Crystal Monique Biaño

Year 2 – Visual Arts Student

(2023)

Semester one

Phase 1: Gathering resources

07/03/2023
Materials
Today, we put together our materials. I brought fashion magazines and ribbons. I tried my best to think what I like and the colour palette. I also played with the colours for this display. Something that stands out is the cat. It’s kind of out of place but it still connects with these images.

Here’s a mini colour palette for this display.

Phase 2: Visual dialogues

13.03.23

Using the materials from phase 1, I created and experimented different techniques. There are various uses of collage and framing. I made a few of the collages pop out using long pins on the wall. Staining gift wrapping paper and cut outs, created a authentic look on the paper. I experimented with the use of ribbons and fabric. On the right, I tried making it look like a ballet pointe shoe ribbon.

Printmaking workshop

15.03.23

In this printmaking workshop, we learnt two processes. First, we were taught the drypoint etching. We cleaned the metal and applied the ink on the heated table.

In the second process, using the other metal sheet given, we cleaned and applied the blue vinyl wrap. I printed a picture on a A3 transparent sheet in greyscale. Using the machine, we place the sheet and metal inside, making sure the numbers on the machine process are:
1. 35
2. 140
3. 0000
These are the numbers of the time. When I closed it, we need to lean on it to make sure the dial is moving. After the first round done, we take away the transparent sheet and the blue vinyl on the metal sheet. We then put it back in the machine for the second round.
Once this machine process is finished, we place it in the water for 10 minutes. Using a sponge we gently rub the blue side of the metal sheet.

Next, I took it to this room and water blast it. I then wiped it with vegetable oil and solvent.

Combine

20.03.23

After our group discussion to everyone’s works. I decided to experiment with combining fabric material and prints. The base of my works are wooden pallets. Playing with the fabric, I crinked or pleated it.
The top right artwork stood out. I cut out a figure from a magazine but used the background. It gave an empty negative space to the work. What was interesting was I used ripped out string from denim jeans. I decided to try expand on that.

Printmaking workshop continuation

21.03.23

The following week, I went back to the printmaking workshops and continued both processes: drypoint etching and film print.

After etching the metal sheet with a pointed tool, I spreaded ink on the surface using a square rubber block. Once the ink is evenly spread, I started removing the ink with various materials: yellow paper, rags, and tracing paper. Using the etching printing press, I printed this work out.

I first stuck on red vinyl to the back of it. Next, using safety glasses and gloves, I placed the metal sheet in the acid bath for 30 minutes. Having to check up on it every 10 minutes, I used a feather to gently brush off little bubbles on the metal sheet.

After 30 minutes, I washed off the metal sheet with water. Next I started doing the same ink process as the etching process. Here are both of the results:

Open Studio

27.03.23

I set up my art works in my space. When I was told about this open studio, we were told that we just need to clean up the space and put things to the side. So I did that and made sure viewers aren’t leaning against a table to see my work. However, on the day, we were told to move away our tables with our materials. This resulted to my work display looking uneven.

However, I received positive comments in my visitors book. A lot of people love the mixed media. There were compliments of my use of collage and fabrics. I would like to expand with the mixed media but would like to paint more.

Bookbinding Workshop

29.03.23

‘gift, dialogue, and respond’ workshop

airy thoughts

21.04.23

Inspired by Joseph Mallord William Turner, I used the brush technique to give an airy feeling. The colours are like thoughts in the background. Different feels of warm and cool colours. “[C]olor exists only through other colors. This is the basis for all color theories.” – František Kupka. I used gouache for a better blend with water and being more opaque. Using pastel to create a women figure looking away from the flower in her hand.

After this artwork I used the leftover gouache from the pallete to create this abstract piece mixed with the masking fluid I was going to use. I poured most of the palette into the middle with the masking fluid going down the work. On the sides are repeatitive the same colour going down the line like a list of generations. The masking fluid in the middle symbolises those who are going through the diasphora experience.

Blending in

01.05.23

disconnected

04.05.23 – 08.05.23

Y2 BVA P&P Foyer Exhibition

Built-in four eyes

Invisible

This work showcases my insecurities around my body. I have
eczema. I’ve mostly been pointed out and pettied in Filipino
gatherings. This is due to the beauty standards in the
Philippines that could bring people down with insecurities.
So I painted a self-portrait of me that is spiritual ghost like.
This gives off me wanting to go invisible.

Kiwi fruit

Semester Two

Sketches

24 JULY 2023

These sketches are something I imagine or thought about when I recently went to the Philippines. Combining New Zealand elements into the picture.

Three Gallery Visits

25 JULY 2023

Reading 1

Statement of Intent by Mark Godfrey

Mark Godfrey talks about the perspective of four female artists: bad education, application of paint, composition and the view of bodies. Jacqueline Humphries, Laura Owens, Amy Silman, and Charline von Heyl have been in an environment in which abstract paintings were discouraged. In the 1970s, a female art student was not expected to create Abstract Expressionism paintings. All four painters in different ways have departed from the authentic gesture of midcentury and emptied postmodern gesture. 

Key references: select key terms, artists, art historical/ various contextual references and present your research findings

• Revisiting an old essay of hers titled “Painting and Its Others, In the Realm of the Feminine” (1991)“The Feminine in Abstract Painting Reconsidered” (2017) by Shirley Kaneda says;‘exclusionary practices inherent in abstract painting’, (like modernism), Kaneda coined the ‘other’ approaches to abstract painting as the ‘feminine’‘…the nature and language used to uphold certain dominant beliefs in the practice of abstract painting, it became more apparent to me why women were … excluded from this discourse’The criteria to distinguish ‘quality’ and what was a ‘legitimate’ painting was often defined by men, but the women of the time were breaking this and making the most interesting work‘The feminine has been the property of the masculine hierarchy until the present and has been defined by and denigrated by it as such.’ Kaneda seeks to ‘reassert the feminine as a thing itself’‘As Walter Benjamin pointed out, the difference between Fascism and Socialism is that the Fascists aestheticised politics and the Socialists politicized aesthetics. The question that has been repeatedly asked since the confusion that has arisen from the notion of the feminine is: are we now to speak of a feminine feminism or a feminist feminine? This is not a word play, but a play of concepts: one conceals and the other reveals, “between the idea of a political identity for feminism (what women require) and that of a feminine identity for women (what women are or should be)” (Rose 2011).’‘The feminine allows for a wide range of approaches and one that does not necessarily conform to any set of given standards.’‘The question of the feminine is a male myth. It is a justification for a fear of becoming a victim, and is tied to an impulse to subjugate.

https://www.womenandperformance.org/ampersand/shirley-kaneda-27-3

How was this reading useful for you, and why?

• Interesting insight into the art scene of 25+ years agoKnowledge on the political views

Painting studies

1 AUGUST 2023

Gouache studies

Two Artists

Star Gossage is a Maori New Zealand painter. Her practice includes theatre, filmmaking, poetry, and sculpture. Gossage experiments with expressionism, impressionism and surrealism. She incorporates Māori concepts such as whānau and whakapapa.

Gossage works consist of mixed media. Such as watercolour, charcoal, ink, acrylic, chalk, and pastels. Her colour palette is influenced by natural pigments like fish oils, burnt kauri gum, clay, lime and earth. Her work is influenced by female figures. She references herself, whānau (family) and the spiritual essence of womanhood.

Star Gossage works through an idea, or a thought or a need… The connection is there – For herself – Like Frida Kahlo – made it traditional but made it about herself and the things that happened to her.

In her practice process, she normally sketches in her journal for example when she went to Cadaqués and Star Gossage won’t paint anything unless she feels something. It’s about the power of emotions. Getting it inside the painting. 

I watched an interview on Youtube, “Star Gossage in conversation with Mary Kisler with Auckland Art Gallery Foundation Cocktail Chats”, 2021. She was travelling across Cadaqués, Spain and in Minyerri, an Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. Gossage mainly discussed about her Cadaqués trip.

Chuck Close

•He has been described as a photorealist, minimalist, and abstract expressionist.

•He is best known for his large- scale photorealist portraits.

•He would lay a grid over a photo and transferred a proportional grid onto his large canvases. He would apply acrylic paint with an airbrush and scrap off the excess to duplicate the shadings int the photo.

•In addition to self-portraits, he based some of his work off family or fiends or even prominent people in the art-world. 

•In his more recent works, he uses these sorts of tiles of oval shapes that are repeated across its large scale. Up close its abstract itself but far away it’s a recognizable portrait.

•He was also known for the struggles he went through as an artist, earliest being dyslextic and having trouble reading which that jump started his interest in art where he began drawing and painting, compensating for his academic struggles. Later on in life, a blood clot caused him to be partially paralysed but continued his making with an attachment to his arm that allowed him to do what he loves.

preparing for the cross-curriculum critiques

1. kiwi fruit

22 May 2023

I decided to stretch it into a canvas frame. I made it as if I was a kiwi fruit because I’m a Kiwi/New Zealander. I made sliced kiwi fruits as my mouth and ear. This symbolises me only speaking and hearing one language. Yet I have the Philippine’s hawk-eagle facing towards me. I’m leaning toward the Phillipine hawk-eagle. This portrays me trying to get to know my culture more.

2. a lost kiwi

14 September 2023

I first started with an underlayer/toner of orange. This helped me find the missing spots of my painting. And sinc I’m trying to create a gouache look, the under paint colour of orange gives a warm feeling.

No matter how lost or out of place I was in the Philippines, I still felt the warmth and happiness.

3. revisiting lola’s house

25 August 2023

I used warm colour background/toner to give a warm feeling to the viewer. I also used warm colours as I felt happy in this picture reconnecting with my family in the Philippines.

I decided to paint me revisiting lola’s(Filipino word for Grandma) home. I did not get to build a strong bond with lola because I grew up in New Zealand. I was only able to meet her for the first and last time in 2012. This place is a special memory for me. The colour of the walls and detail of the background. I decided to change everyone clothing to Filipino traditional wear. Having a kiwifruit slice in my partner and I’s mouth to symbolise us “speaking in dollar” (speaking in english).

4. don’t speak

17 September 2023

When I revisited the Philippines 2023, I found out in the MRT/LRT trains, there is a female area carriage. I decided to paint a thin layer over the female area to show we arent in there but maybe just thinking how safer we would be if we were in there. I was not able to get onto the female area carriage as I was with my boyfriend. Next to me was my partner’s two cousins (both females) and my partner(male) on the right. There’s a female area carriage as a short-term fix for harrassments on trains. Masks are compulsory to wear in the Manila trains, but I thought it was also a good way to enhance the silence. Since I’m an only english speaker I was told I shouldn’t speak due to concerns of being targeted/robbed. There’s an AT (Auckland Transport) logo and a HOP logo to show that we’re in the same carriage.

5. disconnected

8 May 2023

In this artwork, I wanted to portray the disconnectedness towards my heritage. This is due to not being taught my native language. When I’m surrounded by my Filipino friends or family, I feel guilt and shame for not speaking or understanding.

You’re not Filipino enough

12 October 2023

This painting is titled “You’re not Filipino enough”. The painting process was difficult to paint as it took a lot of courage to reflect back on memories looking at myself in the mirror. I used oil paints, W medium, and water.
Here’s a sketch I made before my painting:

“I felt happy in and a bit after my Philippines (trip this year (Jun 24 – Jul 5)) However, when I think and remember the the disconnection I felt in the past when I haven’t gone to the Philippines in a while and what some Filipinos think of me.” I decided to sketch me holding different items with negative and positive memories.

I made this canvas (120cm x 75cm). I wanted it to be like a mirror. I gesso the canvas 4-6 times. I tone the canvas with orange/yellow warm tone acrylics. Sketching myself with coloured pencil over the paint. I think painted my mirror frame from my bedroom (which is a white plain frame).

It was difficult for me to start painting this sketch. It’s hard to think about myself and reflect on my identity crisis of “I’m not Filipino enough” and I’m also not Kiwi enough. It’s an identity crisis of who am I if I’m neither enough. This is my finalised painting:

I first thought the drips were too much. However, my first intentions of these items were memories and I thought it envisions the idea of faintness of these memories. There are hidden memories in this painting that I may only can recall in my head. For example, the invisible stethoscope I’m wearing on my neck. It’s a stereotype but most Filipinas become nurses. Most of my Filipino best friends from high school went straight to University to study to become nurses. I was thinking about it, even though it was not my passion. So I took a gap year and thought about it. Another hidden memory was the covered in drips plastic bag with faint sticks coming out from the top right of the bag. It’s a faint positive memory of my uncle (who has now passed) holding the plastic bag with my sisters and I’s favourite filipino street food called “Bananaque”. He’d surprise us mostly everyday in our visit at his place catching up with our cousin.

First visit at Lola’s house

26 October 2023

A faint memory using photo references of my family photo with Lola(Grandma) in the Philippines in 2012. This photo was taken at the same place seen in my painting “Revisiting Lola’s House”, but on different couch. Using the motif of Kiwi fruit of ears and mouth. My sisters and I wearing our New Zealand school uniforms. While my parents and Lola wearing Kultura cultural Filipino clothing.

I decided to do a wash/tone of yellow orange acrylic to give a more warm and happy feeling. Same walls and picture frame from the reference photo. I painted like watercolour using oil paints with the background and figures clothing. However, everyone’s faces are painted more with realistic and some with abstract motifs. The kiwi fruit as a repetition of my sisters and I can only hear and/or speak Kiwi english.

I wanted to paint a halo on Lola because I wanted her to be the focus and to be the star of this painting. Unfortunately, she passed away. Hearing many stories of Lola being a generous kind person made me see her as a beautiful angel. So I painted her as I imagined her as a beautiful angel.

Final Presentation

30 October 2023

I will be present 6 works in my final presentation. My set up is by the window in the year 1 studio. Separating my “Kiwi fruit” painting and “I’m not Filipino enough” painting. I isolated the “Kiwi fruit painting” as it is quite different due to painting using gouache. It is my first paintings exhibited in this presentation. The “I’m not Filipino enough” painting, I separated it from the rest as it is perfect as its own. It’s displayed as if it’s looking at my other paintings displayed which is in favor.

I moved my largest painting “I’m not Filipino enough” many time as I was not happy with lighting and spacing/distance from other paintings. However, I was able to discuss and communicate with teachers on my issue. Leading to moving it around, replacing nail holes, and moving walls. However, with the final outcome of my artworks displayed I am happy with the way it looks. I’ve measured and leveled each of these paintings displayed.

I also displayed “a lost Kiwi”, “don’t speak”, “revisiting Lola’s house”, and “first visit at Lola’s house”.

My Final presentation: