Glitter or Diamonds?

Ah the eternal question of glitter or diamonds (fake of course, then there would be no competition)...

Throughout this project I have been trying to fing the balance between a piece im working on looking trashy in a good way, or trashy in a bad way (like something a primary school child would've made) that's why im torn between using glitter in a piece im finishing up at the moment, or little stick on diamonds, which I actually can't find anywhere... If only I had the financial backing of Damien Hirst, maybe I could borrow some of the flawless diamonds he had left lying around after he finished his piece entitled For the Love of God, which is in some part inspiration for the piece im on about....maybe not....

stupid brain

I finally managed to log back onto my blog,  I forgot the password and couldn't log on for the past few weeks, why oh why does technology hate me?

I've been looking over my contextual notebook and have decided to throw up a few pictures of the artists that have inspired my project, seeing as the end is drawing near..

The first few pictures I wanna share with you is of a photographer and artist I discovered on my urban environment project journey, his name is Andres Serrano and he is AMAZING! His work is generally viewed as being shocking and blasphemous because it usually deals with dead bodies and religious imagery and also uses bodily fluids in the artwork. What I find interesting about Serrano is that he was raised a Roman Catholic.

Progress review.....

Well had my progress review the other day, and I was expecting a slap in the face but instead I was given pretty good advice that actually made sense,,majestic! I was advised to go back to my research and take some more pictures as my work seems to be kinda "finished pieces".
 I think I'm going to go into churches in the next day or two and photograph the statues inside and them make drawings from these photographs, but with my own slant on them. Modernising them or urbanising them in the spirit of the project. Maybe drawing them with tattoos or duuurty make-up or my personal favourite, leopard print (tack central!!)
 I have already taken a number of photographs of my Dad's hands with some gang tattoos drawn on them with a shitty pen, and photographed just his hands in prayer and holding rosary beads. I wanted to look at the idea  of something urban and sometimes frowned upon and combine it with religion and show how sometimes the two can be quite closely linked.

Pictures?

I must start photographing the work I've done so far to put it up on this thing....hmmmmm... Damn technology..

 Yesterday I took out some books from the library in college in the hopes of getting some inspiration and taking a fresh look at the work I'm doing at the moment. I got one on Pop Surrealism and another on the artists Dinos and Jake Chapman, called Hell. It's an amazing, brutal collection of work. I LOVE ITt! I think looking at these books has reminded me of different styles that I love and may want to incorporate into my current project. The Pop Surrealism book reminded me how much I admire that style and I think I'm going to try a few different types of sketches.

The urban environment - first thoughts.

I have decided to start a blog to keep track of the work im doing on my current project, titled "The urban environment". Being from Limerick I had a good knowledge of the urban environment around me and the city I live in. I decided to begin by walking around the city and photograph things that caught my eye. I noticed that allot of the photographs I took were of angles of buildings and of the tops of churches.The idea of religion and churches in the urban environment really interested me. I liked the idea of basing my project on religion and religious imagery in the urban environment and how it's viewed by people. I chose to do this because Limerick is a fairly religious city, but religious imagery in the city is both reverental and "tacky". Im interested in how religious iconography has been adapted as a fashion statement in modern society.