Walking Around 2: Wandering Into The Print Workshop.

Well, NO! It was more like racing in at high speed shouting ‘Let me etch!’ This was because, the day before, I had watched this……..

…and while watching it, I found myself scribbling furiously, drawing quite spontaneously, and making little illustrations of the things Chi was talking about. In no time, I had several sketchbook pages, drawing, making notes, thinking back to the CHWA, conference and remembering the projects about blood and breath that had been presented there……….. Yeah! A sort of idea was germinating which resulted in this.

And by Appraisal time just before Christmas…… these

relating to thoughts about these things….

“It is through a phenomenological type of reflection that I was led to see that the oneness of the human person and the rest of the system of nature is discovered, not invented….. a sharp division between the self and an environment is not present.”

Marietta, 2003. p122.

Marietta Jr., D.E. (2003) in Toadvine,T. Ed., Brown, Charles S.Ed. (2003) “Eco-Phenomenology. Back To The Earth Itself” New York, SUNY Press.

I re-shaped my module proposal as an exploration of interconnectedness- macro to micro -relating to the evolution of elements critical to life and the connections between plant, animal and mineral worlds by which these elements move through time and space.

The evolution of respiration would be illustrated with organic cellular forms in fluid environments drawn spontaneously in a gestural style and be contrasted with crystalline, mineral entities and abrasive erosive processes illustrating the evolution of circulation. The prints would be presented as artist’s books in zig-zag form to suggest time and include enclosures to suggest space, telling the story of the evolution of iron into the HemeB molecule critical for respiration and circulation in plants and animals – a fascinating interconnection that stimulates questions like ‘What are we?’, ‘Where do we begin and end?’, ‘What is other, upon which we depend?’ 

No dice rolls: Project hand-in week.

A busy few days finishing things off and doing some playful extension pieces before final group crits for The Dice Project. Next week we move on to a new Pathway project. Next week also includes a day trip to Glasgow galleries and museums and the start of UCAS personal statement tutorials following the trip most people went on to the UCAS fair in Manchester on Tuesday. Rather than doing that, I had a quiet day in the studio completing ‘Neuroimagining’ and doing some research about M.A. courses on the computer.

Cutting perspex is an awful chore! However, I resolved the piece eventually, finding some smart nuts and bolts to put through both layers of plastic and hold the sculptural pieces in place. I did some PVA experiments on some of the perspex off-cuts and decided to add some into the ‘Neuroimagining’ composition to add a different ‘plastic’ texture – I like the way it puts a bit of punctuation between the polystyrene elements and sort of bridges the materials gap between that and the flat perspex layers. Final refinements included cutting and carving a polystyrene border/frame to fix between the perspex layers that will hopefully seal the piece up and help to prevent dust getting in – it has a huge static charge and attracts dust like a magnet!

Just the protective polythene layer to peel off the front.
Placing in different light (above). And doing a photographic exploration of the details. (below)

Printing with the polystyrene practice cutting pieces.

Finally, use photographs I have taken throughout the Dice project to do some image manipulation….. rather nice surface pattern results I think.

Neuronprint experiment- Manipulation
‘Me And My Friends’ digital image manipulation

Recording and Annotating The Development

Keeping track of developments. The problem solving: no more black marks from drawing onto the styrene. Use stencils pinned to the surface as a cutting guide.

Beautiful light responsive qualities of practice pieces discarded on the bench influence decision making about how to mount the work. It would be lovely to let light shine all the way through the finished sculpture….. consider using perspex and how to accomplish a professional looking finish.