Studio Journal: December 2014

Monday, 29 December 2014

dis·tor·tion
(dĭ-stôr′shən)

The alteration of the original form of a signal representing an image, a sound or a waveform.
My figurative print studies explore the idea of distortion using the fluidity of the female form.

Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.
Alfred North Whitehead

Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade sky.
Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, the girl with kaleidoscope eyes....

Imagine icy organic landscapes, raspberry jelly and ear worms; a combination of the repetitious and vibrant, similar to the large-scale silkscreen prints of Gilbert and George, and in my mind, reminiscent of a kaleidoscope. I have attempted to produce fractal style imagery using my own photographs. Welcome to my world.

Gilbert and George - Fruiterers print - White Cube Gallery

tree photograph2 - a little bit Gilbert and Georgey

my funfair kaleidascope photograph

Mini-print Exhibition

HYPNOSIS, REPETITION & RHYTHM

December 4th 2014

Private View

The 29th annual exhibition of the work of other MA printmakers held at Foyles Bookshop in Cabot Circus, Bristol.

Once the hoards had retreated and my assessment was over I had time to wander around, relaxed and uninhibited, with no strange heads to spoil the smorgasbord of delights on view. I found the art work to be an eclectic mix of styles; reflecting the varied and diverse personalities of the students involved. I was impressed by the machine embroidered and intaglio artwork of Teresa Searle - specifically her 'Black Line Fever' piece, based on the Mini and a direct response to driving a Mini Cooper and describing 'the hypnotic effects of travel'. In contrast, Jon McNaught's simplistic lithographic landscape in blue was gentle and evocative and Stuart Cannell (who rocks a cardigan) displayed his silkscreen portrait of Nigel Farage which showed that magic can be found in the unlikeliest of faces (sic).

Sunday, 21 December 2014

No-one said that growing up was easy ....

In an attempt to come to terms with and understand the limitations of the human condition, senescence and mortality, I am in the process of exploring a series of organic surface patterns which fade and disintegrate over time. What is the constant? Does the quantum physicality of the actuality of existence and the phrase 'I think therefore I am ' hold true?
Colours fade, the vibrant diminishes and all returns to the beginning and the cycle begins again. We are motes of dust. Death and decay (Sam Taylor-Johnson installation 'A Little Death' and 'Still Life') is the conclusion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H21ypJb7KJk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJQYSPFo7hk

This circle of life can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Structural, sculptural, using printed letterforms and patterns. For me, using the human figure is the most evocative form of creatively interpreting life and death, and gives one a sense of one's own mortality through the disintegration of organic materials. An example of the fluidity and fragility of the human condition are the beautifully strange and disturbing sculptures of Francesco Albano.
http://albanofrancesco.blogspot.co.uk

Francesco Albano1 - mixed media sculpture

Francesco Albano2 - mixed media sculpture

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up alone, It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.
(Robin Williams)

We have the skin we inhabit - our own individual cloth if you will, and those we love or who influence our lives print onto and pattern that fabric, until all lives end and all hearts are broken.

Monday, 15 December 2014

ASSESSMENT
He's making a list, checking it twice....

11th December 2014

Now the assessment is over... I'm lying in a darkened room with Gregory Porter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UedUd0KufI
and a small bar of Toblerone for company. Me and my fellow students waited with bated coffee and hot chocolate breath for our assessment feedback once our portfolios had been submitted for marking. My feedback interview given by Ian Chamberlain - the Paul Hollywood of etching - http://ianchamberlainartist.blogspot.co.uk
which went surprisingly well, due in part I think to my conscious suppression of tourette-ish excitement with which I normally describe all things MA. After all this time I am doing 'very well'. Could I actually be an intellectual?

my 2nd 'matisse' style digital print

I spent the last week of term preparing for the 'hand-in' alongside struggling with the demands of teaching groups of pre-pubescent children excited into a frenzy by the prospect of 'Santa Claus coming to town'. I was labelling, ironing, working with print transfer techniques, controlling crowds and invading my personal space (and others space too) with lovely glitter. In my opinion, Glitter is completely underrated (unless your name is Gary...) it's the highlight in an otherwise dull, tie wearing, grey school day- reminiscent of this MA Printmaking course, which has been a glittery highlight. However, with this MA you don't find particles of it in your underwear at the end of the day.

The textiles studio beckoned with Sean and Becki, whilst waiting for Ian's meeting, with Max, Kate and Kate (all of us working like Santa's little helpers). I began designing a series of fluid, figurative fabric pattern designs. These designs I've printed digitally and intend to add colour and extra texture. My attention has been grabbed by the canvasses of Anselm Kiefer, whose large scale, textural mixed media surfaces are inspirational as well as Matisse and Klimt. I find the arrangement of bright colour with freehand organic linear forms actually delicious.
https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/anselm-kiefer

Timorous Beastie design

Gradually, one by one, my MA chums left the workshop for their assessment feedback til there was just me alone with the smell of ink and singed hair. I hoped Ian was saving the best til last and at 2.30pm it was my turn....

All went well - no tears, no explosive expletives, just an extremely positive and a useful critique of my portfolio. The suggestions Ian made:
to look more closely at etching (which I had discounted as a process) and to research the print work of the Scottish wallpaper and fabric design company Timorous Beasties; beautiful complex marbled patterns - acid colours and insects I think a winning combination. http://www.timorousbeasties.com/shop/fabric/

my 'Klimt' inspired textlie pattern - a bit 'timorous beastie'

Also suggested research material was the work of the Printmaker and Artist Jasper Goodall http://www.jaspergoodall.com/product.php?item=81
His work left a strange taste in my mouth, rather like Jagermeister and lime, eclectic and provocative. Goodall's digital giclee prints were similar to 1980s graphic art - I thought Barney Bubbles http://www.barneybubbles.com/ melded with the figurative; mirroring the suggestive fashion poses from the mid 1970's of the French photographer Guy Bourdin http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/guy-bourdin-exhibition/.?

Jasper Goodall

Guy Bourdin image 1975

Add to this imagery, the pornograffiti artwork of Miss Van http://www.missvan.com/ and a splash of the contemporary artist Miss Bugs http://www.missbugs.com/gallerynew.html. Goodall's printed images could be faintly reminiscent of a 1980s teen bedroom 'four tissue fantasy' poster.

...not sure of this creative direction but I know I am ready for anything in 2015. I may not be an intellectual but I am inspired, covered in swiss pointy chocolate and rock a hat with ear flaps. Bring it on Greg I'm feelin' good.
Merry Christmas!

Sunday, 7 December 2014

Textiles No.2

Creativity takes courage......

4th December 2014

"My Curves are not Crazy' Matisse.

http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2014/matisse/

Digital textile printing is defined as: any inkjet based method of printing colourants onto fabric. This is referred to when identifying either printing smaller designs onto garments and printing larger designs on large format rolls of textile.

If Matisse had had access to sophisticated image manipulation software combined with the immediacy of printing directly onto large organic fabric, would he have chosen this as another method of channelling his creativity?
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1999.363.44

The session today led again by Sean (using a strange German accent) and assisted by Becki (shiny and golden). The process of printing directly onto cloth by hand I found was painful and time consuming. Screens were coated with light sensitive emulsion then exposed to ultra violet light and washed out - as with the silkscreen process. Using a positive drawn onto mark resist film and/or printed onto "Folex' the image was transferred onto a screen.

textile print onto paper

textile positive

I chose to use mark resist film and a JPEG file to produce a textured figurative image; to attempt a more traditional textural single 'curved and crazy' body form and a repeat pattern from a Photoshop file which was printed directly onto fabric.

Pulling a print

The traditional way to print onto fabric required pinning out the cotton fabric of varying degrees of thickness onto the textile table to keep it flat before printing, and this was tortuous. I actually was Sleeping Beauty pricking my fingers at every turn, then nodding off - due to the carnage my 'pinning' stage took thirty minutes. Talk about 'Harmony in Red'. After which dye pigment and binder was added to screen and the ink was pulled across the mesh and onto the chosen fabric or paper surface.

Digital Textile print 'My Curves are not Crazy2

Harmony in Red - Matisse (oil)

Meanwhile, by comparison, at this point, my large scale repeat pattern figurative design (created from my original painting, repeated in Photoshop and saved as a JPEG image) had already been transferred onto my chosen cotton fabric and was well on its way to the washing machine to fix the dye and dry out. It was like magic!

'The attraction of 'soft art' the comfort of cloth, both tactile and visual. The subtle shadows formed by the hills and valleys of the surface'.
Linda Colsch Textile Designer

The digitally printed fabric was much more complex and accurate to replicate on computer, although less 'authentic'. However, it was the immediacy of this form of image production that was so exciting and gave rise to infinite possibilities. I had at my bloodstained fingertips the power to produce an array of images with a complexity which I would have found impossible to replicate in any other way.

The work of Linda Colsh www.lindacolsch.com whose complex surface design uses a combination of digital, stitched and layered media is an excellent example of the flexibility and versatility of digital printing methods.
www.textileartist.org

The theme running through my work is the human figure and its undulations, secret curves and soft hollows. I have looked to the work of Matisse as my inspiration and drawing from life have interpreted my own ' landscape of the human figure' using the drapes and folds in cloth. Fabric appears to be the perfect medium for creating and constructing my own form of humanity. No more pricking my fingers and sleeping for a hundred years for me! Watch out Prince Charming (you know who you are!)!.