Blog 41

I am aware that I have not written for a while but there has been a lot going on. This summer I have been to - ing and fro - ing, on and off the island, and alas, the last journey involved the preparations and funeral of a very dear member of our family. Death is a relatively new experience for me and I am very thankful for that, but it feels so, so final.

I had no desire to go into the studio initially when I arrived home and shut the door feeling disillusioned about a number of things but that door is now wide open and as time moves on I have started making again.

I have been drawing into the cut up portions from my slate mono prints but the work feels tight.

 Hand 'un' finished ink mono prints on paper - work in progress

Hand finished ink mono print on paper - detail

Ink tracing from mono print

I have started to break down the components of the drawings looking at dots and squares and now circles. I am back piercing paper.

Circle cut - outs, ink on paper, blank square...

Pierced circle of paper - diameter when flat 8.5cm

Large pierced circle of paper - diameter when flat 49cm

Large pierced circle of paper - diameter when flat 49cm

Large pierced circle of paper - diameter when flat 49cm

The last three images above were hard to photograph and I never claim to be a good photographer. I can visualise the circles like big large dots. They become distorted blobs, or like miniature worlds. They remind me of Monet's Water Lilies 1920 - 1926. I would like to blacken them with thick black pigment.

In my Blog 36 written 13th April this year I spoke about the oscillation between uselessness and usefulness. My work may feel useless at moments and yet this uselessness feels useful in trying to work something out, having value in the process.

I did a lot of writing last week and through the act of writing (by hand, I note), it has helped me to work through some of the things I am trying to find out, understand, or make sense of. I finished with more questions saying to myself "yes, that's what I am trying to work out!". I love the inquisitiveness and enquiry with art.

On 28th August between 2 - 3pm I joined in with the twitter debate #SummerOfCraft. My first live event, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was fun but so fast for a twitter newbie like me! To have a read of the debate, go to http://storify.com/Axisweb/summer-of-craft-live-debate

From the essay that Rebecca Gordon wrote about me last year she highlighted that there are five strands to my practice - process, materiality, sculpture, performance and craft.

How does craft relate to me? I think it boils down mostly to the activity of making. I enjoy and employ labour intensive processes. I choose traditional materials and expanded methods of using and displaying them. I piece holes in paper with a needle but no thread for example. But there is a tension that becomes between my process and the object that I produce. 

Often I discard the work once it is finished, mentally, even if not physically. Because I have a long term desire to de - clutter, the more simpler the process, the tools and the materials, the better it is, the work. 

One of the things that popped up in the #SummerOfCraft debate, although very little, was the subject of digital craft and art and it's got me thinking, how could you create a virtual 'craft' or method of making?

You can film the process of making, and there are electronic tools, and technology to help with making objects such as 3D printers, laser cutters and electronic drawing pads for design, for example, but what about a virtual method of making? All I can think of at the moment is the Wii™and I know very little about that! You could create something that is both useless and useful in turn and produce no physical object at all therefore supporting the de - clutter objective and reducing the amount of 'stuff' in the world! 

A very good article has been written in the September issue of Frieze magazine called Film Studio, Theatricalizing the design process online by Elizabeth Glickfield. Glickfield writes about how more and more designers are filming their making process to share with their audience, wishing to include the history and development of the piece and the large amount of detail that goes into a finished product.

She writes: 

"If alienation from mass production has sparked a return to craft, the characteristics of digital media have also induced what design writer Ellen Lupton calls 'a new crack at materialism, a chance to re - engage with the physicality of our work' ".

Humorously, Glickfield also adds that it removes the mess of 'real' making.

Working with Stephen Hurrel last year, we made two films about the making of my work. The films are quite detailed and specific in showing the making of the work but I was coming from a different viewpoint wanting to share how and why an artist may be compelled to make something. I was and still am questioning what does an artist do, what is my role as an artist in society and does art as an imaginative engagement serve society? 

Take a look at the films by Stephen Hurrel on my website at http://www.emmamoodysmith.com/gallery_530222.html

As I draw and pierce and read and write these are some of the things I am thinking about at the moment and I have more of a sense now of where craft may be considered in my practice.