MA Week 79 – The End is Nigh

 

Reflection on the past week, 31st July 2017

Printmaking

I spent Thursday in the print room – sad to think it will be one of my final sessions in there. I printed the final stage of the Royal Park aquatint. It needed a little bit more definition in the foreground, just to pull the foreground forward a bit more, so I drypointed some more vegetation into it, on the basis that both the plate and my patience were wearing thin after the repeated etchings. I also brasso’ed the sky and it printed quite nicely. The drypoint gave a much lighter, fuzzier mark than the etching and this has set me off with the idea of a drypoint into metal, but that will be post-MA.

 

Aquatint plate - final state

I don’t think I mentioned that I had been trying out different papers – I tried Fabriano Unica white, Canaletto, which is a creamy colour and Somerset velvet white. I think I got the best prints on the Somerset paper, but all the papers worked well, and I would use them all again. In particular, the Canaletto is fine for everyday work. Having made detailed notes on soaking times etc, the trick with the Somerset seems to be to give it a really good blotting. There is much more at play here, such as press pressure and the type of blankets, on the press, but there’s little point in further experimentation as I’ll be leaving this print facility soon. I am hoping to move my printing practice to Leeds Print Workshop from September. At this point I will experiment to try to get a stable process as hopefully I will be there for a while.

I produced three prints of the plate at each stage and on each paper, and currently I am flattening them in batches under boards at home – I need my floor space back

As I mentioned last week, I will submit these prints a series, a metaphor for the MA journey. However, the journey doesn’t end there, so at some point I will need to do something that demonstrates this. I would like to somehow creatively destroy the plate but I don’t think I will get time to do it this side of the MA deadline.

 

Scarborough!

On Thursday I also tried brasso on the little Scarborough plate and printed that, too – the polishing seemed to help. I’ve also heard that my prints of this were accepted at Woodend Gallery in Scarborough for their Summer postcard show. So a trip to Scarborough is on the cards post MA, as if an excuse were needed!

 

Writing up

Most of the time since my last blogpost has been spent writing up. I’ve finally finished the deep reflection on the “Troubling Time” conference and I comb-bound it today. This should form a great resource for ideas and new research possibilities post-MA.

A different kind of map; how my practice has worked out this year

 

For my creative journal, I identified 10 themes, all interrelated, with a view to writing a holistic reflection on each theme. I’m finding it really interesting to look back over the whole module. I’m identifying lots of new possibilities and am generating lists of future ideas. Some of these were already in my mind; others have appeared as I’ve been writing. Again, this should form a resource for to kick-start what comes post-MA, whatever that may be. It’s also raising the question of how I will write things up once course is over. I think it will probably be in a workshop notebook plus annotated examples of print experiments taped into sketchbooks. It seems important to keep notes of processes to act as a reference.

I have to say that the writing up seems endless. I’ve written up 6 themes, with extensive reflection, but Etching is the next theme – wish me luck! As so often, I am reminded of my panel at Troubling Time. Bob discussed the idea of artists in their bunkers, and Jo discussed the idea of slow periods followed by periods of frantic activity. The current phase is definitely in the latter category.

 

 

MA Year 2 - restarting

 

Unbelievable that the first year is already over (and that I passed it!). I haven’t had much of a break, to be honest, as I’ve been reading, writing, powerpointing and rehearsing ahead of the “Grim up North?” symposium on September 16^th. I haven’t read nearly as much as I would like, but I have read a bit around sense of place, psychogeography and constructs of Northnness. I’ll write up some critical reflections on these in due course.

 

I’m also thinking about my dissertation. I think its subject matter is going to be similar to that of the Symposium presentation, but with a wider focus. I need to think more about the idea of chance encounters within the built environment and what theory (-ies) can underpin that. I can see the dissertation taking up most of my “art” time up until Christmas but I need to think about fitting in an hour or two of visual practice each week.

MA Week 23 - Creative Practitioner visits

Creative practitioner visits – 15^th April 2016

 Visits from two established creative practitioners today, Luke Stephenson and Karen Stansfield. Unfortunately I missed Luke’s presentation due to other circumstances, but found plenty of interest in Karen’s talk. 

Karen had originally trained as a printmaker in textile design. However, throughout her career she has undertaken different roles and was keen to point out that you should take something from all your experiences and to bring together past learning, your other experience and current learning. She worked as a machinist whilst raising her children and then decided to return to learning in the form of a full-time degree in theatre. From this and her machinist experience she forged a career as a costumier. She is now a studio holder at West Yorkshire Print Workshop.  

Karen described herself as an “emotive mark maker” and she shared a couple of life experiences which had affected her deeply.  She lost a friend and decided to undertake work based on his work, using etching plates. She also used mark making to deal with an obstacle in her life, making marks on paper against an object, helping her to work round the problem, not knowing how things would turn out on the paper. She showed us the marks and they became almost organic and floral as she worked through the problem. I could really identify with this and talked to her afterwards about using creative visual practice to help heal yourself. It is not art therapy as such, but it is “therapising” yourself. 

She also talked about giving yourself “permission” to do things; she had done a course with one of the other studio holders at the workshop, experimenting, playing. My own thoughts on the “permission” issue are that sometimes you need to go through bad experiences to allow yourself to do things – courses, use your favourite notebook, buy some new paints – and again I could understand what Karen was talking about.  I also liked the fact that she was keen on using all your experience. I’m very aware that my past business experience is really useful in helping me to organise my time and express myself. Finally, I was heartened by the fact that Karen had not been afraid to move on and to learn new creative skills. She didn’t restrict herself in this area and I will take that as an example. 

After lunch Karen and Luke did a Q&A session for us. Some interesting points:

• Do personal work alongside paid work to keep yourself fresh
• Do blogs, follow blogs, put films on your blogs
• What are your specialities/unique selling points?
• Use all the strings to your bow.
• Do you want to develop a style/brand image?
• Don’t be afraid to take an unpaid opportunity if it gives you experience you need.

 

 

MA Week 20 - reflection on the week

Lots of exciting making this week!

I finished my cardboard pieces. I really liked the colours and textures that emerged. The collaged  laser cut pieces gave the idea of my presence in my creative work. The collaged photos gave a kind of industrial, yesteryear black and white-ness that appealed to me.  The mixed media worked well; the compressed charcoal toned down the acrylic colours and gave a kind of mucky, industrial feel, which was just what I was thinking. I would like to work more with textured grounds and also perhaps with a series of pieces.

Armley 2

 

I also laser cut lots of heads and worked them up into an image of increasing intensity. This was an it that had its roots in something that someone mentioned at the crit. It is a depiction of the increasing intensity of this term on the MA!

Stress levels increase in proportion to proximity to deadline

 

I also spent a day working on my etching plate. It's a simple drawing, but the black etching ink brings out the industrial quality of the subject matter and the inherent dirt. I worked on differential inking of the plate and this gave convincing results. I really liked working with the plate and this is something I would like to do more of.

Thinking about inking

 

Other than that I am up against it for the module deadline and I am on micro-management. The overall plan is booted out in favour of detailed lists that must be achieved for delivery. Time is very tight, so I'd better stop blogging and go get on with my creative journal!

MA Week 20 - "It had gone beyond what I could explain"

Reflection on taught session, Friday 4th March 2016

Creative Practitioner Presentation - Sheila Gaffney

 

 

Unfortunately I was only able to attend the first half of Sheila's talk, which was a shame, as I think it was one of the more interesting ones. Sheila is head of Fine Art and is a sculptor. She described sculpture as a "cultural practice for thinking about the world", although why that would just apply to sculpture and not to other visual arts, I don't know.

One of Sheila's first works involved turning a room into an immersive space and using the furniture as part of the work; take the space to the work, and the work to the space. This involved painting bodies onto the tables and adding waxed strings over them, along with leaves, cast first in wax and then in bronze. I liked the layering and the complexity of this. It reminded me somehow, vaguely, of Helen Chadwick. But I liked Sheila's quote even more; "I could not explain the work. It had gone beyond what I could explain". The subsequent session, that afternoon, was on academic writing alongside this one, and reflecting on the two sessions together, I think her statement is ironic. I can't disagree with it and I felt really pleased to hear someone actually prioritising the visual statement over the need for a written statement.

Sheila had made a lot of work in wax, not least for practical reasons; she could cast wax herself without needing specialist help. She was clear that you should work in a way that works for you. However, wax also represents vulnerability for her, and she made a community based piece of many hands that was a commission for the University of Bradford. For this piece, she generated  radio and newspaper coverage to reach out to the public to ask them to lend a hand in all ways; to have their hands cast, to cast the wax hands, to follow the process. Although she said she was inspired by Ann Hamilton, her talk showed her to be very much ploughing her own furrow. She spoke about practice for your own purpose and also about the female voice being left out of the history of sculpture, and of her desire to produce oddly female gendered pieces to start to repair this.

Throughout her talk I had a feeling of her single-mindedness but mixed with deep thinking. I liked the idea of daring to have your practice on your own terms and on working with materials you can manage, without having to answer to other people's opinions. It was empowering to hear thoughts like that being articulated by a senior member of Staff at an at school.

MA Week 12 - non-traditional students

Reflection on taught session, Friday 8th January 2016

Creative Practitioner Presentation

 

Our course leader, Sam, presented to us to kick off the new term. She started by talking about her own practice, embroidery. She was attracted to this by Rozika Parker's "Subversive Stitch" alongside her growing teenage awareness of, and interest in, feminism. At the same time, she was questioning why traditionally female pursuits such as embroidery, baking, knitting etc are not seen as worthy art forms.. I could relate to what she was saying, having grown up in a broadly similar tine with similar nascent views. 

Sam had exhibited her embroidery firstly in 1992 and included the embroidery hoop as she thought it had the same value as the canvas stretcher. I liked this parallel that she drew.  Her interest in feminism led her to set up a community arts business to help teach disadvantaged groups. This led her into teaching and she has always championed the non-traditional student.  

Sam wanted to improve educators who are educating older people. Through her own experience, she knew that adult learners and return-to-learners could not be shoehorned into the homogenous groups that some studies indicated, and she set about refuting this. She believes that some studies contain element of fiction in their narrative enquiries, seeking truths that are not really present. She contrasted academic studies with the film "Educating Rita" and argued that truth and fiction are present in both.  Her PhD therefore centred on education, social justice and art and design. Her methodologies were practitioner research, narrative enquiry using a longitudinal study of 9 Access to HE students.  She commented that mature students often perceive themselves as “different” rather than mature and work harder than traditional students in order to justify themselves. 

I really enjoyed hearing about Sam's practice. I didn't know she was an embroiderer even though I have known her professionally for 3.5 years. I also really enjoyed her passion for non-traditional learners and her determination to give them (us!) a voice not only through championing courses for us, but also in the academic sphere through her PhD thesis. One lovely moment for me was when her presentation showed a picture of me receiving a prize from Certa, the Access awarding body, when I was a student on her access course. I felt really vindicated with my studies for the New Year.