I am on a train writing in an old note book… serendipitously, at the back of which are pages of recipes for collagraph plates I made at the RCA, these have spurred me on to make a few experimental plates in addition to the prototypes of last week. If the surfaces marry well with the shapes and patterns of the subject matter, great, if not, perhaps they’ll lead on to something else.
Distance is one of the most important and overlooked aspects of making art: once I have created an image I need to separate myself to enable viewing it with fresh eyes. Following an intense period of image development (video and photographs), I have purposefully stepped back. This space and time has now made it clear the direction the work must take.
Looking through the photos that I’ve taken and selectively editing has been pretty exciting. I’ve been experimenting with repetitive pattern, symmetry and the perfection of the circle.
The results plot a journey rather than final pieces. Some remind me of the windows of the cathedral I visited the same day, probably just a subliminal connection though. It’s not surprising, my obsession to find order in chaos is becoming quite a preoccupation and I feel drawn to those who do the same. On a recent visit to the amazing museum in Lille, I spent most of the time looking at the symmetrical designs on 17th century majollica plates, rather than the Goyas and El Grecos on show.
It is important for me to see through the seductive and slick images that have evolved through editing and not lose sight that they must work well as prints, i.e. be translated through woodcut, carborundum and engraving. To be honest, the prospect of physically cutting the plates is quite daunting, I know I will want to experiment as much as possible to discover which technique is best suited to the subject matter, which puts all this screen-based image development into perspective.
It would be more straightforward if I had an outcome fixed in my mind, but I feel it’s important for the work to develop over time and for the original subject to be sourced close to where the final work will be located. I would hope, having experienced this city first-hand, that the sense of this place would permeate the final work and that the shape, form, pattern and colour/tone will echo the original source subject matter, seeming strangely familiar to the viewer.
I am a painter-printmaker and video-artist focusing on the links between a micro and macro view of nature. The initial stage of my creative process is to make videos; my paintings and prints take inspiration from these videos – seemingly abstract, but with a basis in the 'seen' world. My goal is that my pieces transcend particular spaces and become places in which to lose oneself. I am particularly drawn to hidden histories. My current project explores my identity and neurodiversity using images of my own cells as a form of self portraiture. My love of pattern and repetition is a big part of who I am: chaos can be transformed into order - a way of structuring my own chaos.
I have a studio in North Yorkshire.
