A World Apart
approx. 6'x7' I greatly enjoyed working on this project, as I had many opportunities to work with various materials and push the boundaries of what I had already known of each one. I began with cut paper, tea, and wine and created various stains. I then used a bleach pen to create drawings within the stains,a nd often repeated the process multiple times over the same paper to create senses of depth and aquatic scenery. I played with soft pastels and wax, mixing the two over a piece of paper and then dipping it into hot tea to melt the wax. I used wax from different candels, and some had a more oily consistency than others, which had an effect on both the pastels and the paper underneath. As I arranged each piece of paper and found relationships between some, I becan to group them together to create various drawings- either completely abstracted or partially so. The final step was to go into some of the pieces and use fine pens to draw over the stains, often to interact with patterns that had already been created from previous steps. I often work representationally, but wanted to take a more meditative approach to these drawings, so it is mostly mark-making that creates the different effects.
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After the Storm
57"x39" I used wood that had been collected after Hurricane Matthew for this project, and originally wanted to make a piece about the destruction. That did not last, however, as I becan to draw on a panel one day and fond that I much liked the idea of creating a mutliple panel piece which created a landscape of sorts. Aside from the wood, this piece was created with acrylic paint, black ink, yarn, soft pastel mixed with canola oil, cardboard, and cut paper. I like to create small lines with ink, and found that it related well with the wood grain that was already in the piece naturally. As I moved along, I began to experiment with differnt layering of the wood objects and used white paint to bring out other marks that I had made. I also began to see what I could do with the overall shape of the surface, which I decided needed to escape fromt he typical rectangular place. different shapes of wood and string and cardboard helpd to make this happen. The multiple panel assignment gave me a lot of trouble, as I could not decide what to do. As "luck" would have it (lack of a better term), Hurricane Matthew blew through and created a lot of debris, which I happily collected and began to play with. I knew that I wanted to work with wood. However, I was still unsure of where to go. I did some research and learned about the following artists:
Heather Patterson works with pieces colored wood in all sized and creates pieces that are both intricate and simple. I enjoyed her use of stacking and layericg to create depth in her pieces. It was Orit Hofshi's oddly-shaped panels and intricate ink drawings that drew me to her. I enjoyed her manipulation of the picture plane and the lines that she used in her work/ I felt that the relationship between the wood and the ink was very calming. I was unsure at first what I wanted to do for my drawing collection. It was during a day when Laura had us experimenting with various materials in class that I began to develop an idea- though very vague. I had been very interested in the effects of teas staining and wax coverage on paper, and I knew that I wanted to create some imagery with those two materials.
I did a small bit of research and found some artists that greatly interested me with regards to their mark-making and material use. Josh Gurrie is very interested in minimalist mark-making and color blocking. I liked his use of space and the improvisational aspect of his drawings. Stalla Im Hultberg uses a lot of tea-stained paper in her works, creatign figural illustrations on top that ofter interact with their surface. Alice Fox, like Gurrie, likes to experiment with her materials, though she is a bit less conventional. I liked the way in which she allowed marks that her materials made to be the focal point of her work, rather than those which she had more control over. While listening to a story in class titled "House on Loon Lake," we were to use any drawing materials to create a reactionary illustration of what we listened to. The story is about a boy and his fascination with an old, abandoned house- and the stories of the unknown former inhabitants. After finishing the story, we were instructed to continue to modify the drawings on our own, using our memory of the story to embellish and refine what we had created.
The story conjured up images of dust and grime, of dull colors and broken things. There were letters and small artifacts which created fragmented images of these ghosts, and I wanted to make an image that reflected the difficulty with which the narrator had examined and researched these people, and of the multitude of information lacked. Before we had listened to the story, Mongiovi hd asked us to work in complete darkness for about an hour, and to create a blind drawing of our childhood homes. I often associalte my grandparents' old house with choldhood memories,a nd attempted to make a blueprint of the house from memory. At home, I went back to the drawing and worked into it some more. I tried to refine certain aspects of the house, whilst taking creative liberties to convey the happy and carefree emotions which I attach to the house. I used many different materials, including candle wax and yellow paint. The first assignment of the semester was to create two 8"x10" drawings, using only white paper, gesso, and-on one drawing- black chalk pastel. They were to be done using two 22"x30" sheets of good quality paper.
I had gone into the first drawing with the intention of creating a geometric design using only the white paper and gesso. After much impatience over the multitude of paper scraps, however, I resolved to simply create a drawing over it using the pastel as well. I followed a few lines from different paper shred before deciding to make a simple boat drawing, as I felt that the texture of the paper could help to create a dramatic scene. The second drawing was much like the first, in the sense that I had intentions for what I was going to do, before scrapping all ideas and simply resolving to slap all of the paer on as quickly as possible. The process created a hard surface, but was brittle, and the gesso that I used- being old and un mixed- contributed in giving the paper a yellowish tint and a rough, bumpy texture. New Beginnings
36"x42" It took about 5 weeks to complete this drawing, as we were to bring it in once a week...near completely transformed. Below, I begin with transformation # 2, as I was unable to photograph the base drawing at the time. I continue with transformatios #4 and #5. I did not go in with any plan for the piece, nor for the materials to be used, and I felt very free while drawing on such a large surface. I ended up learning that canola oil interacts very well with vine charcoal, in order to act as an ink substitute. I enjoy experimenting with materials and fining new ways to use them. This was a very fun assignment, and I was able to do so often. The second project that was assigned to us involved charcoal and erasers. Basically, after covering an entire surface with charcoal, we had to take various erasers and carve out drawings from the surface. The type of eraser used helped to make a difference, as did the type of charcoal. Vine charcoal and a kneaded eraser work weilded results that differed greatly from compressed charcoal and pink eraser drawings.
My results are below. |
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AuthorArt Student at Flagler College. I am frequently instructed to write blog entries about my artistic thoughts and process. Archives
April 2017
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