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The essence of a mark

This phrase has ben something which I've used within my work for some time now. Mark making and repetition plays a key role in defining my ideas. In our current variations project I am trying to explore this further to gain more of an understanding as to why and what this might mean. I am currently exploring the relationship between space and mark making. This is being developed through investigation of 'head space' and 'organic space'. The two are very much interconnected to me with how I see the world.

This is a blog post to get my ideas down in one place in the form to put something more coherent together. It's been over a month since I've written on here! Coming back, slowly but surely!!


Organic etchings, foundation 2015



Organic etchings with found imagery on display at Bricklane, summer 2016 



I am very interested in process and I explore this idea of the natural world through my organic etchings which I characterise as a true depiction of place being repeated through a creative process. The mark is spontaneously created but because it is being captured through print this is repeated which echoes the idea of repeat in nature. Organic etchings, creating a direct impression of place through rubbings. I am the one making the mark. I am in control but it is taking the idea of spontaneity and picking up the mark to a new depth. This plays on the idea of chance but also documents nature and my surroundings and the exploration of maker and interaction of man and nature.

I have been working on the offset press in the Print room and exploring how process can capture the idea of head space a repeated idea of a reoccurring thought, the notion that the image is being repeated with a slight shift each time. This is depicting the idea of a thought, memory and how our understanding of it can change and morph each time we re-visit it. This is the same with going back to a place. The idea that places change, erode, fragment over time is the same as a memory of fragment of thought. I want to find some way to communicate the two.




A sense of order amongst the chaos, a sense of line offers this to both me the artist and the viewer as a sense of familiarity. Comfort in line, line is universal. You are able to depict a gesture, feeling and rhythm with it. Tactility is an important part of process. This enhances viewer engagement and plays more of an emphasis on my role as the maker. The marks act as fragments, fragments of a place. My organic etchings pick up those exact moments of organic matter and capture their pattern.

I've put together some phrases that I resonate with in the hope to incorporate them into my work. Words and fragments give a sense of familiarity as something is anchored and words give a different meaning to mark. I am also interested in the idea of mark making being similar to hand writing and corresponding to different meanings.


'I feel numb in this kingdom'
'On the Rocks'
'Living our lives on repeat'
'comfortable sadness'
'thinking in circles'
'organic chaos'
'one things leads to another'
'we all follow patterns and live on repeat'
'seeing in the dark'

Re-visiting a sense of the familiar, this is shown through repetition and the idea of finding solace in repeat and the sense of routine.Work that vibrates and dances, capturing and event. It is the sense of distortion in which I hope to evoke something from the viewer.

The Dream Atlas: Idea of imagined space and organic space being brought together. Mapping out data through mark making. This is something I am currently exploring in how this can be visually shown to a viewer. I am currently thinking a book form. It shows something more intimate and tactile. The fact that the viewer has to hold it introduces a different kind of interaction.



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