Valerie Jolly

The french born artist (1964) has not always been an artist. Jolly originally studied political science, then working in PR for over ten years. In 2006 she moved to London and studied Fine Art at Central Staint Martins. She is now living and working in Brussels creating her 3D drawings. Jolly creates 3D drawings in great detail.

Jolly takes casts of a range of different objects using wet tissues paper, the objects are reformed as a weightless and colour less form. In some of her works she re-draws the detail back onto the surface. Her work is extremely detailed and beautiful. I think the shadows that are created and cast once they have been reformed are particularly interesting.

I really admire the detail in Jolly's work, I think her work is facinating as I have never seen another artist who works in a similar way. After trying to cast some objects like Jolly does it has given me a better understanding of the techniques and processes and how difficult it is to create this type of work. Some of the objects I cast were more effective than others. I tried to cast a wooden coat hook however it was very difficult to peel the tissues off successfully and it ended in a mess. As it was the fist attempt at trying out this technique I had not realised how to combine the materials so that they would cast effectively.  However I also cast the light switch and this turned out to be very effective- I think because it was a plasic surface which did not absorb the moisture. After I peeled it off I delicately drew on shadows and effects which gave a three dimentional illusion just like the work of Jolly. I also casted a set of objects...

      After researching an gaining a indepth understanding of Jolly's work and how she created her pieces, Sefki and I were invited to work with a class of year 7 art specialists. We provided a short talk and discussion along side examples of her work and our own. We had to explain the ideas and meaning behind Jolly's work and the class were given an opportunity to ask us questions. I found this a really useful and interesting experience as it reenforced my understanding of Jolly's work and I felt confident in my knowledge of her techniques and processes. I was able to descibe the challenges of responding to her style to which I hope was useful for the younger pupils.