Shannon Fennell Artist

Today we took part in a workshop and ended up all working together on a very large collage, without a plan. Interesting exercise, but I prefer a plan.  We will be continuing to work on it next week, and it will end up in a printed version (a "Zine".) I'm not totally clear on what the whole purpose or concept is overall. Hopefully the materials from the lecture part will be shared so I can review them. She spoke about early animation and surrealism in her introduction, we watched what was described as the first animated cartoon from 1908, and then one of Disney's first animations of Dancing Skeletons. She also spoke of how cartoons suspend reality and the laws of nature. Everyone had been told to bring in magazines, old art, etc. so we were all cutting and ripping up all sorts of things to add. We just piled everything on a table, and rifled through it all. It got a little messy with inks and water, etc. As I prefer some sort of organization to my collaging, my little ...

I'm posting notes on the ideas and research topics I want to explore, and media and/or techniques to experiment with. I keep getting ideas for physical works, some I know I can build, others I would need to find a way and learn new techniques - which is always enjoyable and opens up new possibilities. The topic I came into this program with, that I am emotionally invested in, is how women's reproductive rights correlate with conservation and the environment; how the patriarchy controls women vs how humans control the planet's resources. I see a lot of strong comparisons in this and ways to represent my feelings, research and response to my findings in my work. This topic is massive. I've created pieces on these themes previously - on women's suffrage, medical practices that subjugate women's interests, and conservation and endangered species. So continuing to research and correlate the two areas would be a very personal endeavour. My Fine Art Thesis was on Threa...

Yesterday we presented and discussed our first writing assignment. Really interesting works presented, and very different. Then we split into teams of two to play "Fantasy" Gallery Show - we curated a show to a theme (which Laura related to the types of work or themes we'd chosen to write about.) It was a fun exercise. Laura teamed up with me (there are five of us so she got to jump in to make up the numbers.) Our theme was Indigenous artists/themes - and we were concentrating on North American as that is my specific interest and background. As it was a dream show we could choose works that we would never have a chance in hell of actually acquiring/borrowing to exhibit! First here is a rough sketch of our gallery layout with positions of the works... (with scribbled notes I'd made of things to check out later!) And here are the works to be included with some notations. Buffalo Hunt Charging Back by George Catlin (c. 1830s) - this is not specifically the work, but we w...

On October 11th we had our Introduction to the Metal Workshop. It is quite the facility! I found it very interesting. There is a forge, acetylene torch, metal lathe, TIG welder, MIG welder, English Wheel, drill press, etc. There was a lot more equipment but I honestly don't remember the names. We got to try out the acetylene torch - I found that quite exciting and a little scary (I'm not a fan of compressed gas - I won't even use a propane BBQ!).  We were given a steel ring - basically a chain link with the gap and the sides/ends spread apart. We had to put the ring in a vice, and pound the ends to line-up, leaving a 2mm gap. Then we went to the table and had to use the torch to heat up the ring, and using a bronze wire and flux, seal the gap on the ring.  Of the three of us, only Anna (who went first) did it right! Mine was the worst of the three. I could NOT see through the welding mask at all. So my bronze application completely missed the gap. I thought I was close... H...