‘Witches and Wicked Bodies’ which was created by the National Gallery looks at the portrayal of witches from the Renaissance period, right up to the 21st century. It features continual speculation throughout about why women may have been demonised like this, whether it be for social, economical or religious reasons.

It is noted within the book that, ‘Witches who fly in hordes to attend Sabbaths are seen as being part of a female collectivity or coven that threatens the social order.” (page 57). This quote is prominent because it specifically mentions that females are the ones being accused, and in particular women that are often seen in groups. This stems back very early on to when King James started his crusade against witches and even paid people to hunt the witches. It is even speculated that ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare was commissioned by King James to spread fear of witches.

Throughout the book, the National Gallery have supplied artwork from various artists that depict witches in contrasting lights. For instance, Paula Rego’s “Witches at their Incantations after Salvator Rosa” (1991) was produced very late on, when witchcraft doesn’t really receive the same fear that it did during King James’ reign. It is interesting as Rego’s piece wouldn’t look out of place with Francisco Goya’s paintings on witchcraft.

However, Edward Burra’s “Dancing Skeletons” (1934) is very brightly painted, and thought to represent Mexico’s Day of the Dead festival. Apparently he was very influenced by visits to Spain in the 1930’s and this played a big part on colour combinations and subject matters. Even though the figures in the painting are dancing, in the background you can see 3 people hanging from the gallows and a face in the moon overlooking the entire performance.

This is a self portrait that I did as part of the first shared drive project where we sampled different workshops around the university. To create it, I used black acrylic paint and finger painted it. The size of the image is the size of me so roughly 5’1.

If I could recreate this image again I would choose to make it A4/A3 sized. It is very difficult for me to work with really large projects as my height makes it difficult for me to reach the paper. This means that I struggle to get the detail that I’d like to feature in my paintings.

I would also choose to make it more elaborate and in keeping with my own style as an artist. This would mean incorporating lots of blues, purples, pinks and greens into the painting, which would be a lot easier if it was on a smaller scale. However, I do like the black in the painting as it makes it stand out, so maybe I could combine the black paint with the colourful paints.

Due to the size of the painting, it was difficult to get accurate details of my face into it, so I’m not sure that it necessarily resembles me. However, I do quite like the uneven eyes and the blank expression, it is almost a cartoon and perhaps resembles my inner self, rather than my outer self.

Creating a blog has allowed me to reflect on my first term at University and the work that I have been producing. It has also allowed me to focus on specific aspects of the course so far.

The blog forces you to think about your own artwork and the artwork that you are influenced by, which is incredibly useful as otherwise it can be really difficult to reflect on. It is a good way of thinking about the research and communications module as a whole, but it also involves different projects that you are working on.

This process has taught me about the importance of documenting my work regularly. Even if I choose to continue with a blog but it is not electronic or written on specific dates, it is useful to make a blog post every time we are set a new project at least.

In the future, I will try to keep some sort of written documentation of the work that I’ve created and the process that surrounds it. I will also make sure to use the library often because the tasks have really encouraged us as student to use it. The resources are great and cover a wide range of subjects.

Speaking on behalf of myself as an artist, there are a few ways that I make work which I would like to expand on and change. For instance, I prefer to shut myself away on my own to create my work, with background noise from music/film/television as inspiration to convey a mode. Another thing that helps me to create artwork are smells, for instance incense sticks really help to calm me.

In an ideal situation, I would like to be able to produce work this way with some adaptation. It is important to work among your contemporaries. In order to develop my mode of practice I could work in the studio amongst my peers but seat myself in a corner facing the wall or a more empty space to give the illusion of being alone. Although I cannot burn incense in the studio at University, I could maybe buy a reed diffuser to channel calming scents, and buy some headphones so that I can listen to music whilst working, or bring in my laptop and watch films.

My ideal studio would be very quiet, with bare walls that I could hang my artwork from, and this is what I will strive for once I complete my degree.

In Richard Serra’s text, he is saying that the traditional idea of the artist’ studio has been replaced with industrial and urban sites. The way that sculptures were made before the mid-century was manifested through a relationship that the sculptor had with their studio.

Although sculptors may now be mass manufacturing artwork in factories etc., they don’t pay any attention to the habitat where they are creating the pieces or their history, for instance, the industrial revolution. Some artists have based an entire career on mass producing artwork, such as Andy Warhol, and in Serra’s words, ‘by mimicking the strategies of the media, Warhol became the master of art as a commercial enterprise.’

In the 1990’s when this piece was written by Serra, some of the most famous artists were Damian Hirst and Rachel Whiteread. This article could’ve been aimed at them as sculptors, with Serra implying that artists don’t have a relationship between the site where the piece was created and where they may have been relocated.

In “From Other Criteria” by Leo Steinberg, he is very focused on how artists compose their pieces in relation to the natural human form. He states that ‘It is not the actual physical placement of the image that counts.’ This is because in his mind, the piece is positioned as portrait or landscape due to how the artist created it in terms of their form.

Art in 1970’s New York was changing and performance art was becoming very popular, which explains why Steinberg decided to write about the human form in relation to artwork. The way that art was rapidly changing and adapting meant that critics were struggling to determine what was art and what wasn’t.