the
long-term effects of attachment figures, like parents, and long-term consequences of
untreated mental health disorders. This has given me a deeper and broader understanding of
the subject that I wanted to work with to ensure that I could create an accurate representation
in my pieces. When I decided to go with the theme of Girlhood, I started reading Ariel by
Sylvia Plath. She is a well know feminist poet which perfectly fit my theme and also has
underlying themes of mental illness and death which also showcased the dark side of
existence and Girlhood.
The drawing I have done throughout this project have supported my creative development by
letting me explore and quickly capture ideas I have had this project. On top of this it has let
me to experiment and showcase the meaning of the poems I have read by Sylvia Plath and
summarise them without using words. I have also used them to show the symbols of Girlhood
such as pomegranates and figs. Figs symbolise girlhood through links to Plath’s book, The
Bell Jar. This book gives a metaphor of your life being like a fig tree and each fig
representing a different route or career for the future. Pomegranates symbolise the different
between men and women due to how delicate and thoughtful women are when pealing at
eating them compared to the rough nature of some men and symbolising the nurture of
women.
Throughout this project I have explored a lot of practical process such as ceramics, paintings,
embroidery and drawing. I have used them throughout the whole project and even managed
to develop some skills further, such as my watercolour knowledge and experimenting with
the illustrative and realistic use of it through exploring its properties. I have done the same
with oil paint and developed my own expressive style through use and working with the paint
instead of manipulating it. These techniques were appropriate for the development of my
project as they have let me cover a large base for the exploration I could use in my project
and have helped me develop my own practise for my final piece.
For these techniques, I have been quite effective with the ones I have used, such as oil
painting and water colour paints. Even though I have worked with oil paints for around 4
years now, I still came across some issues, especially during my final piece. The primer I
have used for the wooden board would absorb all the moisture from the oil paints leaving a
half dry and unbendable surface which would lift and club when I would try to apply another
layer. I have overcome this issue from learning from my last project of Fragmented Memories
so I would create an underpainting first, then wait a day or two to solve this problem. I would
also paint in thinner layers on top of one another to create an even painting. When I first went
into ceramics, I struggled with throwing, specifically centring. I overcame this issue through
working with the tutors and making sure the surface of the wheel was even and clean so that
the clay would stick to it. Another issue I struggled with was the thickness of ceramics itself,
however I didn’t manage to overcome this issue as I have decided to move forward with
painting. If I have chosen ceramics, I would create a multiple amount of test pieces and
samples to find which thickness is perfect or which is too thin and would crack.
In my opinion, I don’t feel like my crafting skills are to a professional standard as I still have
much to learn and experience to gain. I think every single student in our class still has many
things to learn but we have all developed a great range of skills through out this year due to
the amount of experimentation and techniques we have explored. I am very confident in my
skills due to how much I have learnt through artist research and experimentations, and I am
able to see a clear difference in how confident I am in starting a new piece compared to how
nervous I was over the previous years. I am also able to communicate my theme and ideas
much better due to the tips and feedback I have received throughout the year from tutors and
my peers.
I have had a lot of success within this project, but I also had some failures such as some of
my media experiments. I had some issues with my final piece due to the primer absorbing a
lot of the moisture in the paints. The success I have had were with my ceramic pieces, even
though some of them didn’t turn out pretty, they didn’t crack in the kiln and have been glazed
smoothly. I was quite well adapted to the unforeseen issues I came across since I have
managed to set enough time aside to be able to fix any issues I came across throughout this
project. I have used many theories such as using complementary colours in some of my
media experiments, such as red and green in my pomegranate watercolour painting, and I
have also used harmonic colours for my fig watercolour painting, such as purple and blue.
Furthermore, I have also experimented with different textures and combining different
mediums like paint and oil pastels to create a pleasant, full of depth visual. I think I have been
quite exhausted through challenging my ideas through application as I have managed to
explore different styles through this project. One piece of feedback that I have received from
a tutor this year was to get out of my comfort zone by experimenting with a more expressive
style of art compared to my usual. I did this by focusing on the properties of the paint instead
of focusing on what I’m trying to paint, I focused on the shapes and movement I could create
and how quickly it dries and the layers I can create. There were some theoretical aspects I
couldn’t solve such as layering oil pastels on the mirror due to the slippery surface however if
I had a correct primer accessible, I think it would have worked.
I have used my time at college and at home quite well. Throughout this whole project, I have
reflected weekly and went back to my action plan from my project proposal to see if I have
managed to complete everything I need or if I was falling behind. If I found that I didn’t
complete all the tasks I wanted, I would go back, break them down, and add them to the next
weeks to do list. Every weekend I would update my online journal to ensure that everything
was on there and that I didn’t miss anything out. Towards the end of the project, I had a lot of
personal issues that have lowered my concentration and time management skills which I
managed to account for and still completed all the work apart from one or two tasks that I
sadly didn’t have the time or resources for.
Many personal factors have affected my time management, in my opinion I was very good
when it came to planning day to day tasks and making sure everything was on time however
towards the end, I have had issue due to me and my family becoming homeless and living in
emergency council accommodation. It was hard adjusting to it and took me many weeks to
get over the emotions I had during this time and to come to terms with it all. However,
through support of the tutors and understanding I managed to get back on track and get back
up to date with the work I missed or didn’t do due to the struggles of this situation.
The way I have planned out what tasks I was doing and estimating the length of time it would
take me, I made sure to incorporate some time in case things didn’t go to plan specifically for
my final piece. I think this was a very good idea because I had minor issues with the primer
absorbing all the liquid from my oil paints, leaving an uneven and unbendable surface. For
other tasks it left me more flexibility in case I got overwhelmed and had to take a break or
improve my online journal.
For this project, I feel like I have been a bit over ambitious especially since I found it hard to
set my own tasks and what to do within this project without being given a structure like I
have had with the previous projects. However, I did also find it freeing especially since I got
to pick whatever I wanted to do within this project without having set tasks that I didn’t like.
This made me excited to work within this project. In the perfect conditions, I think I
would’ve been able to achieve every single thing I wanted to do this project however I feel
like I have still done quite well with keeping up with the action plan that I have created.
Throughout this project, I have reflected frequently and evaluated the work that I have done
with each task which I have included on the online journal. I have also reflected on my work
through listening and improving my work through receiving both peer feedback and tutor
critique. I find this type of feedback useful as I can view my work through the eyes of others
and receive comments about things I would’ve missed. It also lets me get insight of
knowledge of topics other students are well educated in which can further help me develop a
successful project. Another method that I have used to summarise that was successful was
discussing my work with friends and family who haven’t done art as it gives me a lot of
insight into what the audience likes to see when going to an art exhibition. It helped me make
key decisions like getting a layout of my presentation and the size of it. One thing I would
like to improve on is potentially working with students from other courses, such as A Level or
even different colleges to see how they think differently to me. I also think I was very
successful evaluating what I wanted to achieve against what I have by exploring what went
well, what didn’t and what u could do in the future to make my aims successful.
The process of presenting my initial ideas through peer review and group critique has helped
me greatly with my project proposal as it has let me explore different themes, give me insight
on what others are doing for their projects and have really inspired me. Two students I was
sitting with also went with the feminist themes such as Eco Feminism and The Holy Suffrage,
a project about the women bible and how women are portrayed in the bible. Sitting with these
students was exciting as we all got to share similar topics that we are very passionate about
especially because we could give each other structured criticism and share resources, such as
books we have read in the past, as we have already been very educated about feminism and
the impact of it in our everyday lives.
Group critique has been very supportive in helping me progress with my work as I have
received feedback that has helped develop my project further and ideas such as painting on
the mirror or exploring expressionism that I haven’t even thought of.
I have used a variety of techniques and methods throughout this project that have clearly
communicated my creative journey such as comparing my usual style of realism to
expressionism, a variety of research, visually portraying Sylvia Plath poems, evaluation and
summarising my work on my online journal.
For my final outcome, I have taken notes of many exhibitions I have been to throughout this
course and what I wanted the audience to feel. I have even analysed specific scenes from two
films that link to girlhood and the transition of blooming into women hood like Barbie and
Mamma Mia! Through researching this, coming up with ideas and then asking others for
feedback, I managed to create a great way of presenting my work to give the feeling of
nostalgia, happiness, and appreciation for being a girl and being comfortable in your own
skin. I have also placed a mirror in the centre of my exhibition as I hope the audience will see
them selves in it and be filled with love and finally feeling comfortable within the own skin
and who they are. The context of my presentation relates to my practise due to the fact that it
shows a gallery wall that many people have at home, either of paintings, photographs or a
combination of both. I have done this intentionally to create a warm and homey feeling to this
piece and instead of the audience just seeing it and walking back, they would look and feel
emotion and love.