I so enjoy my tutorials with Jonathan! I always come away feeling that I've delved a little more deeply into my own understanding of my work. I made a point of making a voice recording of this one so that I could properly reflect on it and also disseminate all the of waffle and babble that I spout (sorry Jonathan!). I've long suspected that I'm completely incapable of actually answering a question and that's now confirmed; I always start with the back story and then veer off at a tangent - apologies for that too!
New technique: aquatint
We started off talking about my new discovery - aquatint. I had a lightbulb moment and feel like I've discovered what etching is really about - building the tones, and let's face it, spraying on aquatint with an airbrush is just really good fun! This is the first 'finished' piece that uses aquatint.
Etching is rather a departure from linocut so Jonathan asked me:
Where's the balance in the work between the source (the forest) and the representation of that and the exploration of the technical processes? How do they dialogue?
It's something I've been pondering myself as I am very keen to improve my techniques over time through trying to make images, not just master the technique for the sake of it. I really enjoy exploring the technique and finding out just enough about it to make it do what I want it to rather than learning everything and then pondering how to use it. I think this means that I permanently feel like I'm experimenting and discovering which is really exciting.
I've also been pondering exactly what my work is trying to do or say.... am I trying to record the aesthetic of the forest or what people use the forest for or something else? I am repeatedly asked by mountain bikers to put bikes in my prints and I refuse, but I have depicted one of the bike tracks so I've been wondering more about what my work is doing and starting to think of it more as a 'body', a collection of experiences, memories and feelings. I realised that my ideal experience in the forest is to be alone (except for the dog) and to soak up the sights, smells and sounds (I never wear earphones - I want to hear the forest), to notice the seasonal changes as well as the differences between last summer and this summer. I explained that I'm trying to record something you see that you want to photograph but that you know the photo will never do the experience justice. I'm almost trying to snapshot a feeling that I can look at, something that conjures a memory.
I also talked about how I've started collecting things from the forest, for example fir cones of a favourite tree that fell in a storm, alongside other general bit and pieces that I think I can dry and print from, or pretty feathers etc. I have collections of random bits and pieces all squirrelled away in Ferrero Rocher boxes! I've started using these things directly in my prints, first inked up as monoprints but more recently in soft ground etchings. I mused over the idea that using items from the forest directly meant that the image is the record of the act of being there and collecting it and noticing it. I've also just experimented with putting caustic soda on fern leaves and pressing these onto lino to etch it. I can't wait to ink it up!
While I'm not sure I completely answered how the representation of the forest and the technical processes interact for all my work I think this newfound way of using actual foraged material is really interesting. It's also interesting that using the mono-printing led me to play with the soft ground etching and then this gave me the idea to reverse it and use the caustic soda. It feels like the techniques are informing and complimenting each other and playing with other techniques is expanding ideas around linocut which I am most experienced in (but still have a lot of room to discover more about).
I think this comes back to my experimental approach to process. I'm constantly wondering how to use techniques and 'what happens if....' and whether I can combine techniques to make something more interesting. I realise that when I'm thinking about the techniques I also ponder how that represents or mirrors the forest. It seems that the process and the representation of the place are inseparable threads, sometimes one leads, sometimes the other but they're both there each influencing the other and moving the ideas on. Now I think on it... I think this is practice-based research, the making is informing the looking and thinking about the place and it circles back to looking and considering the making whilst in the place and together as a whole the thinking is enriched by both. Wow - breakthrough moment!!
Why don't I have any patience to draw?
We talked about process and the fact that I have noticed that I actively avoid drawing with a pencil onto lino, or doing a design drawing if I can get away with it. I feel very impatient with that, however I'll happily spend hours cutting or scratching directly into plates. I certainly don't feel confident in my drawing ability, especially in my line drawing ability so I'm sure that has something to do with it. The benefit of not wanting to do detailed pencil design drawings is that it has led me to explore other ways of marking the lino with dip nibs, home-made nibs, dry brushing etc. and I feel like this exploration of mark making is important to me. I also think it's important that I recognise that this is an area where I feel a limitation but I find ways around it and it leads me to more discoveries, therefore this weakness is also a strength.
Prints becoming objects
Jonathan asked about the things I make that are not traditional prints but prints becoming objects. I talked about Jo Veever's course at West Dean being a turning point when I discovered more of what an art practice could be, taking inspiration and transforming it rather than just doing a straight representation. The ideas of the bundles came from Shelley Rhodes book which I discovered that weekend. I talked about how I squirrel things from the forest away and press leaves and flowers and and am feeling my way into using these items and exploring more of what a print can be and how I can use printmaking but not feel limited by it, allowing for other things, possibly even plates, to enhance the aesthetics of a piece.
Jonathan said that he'd noted something which he thought I'd said earlier, which he put into such a beautiful phrase: "It was important to see the feel of it". The idea of still making an aesthetically pleasing object, but one which captures the feeling of what it represents rather than a direct representation. I thought this was an amazing phrase and I'm taking it! It completely sums up what I'm trying to do. I keep struggling to write bios and artists statements etc. for open calls. I find it very hard to fix on exactly what my work is actually doing, I have lots of nice ideas that kind of skirt around the issue and things I can aspire to, but I think this really hits the nail on the head. I'm using this from now on!
Location
Jonathan said it's very interesting that I'm so focussed on one location. The main idea being that by narrowing the focus of the work it allows me to build a methodology that I could then transfer to another location. We talked about how I really feel like I want to make work about locations that I feel connected to; Norfolk, Yorkshire and Scotland being the other three places on my mental list (specific places of course). I've been thinking further about this as I'm rather excited by the fact that I am already planning to create a body of work about Norfolk after I finish the MA. I think I'll always create work about my daily walks near home but I hope that I'll have space in my practice for a second location in a year or so. I'm realising that I'm building a way of looking and thinking and working that I think I'll be able to transfer to another location. Norfolk is the one I know best - I already have sketchbooks and Ferrero Rocher boxes full of images and objects, the only thing I find that makes me pause is the number of highly talented artists, especially printmakers, who already make work about the Norfolk coast and broads. I hope that after the MA I will have the confidence in my own practice to explore my version of it. I feel so deeply attached to it I don't really see how I can avoid it to be honest - it's a compulsion!
Final thoughts
Jonathan is so incredibly insightful, he pointed out several things about my practice which I think I knew but hearing them coming from another person really helps cement the way I think about them.
He pointed out that even when I find myself doing something I wish I wasn't (such as the spider print) I am able to keep going and find the positive learning experience from it. It reminded me of the other moment I had with the recent bluebell linocut where I could have given up when the registration moved but instead I threw in a second block and ended up with a second print which was far more experimental and exciting than the first, AND I gained experience of dealing with a complete mess of a registration situation! It's a good point that I should realise and give myself credit for: I'm not often a quitter, and I usually manage to find something I learnt. I need to remember this next time I make a mess of something and be extra positive about it!
I realised that hearing Jonathan say things like 'what really interests us about your practice' and 'this is why you're making good work' felt really special. I'm treasuring the position I'm in as a student - having a tutor who delves into the back story and sees progression and seems to like what they see. There are others in my life whose opinion of the finished work I value but they don't seem to understand the processes behind it in the same way (even though they know what I'm doing they just don't 'get it' in that they don't understand the concept of 'artistic practice' as a whole). I've just realised that I don't think anyone else will ever delve into the 'behind the scenes' as deeply again so I had better make the most of it now!
Summer break plan
We ended with me verbalising my summer break plans:
Library visits & interview prep while the children are still in school
Hopefully an interview in early August with Neil Bousfield
2 weeks of reasonably child free time in the holidays to make/study
A bit of making while children are off school
Re-focus on research paper in September