Just beginning to realise how dissapointed I was with the pinhole camera failure. How much is bouncing back from these hiccups a part of having resilience as an artist? I recently read an interesting book. Hare brain, Tortoise Mind by Guy Claxton where, amongst other things he spoke about resilient learners, those that carried on dispite setbacks. I rekon that is what I shall be doing now. It is nice to write something without footnotes! We have started a series of seminars to support our essay writing. the seminars are great but the footnoting is not!
Another version of the one pinhole that worked.
The final stretch of the course is upon us and I have a sneaky feeling time is going to speed up from now until August and the final show. I am still wrapped up in experimental mode and resisting the idea of having to make decisions on the form of the final show.
I collected the pinhole cameras and dissapointingly only one (the one placed in a clearing in the woods) showed any image. They had been left for a month and I think the light levels were too low and alot got covered with snow, also the pin hole was maybe too small for the light levels. I was so looking forward to the results and travelled through icey conditions to fetch them. I will contine trying, it is part of the process afterall.
I did have one insight from the failed work. I realised the act of weathering on the film paper interested me as much as the image. I like the notion of the place having a part in the art. I like Carolyn Shepherd’s recent blog entry on a similar subject; the historical resonance of found materials.
The crit went well, and I got some thoughtful feedback on the work. It feels like a real privilege to have a group of people spend focused time with your work. They seemed to understand it. In our crit format the artist stays pretty much silent, which means you get a good idea of what your art work is saying.
Recently, I have left 5 pinhole can cameras secreted in the woods. I will collect them 4th January (the day before I go back to Falmouth), they will have had a month to capture what they have seen. I feel so impatient to see what will be on the paper. For me this is an essential ingredient of the art, the sense of wonder and surprise.
Just made a series of ink drawings responding to place for my college crit. We have a project space to show work in progress or present finished work as an exhibition. I have chosen to show work in process. All the work to do with the wood is part of the same piece, it is evolving and in process. Managed to get tennis elbow from too much brush painting! I hope the crit is useful on Tuesday. It will be useful for me to see the work up together as it is supposed to be seen that way and my studio space isn’t big enough.
This week has been about exploring presence and absence through drawing! I’ve been continuing with the 52 ink drawings in the woods, and am now re-making them in the studio. Re making the marks and adding colours from memory and intuition. This will be for a crit next week where I will hopefully get constructive feedback. (Pictures later as I’m on my daughters speedy new computer.)
I heard this on the channel 4 programme “Where is modern Art Now?” and thought it was a good quote
“Navigating the unknown is what artists do best.”
