I've been meaning to write a reflection on my feedback since I received it but Christmas has got in the way. So now I'm hiding upstairs, tapping away on a computer when I should be in the kitchen, printing away. It's infuriating!
Anyway.
I distilled the feedback questions down into some basic points as it makes more sense to me:
FOCUS ON:
lines
marks
colour
MAKE A UNIQUE PRINT EVERY DAY
look at the drawing
consider priorities - what becomes less important?
what is revealed?
MAKE VISUALLY INTERESTING WORK
ignore direct representation
work from memory
crop images
use compositional prompts
EMBRACE BARRIERS TO PRINTING IN-SITU
weather
dogs
general dirt
REMOVE SELLING FOCUS - WHAT IS THE NEW FOCUS?
CONSIDER INFLUENCE OF STITCH COURSE ON FINAL SHOW (and now bookbinding)
CONSIDER EXHIBITION IN THE FOREST
There is so much richness here. The feedback is written in a very different style to unit 1's feedback which I think has thrown me a little. There are so many questions. I wasn't expecting this... it's good, I think... I just need to get my head around it.
Firstly, I've realised that my immediate reaction to anything that challenges me is to resist it. Of course I can't make a print a day - I don't work like that. No sales - YELP - how will I buy fuel for my car? or clothes for the children - PANIC! And yes, over-friendly labradors that jump all over me in the forest will be a real barrier to being brave enough to make prints there - aside from the ruined prints I don't want my equipment to get ruined!
OK, initial resistance noted. Now, calmly rethink.
The not selling thing is the biggest one. It's implausible for me not to sell work - I rely on the money. However, I do want to move away from making work purely to sell. There's definitely a difference and it's part of why I wanted to take this course - I wanted to make the work I want to make with the view that if someone wants to buy it then that's great. I also wanted to make more exploratory work that might feed into something bigger. So, this is not about not selling, this is asking me to ignore the selling aspect and think about what the focus will be when I take sales out of the equation. I've been trying to do this. Certainly all the things I'm thinking about of the final exhibition have not 'sales' ideas linked to them at all. However, I know that I'm making things (like the grass mono prints) as part of that exploration which are very sellable. I need to ensure that I resist the temptation to churn some of these out just to sell and instead use my time to expand and follow on from them. If something happens to sell that was surplus to requirements then I can see this as a bonus.
The making a print a day is an interesting one. I am caught between thinking this is a brilliant idea - it will make me more productive, and knowing that I might just churn something out for the hell of it and is this the best use of my time?? I get very hung up on 'using my time' and , I think this is something I need to stop doing. I put a tonne of pressure on myself to use every moment as productively as possible and then end up not knowing what to do, wasting time and feeling completely unproductive. It's absolutely ridiculous and I'm wondering whether just calming down the pressure to 'be productive' and just pottering about creatively instead might actually be the way forward. So... do I take up the challenge to produce a unique print a day???? The barrier to this is the time taken to set up and then pack away. This is when not having a studio feels really limiting. With the family away I've take oven the kitchen and haven't had to pack it up. It feels amazing to have everything already 'out'. Yes there's still a bit of setting up and cleaning down to do, but it's half what I usually have to do. I got a mini press for Christmas so I'm thinking that this is what could facilitate the daily print. Maybe I should set myself a mini-print challenge. Just for January, and aim to produce one mini print everyday starting today. This feels exciting and achievable. I'm going to start there. I'm also going to think about next January when we should be in a new house, which has a large room I'm going to have as a studio and by January we should be in and I should have it all set up. Next January I'm going to produce one unique print every day, any size. There - I've said it! I'm also going to commit to posting the daily prints on Instagram so I have to do it.
I've already started embracing the 'permission' given to work from memory and not feel I have to stick to direct representation. I've always bent my images to my way of drawing and working, but being encouraged to do so since the image is more interesting feels like a bit of a revelation and rather exciting. I always say I want to get the 'feel' of the forest into my work, and I struggle to put my finger on exactly what that means, but I think this is part of it. The using compositional prompts idea is interesting. I need to look some of these up. I have a habit of looking at other peoples work, finding a small section in it and saying 'I want that little bit' I need to start doing this with my own work. I'm wondering about the patchwork ideas I've had previously... using fragments and patch-working them. I need to start actually getting on with this!
The embracing the barriers to printing in the forest is an interesting one and something I think I just need to do. I do draw the line at trying to print in the rain though so will wait for a drier day to try this. I think I also need to decide exactly what I am going to do before I do it. Will I take a plate and engrave it in situ and then print or should I ink up found things and print? The problem with found things is that it will be very messy and I know from experience that anything not dried will just get crushed and look horrible so I'm wary of that one. starting with engraving a small perspex plate seems like the best think. A little drypoint on the mini press maybe? That would just require one colour, I could prep the paper and take a piece of inky scrim with me so it would be fairly easy to do I think. My main worry is damaging my equipment - I'm reluctant to take expensive rollers, tube of ink etc into the forest where they might get lost or damaged or leak. This feels like a good way to start.
Ok, I feel calmer and like I have a plan. I'm off to make the first mini pint... wish me luck!
