Influences and inspiration

My work is influenced by a variety of sources not exclusively from just other artists.

I try to make my work aesthetically pleasing but i also like there to be a story or a narrative behind it.

Just how a work of art can be of greater value ( not just in monetary terms) if it has good providence.

I'm interested in history be it fact or fiction, folklore or an old wives tale, I like narrative and asserting a visual art element from that

For my print project i was inspired by the 1851 epic novel "Moby Dick or; the White Whale" by Herman Melville. The novel deals with many things such as mans obsession; Captain Ahab relentlessly pursues the white whale because it severed his leg to the knee and sank his ship on a previous voyage. but really he's projecting human characteristics on an animal incapable of having such traits. 

The novel also contains diversity and exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God, things which i believe are still very relevant in our day and age.

I also like to use symbolism within my work to convey a message or a meaning that I can get across visually.

For the sculpture piece pictured above I chose light and dark and also hollow as my theme.

The skull symbolizes the light that is taken from us in death; our life and the hollow empty shell that remains.

I also used burnt out matches to emphasize the extinguishment of that light.

Again, how I mentioned that I like to work from a narrative. I used a recurring line from song by 'The editors' called 'All Sparks' I felt that the song had a certain mood and i tried to capture that in my piece, the video whilst i didn't take direct influence from it it did help influence my piece with the use of light being extinguished at the end of the song.  

http://youtu.be/6x26O237kP8

I also like religious iconography because it has rich symbolism and find it visually pleasing.
below are some pages from my "Journey project" where I went around the churches situated around Leicester city center and drew the various iconography. I aged the book, and used old photographs, money and postcards etc to give it the feel and appearance that the viewer is looking through someones old journal and is being taken on a journey of some sorts by themselves.

     I also like films and find inspiration from that media, the above book was influence in part by the "Grail Diary" from Indiana Jones and the last crusade. "The diary contains intricate drawings, notes, data, maps and descriptions of obstacles that will bar the seekers way, the culmination of years research, which are clues to the where abouts of the the Holy Grail, which is hidden in a lost temple, Indiana is drawn into the search when his father mysteriously disappears and all he has to go on is his father’s ‘Grail diary’."

                                     A page from "The Grail Diary"


Another source of inspiration came from the musician Peter Doherty who has been keeping journals for most of his adult life and the journals were compiled in a book that was published a few years ago called " the books of Albion" i was interested in how he kept small mementos, newspaper clippings and also collages of Polaroid photographs which he stuck into his journals.

An artist who has recently been of interest to me is Joseph Cornell.
his use of collaging and his shadowboxes inspired my sculpture project