Summer Project

After watching the programme on Tourette's ages back I knew I wanted to do something based on the Unconscious !  The brief we got given before leaving for summer was to create an artist book ! Obviously artist books come in all sorts of different shapes, sizes and forms so I had a struggle of thinking what I could do ! The brief was great because it meant that any idea could be applied, however it took me quite a while to come up with something !

I knew I was going to have trouble getting into working over the Summer so I came up with the idea of producing a kind of “diary” This would make me do something everyday and at the same time record what I had been up to over Summer. The idea was to create a daily doodle as well as producing some automatic writing. I would also write a log of what I had been up to on that day to see whether the doodle / writing related to it at all.

Doodles – I began by not thinking about what it was I was going to draw and simply ended up creating random patterns. It was quite difficult not producing similar patterns on some of the days e.g. circles appeared a lot. However I didn’t want to repress doodling these at the same time as they may be significant and be part what’s going on in my unconscious mind ! Originally I wanted to go back and analyse the doodles, however there isn’t really any imagery in them – more patterns and lines which I suppose could be analysed but it’s a lot more difficult ! To begin with I didn’t enjoy producing the doodles so much – I couldn’t really get into them ! However after a while it became a lot easier and it just seemed to flow out of me – I think you can see this progression when you look back at the sketchbook ! I also began to go back and shade in some of the doodles which I think gives them a lot more aesthetic appeal and doesn’t alter anything which I wanted to achieve. I still need to go back and finish all of them for the book to feel complete !

Automatic Writing – This is something I found extremely difficult at first ! To write without thinking about what it is you are going to write is one of the most difficult things to do if you haven’t done it before ! After a while of practicing though it wasn’t too bad ! I was able to just run off words that must of only been in my head for less than a second ! The writing was quite similar to producing the doodles in some ways – the words seemed to flow off each other when writing them down. It’s very strange looking back at the writing. Although some of them are completely bizarre, a lot of them seem to make real sense and are strangely philosophical, with religion seeming to appear quite a bit also which I find very strange ! It’s certainly something I plan to more of !Even though it is difficult to do – the results pay off, it’s very interesting !

Diary Log – This is something I wanted to do alongside the doodles and automatic writing – just to see if they related to one another in any way. Sometimes it relates to the writing – but I can’t really see the relation to the doodles. It is quite a nice thing to look back on however and to see what I had been up to !

I know the brief was to make an artist book and I simply filled a sketchbook but I feel that it’s very relevant to my idea and what I was trying to get from it ! At first I was worried about constructing some sort of crazy sculptural thing, however I think this would’ve been silly with what it is I wanted to explore ! Some pictures of the “unconscious diary” are below – doodles on the right, automatic writing on the left in the centre and then the diary log is the writing around the automatic writing !

Change of Direction

A couple of months back I watched a programme about tourette’s. It fascinated me ! The fact that the tics (the movements and sounds tourette’s sufferers make) are involuntary and uncontrollable led me on to thinking about  whether these actions are some sort of release from the unconscious mind. Firstly because the tics are involuntary, it means they occur without a conscious choice so surely the aesthetics of the tic itself has some sort of relation to the otherwise hidden thoughts and repressions normally kept within our unconscious minds ? Obviously there are some tics which occur - for instance when a sufferer thinks a certain thought about someone but can’t hold it in. This isn’t really a release from the unconscious mind as the sufferer was consciously thinking this thought and just couldn’t hold the thought in to him or herself. Or were they consciously thinking this thought before it was released in a tic ? I’m unsure as to whether tourette’s sufferers have a period between thinking a certain thought before is released in a tic ? It’s a really interesting area and I’d love to do a bit more research into it ! However it’s the exposure of the unconscious mind which I’m particularly interested in and just watching this one programme really inspired me to look into other ways of how the unconscious mind can be exposed. I plan to look more into this through researching more into tourette’s syndrome, dreams and dream analysis, automatic drawing, Freudian theories and explanations and other psychoanalysts' who are particularly interested in the unconscious. This is just a starting point and I have no idea were I will end up however I’m really inspired by this subject and I hope to produce some interesting pieces of art through using it as a source for creativity ! A big change from looking at Found Objects I know however I think I needed a change of direction and hopefully this will give some good results !

Tara Donovan

Wish I came across this woman last semester ! Links so well with my yellow pages sculptures ! Nice to see another artist making use out of ordinary everyday objects !

Tara Donovan - From Paper Cups To Genius

Looking back at the project

 

Throughout this project I have been able to extend on the many processes learnt in semester one whilst also learning about completely new ones such as etching, wood block printing and woodwork. I also gained a significant amount of experience through organising “Visualyse” with Sylvia from time based art and taking part in the group exhibition in the cantina. Throughout this semester I feel I have really built as an artist not just in my work but also through engaging with other artists and experiencing new things which I have never experienced before !

Highlights from Retchy v Smash VJ set at Visualyse

Visualyse Gig from RetchyvSmash on Vimeo.

Multi-Layered Etching / Woodcut Prints

I’ve been experimenting quite a bit with these prints now and have quite a variety of outcomes as a result of this ! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the most recent prints I produced and now I’m back home in Liverpool so I’ll just have to talk about the ones I have took pictures of ! These are rubbish pictures as well by the way….sorry !

 

 

This was one of the first  multi-layered prints I produced. I have spoke about it previously however I wanted to make a post which included most / all of my prints so I could look and compare them with each other ! With this print I first had the woodcut print which had been printed onto some “Mulberry” tissue paper. This was then used to chine-collé onto the tan coloured paper at the same time as the Etching print was made. I really like the subtlety of the etching over the wood-cut however I think it may be too subtle. Also the jump between the woodcut print / paper is quite major and I think needs something to break that stark contrast up a bit. (both wood blocks used to print onto tissue paper)

 

This was produced in exactly the same way as the previous print, just using a different coloured ink for the etching. I like the colours in this one but there’s still quite a large contrast between the woodcut print and the paper. Also in the previous print you could clearly see the etching print over the top of the woodcut but in this print the colours are too similar so it just blends in. (single woodcut print on the tissue paper)

 

  This was the first multi-layered print I produced using the larger soft ground etching plate. It was produced in the same way as the others. I decided to mix a light grey as last time I liked the way the etching print showed over the woodcut however I wasn’t too sure on the blue-ish tone.  This was really a test print made on some small magnani paper to see how the print would work out. I do like it, however I think the ink is too strong over the woodcut. For this reason I decided to experiment using extender in the etching inks. (single woodcut print onto tissue paper)

 

In this print I used extender in the etching ink – approximately a ratio of 70:30 (70 ink). It has made a bit of a difference but not as much as I would have liked. Also I got the positioning messed up. I think it is when I was placing the paper over the top of the etching plate / woodcut print – the tissue paper must have moved. I’m really pleased with the results of the soft ground etching plate. The patterns and textures the found materials have made work really well with the ones in the woodcut print. (2 woodcut prints onto tissue paper using same woodblock but opposite way around)

 

 

I have had a lot of trouble with getting prints straight but this one caused me to do something about it ! I put a bit more extender in the ink before making this print. It seemed to have an affect although I think the ink generally looks lighter because of the coloured paper it is on ! After this print I then made a template on some newsprint as a guide of were to position the paper. I also decided to add more extender to the ink as although I do like this one there is still too much happening in the centre I think. (2 woodcut prints onto tissue paper using two separate wood blocks)

 

 This was one of my more successful prints. I managed to get the positioning pretty sorted and also the transparency of the ink I was pretty happy with ! (50:50 ratio). To overcome the big jump from the woodcut to the paper I added another layer of tissue paper in between the one with the woodcut on and the paper – giving the prints a “halo” which really seemed to work and softened the harshness of the contrast really well ! I like how the print from the etching plate has a different effect on the paper / tissue paper/ woodcut – making the overall print a lot more interesting than previously. (single woodcut print on tissue paper)

 

  I decided to use the two previous etching prints I had produced to overprint onto as I thought this may produce some interesting effects and I had a lot of ink left over on that day after producing the other prints ! The ink still has a 50:50 ratio of ink to extender in which worked well when printing over the other etching as it didn’t appear to strong over it but still showed over the other prints / tissue paper. I like how with this print you can’t really notice the grey ink until you get up close. It relates back to the idea of taking a second look at an object – not just dismissing it for what it is. Looking at an object in more detail and seeing the hidden beauty ! I decided to keep with using another layer of tissue paper as well as it really helps bring the print together. With this print I positioned the tissue paper with the photo mount on straight onto the damp paper and then placed the etching plate over the top. I then flipped the paper / plate over. This was so I could match the plate up with the print accurately. This method seemed to work well – and allowed me to position both the tissue paper / woodcut print and etching plate exactly were I wanted to. I was a bit worried at first – especially with flipping the paper / plate over as I thought the plate may slip however it seemed to work OK ! The woodcut print is a lot darker than the previous ones however it was a print I produced early on in the project with a different coloured ink which I decided to use as I. I think this darker colour works well with the colours in this prints – especially with the orangey colour. (2 woodcut prints on tissue paper using same woodblock opposite way around.)

 

This print was produced in the same way as the previous one. You can’t really see the grey ink over the black as much as over the orangey rusty  colour in the previous print, however I think the grey still brings the whole print together although it’s not so strong.

 

 I wanted to try out overprinting onto a print produced from the previous etching plate I produced (the plate produced using hard ground and then different materials and turps used to remove it). I really like how this has turned out but I can’t work out whether I like the fact that the prints aren’t the same size as each other or not. I think the colours work really nice in this print. The soft subtle print from the hard ground plate doesn’t over power the grey print from the large sort ground plate – it just sits nicely over the top. I decided not to use another piece of tissue paper between the woodcut print and the paper however I think this could have worked quite nicely.

I’m pretty pleased with this collection of prints and I think from experimenting with different layers / extender / processes I have really learnt a lot. It’s a shame that there’s not really more time to produce any more prints in this semester, however I know I can use the same techniques and processes in year 3 so it doesn’t bother me too much. There are some more prints which I produced – including just producing the woodcut print straight onto the paper instead of tissue paper and also some experimentation with other colours. When I get back up to Dundee I will get some pictures so I can upload them onto here / explain how they were made etc. Overall I am very pleased with the outcomes and although there may not be a perfect final print I  am happy to have played around with different ideas and processes to produce the different results I have achieved.

Crazy !

I have a lot of stuff to post about....I have been majorly majorly busy the past two weeks with Visualyse and work for my course - this week being the most mad ! I shall make some posts over the Easter holidays I suspect ! Visualyse is tomorrow ! Ahhhhhhh ! That came round crazily fast - scary stuff !