Sunday 24 June 2012

Putting Stuff in my Scanner - Part II



Something I had to try in the scanner was this old  glove . . . . the softest softest kid, faded and grubby, it seemed perfect. First try with it as a Photoshop brush/stamp was nothing special  but I was sure it ought to work so I kept going. Put a brush of an old sheet of watercolour paper with a raggedy edge underneath and then printed it out onto card.  Just following blind really, gingerly feeling my way to the next step but not able to see any further than just that next step. This is good, an exercise in trust . . . .  usually I try and pin everything down to the nth degree.
Sewing into the paper  with a dull yellow thread, hugely satisfying but then hand sewing always soothes my soul.
Now I had something else . . . .beginning to get some kind of a feeling about this . . . .  scanned that in




Now it's another brush/stamp and I've layered it up a bit and echoed the yellow of the thread I used. So far ,so good . . . . .




Now we're getting somewhere . . . . deconstructing the larger piece and relayering. Putting  conscious control  aside . . . . .allowing the story to tell itself . . . .  something about domesticity . . . . .it has a kind of Georgian feel to it . . .  thinking of the painstaking restoration of old houses where layers of history can be seen in the flaking faded paint and the weight of peoples lives hang in the air. It is often the small everyday things that remain, a child's toy, a lady's comb, a piece of lace, that are the most poignant. This was what  emerged, slowly and almost incidentally while I was working.

 



Then a further deconstruction . . . .  taking sections of the glove to re-lay them onto a new ( digital ) surface. I'm not sure I wouldn't print those pieces out seperately and sew them onto watercolour paper and then scan that back in.  A very different way of working for me . . .  slower, more absorbing but infinitely satisfying. To be continued . . . . . 

 

Monday 11 June 2012

Putting Stuff in my Scanner - The Rosary Series



Boredom, curiosity, whatever it was it was going to happen at some point . . . putting 3-D stuff in my scanner. In order to protect the glass I cut up a plastic wallet and lay that on the scanner bed placing the objects on top of that. Let me tell you it attracts a lot of dust, no sooner had I wiped one side of the plastic clean then the other side went all staticky and dusty. The scan of the matches has all the dust included. I got impatient and thought I'd better pretend it was meant to be that way or I'd still be there now.

First my Rosary got scanned and then some matches. Pretty good combination I reckon. The matches led to a whole other lots of pictures which I'll show you presently.

This one is entitled 'The Ascension'  using one of my old altered dolls . . .  I can't help being flippant. Every time I think I've got the whole 'Serious Art' thing nailed there's a part of me that pushes it in the other direction. I was a nightmare at school for that very reason.

Here we are . . . .  'The Brides of Christ'  using a paper collage of a bride from a war time Picture Post magazine. Me being flippant again. It makes me laugh though which is so important; I  quickly get fed up with anything po-faced or boring.


And then, from one minute to the next it went from slightly silly to pretty serious. This piece really embodies the practise of payer and meditation. Go figure.


More 'Stuff in the Scanner' soon . . . .



Wednesday 6 June 2012

Strangeartworld Abstract Work


 The last few weeks have seen me churn out a ton of new ideas - artist as sausage machine you know. It seems to be cyclical, I can tell when I'm coming up for one of these periods because they are always preceeded by a kind of restlessness and irritability where I'm unable to settle to anything properly. Like a bubble waiting to burst, things rising slowly to the surface. Sometimes wonder if the cycle/gestation thing is more pronounced because I'm female but I suspect all creative people have something similar.

It takes a while to sort out the stuff worth keeping, there's always plenty of crap generated. These ones here, I decided, are keepers and will be listed in my shop over the next week. Will post it on the Strangeartworld Facebook page when that's done.



Abstract is something that never fails to move and excite me. I've stood in front of a Constable in the old Tate Museum and thought 'meh' and then stood before a wopping great black and white abstract by Pierre Soulage and had  a visceral experience of it that was so strong I had to go outside and take deep breaths of fresh air. And while I loved abstract work,I felt it really had all been done before and that I could not add anything original. I wandered off in other creative directions instead.
But if you go far enough you meet yourself coming back, or so I've found. Somethings you've just got to do and being creative has never lent itself to being rational. Like falling in love, it's most un-rational.


 These two shouldn't really work but do. When I printed them out I thought the blue would look artificial and kind of pasted on. It doesn't, it just floats on top, seperate elements that keep their individual identity but somehow belong together.The process is still a mystery to me. I hope it always stays that way.


 Heavily influenced by textiles and fabric design, this last piece is going to be  a starting point for a lot of variations . . .  want to try this in different colours,just to see. I will be sorting through the newly generated pieces over the next week or so and will post a bit at a time. Till then . . . .









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