This week I am supposed to be meeting with Michele for a tutorial meeting. I will unfortunately have to miss this meeting due to being on holiday in a remote place and not having access to a good wifi connection most of the time.

After my holiday I was able to have a the tutorial with Michele. The following is what we talked through and discussed.

The studio away from the studio:

Below is a short summary of what I have been doing and am trying to accomplish in spite of being away. It has been challenging but seeing that we are based in one place for 2 weeks, I managed to pack my materials and set up a mobile studio at our accommodation.

During this holiday I had the opportunity to drive through the area known as the ‘Cradle of humankind’ in Northwest Johannesburg and we went further north to Mozambique where I experienced the culture and lifestyle of a third world non-western African country. I saw hundreds of kilometers of people living on self-sustaining farms, in tight knit communities and I was touched by the contentment and friendliness in the eyes of these people. They do not have much in terms of possessions, luxuries and comfort but they live close to the land and depend on each other for the exchange of goods and food. I was touched by this experience and it further solidified my passion and also proved how our western society, over the past 400 years has caused us to loose connection with life sustaining elements.

Progress with artwork:

ENCAUSTIC COLLAGRAPH PRINTS

I managed to design, create and print about 9 encaustic collagraph prints before we left on our holiday.

They consist of three designs that I used on my printing press in combination with a soy-based non toxic ink called Acua Intaglio. I prepared 300gms paper using 9 different colours of natural earth pigments onto which I printed. Since I have never done collagraph printing using encaustic medium, this was both exciting and a risk for me. I will do 9 prints and then thread them together with scrap fabric and wool that was dyed in the dye-bath as I prepared lake pigments earlier in this unit. The threading together of these ‘roots’ will be done with ‘mending stitches’ and will be done very loosely. The idea is that they will speak about lost connections and about the need to repair these connection.

The concepts this artwork draws inspiration from is a combination of Polyvagal theory and how our Vagus nerve resemble a wandering root-system with much the same importance to our heath as roots are the the health of soil and plant-life. I draw from the scientific research and work of Steve Porges and Peter Wohlleben.

My three designs were based on photos I tool of exposed roots and tree branches. Here are the reference photo’s and the designs that resulted:

Reference photo’s of tree branched and roots

Encaustic collagraph designs on re-usable perspex plates

Paper being wet in preparation to receive natural earth pigment colour

The result after printing:

Images of raw materials as I prepare to thread them together

WILD CLAY VESSELS – transmuting earth, water, fire and air

I processed wild clay and made three medium-sized vessels, into which I carved a design. The concepts they relate to are interconnection and the therapeutic value of clay, drawing on the work of Daniel Siegel and Cornelia Elbrecht. As mentioned in a previous post, working with clay—especially processing it by hand—has a powerful effect on the vagus nerve, inducing a dorsal vagal state where we experience a sense of safety. Besides the satisfying sense of agency from not having to purchase materials and ethically using what the earth provides locally, working with this clay on the wheel involves its own transformative process. I am fully mindful of my body and the clay, and I often need to close my eyes and feel my way to center the clay. Mindful in every moment and practicing equanimity as the clay initially resists, I press the weight of my whole upper body and firmly guide the clay until there is silence. The clay is centered, and so am I.

The clay I use comes from my back garden and after sifting it about 4 times through finer and finer sieves, the result is a watery clay that I need to pout into cloth and then onto a plaster bat to let dry. The clay is beautiful and plastic and 100% workable. They will be fired in my kiln to a burnt orange colour.

After letting them become bone-dry, I played around with folding my handmade pine-needle paper into them. I might put a light inside to emphasise the texture in my paper. Looking at them I sense that the vessels represent a body. Like a body, they contain a space inside, they hold, they contain. Looking at these photo’s now I realise that it is interesting that the paper (made from pine trees) are held by the clay vessels (made from soil). I am still thinking whether I should draw something on the paper. I will still decide.

CRACKED CLAY BOXES:

I started making the following pieces as an experiment. They were inspired by a visit to a local dam that has dried up. The cracks were just beautiful, intriguing and I wanted to see if I would let my own clay crack, then fire them in a kiln and use them in an installation. My plans changed when I decided to trace part of map of the contour of the mountains surrounding my house as well as the surrounding farmlands. These represent the areas where I have sourced the clay soil and rocks from which I make natural earth pigment. I drew the map and then left them to dry by themselves. Over the next few days, cracks started to appear. It was asif the clay was naturally drawing its own lines alongside mine. This felt like a sympoiesis – a making together. I decided to fill the cracks with coloured pigment, the same pigment that I sourced from the site on the map drawn onto the clay. I mixed encaustic medium and poured it over the piece. This not only holds it together but seals it, metaphorically sealing, protecting what is left of the soil.

These pieces brings to mind the feeling of barren earth, a dry land, eroded earth. I decided to add vessel – whole and broken to the composition of some of the pieces. In my work, vessels seem to have become symbolic of the body. A place that contains the soul. Clay has the unique ability to be soft, pliable and adaptable to the slightest touch, it can be shaped for purpose yet without fire it remains brittle without putting in the work of caring for (containing, maintaining and repair) the Self. The work we put in to care for ourselves strengthens us like fire strengthens clay. The pots therefore represent the care or lack of care of the Self and the lost potential and brokenness that result. And as the body and soul suffers due to a lack of wellbeing, we are unable to care for those around is – human and non-human. My practice aims and advocates to reverse this cycle with the knowledge and hope found in science, in interconnection and artistic expression in sympoiesis with nature.

The concepts these works relate to are soil health. I look at the work of Jo Handelsman (A life without Soil) and sensory integration as drawn from the work of Annmarie Lombard. I wanted to paint medicinal plants on these but I’ve decided against it. I don’t want to take away from what they are already saying.

THE INNER LANDSCAPE and THE SENSES:

These are A2 mixed media artworks using natural pigments, inks and handmade charcoal. They will be figurative works. These will relate to the concepts of Sensory Processing and Polyvagal theory and the science of attention. I will draw from my research of Carl Jung, Steven Porges and Annemarie Lombard and Lisa Miller.

I would like to do 8 of them, representing the 8 senses.

How I would like to frame them in order to bind it with the curatorial theme of the curiosity box that my exhibition with embody. The image below will be replaced and in not one of my final pieces.