This unit has been both really difficult and very rewarding. Following my tutor’s advice to experiment, I went in a few directions I don’t think I could have predicted.
As I progressed through, I had formed notions of what I wanted to do with the final assignment.
- Following from my exploration in Pastels 2, I was hoping I could use a homemade pastel in some aspect of the work.
- Collaging paper, and drawing overtop, as I did in Exercise 2.4 was really interesting to me. Although not identical, I’m thinking of layering from Andy Warhol, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s photo transfers.
- I don’t know where I’ve seen this, but I got it into my mind to collage paper and use different materials on each paper layer. ie, use ink or charcoal line drawing on the base paper, but then layer on strips of pastel paper and render the subject in pastels in those spaces.
Based on feedback from assignment 1, some other ideas came up as I was thinking about assignment 2.
- My tutor suggested using waste paper. I’ve had this big roll of brown paper in my closet for a few months now. It was used as packing in a package I received, but it was all attached and I could roll it back up. Its all crinkly and has a neat texture. I won’t use the whole thing, but it is at least six meters long. I need to take care with it, as each handspan of width is perforated and will tear easily.
- I kept getting pulled to the subject of oil lamps. My husband has a collection of antique oil lamps. Some he purchased himself, and some that he inherited from his grandmother’s estate. They’re all throughout the house.
Personal observations from this unit:
- I work best with spontaneity. Every time I spent huge amounts of time on the planning, my entire interest in the piece collapsed and fell away. I need to work quickly and not overthink what I’m doing.
Target idea:
- The paper I am thinking about is perfect for a long composition. I’m thinking my living room mantel. I think I’m going to arrange a number of items on the mantel, and then draw around the mantel from three sides.
Planning
- I moved everything off the mantel except for the oil lamps which I left as they were.
- Between them I placed objects that have meaning to me in one form or another:
- A tarnished silver sherry glass that reminds me of all the silver my parents have. I like the form. The blue/black of the silver oxide is oddly very appealing to me. I bought it in my early twenties, and have brought it (and the rest of the set of 6) with me ever since.
- The cat and demon figurines I used in earlier exercises this unit
- A ceramic urn that my mother gave me as a present. It always struck me as a very strange present, as it is a funerary urn. It is raku fired, creating a strange surface texture, and a flare of red colour against a blue black glaze body.
- A green vase that I purchased shortly after my maternal grandmother’s passing. I believe the urn my mother gave me is created by the same potter that made this vase — funerary urns is his side gig. In it I placed a set of barbecue skewers that my sister gave me. They have intricately carved wooden handles and I can’t ever imagine putting them near heat.
- One of my husband’s magnifying glasses.
- A half mask that I made in my early twenties, using my own face as a mold.
- I’ve tried to create some interesting variations in colour and height.
- I might use the ultramarine pastel that I made, but on initial view of the objects the browns aren’t suited to these objects.
- My neighbors probably thought me mad, as from the street you’d be able to see me swapping objects on the mantel for an hour.
Testing Materials
Trying out acrylic gesso, and pastels on the brown paper. The paper is slick, and the pastels don’t stick to it. They do better over the gesso, but I the paper is thin and I can’t paint the whole thing.
Ink works well on the paper itself, but (later image) I dislike how it looks on the gesso.
There are very bright light sconces in the living room. The gesso seems a good fit for those.
Trying out markers on this paper. A variety of types.
Testing out my homemade pastels from Materiality: Pastels 2 on UART 400 sanded paper. What an interesting material! Top left and top right light brown are the same dirt pigment from my garden, but the right hand one is the second attempt with a better ratio in the Gum Tragacanth.
Visually the garden pigment is very close to the brown of the paper. I’m very happy that I have found a use for it in my piece.
Not sure how easy it is to see, but it is glaring to my eyes. The ink bleeds on the gesso, and makes the lines look thorny. nope nope nope, this is not how I shall work here.
Various Preparatory Drawings
- Decisions made:
- The lamps at either end of the mantel are extremely bright when on. I’m going to draw them only in how they occlude their bases.
- Every object/panel is going to have at least one pastel swatch on sanded paper. I’ve never used this type of paper. Should be interesting. Reminds me of sandpaper in my dad’s workshop.
- I like the idea of rolling/unrolling as the form of viewing for this piece.
- I’m not going to draw the end on perspectives. When I was attempting to plan that out I couldn’t figure out how to connect the end-drawings to the main one. They felt disjointed and unrelated.
- The underlying drawing will be in ink and marker
- Observations
- This packing paper is fragile. I need to be very careful in how I work, or I will tear it.
- I really like the crinkled feel, and the sound. I don’t know how to work this texture into any of the drawings, but I don’t think I need to. I think it is just part of sensory experience.
Results
“Panels” 1-6 in order
The black ink on the front of the mantel in panel 1 was a mistake. One that I couldn’t take back, so I just left.
Nor did I like how I did the cast shadows in that panel, so just stopped. I couldn’t think of a better way.
To the left and right, areas I like in comparison to others.
In Reflection
I’m not happy with this piece on its own. I messed up a few times and since I was using ink, the effect was permanent. I left it as it was. A number of times I nearly threw it away and changed tactics — doing a large scale interior drawing of my studio with this partially complete piece on my desk, for instance.
But I managed to talk myself back to somewhere more measured by reminding myself that this is about the process. I very often tell my team, at work, that you learn the most from (perceived) failures. I’ve learned a lot from this piece.
I love the tactility of the final piece. The sounds as it rolls and unrolls.
Further reflections, guided by the syllabus:
The use of colour in drawing
I had initially considered only using colour in the pastel swatches. However, as I progressed, I decided the coloured markers were needed to really bring the forms. When I had the markers more sparingly used, the subjects didn’t really show well against the brown paper. Since many of the objects are strongly coloured, it made sense to apply the marker more liberally.
Appropriateness of medium
The medium selected was intentionally not the “right” one. I decided to use the brown paper, and then fit what I was doing to it. Also the paper is very short, which limited my ability to lean into the details with the mediums I used.
There is an interesting narrative echo though. This paper was packing paper which came with the box I store my pastels in. All the items on the mantel are gifts from others. In a very tenuous way, I’m packaging up the gifts, safely, for transport.
The paper has a weird slickness — I wonder if it is treated? One of my fineliner pens gave up and died on this paper. The rest struggled to leave marks, and I had to be very patient.
Composition and context
I don’t know how to answer the context here. It doesn’t feel unique or uniquely inspired, but I don’t have a specific I can point to other than what i’ve already pointed out above.
Unrolled and layed flat, the composition is terrible. A line of tombstones, equally spaced. Given the height of the paper, and materials used, I couldn’t render very well. Which, perhaps is fine?
Mark-making and contrasts of line and tone
I’m doing all sorts of things here. I like the pastel work on the green vase, and the hatching on the small black figurine. I love how I did the small black figurine,actually. If I wasn’t working with so much transparent glass, I’d have loved to do significantly more of that.
The length of the object made it hard to keep horizontal lines consistent. I decided to lean into that and let that happen.
Size of work
This is a very long work, for myself, at about 1.5 meters. But it is also a small work, now, in that it is quite narrow. I’ve become used to working with much larger sizes of paper and this narrow ribbon felt quite constrained. Perhaps a function of the materials I was using, and the very vertical nature of the subjects.
On sketches and material tests
The prep work around materials was hugely informative. Understanding what the paper could take, and what would show well, helped me make decisions as I worked on the piece.
I need to pay more attention, in my sketches, to the actual dimensions. My drawings show the pieces as much closer together, which makes a more pleasing composition. On the actual mantel, they were well spaced.
Also, I need to be more mindful of my chosen support when I’m making those prep drawings. I likely would have organized my subjects differently if I’d appreciated the narrowness of the page.
How the work of others can offer guidance
I don’t know how to answer this. If I’d had more opportunity to visit the galleries, and get up close and in person with other’s works, it may have been hugely beneficial. But operating over the internet is a very poor substitute.
Accurate and expressive depiction of form
I don’t know if I have the vocabulary here. Accuracy was acceptable. All the pieces are strongly recognizable, though the two vase/urns are less so due to the hatched colouring. The pastel swatches are beneficial for recognition.
Part of the accuracy comes from me walking around and not being in a fixed place as I drew this. Stepping along the mantel, as I figuratively rolled the paper past (see video, above). I don’t recommend this sort of work with such a fragile support. When frustrating kicked in, I retreated to photographs and my drawing desk.
Experimentation with idea, material and method
I think I’ve babbled on this one extensively. This unit, and this piece, have been all about experimentation. Creating my own pastels, trying out collage and abstract representations. Diving into pastel drawing, and trying out different types of papers. Pushing my ability with perspective. Drawing with brushes. Its all been experimentation.
Although I’m very unhappy with this as a composition, I’m hugely happy with it for the learning I gained by experimenting in all these ways.
I’m thinking in the next unit I’ll step back a bit, though, and go a bit more traditional. I need a breather from this unit.
Post Assignment Follow Up
During discussion with my tutor, there were a couple areas to follow up on.
- Address some of the drawing / redraw some components
- Consider how this piece would be presented. Consider where the Art is in this work.
I’ve revisited some of my writing on these topics from my original reflection post, and then extended it further following my final Part 5 discussion with my tutor.
In the session with my tutor regarding this assignment I kept running into a gap in my vocabulary. This is both encouraging, and frustrating. Its in the areas that I don’t understand, or don’t have the words, that I find myself growing the most as it forces me to think through following our discussions to understand what it is I’m being asked, and what response I should give. But frustrating, as it limits my ability to engage directly in the calls, there is time pressure during those sessions and I find my lack of vocabulary a waste of valuable time.
I will admit, here, that I continue struggle with this vocabulary and way of thinking. I may not be able to express myself well here.
Where in the making does the Art occur?
As I submitted I had considered the roll of paper, and the drawings upon it, the art in question. I had filmed it, as I did, as I wanted to convey in some sense my inspiration of walking in front of my living room mantle. Not that I had articulated that well in my post on the assignment.
Perhaps it is that the rolled piece of paper is only a component of the Art, and the other component (and maybe the more important?) is the video of the unrolling.
As I revisited my posts, during preparation for Assessment, I was listening to podcasts (as I always do). In particular, the Modern Arts Podcast, episode 548 1. During the second part of the podcast, the host interviews Stephanie Weissberg who discusses some “audience participation” components of a show they were holding. From what I understood of the conversation, they talked about how the art pieces themselves were not complete until the interactions occured as the purpose was the experience of interacting not just the passive viewing.
For me this resonated very strongly as it related to this assignment. The tactility of the paper, the sound of it crinkling, was part of work. But how could I allow for that in a show? The paper is fragile, and would come apart.
And perhaps that is fine? Not all pieces of work last, and the video can be an archive of it. Though I can’t claim the social commentary, perhaps like Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece2 it needs to be accepted that only those who participated during a very narrow window of time can truly experience the work. The rest is just archive and recollection.
It needs to be said that this crumbling was not part of my initial intent. It arises from my choice of materials, and my interest in the interaction that developed through the making. It should also be noted that this piece will not last — it is made of thin, fragile packing paper. That paper will decompose, it is not archival. Even without physical manipulation, it has a finite lifetime and this appeals to me strongly. The entropy in the work is important even if I can’t quite articulate why, yet.
On the Technical
My tutor and I discussed going back and revisiting parts of the assignment. I made a few technical errors that bother me, and I want to correct those.
However, my reliance on outline has inadvertently flattened many parts of the image. I can see where this comes from — where I studied comic book drawing for a bit. I recently attended a Picasso exhibit, and it was interesting to see him applying heavy prussian blue outlines in some paintings. But even there, I think, the purpose or intent may be exactly that flattening? Those paintings were clearly leading towards cubism, even if not yet there.
When I didn’t rely on line, and instead just let a brush define the form of the lamps, the result was extremely effective.
I need to be more intentional in how I co-mingled flatness and volume, and choose how I want each time created. Should the glass items be rendered flat? Should they show volume? Is the space between items the right spacing? Are there ways of ‘encouraging’ or leading the unrolling of the paper via the distribution of the items on the mantle? Choose how I want to show the mantle itself. I also discussed, with my tutor, my dissatisfaction with how I had drawn the urns.
However, I did not end up reworking the piece. Much to the disappointment of my tutor, and myself. The guiding reason was actually a fairly ironic fear: I remain quite worried that I’d damage the areas I like, and tear the fragile paper, as I tried to correct the faults. This isn’t a good reason, and one I’m going to need to sit with. I need to learn to not be so precious with an work that I have decided is “complete” even if later I adjust my thinking of its completeness.
1 No. 548: Matisse’s Red Studio, Assembly Required (2022) At: https://manpodcast.com/portfolio/no-548-matisses-red-studio-assembly-required/ (Accessed 15/05/2022).
2 Ono, Y. (1964) Cut Piece. [Performance at Yamaichi Concert Hall, Kyoto, Japan]