black with white stripes or white with black stripes?

The black with white stripes or white with black stripes series was part of an illusion project. I began experimenting with drawing animals and trying to change the way they are pecieved. Which then brought up the question "black with white stripes or...?"
these smaller stencils of the zebras do not really work very well as they look like striped black and white tigers.

BWWS or WWBS continued

'White with black stripes?' 2010 spray paint on paper

Enlarging the scale of my zebra meant that the detail when using my handmade stencils was less blurred and easier. the larger scale zebras are more effective at showing off my point when the public look at these pieces separately they do not really see the difference it is only when they view both pieces next to each other does the illusion become apparent.

'Black with white stripes?' 2010 spray paint on paper

further exploring leaves and morris



2007 experiments with wax and ink

  experiments with patterns following the style of William Morris and his use of repeated flowers and leaves. trying to explore different effective ways to show bright colours in a different way from the older style of Morris's wallpaper i wanted to use Morris's bright colours without being restricted with size or form.


2007 ink, acrylic and wax on paper  'morris leaves'



pattern that has been repeated

 these two smaller pieces are showing the pattern that has been repeated to make 'morris leaves' i have put one on top of a light box and the other lightened it up using photo editor you can further see the detail in the edited piece. I really enjoy using wax and ink and exploring repeated pattern they have something.

organic forms 'leaves'

2007 print 'untitled'

While exploring organic forms and found objects in college i became quite interested in leaves. Looking at william morris's patterned wallpapers i started printmaking and produced a number of pieces involving leaves and continuous patterns. I enjoyed using printmaking machines and would like to further experiment with this technique maybe exploring other objects instead of just organic forms or found objects.

2007 print 'falling down'

'shells' organic forms continued



2007 pastels on paper 'untitled'

Using pastels to display all the colours present
on this shell i tried to show shape and texture
these two drawing where produced in my first
week studying art and design at college.



2007 pastels on paper



'shells' organic forms

Using blobs of acrylic paint and a piece of card i scrapped the paint across the paper in the shape of the shell hoping to get the form of the shell in an unusual way.

2007 acrylic paint on paper 'shell'

life drawing

2008 ink and chalk on paper 'untitled'

Exploring the use of bold colour and lighter parts of the body in white chalk, ink and ink bloches.

Organic forms

My project was about organic forms i looked at all possible definitions of organic. I used bones, shells, leaves and any other natural found objects. Using black ink and a stick on paper i tried to show shape and texture of the shell. Black ink on white paper has a strange effect on a usually colourful object it makes the drawing seem darker and perhaps sinister.

'shell' 2008
ink on paper

'untitled' 2008
ink on paper

'contor lines' 2008
ink on paper



'untitled' 2008
pen on paper

'drawing using stick and ink' 2008

'untitled' 2008
acrylic on paper

'colourful shell' 2008
pastels on paper

'untitled' 2008
ink on paper

final degree statement

Gemma Parr
“Society issues and the general public”

Exploring the issue of children maturing rapidly my work developed into video art. I have produced five short films. Initially the films are juvenile and playful, although subsequently intensifying throughout.

stills from film 2011



“Being childish”  

Children and young adults feel the need to mature quicker. They consider youth to be pointless exercise and as a result loose their innocence. “Being childish” was about involving the community and helping them relive their childhood memories or experiences. Involving young adults in childish activities and filming the occurrence.

“The unexpected”

Creating art in unusual and unexpected places for example, lifts and studios.

“Destroying childhood” bursting balloons developed following “the unexpected” conclusion. Balloons could be used as a symbol for childhood and bursting balloons may possibly be a metaphor for destroying childhood resulting in irreparable damage. Balloons contain objects from childhood representing the adolescent’s purity. Society is responsible for destroying childhood it is now considered unacceptable for young adults to act immature there is no innocence anymore.

“Sinister hidden meanings”

Researching into hidden meanings I found nursery rhymes to be disturbing. Placing nursery rhymes plus the unknown meanings into a balloon and bursting it has similar implication as the earlier video. Red and the knife both represent the alarming sense of the nursery rhymes. The cracking of the glass of “goosey goosey gander” represents the child or young adult realising the real meaning behind the rhyme and they feelings for that part of their childhood shattering quite literally.

“Innocent ideas”

Asking young children they think they will achieve as adults most of their ideas were implausible. Writing the ideas onto unemployed bulbs presents the proposal that the bulbs will never be used. Using the thought that when people think of an idea a light bulb appears. It is sinister as most adults do not live up to their potential.

Liverpools social issue's

Liverpool’s social issues


Having lived in Liverpool all my life and noticing changes in society including etiquette, morals and conduct, I explored the public behaviour in Liverpool. I found four main subjects of interest which are: pregnancy, religion, role models and trends.

I explored pregnancy as it seems children and young adults are becoming pregnant sooner without any consideration for there well-being or the babies. Children are loosing their innocence they are growing up too fast

While exploring religion I found the subject too broad there are too many religions and I do not like the idea of telling people what to believe in I feel people should be allowed to make up there own mind. I do not feel they should be forced into believing in a religion, I am a not a religious person and I would never tell anyone what to believe in or insult someone if they were to believe in a certain aspect of religion.

I investigated role models role models play a huge part in young adults or children’s lives they look at footballers or actors as someone to look up to. Celebrities should be aware of their actions they should consider their audience and how easily influenced they can be.

Looking at trends was one of my favourite subjects as just as I delved into this subjects the infamous ‘Jesus bracelets’ had just become popular. I explored the Jesus bracelets and produced artwork about how the catholic churches were making Jesus into a fashion idol and not a religious icon as he should be.

perceptions people have.

In our society people have pre-percevied ideas and opinions about people. People judge strangers on stereotypes we all do it. People jump to conclusions without knowing all the facts. For example they assume children in tracksuits are up to no good when they could have just been playing football in the park. People assume teenagers in big groups are just going to bahave antisocially and graffiti. people assume all teenagers will be drinking too young and having sexual relationships too young. Most people getting these ideas of how children and young adults behave from tabloid newspapers and propaganda about youths. I would like to show how people should not jump to conclusions and how one scene can be percieved as something else.

political correctness

I think that political correctness has gone too far i mean you can not say certain words anymore such as bar bar black sheep or ginger bread man or police woman. i think its gone stupid in our society it make people walk on egg shells scared about what to say. I produced 'white board/black board' i wanted to show people how silly it is not being able to say black board or white board after all white and black are just colours used in decribing object so after looking up dictonary definitions of these words i wrote the defintions or black and white on the boards and called it 'white board/black board' because that is what they are. i want to see if anyone takes offence or if it has all just gone too far.

spider diagram

i made another spider diagram about society as i ran out of ideas of what i can base my work on ive bled the trends idea dry. i started to look at not just the fashion side of our culture but the bigger things that ifluence our society such as racism, etticate, political correctness. people need to be reminded how be behave for example posters on bus to tell people not to play loud music not to be socially unexeptable. Some people do not have any manners and need to be reminded to be respectful. which gave me the idea of using signs like the artist Ghada Amer who uses signs in her work i think this may be an effective way to get my point across.

Is romance dead?

After seeing an article in the glamour magazine asking wether romance is dead. I thought about it and realized it is really it has changed through the years for example during the early 18th century their would be romantic love letters and poems written to whoever they were in love with but it has changed through history. Romance is not what it used to be
i will make a film about how times have changed through films. Films have become ruder and less romantic since they began leaving nothing to the imagination. It will hopefully show how society's changed and developed over the centuries.
I have also being looking at how times have changed through literature but i can not think of a effective way to display it.

religion does not get took seriously anymore

while producing my jesus pictures some religious people started to get offended saying i was being disrespectful of religion. the idea behind it was to raise awareness of how they church is trying to make jesus seem 'cool or fashionable' the church shops sell these jesus bracelet to make money make jesus just a part of capalistism. my work was not making fun of jesus it was just showing how some people are making a mockery or a religous icon.
i wanted to show how some people do not take religion seriously anymore by getting people to graffiti on jesus pictures i was getting people involved. it made me wonder wether i could get people to graffiti another religious figure and see if that would have a bigger impact.

jesus pictures

jesus wearing sunglasses

jesus wearing rollers

My tongue in cheek jesus pictures developed into looking more at trends and incorporating them with jesus. I am making a comment on how people in our society are obssesed with the latest trends regardless of how redicous they look while sporting them. for example women in liverpool have decided that wearing rollers while walking around in public is perfectly exeptable. trends in magazines have a big influence on our society. i am making a comment on how people are not original anymore they are too easily influenced by society.

joint statement of intent

My work from the summer project has developed from being about illusion to about people, I find people very interesting there are so many different types and stereotypes and groups of people everyone is unique. I have looked at loads of different subjects relating to people such as religion, pregnancy, stereotypes, body image, role models. Just to see what is most interesting about humans. I have looked at a few artists who relate to my early subject intentions:
- Body image- john Curran, who produces paintings in which you have to take a second look firstly they look innocent enough.
- Religion- Chris ofili, who looks at religious icons and changes them to show a different meaning.
- Role models- Richard Philips, known for his historic scale portraits copied from 1960-70s fashion magazines.
My early intention for my final major project is to produce large scale paintings influenced by the subject I am most interested in.
I aim to research more into my chosen subject and produce work relating to the most inspiring and hopefully get loads of ideas from my topic. I also wish to look deeper into my subject and consider the psychological, social and historical implications and how they will affect my work.
For example whilst looking at body image and role models I discovered that their are many mental disorders related to people trying to be their ‘ideal’ body weight such as eating disorders. Also I must be careful whilst looking at religion not to offend people and religion is such a touchy subject and when I produce work about religion I would like to get my point across cleverly without sounding to insensitive to people beliefs. Whilst looking at body image I would like to produce artwork that make mostly women feel good about their bodies and help with self confidence.