With my work I predominetly let nature take a lead and change and leave traces on various materials and now I have found an artist who works on the same lines as I do.
Daro Montag
Montag is an artist that is in interested in processes that occur in the natural world. In his work he uses plants, insects, toads and other creatures but he also uses wind, fire and rain to contribute to his art. Just like my work, he is interested in the indexical trace that is left behind by these natural sources.
With ‘This Earth’ (picture on the right) five bits of film strips was placed in the soil near is home in Cornwall and it was left for the soil microbes to eat into the gelatin and absorb the dye, creating and leaving patterns of colour behind. The image shows a section of a film strip. It’s very beautiful and shows that nature can do interesting things and create interesting pieces of art. The colours and patterns are something that could not be created again in the same way.
Taking a close up of the film strip is similar to something I was thinking about doing with my copper, as up close there could be more going on with the patterns that you cannot see normally.
Studying Montag’s work and his ideas has helped me stay excited for my work and realising there is so much potential to it that I just need to keep exploring.
Information and pictures from: https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/content/dr-daro-montag
https://www.tumblr.com/search/daro%20montag
