For the first 3 weeks of the term we are working on a project titled 'The Emergent Process'. We had a lecture and spoke about the idea and importance of process when making work. To me, this is very much part of my practice and how ideas evolve is often done through the process of doing, rather than spending my time planning. This is why finding the process of print-making on my foundation was a turning point, as it gave me direction and enjoyment in the actual making of my work.
Art for me has always been about the making and the finished result, means I can move onto something new. I have learnt that I engage with mediative and repetitive processes in my practice as a way of organising chaos and clarity in my muddled brain. When I first started to really consider pursuing art (at a-level) this developed into an obsession with pointillism drawings. I really engaged with the repetitive process but also the sensitivity to application of media. I look back on this work now as a real turning point for me in the terms of pushing how I used media. I have always loved experimentation. I was the girl in the corner playing around with glue and glass paint to see how the two interacted. This fascination with materials has continued into my degree as I love to push how media can be used and how this might be interpreted by the viewer.
After a lot of analysis (overthinking) I have found that tactility plays an important part in my practice. Whether this be through my etchings and collage or drawing, when people look at my work this is something they say they relate to. I think for me it is having this ability to convey the importance/meaning of material as well as subject matter within my work.
I am an anxious person and I have always doodled on bits of paper, envelopes but through school, even at the start of my foundation lacked a lot of confidence with what I deemed to be 'good drawing'. Doing A Level Art instilled this idea that representational art was better and that my chaotic marks didn't have any potential. (This is what I deemed at the time, but on reflection had I not drawn in this way, my work would not be what it is now.) Doing a foundation gave me a lot of freedom and gave me a new found confidence to trust my visual language. I think I was stopping myself from actually enjoying things by putting so much pressure on my way of working and seeing the world.
Going back to The Emergent Process, I would define this as a way of working in the terms of working through a process and reflecting on this my interacting with your work and seeing the potential for how it can be pushed. This is why the print room is perfect for me. I will quite often go into the studio with no intention of what I want to make. I'll just experiment with process and see where this leads me. Happy Accidents often play a huge part of my process, the spontaneity of working with print has meant that I have found processes which I now use a lot in my practice. An example of this my (what I call) 'Organic Etchings' where I use etching to create organic marks, which depict organic subject matters.
Part of our project (as a starting point) was to pick a medium and push/experiment with how this can be used in different ways. I chose this as my starting point because I wanted to use this project to work bigger and use colour. Part of the brief also required us to pick an object as a starting point. This was an interesting starting point for me as I often choose a concept or material to work with. I chose to use some rocks that I found after a swim at Durgan Beach, Cornwall. I found the simple organic line on them really pleasing and wanted to find a way to convey this. I went into the print room with purpose, the intention of translating these rocks on a bigger scale.
This was so daunting. It meant I could not put the work in my sketchbook, and scale was to play and important factor. I usually create my monotypes with pen and graphite but I wanted to experiment with a range of tools to convey the line of the stone. I picked up a brush and tried to emulate the way I draw with pencil and pen when I used it. This resulted in a chaotic line which I found successful in small parts of the work. I wanted the work to be created on a larger scale but also factors of my work such as space, rhythm and composition to still be considered.
Something about this way of working and creating work was not really doing anything for me. I don't know if it was the object or how I had chosen to translate it but I took a step back and reflected on why I had chosen the object in the first place. It was the simplicity of line that carried on around the stone to create something so beautiful in itself. I still wanted to push this idea of line but I thought about how else this could be interpreted. I thought about how else I use the print room and how the idea of a 'line' could be created. I then realised through the act of rolling ink out onto a mono-print plate could be considered creating a line.
By this time I had also chosen a new object to start with, a bike wheel, as the idea of motion could be captured. I did an etching of this using soft ground, and the textures it created were like work I had made before, so I abandoned this idea (but is something I will pick up at a later date).
One of my friends from Fine Art, Steph wanted me to show her how to do some mono-printing and at this point I was ready to play around with colour. We spent the day colour-mixing and collaborating with working on some mark making experiments. This collated in an array of blues, pinks and greys. I then wanted to experiment with the application of ink onto a plate so used different sized rollers to try this out. This then resulted with several experiments into how different colours interacted with each other.
Through the act of using a roller in one continuous line I was playing around with the interaction of line and colour. I am currently pushing this by using colours which I've mixed myself. I guess at the moment my ideas are emerging through process. I think key words to currently pin point where I am include: Motion, Noise, Rhythm, Line and Colour. I think my fascination with line comes from this idea of looking for something to follow. It anchors something, whether this be a horizon line/vanishing point or a mark, it is something which this project has allowed me to push and understand more why I relate to it.
For now, I'll leave you with some images of where my work is currently at: This work has been created on the offset printing press, allowing me to work bigger.
Art for me has always been about the making and the finished result, means I can move onto something new. I have learnt that I engage with mediative and repetitive processes in my practice as a way of organising chaos and clarity in my muddled brain. When I first started to really consider pursuing art (at a-level) this developed into an obsession with pointillism drawings. I really engaged with the repetitive process but also the sensitivity to application of media. I look back on this work now as a real turning point for me in the terms of pushing how I used media. I have always loved experimentation. I was the girl in the corner playing around with glue and glass paint to see how the two interacted. This fascination with materials has continued into my degree as I love to push how media can be used and how this might be interpreted by the viewer.
Pointillism study done in 0.05
Pointillism Study, 0.05 pen with white gel pen.
After a lot of analysis (overthinking) I have found that tactility plays an important part in my practice. Whether this be through my etchings and collage or drawing, when people look at my work this is something they say they relate to. I think for me it is having this ability to convey the importance/meaning of material as well as subject matter within my work.
I am an anxious person and I have always doodled on bits of paper, envelopes but through school, even at the start of my foundation lacked a lot of confidence with what I deemed to be 'good drawing'. Doing A Level Art instilled this idea that representational art was better and that my chaotic marks didn't have any potential. (This is what I deemed at the time, but on reflection had I not drawn in this way, my work would not be what it is now.) Doing a foundation gave me a lot of freedom and gave me a new found confidence to trust my visual language. I think I was stopping myself from actually enjoying things by putting so much pressure on my way of working and seeing the world.
Foundation, Welly T printroom
Foundation, end of year show 2015
Going back to The Emergent Process, I would define this as a way of working in the terms of working through a process and reflecting on this my interacting with your work and seeing the potential for how it can be pushed. This is why the print room is perfect for me. I will quite often go into the studio with no intention of what I want to make. I'll just experiment with process and see where this leads me. Happy Accidents often play a huge part of my process, the spontaneity of working with print has meant that I have found processes which I now use a lot in my practice. An example of this my (what I call) 'Organic Etchings' where I use etching to create organic marks, which depict organic subject matters.
Part of our project (as a starting point) was to pick a medium and push/experiment with how this can be used in different ways. I chose this as my starting point because I wanted to use this project to work bigger and use colour. Part of the brief also required us to pick an object as a starting point. This was an interesting starting point for me as I often choose a concept or material to work with. I chose to use some rocks that I found after a swim at Durgan Beach, Cornwall. I found the simple organic line on them really pleasing and wanted to find a way to convey this. I went into the print room with purpose, the intention of translating these rocks on a bigger scale.
This was so daunting. It meant I could not put the work in my sketchbook, and scale was to play and important factor. I usually create my monotypes with pen and graphite but I wanted to experiment with a range of tools to convey the line of the stone. I picked up a brush and tried to emulate the way I draw with pencil and pen when I used it. This resulted in a chaotic line which I found successful in small parts of the work. I wanted the work to be created on a larger scale but also factors of my work such as space, rhythm and composition to still be considered.
Something about this way of working and creating work was not really doing anything for me. I don't know if it was the object or how I had chosen to translate it but I took a step back and reflected on why I had chosen the object in the first place. It was the simplicity of line that carried on around the stone to create something so beautiful in itself. I still wanted to push this idea of line but I thought about how else this could be interpreted. I thought about how else I use the print room and how the idea of a 'line' could be created. I then realised through the act of rolling ink out onto a mono-print plate could be considered creating a line.
By this time I had also chosen a new object to start with, a bike wheel, as the idea of motion could be captured. I did an etching of this using soft ground, and the textures it created were like work I had made before, so I abandoned this idea (but is something I will pick up at a later date).
One of my friends from Fine Art, Steph wanted me to show her how to do some mono-printing and at this point I was ready to play around with colour. We spent the day colour-mixing and collaborating with working on some mark making experiments. This collated in an array of blues, pinks and greys. I then wanted to experiment with the application of ink onto a plate so used different sized rollers to try this out. This then resulted with several experiments into how different colours interacted with each other.
Through the act of using a roller in one continuous line I was playing around with the interaction of line and colour. I am currently pushing this by using colours which I've mixed myself. I guess at the moment my ideas are emerging through process. I think key words to currently pin point where I am include: Motion, Noise, Rhythm, Line and Colour. I think my fascination with line comes from this idea of looking for something to follow. It anchors something, whether this be a horizon line/vanishing point or a mark, it is something which this project has allowed me to push and understand more why I relate to it.
For now, I'll leave you with some images of where my work is currently at: This work has been created on the offset printing press, allowing me to work bigger.
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