Final day...

Feedback...
I have really enjoyed my experience of the Site Young Apprentice Scheme. I have learnt many new skills during my time here, for example using a Mac computer and software such as audacity, Photoshop and Dreamweaver. I’ve no doubt these skills and the confidence they have given me, also in picking up a variety of new skills quickly. This experience has also given me a brilliant insight into the arts world, as I have met artists and visited galleries. On all of these occasions the people were so informative and willing to answer all your questions. There is so much for me to digest.

It was a really relaxed and creative working environment, which was easy to adapt to. Everybody was able to be independent in his or her work but it was very much a community and everybody helped each other out when it was needed.

I discovered how to use my time effectively and was surprised how quickly I picked up new skills and adapted to a working environment.

I think the most important thing I had to do was leading my own creative assignment as it enable me be an independently artist and set myself goals. I also had to learn to use my time productively and be organised.

If I was to repeat this experience again, the only thing that I would do differently is to try and get to know everybody better.

I think anyone coming to do a placement at the Site Gallery should come with an open mind and willing to learn, as you should try and get as much out of the experience as possible.

The one piece of advice that has stuck in my mind was from Andrew Hunt when I interviewed him. He said as long as you were determined and did not give up you can achieve anything that you want to in life.

I am a lot more open minded about Contemporary Art now, as I have learnt that even if I don’t understand the piece of work it may still have an effect of me which ultimately is what art is supposed to achieve.

I am proud of completing my Bronze Arts Award during my 2 weeks work experience.
Yes, I would love to hear about future opportunities at Site!

Day nine...

Finishing off day! Another day sat at the Mac but for good causes. After I had completed all of my Arts Award written assignments, I set off to bring my final piece in my project together. I firstly had to resize all of my images and then type up all of my quotations on the same size document as my pictures.

This took absolutely ages and I felt such a relief when I had finished them. I could then start with the fun bit of actually creating it on Dreamweaver. I matched up the images and quotations that I wanted to go together and uploaded them, continually managing to confuse myself with which quotations I had already used. I decided to alternate from image and quotation because I wanted the page to be self-explanatory when you first looked at it. I created a title to the page and pressed save. My mini project is completed!

Day eight...

Today we had a day out of the studio, as a well deserved rest from all the typing from yesterday. We set off to Bank Street Arts, which I found out runs a residency program for local artists and holds exhibitions. From the outside of the building it does not strike you as a gallery but as soon as you set foot inside, the creative atmosphere screams out you. The gallery was originally a posh terraced housing, so the layout was amazing. What would have been the courtyard is a now a café, which is the central focus of the gallery, creating a feeling of community between all of the residences. Currently Susannah Gent's work is being exhibited, which contains film taxidermy, installation and sculpture. (see my arts award part a for more on this)

We also had a look at artist Bryan Eccleshall at work, who was in the middle of producing an installation in one of the gallery rooms at Bank Streets Arts. He was working around the concept of copying and had chosen to pick the 12 most popular postcards sold at Graves Gallery and traced them onto transparency film. He then projected them on the wall and tracing them again. Bryan explained how he was interested to see how the images had changed from the original due to them being copied twice. They came out very abstract and were very effective all together in one room. He liked the idea that they were quite compacted together around the walls because if they were the original images it would look too overcrowded. His work reminded me of huge pages from colouring in books.

Day seven...

Today I visited the Archipelago gallery where I was shown round by Rupert Wood who firstly took me around to gallery. I loved the Club Pony posters that were designed by Robin Beck and now desperately want one so I may have to revisit soon. I was then shown the workrooms where the silkscreen prints are created. Rupert explained each step they have to take to produce a print, which is a lot more complex than I first thought. It made me realise how cheap the prints were being sold for in relation to the time that has been spent on each individual print.

Once I returned back to the Site Gallery I focused on writing the Part B of my Arts Awards as my experiences and thoughts on the gallery were fresh in my head. After finishing this I then started on my Part A, getting quite a lot done. I’ve had a very productive day so am happy!

Day six...

This morning we went down to Yorkshire Artspace (which is where I conducted Andrews interview) and were shown round by Rachel Dodd who explained the running of the building. I found out that the Yorkshire Artspace is a building the provides affordable studio space for artists of all medias. The studios vary in size and therefore vary in price. Yorkshire Artspace also runs three Starter Studio Programmes. This is designed to help ambitious artists who are at an early stage in their career, offering workspace, equipment, mentoring business advice as well as exhibition opportunities.

Currently Emilie Taylor, who is a ceramicist, is holding an exhibition at the Yorkshire Artspace. She agreed to explain her exhibition and show us around her studio. When we went into her studio, like in Andrew Hunt's, we were greeted by another gorgeous dog. The small room was dominated by a kiln on the right-hand side, that she admitted she had only just got use to using. There were also works in preparation scattered around the room, cluttering the sideboards. She then showed us and explained to us her work in the exhibition. I was interested to find out the her work was inspired by different aspects form and function of the places we live, particularly British housing estates and our relationship to them. Her use of decorative patterns and line drawings gave her work a very contemporary feel.

In the afternoon Emily Foster came in who has just got into Sheffield Hallam University to study a Photography Degree after doing a foundation course in Doncaster. She showed us her work which was mainly photography, her specialism. Later on I continued taking images for my mini project, with help from Vicky where we ended up running after possible participants, all for a good cause though, my project is coming along nicely.

Day five...

As soon as I arrived I started to edit my interview with Andrew Hunt on audacity (with my new skills I had gained on the first day!). Due to going on a bit of a tangent at the end this took quite a long time to edit but before lunch I had a perfected my interview. I will upload the interview at a later date.

In the afternoon I started my mini project, which goes by the name of Little white liars'. I am asking members of the public the last white lie they told and then taking a picture of them with a white board in front of their face. Once I have enough images I am going to Photoshop the lies that people have told me onto the board, mixing peoples lies up. I am mixing up the lies as I want to explore the initial judgements we have of each other through the lies we tell. So I set off asking members of the public. Some were friendlier than others but I still managed to get a fair few pictures. Unfortunately the heavens opened so I had to take refuge back at the gallery. Once I was back I put my mini project to the side and I started to explain my experience, the affect it had on me and what I learnt from my interview with Andrew.

Day four...

Today we did film editing, using the film that we had recorded yesterday. It’s safe to say this was not my forte.. I needed an uncountable amount of help and my finished product was nothing to shout about. However, I learnt to use imovie (at its simplest) so the time was not wasted.

Later on I arranged an interview for 4:00pm with Andrew Hunt who is a local artist and painter. I love his work as he paints people in their everyday life in comical situations which everyone can relate to. I researched his career and then prepared a mix of questions, all that I was intrigued to find out.
At 4 Vicky and I, carrying two audio recorders, a camera and my questions, two doors down from the Site Gallery to Yorkshire Artspace (YAS) where Andrew Hunt has his studio. As he opened the door to his studio an extremely cute Terrier ran out to greet us with a collar that read 'Hi, im Arthur'. His studio was just how you would imagine an art studio to be. He was so down to earth which made the interview genuine and an enlightening insight into his life, work and thoughts on the world. (see my Arts Award part C for more infom!)

Today I also finalised my idea for section D for my bronze art award.. just need to get started on it!

Day three...

The first half of the day was spent editing the images we had taken yesterday on Photoshop. We were given another overload of information before we started, of a quick overview of what each button does (which is quite a remarkable amount on Photoshop). Surprisingly remembering more than I thought I would and I started my editing.

In the afternoon we were able to customize our blogs (I went for a very simplistic style as you can probably see unless I’ve changed it again). After this we were given all the information about the Arts Award and started brain-storming a range of ideas for our own self led project. Vicky showed the website www.learningtoloveyoumore.com, which I thought was a brilliant insight into a creative project and good for generating ideas. Even though it was at a much larger scale than is possible for me to do, it helped inspire me with my ideas.

Day two...

Today was focused on film and photography. We met a film producer/ director/ lines man called Rob Speranza who was originally from New York but ended up moving to Sheffield. Although not as glamorous, this move has turned out pretty well for him. He now is the manager of the SYFN (South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network) and has worked on many short films. We had the pleasure of watching one of his films not knowing what to expect. However, the setting of some woods and the eerie sound in the background immediately suggested that it wasn’t going to be a comedy. For a 6 mintue short I was very impressed, and a bit shaken!

We all then went to look at the Haris Epaminonda exhibition, currently at Site gallery. It was a surreal experience consisting of four different videos being played in one room with very subtle music in the background. It certainly wasn’t very self-explanatory and I wouldn’t say that I could relate the artists thoughts behind this work but it was definitely an experience which in itself highlights how her work did have an effect on me.

Later on Richard Bolam showed us some of his work, which is based around filming and also deals with the passing of time like Epaminonda’s work, but in a different way. Richard emphasizsed how the music in the background of a film can affect the end product as it can change the whole meaning of the media. After being inspired we had our own attempt of filming (regardless of the awful weather). After warming up when we got back we also had a go at doing a studio portrait shoot, which was extremely entertaining.

Day one...

The morning started off with the well known awkward silence from a group of young people that had never met before. The few minutes (that felt more like 30) sat glancing around the room and was followed by what felt like an endless amount of sheets filled with information that we were all desperately trying to take in. After our information overload, to further our knowledge of each other, what better than pairing us off to interview each other in preparation for when we will be interviewing an artist. Vicky introduced us to thinking about good interview skills and the mp3 and mic kits we’d be using. This was a perfect opportunity to delve into the questions our curiosity had been waiting to know, whilst learning how to use new technology.

The afternoon was filled with an introduction into Contemporary Art, which was explained in a presentation by Lesley Guy from Bloc Studios. This presentation enlightened me to many new artists, which to be honest, I had never heard off before. I particularly liked the work from John Stezaker, as I loved the way my initial response made me feel. Stezaker collages two completely different images, which may have captured a moment in different eras and are a different subject matter. For example, by covering the face from a picture of person with a different image of maybe a landscape, he takes people out of their comfort zone, as they are unable to judge or try and relate to the person in the image causing a very apprehensive feeling and forcing you to use your imagination when looking at his work.

After this presentation we went back to our recorded interviews we did early and were shown how to edit the pauses and mistakes on audacity. Once getting over how different you sound on the audio to how you think you should do we produced a perfected interview.