Have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with ideas which are started but not completed lately. Each day I think “i could do that” I need several lives/elves to produce what I would wish too. A workshop of assistance would also be helpful, See Ryan Gander, Chapman Brothers.
It is also perhaps a mythical?female trait of multi tasking, women’s lives are often less structured, perhaps we are genetically programmed not to have tunnel vision which might be necessary for hunting, so decided to focus again, to return to some background research on the subject of Masks and Helmets in my Cover Her Head theme.
Portraits are often revered for the accuracy of the likeness, but the interpretation of the inner personality produces lasting art. The expression of this hidden person feeds into my theme of Armour, the need to show or hide. A Mask, a Covering.So I looked at the work of Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Micallef…the latter work stimulated thoughts of strips of textiles or dripping plaster and now I have the urge to construct some huge? chicken wire masks…….
Have started work on a Collaboration with the English dept at UCS. Have chosen 2 poems one about not knowing who ones great g’ma really is….and another 6 word statement about the “Pills don’t work”. Hopefully this latter one will give me motivation to finish my medical helmet.
The figures are inked onto peplum which is stiff enough to stand up but flexible enough to stitch.
I had in mind the Russian dolls that fit inside one another but swerved off into the idea of 4 separate figures that could group together.
The sketches were spontaneous and perhaps need more research and thought about scale. But they are part of my mission to loosen up and interpret rather than illustrate. Take advantage of my ability to draw but not let it take over. Or is that an excuse to be impatient.
It has been a pressured year what with polymyalgia and the need to get something achieved before I became too tired…..and the www.glengerrard.com website [requirement of Professional Dev.]and this blog and my mother having a stroke and of course the dreaded dissertation, still no feed back.
Life and Art; Art fills my thoughts but Life requires physical attention. Women are culturally programmed to nurture others before themselves, and my website now reflects this theme, which makes it feel more personal.
I guess I should look at my own dear g’ma, and great g’ma but perhaps that falls too close to stereotypical women’s issues??
Ruminating on Cover her Face, hiding the face, disguising one’s identity, protecting from attack…harm…. I spied these face masks, hanging around in the woodwork room, needing to fulfill their destiny.
The fabric feel appealed to me and tho the clinical white is a message…..use me and see me get dirty……I painted them with inks using a blue shading that looked cold and not very inviting, perhaps after the dirt had entered their soul.
Experimenting in my sketch book persuaded me that I needed the full face this time, and a hole cut for the mouth to render them useless. Nothing can hold back the contamination. thoughts of breath added to my pleasure in stitching text.
The result is somewhat unsettling, maybe I should pin them up in the woodwork room……?
Back to my theme, I was working on women using their strength,
Back to the Women at War……..women need armour, whatever, I am a bit unfocussed after Maypole.
breaking out of cultural expectations but taking care not to be vulnerable, needing or not needing armour.
I feel Men muttering they have problems too, true, I am a woman so I am exploring what I experience without belittling men, honest.
I made the dancing figure War Dance and stitched it with phrases from The Art of War, which presumably applied to men when it was written.Using those that played to traditional female skills.
Then I started looking for sources and found many photos of the devastation in Syria. I painted the whole cloth with inks with the intention of placing my Dancing woman in the midst.
BUT it doesn’t work, maybe the whole figure doesn’t work, or the text…dunno.
Maybe better to machine stitch in the ruins and leave the absence in the middle.There is after all nothing one can say…..
http://www.10prjct.com/post/138535806573/week-2-the-ties-that-bind
This is a link to the www of 10PRJCT, so in some way the work lives on, altho in fact it is in piles in the corner of my workroom and two more artists are slaving away in the White Room. I will ensure I go to see their work, when it is ready, as it felt a sad anti-climax that there was almost no-one around to see our installation.
Is it only art if someone sees it, otherwise is it just therapy for the maker.
