Bibliography:
Amaranthus, M. & Allyn, B. (2013) The Atlantic: Healthy Soil Microbes, Healthy People. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/06/healthy-soil- microbes-healthy-people/276710/ (opened on 10 Nov 2023) Armstrong, K. (2022) Sacred Nature, how we can recover our bond with the natural world. Knopf Canada. Beery, T., Stahl Olafsson, A., Gentin, S., Maurer, M., Stålhammar, S., Albert, C., Bieling, C., Buijs, […]
Week 20: Tutorial with Hayley Lock
(My tutorial report) Reflections since last tutorial (if applicable) During my last tutorial with Michele on the 21st of Sept, she mentioned ‘Matters of Care’ by Maria Puig de la Bellacasa. I was able to get a hold of the book and it has been part of a pivotal point in my research journey. Her work […]
Week 20: New Experiments – Throwing a pot and trying an encaustic method:
This week I worked on my throwing skills. I’ve had a pottery wheel and kiln for a while and felt that I wanted to experiment with a few new things, using clay. Small beginnings but watch this space… The initial inspiration, besides my love for working with clay, came when I heard about a Khamba. […]
Week 19: Professional Identity
A great lecture and conversation about ‘brand essence’ and our professional identity! I left feeling clearer about my practice and although it was a challenge to boil a few things down, it was very helpful. I also see the worth of this in terms of making your practice clear and understandable to a wider audience […]
Week 18: Documentation (Writing, video’s, photo’s, drawing)
“Expressing the formation of ideas” Michele Witing. “The photographs, catalogues and stones in a mineralogy museum are the documents” Suzanna Briet I feel that after this session, I will forever look at documentation in a new way. The importance of it was made clear to me and I feel now that it is very vital […]
Week 18: When you’re busy with an MA during the school break…
We recently had a 10 day school break for my children between terms and we were off on a road trip to visit two places that are special to us as a family. I knew that I would not be able to take a break from my research with the end of our unit drawing […]
Week 17: Audience
From the lecture: This session was insightful but challenging. I went into the meeting with a lot of questions about who my audience is and what I want to do with my art… From the lecture I made a few notes that captured my attention. I have not elaborated or added my own opinion to […]
Week 14: Tutors discussing their practice
This session was very valuable to me. It was insightful to see the practices of our tutors and it has made me view my own in a new way. It was insightful to see my that my tutors also have to deal with ‘not knowing’ and the struggle that comes from making a new investigation […]
Week 16: Critique session & Video of my process and further material investigation.
This week we had our Crit session. Below you can find the video that I presented during this session. I feel that it was a valuable session. One of the things that I realised as I was preparing for it, was that for my particular practice, the documentation of my process is vital. This is […]
Week 15: Tutorial with Michele Whiting
(My Tutorial report) Reflections since last tutorial (if applicable) Since our last tutorial, I feel that my focus has become more narrow and I have been able to find contexts that I can fit into. I have more of a clear vision of what I am a part of in the wider world of contemporary […]
Week 14 – Playing with: Clay, Plants and Plaster:
Just a fun experiment with making imprints of plants into clay. This was just a fun experiment I did with my children but I thought I’d add it here as it ties into my connection with nature and explores another avenue into making 3D work. I’m not sure I will make more of these, but […]
Week 13 – Making day: Sharing the pre-making-day process
A SENSORY EXPERIENCE Making day was approaching and I was overwhelmed by too many ideas about what I wanted to work on during our session. I had lots of loose ends in my mind and that feeling that I hate and have come to know so well during this course…UNCERTAINTY, UNKNOWING. I hear Michele’s words […]
Week 12 – One thing leads to another (recording): 31 August
I am inspired! I really enjoyed this week’s recording. The discussions were very insightful and definitely gave me a fresh perspective on new possibilities for approaching and presenting my work. It is so true that in this MA journey, as much as it is sometimes a struggle and a challenge to push through the research […]
Week 11/12 – Independent work: Foraging and making mushroom dye-baths
Botmaskop is a mountain range behind our house with a beautiful pine and eucalyptus forest. I often go there for my run. These photo’s were taken as I went to forage (yes my run had a lot of pitstops!) for charcoal, fungi and clay that I could potentially use to make pigments for paint. Just […]
Teaching week 11 – Independent work and making more paint from egg shells and red earth (red oxide)
As shared in a previous post, I started making egg shells into a pigment. Here I will show how thhe process was taken further by making it into a watercolour paint by mulling and mixing the pigment with Gum Arabic. Below are two photo’s showing the start of the process: After the grinding process the […]
Teaching week 10 – Writing and my Practice -worksheet. The actual PPP is further down or you can follow this link:
(I have placed this post alongside my PPP (below) because I feel they overlap. Perhaps repeating my PPP. I will merge them in the near future.) I created this post in order to type out my response to the questions in the worksheet. I find it very helpful at this stage to be able to […]
Teaching week 9 – Preparing and experimenting with Kaolin clay boards
My interest in Clay ground started when I bought a painting surface from a local art shop called Ampersand clay board. I bought one to experiment with and I knew of a great watercolour artist who used them – Ali Cavanaugh. As I wanted to turn my earth pigments into watercolour paint, I wondered if […]
Teaching week 9 – Student Presentations
As always, as we approached week 9, I started to feel the pressure… Pressure is good for me. It gets me to focus on what is most important and on what the best way would be to communicate what I want to say. Needless to say, my studio became a absolute mess and various experiments […]
Teaching Week 9 – Earth pigment paint-making experimentation!
The idea of making my own paint came to me about 3 weeks ago. I went for a run in the pine forest near my house and in an attempt to get the most relaxation out of my run, I tried to be very mindful of the sound my feet were making on the trail […]
Teaching Week 8 – 3rd August 2023: Lecture by guest Dr Bryan Eccleshall
My thoughts about the lecture: I liked Dr Ecceshall from the moment he started the lecture. He seems to be down to earth and a good teacher. Right from the start he spoke about creating a vocabulary that is useful and allows you to speak about your decision in concrete terms. I agree with that […]
Teaching Week 7 – 27th July 2023: Have you found your boundaries?
We had a great zoom meeting with Michele last night focussed around finding and pushing our boundaries. Firstly, it was insightful and a relief to hear that most of the other students had some uncertainties or even some insecurities surrounding aspects of their art or the direction they were taking with their MA. I felt […]
Teaching Week 3: 29nd June 2023: Independent work – Photoshoot and Photoshop
Last week I had a wonderful photoshoot with my eldest daughter. It was unplanned and had to happen within 40 mins on a cold and windy winter afternoon. After persuading my daughter to be my model and muse, we quickly got her dressed and all I could grab was some wool, pieces of fabric and […]
Teaching Week 3: 29nd June 2023: Independent work – Preparing surfaces and experiments
Over the past 2 weeks I have experimented with making my own panels and surfaces to experiment on. I wanted to try to make my own panels in order to have more flexibility on the shape and size I want them to be as well as to add paper to them. Having a paper surface […]
Teaching Week 2: 22nd June 2023: Recorded Lecture with guest, Dr Tom Palin
My thoughts after the lecture: I found Tom Palin’s work extremely inspiring. In the past few weeks I have decided to focus on 3 main bodies of work. Figurative studies in a natural setting (larger scale on paper and panels), micro nature studies (more abstract and smaller in scale on Paquet floor blocks) and then […]
Teaching Week 1 -15th June 2023: Welcome and intro to Unit 1.2
It was great to see everyone again after our break and wonderful to welcome Nuvea to our group. The talk through the content and focus of the unit was informative. I am excited to hear that the unit will be more practice based and that there will be a framework in the form of a […]
PPP -Week 1 (updated – 25 OCTOBER):
This is a live document that will change over the course of the unit and all edits will be left visible. What is the focus of my practice? During the course Unit 1.1 I explored the theme of HOME and I navigated my way through various physical and metaphorical perceptions of the word. After reading […]
During our break in April/May 2023: Reflecting on a refined focus for Unit 1.2:
As we approach the start of Unit 1.2 of this MA, I think back on this 2 month break with gratitude. Grateful for a time to reflect on the things I have learned during Unit 1.1 and to recover after a very busy and challenging 7 months. Grateful to consolidate the ideas around my focus […]