Vishal-A2 Art and Design

The project brief for art this year was titled as “The Art of Lost Words”; to pick a word that is in danger of becoming unused from Save the Words and to bring it back into the vocabulary through means of products, posters and individual artworks. I chose the word Snollygoster (a shrewd, unprincipled person – especially a politician) from a frantic array of lost phrases that yelp every time you hover over them, who would have thought such an historical expression of significance would be hidden beneath such vulgarism? Anyway, I am glad that I found this word as I am confident that I can reintroduce it back into the vocabulary at least within petty advertisements or slogans for political parties, a technique that I have found interesting undertaking within my sketchbook.

As well as this, I have tried to relate the word to Bush-era politics which define, in my opinion, the true connotation of the word Snollygoster. I have explored this through the use of info-graphics, which presents information that I have collected online regarding the recent political history of Britain, Europe and America through means of Military Expenditure rises, popularity of administrations and the usual jargon that follows political debates. 

My latest endeavour was to create an “individualised” artwork; however I chose to take inspiration from Shepherd Fairey’s truly amazing work on political sentiments – using powerful illustration and subversions to publicise one’s opinions (a characteristic I would like to apply to the word Snollygoster). Throughout this I will be experimenting with different patterns, portraits, quotations and stencils to create work that has relevancy to my project, as well as the personality of Shepherd Fairey. I have alot more to do throughout this project and for the year; in terms of research, development and maturing my own creativity, yet so far I have enjoyed finding myself through this very interesting project brief.