There’s No Place like Home

Making my own version of the Nutshell Studies has been on my mind since I saw the Forensic exhibition last year at the Welcome Collection. I didn’t want to use premade dolls house furniture so I have been experimenting with making my own. I tried making miniatures with wire but the result, although delicate, was not right for the room I envisaged in my head. I want the room to relate to my ink drawings so making paper furniture is an idea I am working on.

I have now sourced a template for paper furniture on the internet.  Using a charcoal pencil I am able to create chairs and other domestic pieces that look drawn but are 3D. I did try using ink on a brush but lost the form of furniture as the ink seeped into the paper.

Using acetone I have printed mugshot wallpaper for my miniature room. What I like about acetone is you get an uneven image. The print has an aged feel which is perfect for my room.

My printed wallpaper inside the maquette.

So far I am pleased with how the room is looking.

This week I had a tutorial with Robin which has really helped to focus my ideas. I was beginning to feel a bit panicked as the weeks are passing so quickly and I have so many ideas on different directions I could take my work in.  I’ve decided I want to concentrate on the house in which a crime or crimes have been committed. I want to play with the notion of the uncanny – a safe familiar place has become an eerie unnerving place. Something unspeakable has happened in a home.

Bedroom (2016) [ink on paper]

 

Cinema continues to influence me and so for my ink drawings I am taking images of rooms from films. I have taken screen shots of domestic interiors from the film Repulsion and Psycho.  I want to take the viewer on a journey around the house and into rooms and dark spaces in the house.  I want to draw your attention to certain things such as a locked door, a windowsill or a picture on a wall.

Ink pen in sketchbook

Sketchbook drawing, windowsill

 

I suppose you can think of it like the game of Cluedo. You enter each room and look at the clues, it is then for the viewer to decide the meanings of these visual clues. What I am hoping is from these visual clues the viewer feels disturbed – a feeling of the uncanny.

 

 

Frank Auerbach (1958) Self-portrait [charcoal, watercolour on paper]

Occasionally, rarely, something hits you like a bolt of lightning and everything changes in second.

My lovely friend and fellow artist Val has been writing a blog and I’ve been following her updates. She messaged me to say she had written another post,  so I sat down and had a read. And it was there, that image, that lightning strike happened instantly. I looked and couldn’t look away at this self-portrait by Frank Auerbach. Of course I’ve seen his work before. In fact only the other day I was looking through an old sketchbook in which I had collected and scribbled notes about artists who inspired me. Inside there were two pages of his drawings. They are sad, disturbing, unnerving and a reveal into the depths of the soul. Each mark on the paper tells a story of the person depicted. The sketchbook was from my first year at university. He’s always been there but only now have I seen Frank Auerbach.

First year sketchbook – artist research

I don’t know if I can describe what it is about that portrait what has affected me so much but I’ll try. He’s there underneath, inside each of those torn bits of paper. His self-portrait reveals everything about what it is to be human. He is vulnerable, breakable but his eyes tell you he is untouchable and this is a man will never reveal all his secrets.  Visually the portrait is beautiful. Emotionally Auerbach’s drawing is a deep psychological experience that I will never forget.

I still have lots of work to do with this image. I’m not even sure if she will be included in my degree show but I think she needs to be finished.

I’m please with my first attempt at time lapse video. Next time I will set up the camera in the university studio as the lighting is very good there.