Saturday’s making day was fun and productive. I managed to carry on working for the rest of the day. It was nice to have company, hearing conversations, catching up and seeing what my peer’s are busy with. It was very interesting to see Michele’s process of drawing in her sketchbook and how she uses it to process all her thoughts, seeing where it takes her. At this stage where I have many open ‘boxes’ and ideas swirling in my head, I think drawing it all out into a sketchbook might be just what I need to clear my mind and find direction. Thanks for the inspiration Michele :).
What I managed to do during the making day: Made some chalk and oil pastels from my earth pigments (earlier in the morning); experimented with encaustic medium on pigment covered paper and using that as a basis to transfer charcoal drawings and fusing them (this took trail and error in preparation to work on the larger drawing), prepared a large transparency over my circular artwork which was also covered with encaustic medium. I also experimented with encaustic collagraph printing. Since I was busy with encaustic medium, I wanted to try and work with the texture and do the prints inspired by microscopic images of soil microbes as well as root mycelium.
Here are a few images and videos from the day:
A very unsuccessful fuse…
Doing an encaustic collagraph print:
I based this design on a photo I took of the roots of a tree that had fallen after a storm we had recently. I mostly did the collagraph after our making-day session was over and I forgot to take photo’s as I made it. I did however take some videos of the printing process since it was my first time working on this particular press. I was very pleased with how it came out seeing that it was my first try with the encaustic collagraph process. I will be adjusting the ratio of the medium since the paper did stick to the medium in one or two places.
Col Self presentation reflection:
A few things I take away from Col’s presentation that resonated with my and why:
- With my eyes on doing my own presentation in the near future, I enjoyed her presentation style. The fact that she read some of her words was something I was also planning to do so it was reassuring that it came across so professional.
- She draws together her inspiration from many different artists and sources and I loved how she pulls this together through a few different methods and disciplines – from performance, film and photo.and various interesting materials.
- She touches on the spiritual, magical, mystical and ethereal which is something that resonates with my practice as I look at the inner landscape and its mental, emotional and spiritual health.
- She says: “looking for utopia within these miserable de-socialised spaces. Some kind of search for joy within a system where joy is confined, commodified or requires capital to be experienced. I love this idea of looking within, and kind-of searching from within.” What resonates with me here is VERY important as I look at the inner landscape of the psyche and toward ancient wisdoms that include indigenous tribes who lived much closer to nature and far removed from capitalism. Col looks at nomadic traditions and I look at the San tribes who were also nomads. I am stirred when she speaks about how ‘the battle of the bean-field closures’ to eliminate the travelers. I happened to watch a documentary about Stonehenge recently due to my interest in ancient tribes and how they lived interconnected with nature. Here I heard about the festival at solstice and found it very interesting. The violent attempts to stop the travelers gathering reminded me of how the San tribes were also disempowered and stripped of their traditions and rituals due to colonization and capitalism of the Western culture.
- Col says towards the end: “The word ritual is complicated and when you bring it to the table there are a lot of associations.” She says that her use of the word ritual is not to suggest an alternative or transgression of dominant codes (capitalism). Really, she is working with it as a way to unpick a centre and consider how one can exist within a system of closure. Col says: “Ideas of transcending a system or escaping a system can often lead into problematic territory. My question is one of radical imminence and work within a system and see its spaces”. “The skills we need has to do with dreamwork, this is the role of artwork engaged with fictioning processes to embrace both realities and continue the analysis.” Lastly she quotes Clifford Geertz: “ In ritual, the world as lived and the world as imagined fused under the same agency of a single set of symbolic forms, turns out to be the same world.”
- The paragraph above has a lot to process and I will be spending some time to see how this resonates with my practice and might add my thoughts here later. Great presentation!