Gael Fisher – Loud and Clear
As assessors we often have cause to discuss the development of personal voice as an assessment criteria and how much we should expect of students at each level. Making the shift from OCA level 1 (HE4) and level 2 (HE5) can be challenging for some as students need to find their own ways to make the courses their own; allowing their personal voice space to grow whilst also capturing the key learning objectives of each assignment.Â
Gael Fisher’s first assignment submission for Exploring Concepts was an explosion of personality and energy that filled up my office and took over. It’s quite rare to find someone whose personal voice is so loud and clear that it simply spills off the page like a force of nature.
Her sketchbook is a joy. Really lovely. The drawings just seem to flow out of her and yet there is that catch of vulnerability and transience which gives it a darker side. Some of the drawings are quite basquiat like, others are twomblyesque. Her use of colour, line, graphic detail and composition is highly inventive and idiosyncratic. This is the sketchbook of a mature and complex artist.
I have videoed her sketchbook, to demonstrate firstly how coherent and mature her approach is whilst still being wildly experimental and risky, but also to show just how much sketchbook work she produced for one assignment – bearing in mind she also submitted 4 large paintings on canvas and 10 smaller paintings on paper. Finally I also wanted to try to communicate just how much pleasure Gael’s work appears to be giving her. This was an inspirational submission and I hope it inspires others to just crack on and let your relationship with materials have it’s head.
16 thoughts on “Gael Fisher – Loud and Clear”
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Video wont play because of its privacy setting…can you alter it please so we can see?
Hi Rachel – HQ sorted out the video for me so hopefully they will clear this up for you.
Hello Emma,
You mention in your introduction “how much we can expect of students”, in the development of their personal voice, and talk about the difficulty some students have in making the transition from level 1 to level 2.
Gael’s work looks very impressive and interesting. I suspect it would be very hard for many of us to acheive the standard of “a mature and complex artist” at this (or perhaps any) level, depending of course on the student’s starting point.
You don’t elaborate on the earlier question you raised, which is a disappointment for me. I specifically asked a student advisor about development of the skills required to acheive the criteria for sucess, before I decided to embark on Drawing 1, and sent her a few of my drawings, Whilst it is lovely to see such exemplary work, I am left wondering what the main thrust of your message is.
Hello Alison, There is no answer to the question that can be usefully shared in this form – a public blog. Luckily for us, the assessment criteria (which are readily accessible) give us plenty of scope to enable students to flourish and grow in the way that bests suits them. What works for one might be unhelpful for another. You will be given clear and constructive guidance as you go through your studies and you will be given more formal steers at assignments two and four which will refer specifically to your tutors views on assessment.
I think you are asking me whether there are core skills that all students must have to an agreed level to pass the courses. Is that right?
I think the answer to that is that whilst low levels of technical skills do keep making themselves felt and are often a signal that other things need to be addressed (such as amount of time spent or confidence ) there are certainly ways that you can play to your strengths and get good marks even if you are weaker in other areas. In fact being able to learn from your own work and know your strengths is one of the core skills (judgement / discernment in the criteria).
Whilst I might say that the short answer is no – I would also like to add the caveat that draughtsmanship and how it relates to spatial understanding and composition is so crucial, that I would hesitate to ever underplay the significance of continuing to develop those skills, but even then there are a variety of ways to develop them and you might find some more effective than others.
The main thrust of my message here is to remind people to enjoy materials and enjoy their own relationship with both the materials and other subject matter. There is also the showcasing aspect which I instigated way back when I first started blogging as a way to try to encourage what would happen in a shared studio – learning from peers. There are so many ways to do that now that you have ample opportunity to link up with drawing 1 students who you feel are at a similar level to you and engage with their work (forums / hangouts / crits) , but I still like to show a range of exemplary work on the blog and I often choose people who have something other than straightforward highly tuned observational skills to offer.
Well done for contacting a student adviser – that’s what they are there for – and now you can continue that discussion with your tutor who I am sure will enable to support you more specifically.
Thank you for this full response. I need to learn how to use the various forums. I will contact the student advisor again, as I don’t seem to be able to navigate my way around. The IT aspects of this way of studying are as difficult for me as the actual process of drawing.
I’m waiting to hear back from my tutor about my first assignment.
I think you will feel all has become clear once you get your first assignment report – they are very comprehensive and tailored to you.
It is true that students start from many levels, some having already achieved quite a lot before embarking. However, i think this post demonstrates how important it is to have a lively, visual curiosity. Here we see drawings of anything from knitting needles to apples and approaches from fast and spontaneous to more highly worked. Gail has expanded and gone beyond the briefs set in the course. It seems that, once she has started on an exercise, other things occur to her and she lets them out, rather than saving them for later. One thing leads to another and, I think, it is the things that surprise you that lead to the most interesting places.
Hi, I just tried the video and it is still not working at 12:00
I’ll ask Joanne or Paul to look at it for us.
It works for me though so I wonder why it works for me and not others?
I am quite interested in taking this course but ‘basquiat’ and ‘twomblyesque’ are not at all my style or interest. Is it possible to be much more repensentational whilst still being experimental on the course? (more Lucian Freud or Grayson Perry)
yes Giles of course. I will try to make a link here to a couple of blogs about another student – Michael Coombes who works in that way.
http://weareoca.com/fine_art/coombe-magna/
http://weareoca.com/fine_art/michael-coombes-keep-calm-and-carry-on/
Lovely work, much sensitivity and personal interpretation of both visible and invisible aspects of drawing.
When I look at Gael’s knowing (analytical skills) yet intuitive (expressive, using shortcuts of own imagination) work I think this is only possible because Surrealism has freed up subconscious methods of working, alongside expressionism paving a way for drawing/ painting how you feel (not how you see objectively but how you see things subjectively). Tracy Emin said in a recent programme on BBC 4 that her drawing/ painting of the figure was indebted to Egon Schiele, and that her way of working could only happen because she had studied life drawing and academic drawing for several years. This giving her the confidence to depart from accepted ways of drawing the figure to express her own personal take on it. (You can watch the programme if you go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05y3z5z). Personal being seismographic, sensitive and expressive like in Gael’s case is one direction, but hard-edged conceptual approaches are offering an alternative of a personal voice. See Agnes Martin (currently on show in London http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/agnes-martin).
Bringing the analytical ‘objective’ side (the laid down canon of academic drawing) together with that personal drive, the subjective (personal) vision so to say, is tough. It takes time and confidence. It would be a lot to expect for a total newcomer or beginner in drawing to manage that hurdle in one go in a level 1 drawing course, unless there is a lot of prior experience. Not impossible, but of course level 1 has also different objectives from level 2 or indeed that crucial jump to level 3 when students are expected to take fuller ownership over their work and direction.
I guess I am trying to encourage level 1 students in drawing to think long, take the time it needs. Enjoy – the more one draws the easier it gets; once you know a subject / object intimately through that depth exploration of really hard looking and translation into marks you will find a shorthand – and it is this shorthand which will become your personal vision -perhaps at level 2, perhaps at 3…
Doris
Thank you Doris, for shedding some more light on the processes as you see them.
I saw the Tracey Emin programme and was struck by how humble she was, and that even with all her acheivements, she still found herself intimidated by a blank canvas. I found her to be vulnerable and sensitive, and that is what comes though in her recent work, in my opinion.
I think that once I can feel less intimidated by the blank page, and by my own sense of inadequacy, maybe there will be some growth of my personal voice. I appreciate that I have to develop more technical skills (oceans more), but I long for the time when I can feel about objects, as much as see them, and communicate that through my drawings.
I’m not sure about the influence of Surrealism on the unconcious. I mostly feel irritated by Surrealist work, and I can’t relate to it, but I have only scaped the surface.
I suppose I knew it was going to be a long process, with an uncertain outcome. I will have to develop more patience.
Should there be some sound on the video, as I can’t obtain any?
It is just a silent flick through so you can see the work – sorry we should made that clear