Once again I seem to be playing catch up!
Although I have managed to spend a pretty relaxing Christmas I have been occupied with my art project…both the theoretical and the practice. Which is a good thing considering both things have to be completed imminently
Firstly the Essay which needs to be handed in on the 10th of January…this gives me, 5 days to finish off, but it is in the final stages of edit and checking. While I’ve been sporadically visiting the essay I’ve been busy getting my practical project to a stage where I can feel comfortable with the prospect of finishing it. Having had a little time to distance myself from it over Christmas, I’ve re-visited it with fresh eyes, and although he early figures were interesting I felt they lacked something…ahhh the ever elusive “something” are we all completely obsessed with trying to discover and capture this “something”? I think we probably are! But, in my situation I have to find “something” I am happy to portray to others , to justify it I have to comprehend “it” myself first. As always the thought process takes second place to the physical making of my art.. so I go ahead and do what is instinctive to me, catching up at a later date to see where this has led me. It’s something I am getting used to now, I used to feel and sometimes still do, that it was the wrong way around doing things, but I now feel better about my working methods, I can accept the method I use…to change it doesn’t work for me. I must have the freedom, the lack of control to feel truly creative.
So, following all that, I have been progressing with the figures….I decided to (after some experimentation with plaster) to use plaster on the cloth, by thinly applying plaster and once set, rubbing and washing under water I get a sort of cracked/crazed affect which as well as giving the cloth a good texture offers some weight and body to the piece. I was unhappy with the way the face sat on the cloth, it didn’t seem to be part of the piece, the separation was too obvious, so by applying the plaster finish I can incorporate the face into the body of the work. An over all more pleasing effect.
I sourced some hooks I’m happy to use…I am still wondering whether to use lighting for the final presentation…I have tried some back lighting in the garage at home where I’m hanging the work temporarily, the effect of using lighting does change the emphasis of the work…making it more translucent, I think I like the way it highlights and adds emphasis to the transparency against the more opaque areas of the material. I have to think on how this affects the overall feel of the work.
