Experimenting

I decided to place the plain collage pieces onto acetate, so I could overlay the piece of acetate onto the Portrait itself. This effect added more interest into the original painting it gave it like a before an after effect in my opinion, like how it was then and how it is now. The Chinese acetated piece responded really well with the colour, as red stands out and it just printed really well onto the transparent plastic.

Here I tried to incorporate three different cultures into one piece, this was actually my first experimented piece but I wasn't proud of it. As it doesn't look very professional and it just does not go well with the painting at all. As I say it's just an experimenting stage so it's all about trial and error.

What I have done here is just overlapped all the pieces of acetate to create one big clash effect to see how the patterns and colours would respond. In a way I kind of liked how this worked on top of the painting but in a way I didn't as it didn't look professional enough to me.

Experimenting

Arnolfini Portrait - Yes back to the Arnolfini wedding, I really inspired from it. I like the metaphorical symbolism within the painting. However I used the cultures I have been looking at to see how I could incorporate that into the painting. I narrowed my ten cultures down to three; Chinese, African and Scottish (However I did not do that much on the Scottish traditions) I also tried to modernise the painting by adding 21st Century features.

Here is Will and Kate again. I kind of cut of a bit of Prince William's nose I'm sure he won't mind. This was done on Adobe Photoshop (Apple Mac). OK, so I'm not a whiz on computers so I had to get a little help from a fellow classmate (Jaime - a real amazing computer person as I am hopeless). I knew how to cut around the couple but he added them into the scene and blocked out Aronlfini and his wife and also made the dog show at the front. This was a really good technique to do but I couldn't ask him to do it for everyone I wanted so I decided to hand render the others and see how they would turn out. (Just experimenting at the moment that's all).

Chinese, Modern and African Cultures - I researched photographs of brides and grooms from all three cultures and one object that would symbolise the culture. I placed these cut outs onto a plain piece of paper in the form they would go in as if they were on the painting. Now I just need to decide what to do to take it to the next step.

Narrowing Ideas

General Superstitions is a bit of a broad subject to go into after I have been doing so much research on weddings. So I decided to narrow my ideas down as there is so much going on. 

I will pick 5 cultures that really sparked my interested and focus on them, using the objects they find superstitious and that is traditional to them. This will help me lead the path into finally making a final piece. 

Superstitions

From Wedding Superstitions to General Superstitions

I wrote down all the superstitions I knew or believed in then I interviewed a range of people I knew to see what superstitions they believe in. I was surprised by the results and someone things I have never heard of until now and I didn't think that they existed as superstitions.

The Royal Wedding 2011 - William & Kate

Like the Arnolfini Painting I researched the next famous wedding I could think of and back in 2011 Prince William and Kate Middleton got married this went worldwide. I mainly looked at public figures and merchandise that came out for the wedding as I did not really care for the wedding myself.

Arnolfini Portrait

'Arnolfini Portrait' - Jan Van Eyck

As I am looking at weddings, I looked at the Arnolfini Portrait painting, as in my work I want to present my final piece in a metaphorical way that it is not obvious to the eye and you will have to look deeper into the piece. Just like this painting as there are lots of symbolism, you just have to take the time to look a little deeper.

The wife pregnant? - No? Historians believe the woman Arnolfini is marrying here did not have any children. Also the more clothing they wore in the 15th Century shows how much wealth they had.

Positioning - The wife is positioned more inside the house and by the bed to show her role as caretaker. Arnolfini is positioned by the window to show the world his role and wealth.

Mirror - The frame of the mirror shows the life of Christ. Also in the mirror shows four figures; The couple, Jan Van Eyck (painting the couple) and you (the viewer) As for a marriage to take place there have to be two witnesses.

The Dog - To symbolise loyalty, fidelity and faith between the couple.

Oranges on the window sill - To symbolise innocence and purity within the relationship.

Cherry Trees outside the window - To symbolise love.

The single lit candle/Chandelier - To represent that God is present and peering down.

My Ten Cultures

Chinese - I researched that the Chinese have so many traditions and superstitions that they believe it really did interest me. From the 'Hairdressing Ritual' to the 'Capping Ritual'. Taking the Bride to the Groom's home, the 'Crying Wedding Song' and 'Shooting the Bride'. 

African - I researched that African's will jump over a broom in there ceremony as it dates back to the slavery days where slaves were not allowed to mixed with any other ethnic group, jumping the broom symbolises equality for all people

Christian - Christian weddings are the event I am mostly likely to attend, I have been a bridesmaid for at least 3 Christian weddings and soon to be another bridesmaid for a Christian wedding in July. To be honest  did not find much information that was that interesting enough to compare to any other culture, maybe this is because I have witnessed Christian weddings often and my mind makes me think they are not as interesting.

Armenian - Armenian weddings in my view as I have researched are like Christian with a twist, they are lot more stricter than Christian more towards Catholic. However with Armenian weddings I am more interested in the objects they have. For example the bride would have to wear a charm of a eye blue. 'The Evil Eye' to keep away bad omen.

Spanish - What I liked about Spanish weddings is the 13 coins that the Groom gives the Bride each one representing something hopefully in the lives together. Also they represent Jesus and his 12 apostles. I am also interested into the Spanish as this was the first culture I researched that wears the wedding ring on the right hand. 

Russian - I then found out the Russian people also wear the wedding ring on the right hand. I also researched they have a crowning ceremony where the Bride and Groom are given a crown to symbolises who they are and where they stand in their future home life.

German - German people also wear their wedding ring on the right hand! In Germany after the wedding ceremony they go outside and the Bride and Groom will have to saw a log in half together. This is really bizarre compared to other wedding traditions. However it symbolises that they can get through any struggle throughout the marriage.

Scottish - Now researching on the Scottish was really interesting as they have so many rituals and superstitions they go through, Plus I asked a Scottish person if they knew about any of these rituals and they did not have a clue. So it was quite funny teaching them what I researched. 

Islamic - What I like about Islamic weddings are the Mehndi parties and the way they can have their ceremony anywhere they want. I asked a Muslim friend of mine what the ceremony is like and she replied that the ceremony will take place in one of the back garden's then the reception the Bride and Groom will just sit on the stage for hours and will not move, just to have photographs taken, some will eat with the guests, some wait for the guests to leave then they will eat.

Jewish - Jewish ceremonies always take place under a Chuppa in presence of a Rabbi. The man will stomp on the glass at the end of the ceremony as I researched some men will joke and say stomping on the glass is  'the last chance to put his foot down'

Wedding Traditions, Rituals & Superstitions

To start my project I researched on weddings around the world, different places and cultures. I came across a wide variety of interesting information. I did so much research I had to find a way to narrow this down so I wrote down the majority of cultures I looked at and placed them into a bowl, my mother kindly volunteered to pick them out at random. The first ten she chose I would go into deeper research and continue my project on them.

Above are the ten my mother picked out the bowl listing;

Chinese

African

Christian

Armenian

Spanish

Same-Sex (Replaced by Russian)

German

Scottish

Islamic

Jewish

I replaced civil marriage with Russian as my mom pointed out that same-sex marriages aren't really a culture and it's something that is just in current affairs and it would contrast and not work well within in everything else as it's all to do with places and cultures.

(However I do look at same sex marriage at one point in my project) 

Now i can start researching more now I have narrowed down my choices this is an easier way to help me get my ideas together.

The National Wedding Show

National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham held the National Wedding Show on March 2nd which I went to, as primary research as I thought it would help begin my final major project. I thought this exhibition would give me inspiration for what I could do as my final piece or give me an insight into my future course of events management. Well it didn't! Most of the stalls in the exhibition were more for buying and renting wedding dresses for all the brides out there wanting their perfect dresses. The rest were for mainly the 'after' honeymoon getaways and insurance. Even though I did not really know what I was looking, I did not get anything out of this experience I was in and out of there within an hour. 

So now I will need to find a new starting point!

My Development Throughout My Final Major Project

As well as using a sketchbook and journal (shown above) 

I decided that I should make a blog to make my thought process a little more visually exciting also a place where I can take a upload images without having to explain it through my journal.

I am quarter way through my sketchbook, I will upload images of my pages and thoughts and yeah I hope are interested in my final major art project!