I've been very lax in writing anything for the last 3 weeks since the low res ended. I think that March was just SO full on I found it rather overwhelming. I had prints in 2 exhibitions as well as the low residency week (and had to race back for a school reunion during that). There was also Super Seconds Festival swiftly followed by 2 craft fairs so all in all I felt like I didn't know whether I was coming or going! Organising the children and the dog complicates anything out of the ordinary and just adds that little bit of extra stress. Anyway, the exhibitions seemed to go well, I made a killing at Super Seconds and it was nice to do a couple of craft fairs and get back into the swing of them (although I won't be going to Lyndhurst again!).
On a much more interesting note I also managed to do lots of work. There's something about being super busy that seems to motivate me to work even harder! I made a second version of the reflections in the lake linocut and am really pleased with the depth I managed to achieve in the mid-ground.
I used a second plate to drop the tree trunks in which worked really well. The part I'm furious with myself about is that the area around the grasses, I cut away too much lino so had to 'correct' the colour join. I also think the grasses are too short and the ground they're on isn't nearly as well done as in the first print. I prefer the distant foliage in the newer print but the reflections in the first one. If only I could cut and shut them together!
I've gone and done exactly what I've realised I hate doing... I volunteered to make a charity print on a theme. The theme is 'animal magic' which I thought would be OK, but when it came to it I really wished I hadn't volunteered as it didn't fit with my work half as well as I thought it would. I've written this up as a separate post.
I've also started work on another two plate linocut. Inspired by the depth in the last one I'm attempting something based around the mountain bike runs. I've been wanting to tackle this subject for a while but been rather daunted by the perspective involved but this caustic soda experimentation seems like rather a breakthrough when teamed with rainbow rolls for depth. I'm approaching it in a similar way to the lake view, a main plate and then a second with the tree trunks on. This one will be as though standing on a hill looking down and up at one of the runs so lots of perspective to deal with!
This is the main plate and the print 2 layers in, you can see where the tree trunks will be on the plate. I'm planning on tackling the midground entirely in caustic soda creating lots of texture. This feels like an exciting breakthrough! I just hope I can do the view justice, I have a feeling it might be a popular theme with the mountain bikers, but I want to enter several prints for the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair so I might have to keep it under wraps if I decide to enter it!
So that's all the work covered. I wanted to reflect on what is motivating me to be so productive. I think there's definitely something about it being spring and the days being lighter, several open call opportunities being available and the general feeling of the academic year being almost done but the calendar year just getting going that all coincides to make this a very productive time of year for me. I've noticed that over the past 2 years spring has been particularly productive. I also think that the feedback I got from Unit 1 and doing the low residency have been really motivating. It's spurred me on to just keep making!
There were a couple of lines in the feedback which I particularly appreciated, my process being described as having a 'delicacy' in the way I handle the material and treading lightly allowing the process and the forest to direct the making. I think this has given me some words that I couldn't quite articulate about my process. I've always thought of myself as very 'wordy' and fairly articulate but I have come to realise that I really struggle to describe areas of my work in words, I know what I mean in my own head, but the thoughts are image, layer, colour and feeling based rather than constructed sentences and I find it very hard to express some of it in words (which has surprised me). The concluding paragraph stating that although it may feel like I'm wandering aimlessly but in fact I'm building a working method has really given me more confidence that my seemingly disconnected experiments are in fact all part of a bigger practise. I just need to stop signing up for things with a theme and rather trust myself to make what I want to make. Interestingly I expressed this for the first time to the stall holder next to me at a craft fair yesterday, she was making the point that maybe I could do the odd coastal print as they would sell and I flatly said that I had not interest in making work just to sell, rather that I had learned that I make my best work when it's what I want to make and that whether it sold or not that's what I'm going to do. I also explained that I had my sights set on exhibiting in galleries and art fairs and selling that way rather than at craft fairs therefore the standard of work would have to be higher and the only way I can do that is to want to make it. It felt very good to state that, and to defend myself as an artist rather than as an art based business.