The studio is probably the best studio I have ever worked in. It is large, spacious, with one wall of windows, which lets in a wonderful amount of light. It is tidy yet grubby, and full of interesting furniture and paraphernalia for making arts and crafts. But I can move around it freely, able to work independently as I wish. It is also very quiet with the occasional sound of music coming from the next door music room. I've never settled in other studios before. Am I ready for this now, or were the other studios just not right for me?
The main objectives for being in a studio space is the act of making work again, and hopefully some finished pieces. I would like to sell some work but as importantly, I want to mix with other people and be part of a creative environment again.
It is very encouraging for me to see that the type of exhibitions held at this arts centre not only include selling shows, but also they present installations, video art, films and photography. I have a constant internal battle between thinking I should make only work to sell verses wanting to make work that isn't necessarily sellable but still worthy and valuable in the non pound (£) sense. I am developing a great rapport with the arts officer, which will give me an insight into her job role and the running of an arts centre and also the organisation of exhibition programmes and how artists and curators are selected.
There is this idea between perfecting what you know how to make and pushing it further, verses trying out new techniques, materials and processes. I am still embossing (pressing into paper with an inkless pen) and pinning (punching holes into paper with a pin). Two slightly different methods yet somehow connected. It is a methodical process, quite tense yet random, physical, making my right arm ache and my fingers go numb. It is what I know and what I've been 'obsessed' by, particularly the pinning.
With the pinning, there is the sense that I am trying to write something down, a kind of pictorial calligraphic text. With the embossing, I am playing with the paper more as a material, altering it's structural state.
I have been reading Writings 1968 - 2008 by artist Giuseppe Penone. He writes as he makes, trying to understand his art making in context with his practice. His artwork and texts marry together. As I am somebody who wants to keep writing, I am trying to find a way to join my writing with my art making. I have started a small sketchbook which sits next to me whilst I am making and I write notes and draw sketches as I work. This methodology is going quite well at the moment, with a much more cohesive flow to my thoughts, texts and processes, rather than the more random 'post-its' that I usually leave lying around elsewhere.
Giuseppe Penone works in the landscape located where he lives. He talks very much about the materiality of his sculptures, particularly wood, and how you must really get to know your material in order to understand it and what you are doing. I can feel myself trying to understand the paper I am working with much more.
In 2009 I presented my first canvas, having avoided the aspect of traditional painting throughout most of my art education. Using a square canvas I drew hundreds of black ink dots onto a graphite ground. I have briefly been looking at Lucio Fontana and his canvas slashes and thinking about the idea of pinning into canvas. I have also been looking at artist Vija Celmins who creates images of skies at night, endless white stars on a black background. She paints onto paper before working into the ground with charcoal or graphite adding or taking away the material layers.
I'm curious about painting but it seems a massive area to consider. I work in black or white only but am learning that black is made up of other colours mixed together. Perhaps I can have some 'play' time and experiment with mixing paint to make my own blacks as a beginning way to explore colour and consider a more painterly approach to my work. It may be a five minute wonder?
I'm enjoying myself, quite knackered. Frustrated, anxious, excited, calm, not calm, all the feelings of a enquiring artist. I've made a good start, being back in the studio.
Snapshot from my phone. Embossing paper - detail.
Snapshot from my phone. Pinning paper - detail
I like the idea of altering the structure of the material. Sculpture on a two dimensional plane. There is the sense of a skin. I want to charcoal the paper which will give a velvety texture. Graphite will give a metallic look. What would happen if I use paint, as a ground, or a finished surface? Where does paint fit into this?
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