FMP - Developed Initial Designs

FMP - Developed Initial Designs

FMP - Project Proposal

UAL Awarding Body - Level 3 Extended Diploma

Project Proposal - FMP Y2.

Candidate Name	Megan Chilcott
Candidate Number
Course	Level 3 Extended Diploma in Art and Design
Project Title	The Fear of Loneliness
Section 1: Review (Approx 150 words)
Since joining college I have learnt that a process of experiments is an important thing. Nothing has to be perfect the first try, art is about trial and error and sharing your accomplishments as well as your mistakes. This is an important lesson to me because I used to believe that everything from sketches to book work had to be perfection, now I keep everything in order to show my artistic progress. I have also used a variety of materials and techniques while at Plymouth College of Art, from pottery to wood work to my personal favourite, life drawing. I was slightly apprehensive at the thought of life drawing, my strengths are more in portraiture, but through using different materials such as chalk, charcoal and paint and learning the method of measuring models bodies with a pencil; it became of my favourite lessons in art. An area I can improve in art would probably be my time management. I struggle with deadlines; I’m not great at committing to them. I could improve this by organising my work schedule slightly better and teach myself that procrastinating will never help.
Section 2: Project Concept (approx 250 words)
For my Final Major Project I’m going to explore ‘The Fear of Loneliness’. I’ve recently become very interested in elderly loneliness and isolation; it’s an increasing epidemic that gets ignored in our country and I aim to bring awareness to the subject. To explore elderly loneliness I will be doing research into charities and organisations that aim to help people in these situations, one of these being Age UK. I will also be looking into artists who’ve created artwork and explored loneliness, aging or fear. This will give me further information about what I should look at myself when developing art regarding a similar topic. The context of which my question is exploring is society. I want to know what we are doing as humans to help our fellow man when they are in dire need of our help and support for their mental well-being, happiness and stability. My aim is to shine a light in the eyes of society to know what they are doing and can be doing to help these forgotten men and women. The artists I’ve looked into are Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso; I decided to look more into their lives than their work. Van Gogh for example has been well documented as a troubled man with issues regarding his mental health. I found this quote by author M.E. Tralbaut about his death, “He deliberately ended his life in the knowledge that his powers were exhausted.” This speaks to me as many elderly people end their lives due to loneliness and social isolation. Whereas Picasso who by my research was an extremely insightful man said this about negativity and positivity, “Every action has an implicit share of negativity. There is no escaping it. Every positive value has its price in negative terms and you never see anything very great which is not, at the same time, horrible in some respect. The genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.” This made me think about life and how it’s (usually) extremely positive in the beginning (childhood) and can at times lead to turmoil, sadness and loneliness at the end. For my Final Major Project I am to use a wide range of 2D materials, exploring with colour which I’ve never been great at with pencils, pens, a variety of paints and some typography. I also want to try collage which is something I’ve never attempted before as well as experimenting with 3D materials such as fabrics, sewing, and plastics and perhaps model making.
Section 3: Evaluation (approx 100 words)
To evaluate my work throughout the project I will be making foot notes on pages to ask myself questions which will be helpful to me when creating new work. I will be asking myself questions such as “How does this relate to The Fear of Loneliness?”, “Is this useful?”, “Could you research this further?” and “How could you develop this for it to be included in the Final Major Project final piece?” Questions like these and constant evaluations will help me keep focused in terms of what I’m researching and exploring, this will in turn make my work more refined.
Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)

FMP - The Fear of Loneliness - Research, Sketches and Thoughts

Bookwork

FMP - The Fear of Loneliness - Research, Sketches and Thoughts

FMP - Isolation Experiments and Sketches

FMP - Isolation Experiments and Sketches

FMP - Image Interpretation

FMP - Image Interpretation

For my image interpretation I chose to do Banksy's Girl and Balloon art piece. I chose to use Banksy because he tackles social issues within his art and for my final major project I am also trying to tackle a social issue. I chose to do Girl and Balloon because I think its one of his my known works and I knew I could change it up and make it my own.

This is my final image interpretation, it depicts an elderly man trying to catch a clock as its flying away from him, simillar to the saying "time flies". I think this is poignant and links to my work as it shows how the elderly feels like they're being forgotten by time as well as society. 

Overall I found it quite difficult to produce this piece the way I wanted it as it's very difficult to recreate with different materials but I think the message it still there and I hope that it's strong. 

FMP - Artist Research - Lucy Fahey

FMP - Artist Research - Lucy Fahey

While doing my information research I came across an article that had illustrations by a woman named Lucy Fahey. Due to the article being by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) there isn't much information regarding the artist, I tried to find more information online but there wasn't much, so with this Artist Research I will be looking at the original ABC article regarding loneliness and sharing my thoughts and opinions on the artwork shown.

ABC graph showing suicide with gender and age.

The ABC article sheds light on the reality of elderly suicide, it's a heartbreaking article to read as it shows real people in these situations. It seems that first comes the social isolation and loneliness and then the depression hits when then leads to suicide attempts, the problem is that it's so easily prevented. These people have been almost forgotten about by society and it's our job as human beings to ensure no one feels like they have no options left. 

Lucy Fahey's illustrations on this subject are really beautiful. I found it really difficult to find pictures depicting elderly loneliness but I'm very happy I found these. There were 3 pieces of art on the article and one really sprung out to me, it's of a man sitting alone, his back turned and looking as though he's staring out of a window. This is such a common aspect of life with the elderly. I used to go to care homes when I was younger to sing to the elderly at Christmas with my primary school and you'd see many people doing this exact thing. My Grandma lives in a bungalow where there's many bungalows with many elderly people living in them and you can see them looking out the windows at the trees and the sky just watching the world go by all alone. I'm not saying all these people are lonely but there's a certain beauty within the sadness in that moment, they almost glaze over suspended in a moment and just wish I could know what they were thinking.

I really like Fahey's technique. It's almost effortless, the way the water colour is used is as though there isn't any blending, the highlights and low lights sit next to eachother working perfectly to create a depth that is very human. The colours used for human skin are are very raw, from the peaches and pinks to the blues and purples and leads to a very realistic depiction of the human form.

Overall I really enjoy the realism of Lucy Fahey's work. I think it really brings life to an article that is so heart wrenchingly sad.

ABC Article - http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-08/mental-health-depression-elderly-suicide/6808998

Lucy Fahey - http://www.lucyfahey.com/index/

FMP - Information Research

FMP - Information Research

Here I have collated a few different articles that interested me regarding loneliness as part of my research into how loneliness affects the elderly. I will use this information to improve my sketches and book work as now I believe I have clearer understanding of the mental state that elderly people have to live with while lonely and how that loneliness can even end in suicide.
Some articles also include ways we as a society can help elderly people when going through these problems and I will be using that information to create a poster as a way to inform people and try and gain awareness.

[1] Loneliness

Recent technology has left us doing jobs with more ease than before yet have made us busier and busier everyday and have made our elderly more lonelier and lonelier without company every day.

Gone were the days when children and grandparents sat side by side and read books or played board games together. Today, our kids are more preoccupied with playing video games and watching television than spending time with their grandparents. This is the age of secluded seniors.

According to recent studies, about one-fourth of the population of seniors live alone, while almost half report being lonely regularly. The studies have also found out that the more a senior gets lonelier, the more they are likely to decline and die faster. It is said by an US study that 60 year olds have a 45 percent risk in death when they report feeling lonely. There is also more than 50% mental and physical decline among seniors who feel lonely than those whose social lives have been active. Lonely people are also at risk of acquiring Alzheimer's disease. Lonely people oftentimes push other people away and isolate themselves from society.

And not only that, the US study reports that seniors who feel lonely were either married or have been living with a partner for some time. Experts think that it's not the more relationships you have but the quality of the relationships that you enjoy.

So why are our seniors so lonely? One reason for this is because they are alone. Some of them are placed in nursing homes, assisted living communities and other communities where they have limited contact with their family. Oftentimes, their family members pay little attention to them and do not have deep engaging communications with them. The other roots of a senior's loneliness include reduced mobility, reduced income and loss of friends and family members. Loneliness can greatly impact quality of life and health. There are negative health effects that may arise from being lonely. Loneliness is said to have negative effects on blood pressure and is associated with depression and risk for mortality. Loneliness can also predispose to vices such as smoking and alcohol consumption.

This problem among our elderly can be addressed by creating communities where seniors can befriend others at their age group, group services that offer help and support for seniors, and with the use of volunteers in the community who can give emotional, social and practical support.

Loneliness and Early Death

In a latest study by researchers from the University of Chicago, feeling extremely lonely can increase a senior's risk for premature death by 14 percent. The researchers studied the rate of physical and mental decline on seniors. They have found out that older people can eliminate their risk for death by having resilience and by growing from everyday stresses. According to these experts, loneliness can bring about negative consequences such as sleep disruption, blood pressure elevation, increase in the stress hormone  cortisol, altered gene expression in immune cells, low well-being and increased depression. The researchers say that seniors can prevent this decline by staying in touch with family and friends, taking part in family functions and sharing good times with family and friends.

[2] Elderly men have the highest suicide rate - and ageism stops us from doing something about it

The most recent Australian suicide statistics from 2013 show that, out of the whole population, men aged 85 years and over have the highest suicide rates. While the attention these figures have garnered is a positive sign, this is hardly a new phenomenon.

Over 38 men in every 100,000 of that age group die by suicide, which is more than double the rate among men under 35. The rate is around seven times higher than in women of all ages.

With very few exceptions in Australia’s history, annual suicide rates have always peaked in older males. And while these rates fluctuate from year to year, there’s no evidence of any sustained increase in the past decade.

This is the common theme worldwide. Most countries record their peak suicide rates in this group. So why has the problem of suicide in older males not been an issue of concern for the general public?

A grim picture

It’s certainly not due to a lack of knowledge about suicide in older men, or its drivers. Numerous Australian and overseas studies have identified issues such as severe depression, loneliness, social isolation and lack of social support; physical health issues, such as pain and cancer; and loss of independence as being important in various ways.

Of course, how these issues affect someone varies considerably and often depends on the person’s life journey from childhood through to late life. Childhood adversity, personality attributes, experience of traumatic life events, relationships, employment and use of alcohol and other drugs can all affect someone’s suicide risk late in life.

[3] Loneliness among the elderly in the UK is on the rise, a survey shows.

The Age UK poll of 2,000 over-65s found 10% described themselves as often or always lonely - a rise from 7% a year ago.
Four in 10 said their TV or pet was their main form of company.
Research has shown loneliness increases the risk of ill-health and early death, prompting ministers to call on people to look out for people at risk of loneliness in their communities.

'Devastating impact'

The poll randomly selected and then interviewed people aged over 65 according to their gender, working status and the presence of children, said Age UK.
Last winter, the 'Friends' campaign appealed for a return to an "old-fashioned sense of neighbourliness" by encouraging people to check on elderly friends and neighbours.

Announcing the move, Jeremy Hunt said it was a source of "national shame" that loneliness was emerging as such a problem.
Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, said loneliness can have a "devastating impact".
She said: "Loneliness not only makes life miserable for older people. It is also really bad for their health making them more vulnerable to illness and disease."
Research has shown that the ageing population has led to an increase in people living on their own.
But Ms Abrahams said cuts to local services, such as lunch clubs and day centres, had exacerbated the problem.

The health effects
Living alone is linked to habits that are bad for health.
For example, eating poorly and having less motivation to be physically active can be a consequence of being physically isolated.
Being alone can also affect mental health, causing people to feel low and depressed.
However, feeling lonely can in itself be bad for your physical health. Studies have shown that social isolation can cause damage to the immune system leading to a condition called chronic inflammation.

[1] http://www.doctortipster.com/19859-for-the-elderly-loneliness-is-a-health-risk-factor.html
[2] http://theconversation.com/elderly-men-have-the-highest-suicide-rate-and-ageism-stops-us-from-doing-something-about-it-46923
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27247418

FMP - Image Inspiration

FMP - Image Inspiration

These images will be used as a source of inspiration for my sketches, book work and research. I chose these images because I want to know what's going through these elderly peoples minds, are they content? sad? depressed? fearful? I will research the state of mind of people in the same situation as people in my images and decipher what the best way is to depict their situation in my FMP.

FMP - The Fear of Loneliness