Tempest

The infamous painting.

This is what I produced as a final piece for my two week fine art project during my foundation degree.
We had to go out and buy a household item and essentially create art from it.

I got a mug.

I didn't like this brief. I felt it was too vague and wishy-washy and I was unaccustomed to the level of freedom available at this stage of education.. so I sat about doing very little, just drawings of the mug itself with very little development.. then came the final two days.. I had squat. So I tore four pages out of a magazine that were all a similar colour, and I essentially slapped paint on it until something formed.. I started working in the shape of the mug, until this erupted forth.

During the crit, I had to present this to the class. This is what I said, to the best of my memory:

"Right, this is my project, I picked a mug, or tea cup if you will.. this is the early work, and this is my final piece. Now, I'd like to tell you that, with a mug/cup of tea being a staple symbol of Britishness and all that is chiefly English, this chaotic scene of storms and turmoil is a reflection of the problems being faced by the nation during this time of economic and social crisis, and it's threat to the current British way of life as we know it. I'd like to tell you this. But, unfortunately, this is a load of bollocks that I just made up."

No-one was amused.