Rebecca Hobbs

Today our Bachelor of Visual Arts, year one leader came and spoke to us about her practise, Photography, and how she uses a technique of developing ideas, to further her practise and to push her work up to that next level.

Idea development plays a major role in my practise, and something I have only begun to start taking seriously. Through my last two years of Secondary School, and now in my first year at University of Auckland, I have been told by my teachers and lecturers that I need to go more in depth with my work. Whether it be in art design, theory based subjects or in my practise at university. This is the main reason I use idea development.

By using idea development, not only does it allow me to go more in depth with my ideas and responses, but it also pushes me to break the constraints I have set in place for myself. Like Hobbs, I choose to use a brainstorm method to try and source key words from my initial idea. It helps to create more options for me to play with when resolving my work.

I feel research is extremely important in an art practise. Although it is important to come up with your own ideas, it is also good to research artists with similar interests. Not only will that artists work be interesting to look at it can help to inspire your own ideas and designs. I constantly find myself looking at designers and anonymous street artists. David Carson, Neville Brody, Stefan Sagmeister, Banksy, Faile, Paula Scher and the list goes on.

I think that research is important to Hobbs. Today she talked to us about the path she takes when researching her work. She talked about how she liked to generate the idea of a family tree or whakapapa when doing her research. Finding the Grandparents, parents, siblings et cetera of the central idea. This was the research can stem out and branch off to many new ideas, which can help extend further practise.

Like Hobbs I find myself going off on wild tangents, one thing I find difficult with these is keeping them under control. Hobbs says to "always be critical" and ask "how does this relate to my idea".

I find the 'x-factor' in researching my favourites artists work. I find that my researching artists with similar tastes to my own, I can produce work that I feel is of a high standard. Which for me, and i am sure others as well, is quite difficult as I am my own biggest critic.