Artist's Blog words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words finding a voice for words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words
I've been able to spend some time playing at alchemist in the studio today. I'm getting a lot of Graphic Recording work at the moment which is putting the squeeze the time I can spend in the studio making plates and printing.
I've been etching some litho plates in saline sulphate taking them to near destruction point.
I guess I must be at that age when, according to Jungian psychology, we get in touch with that part ourselves that communicates with the collective subconscious. Most of the images emerging have that quality and feel. The plates themselves are sculptural and feel to have their own voice. I'm looking forward to getting some more plates made and seeing where they take me and any resulting print.
How come some images have the power to take over?
It's like having one of those irritating tunes that you can't get rid of it just goes round and round to the exclusion of anything else.
Some one in the Print Centre was singing "Lily the pink" and it just went round and round annoying everyone but no one being able to stop it.
Two strange happenings in the studio:
The first I need some help with is that the saline sulphate solution jellyfied, now why would that happen? It was 50/50 mix of 1kilo each salt and copper sulphate diluted with 7 litres of water. Well it was when I started it but some one else might have added to the mix.
The second is a problem with two photo polymer plates I made. The dark areas are raised above the light areas which made intaglio inking impossible. I ended up treating them as a relief prints.
Anybody reading this got any ideas?
I delivered some prints to be exhibited at the Little House Restaurant in Settle. Which led me to reflect on the role of the viewer.
The finished work requires a viewer. In fact the image demands to be seen as this is how it becomes alive.
This is when a new narrative is forged between the image and others viewing it. The relationship developed between the image and viewers depends on an interplay and resonance between the image the viewers and their memories, dreams and experiences.
The title of a piece may direct the viewer to make a specific relationship with it. I prefer the the relationship between the viewer and my work to be unmediated by titles, the ones I provide should be seen as my introduction of the image to the viewer.
Roland Barthes describes what he calls the punctum in pictures it is an unintentional point in a picture that captures a viewer and arrests the gaze that was not intended by the by the artist. The punctum is the tiny shock, a satori a moment of connection.
