And on with the Shadow Portraits.
This evening I took a full length shadow tracing. I asked my partner to stand next to the wallpaper and whilst I was tracing, to tell me something he hadn’t told me before. Which he did. I’ve decided a confession isn’t for sharing, it’s between myself and the shadow.
Now what to do next with the drawing… I toyed with the notion of recreating it in some way, (after all I have a template), and giving it back to the sitter. I thought of cutting it into silk but research revealed animals are harmed to produce this material (where else did I think it came from??). Browsing through Craft magazine today I noticed a garment made entirely out of spider silk. So, maybe white cotton instead. This requires some exploration.
Now I have a process. Trace the sitter, they confess, I remake their shadow out of something then I give it back to them. Maybe their shadow is some sort of effigy.
And… a genuine thankyou to everyone who has taken time out to read my posts. This blog began as a way to kick start my practice again; a daily post meant that I had to make new work. Years after an M.A, I had lost sight of any ambition or artistic direction but gradually, this blog has morphed into a replacement for a journal, it’s also become a space to work out what to do. For a long time I wondered if my words were just floating in space. It has been so rewarding to be able to engage with other artists; David Riley and Elena Thomas especially. It is difficult to put time aside to write a post everyday, read other posts and comment but it couldn’t be more worth it.
