27th October; Testing mediums and mark making, and pondering on my practice.

 

• This is the first print from the collagraph that I prepped last week.  
• Today I added detail with soft pastel and pencil.
• I like the lines and tonal contrasts but I've marked the paper border. I should have protected it in some way but thought masking tape would tear it.
• I still prefer the 2nd print - I've inadvertently changed some of the shapes in this so the "cave" is different - but it was nice to lean into playing with different marks and seeing how things sit together. - this is something I enjoy doing.

• In the last print session I felt A4 was too big for the collagraph prints so I've cut this one down to make 2. 
• I've gone through some old artwork and notes today, trying to getting to the root of what my practice is all about.
• I like the chaos and abstract qualities of mark marking and like solving problems around how to make different mediums sit and work together. 
• I have saved lots of fragments of marks from previous work. 
• I've put these fragments together several times before in other work but never really figured out what to do with them. 
• Recently, I've been working with canvas and mod roc  because I love the textures and threads behind the paint.
• I think I need to try masking and canvas alongside how I treat collaging fragments.

• It also occurred to me that personally, I like time with nature- green spaces, the garden, rivers and woodland. I've also always been really interested in skulls. 
• For me, my female experience and my relationship with nature are connected.
• My research into around female societal roles is also linked to this, because patriarchal systems have denounced nature religions and the role of the female.
• My personal female experience has been impacted by societal beliefs. 
• I tested adding natural images to the abstract collage.
• Bringing these images in brings a dimension of calm to the abstraction; My practice, like my life often feels chaotic and I like to embrace that sometimes but then the process of selection, organising marks on the "canvas" and overlaying a natural image feels calming.
• Working in this way feels like a safe space reminiscent of childhood things. Like I'm pulling out things I like in my work rather than trying to make an angry feminist statement. 
• I'd like to make my work more sensitive to mediums and more subtle in its translation when exploring context.
• For me this touches on the "Sublime" so I'll pull my White Chapel book out and have a read.

Plans going forward.  

• Read The Sublime
• Lean into mediums?
• Seek out some images for the surface of abstract work - Could this be print?
• How do I incorporate oil paint, because I really enjoy working with this? Or do I incorporate it?
• I think it's time for a brainstorm/mind map.