Tuesday 3 November 2015

         Response - Reflect - Review

Getting to grips with the intuitive process and understanding the limitations of understanding.

The journey continues, the need to create, record, document and then the need to understand, are ever present. The act itself is intuitive, process led, direct responses to the way that the marks /colour rest on the canvas /paper but, its purpose? value? relevance? Can of mental worms? Absolutely.

There is a sense of discovery in the new work, a cathartic experience, reflective of where I find myself at this stage of my life.  Personal events that have occurred that naturally seep into the work, not as literal narrative but in the concept of editing; things that were and are, no more. As much as I try, I can no longer hear my parents' voices, what I have is an imagined archive; layers cover up time, creating new time, old memories, new memories, it's all part of the process of change.   Exterior / Interior. It's still an edited version of it, a hybrid; part perceived and part, faithfully recounted. The truth is in there somewhere. I genuinely want to make work that attempts to express deeper unspoken emotions and for it to reveal only what is necessary at any given moment of time. Shifts in the pattern of time, both literal and metaphorical.

The large etching continues to reveal new memories, literally by scratching the surface:












Smaller investigations:












I am still approaching the work with a genuine desire for 'surprise' - discovering the 'magic' that can sometimes evolve through the act of 'what if' - it is only natural that the work can be hit and miss but too much control can lead to repetition; the beauty of etching is its ability to repeat and this offers enormous freedom. You are safe in the knowledge that you can take risks and the original print is 'safe', the excitement of pulling back the paper to reveal what has turned out, this for me, has never gone away. The interaction between the press and paper, it is sheer magic!

The painting is evolving, I am continuing to use the textile screens and other media. The random/ haphazard placement still at the core of the start of any image. I want to work things out, to put myself in a place where I am not entirely certain about the outcome, to discover a passage of paint that determines the painting's direction. Space within the image is becoming important, subtle shadows & light that play with the picture frame and its surface.


Beginnings :























                                                                             Endings: 






























   











The work is on the move, I am on the move, at the moment it feels like a good place to be - then again...