Blog 43

I have been doing a lot of piercing of paper this last month and there is a body of work forming consisting of circles, rectangles and folds.

Last Saturday I had a day blackening the papers with black pigment. It was extremely messy work creating black dust everywhere. I was not popular! The next day we both suggested it might be a good idea if I invest in a mobile Gazebo to do my blackening process where I can hose down the space and decontaminate the area before coming in!

Essential facial wear for dusty environments

Tools for the job

Detail of back side of pierced paper

Detail of front side of pierced paper

I value my relationship very much and have realised for sure, I must find alternative solutions to this problematic process. I also don't really know how safe it is, following all the health and safety protocol that is recommended for dusty environments.

In 2009, my final year of studying at college, I abandoned my big mass of materials and began creating with just paper and a pen. It was a revelation and freedom from the expectations and the practical requirements and limitations of medium specificity. I think I need a new revelation.

* To all those artists out there, can you recommend an alternative to pigment - a material, glaze, or medium that gives a powdery texture and finish without the dust? I have been using Sennelier Pure Dry Pigment in Ivory Black.

At the moment this week I have been photographing my blackened artwork. As a one - man band, and like many artists, we have to be skilled at so many things, not only making skills, but also skills in sales and marketing, accounts, writing, IT, and photography to name a few...  Photography isn't my worst skill but something I can find difficult to do. Because my artworks are invariably completely black or white, they are very difficult to photograph, even the professionals have told me that. I need good photographs for my portfolio and when applying for exhibitions and work. So I have been in and out the house, in different rooms and spaces, trying to find the best light in very variable weather conditions! It has not been easy.

* To all those photographers out there, can you offer me advice on how to take photographs of all black and all white artworks please?

+ I use a Canon 450D camera and we do have a separate light meter that I can use. Whilst I can get a reading from this tool, what does the number it shows mean please? For example, it tells me the light is 10, urhh, 10 what? And how can I use this information successfully ha ha!? 

This leads me on nicely to discuss technology. One of my key tasks this year is to improve my IT and social media skills and I am pleased with my progress so far. There is still more to do and I will keep at it. I am enjoying this work.

IT and the internet are key to my access to the world at large as I live in a remote area. It is all the way of the world in our increasingly global environment. I remember a few years back a reporter on the television living for a week without going out the house as an experiment, and using the internet for all their habitual functions e.g. communication, internet shopping, services etc. How much technology do I use and how much more technology could I use? How much technology do I want to use? What is the real definition of technology? There has been a lovely article on Twitter pop up saying "Let's be honest about what technology is. From welding to icing cakes, it's time to give men and women credit". You can have a read here:
 www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/oct/07/computers-technology-sewing-sexist-stitch-up

I think at the moment, I'm thinking more about computer technology, but one part of the text that stood out for me was about the way cloth is fitted together for our clothing. This makes me think of the shapes I am creating with my paper and the white shirt I unpicked a few months back (Blog 39, June 2013) and how shapes (and therefore 'things'?) can be pieced together.

I have been learning about 'Digital Public Spaces' and 'Smart Citizens', global networks online, although I feel it is a bit over my head! There is also the organisation called 'SyncTank' who provide support to cultural organisations in Scotland helping them to develop a more progressive relationship with technology and technologists. There are some great projects going on between art and technology. You can take a look here: www.welcometosync.com

Yesterday I discovered the Tate on-line study that took place in 2012 regarding the transformation of artist books to digital applications. The future of books huh? and artist books too?
www.tate.org.uk/about/projects/transforming-artist-books

There is a lot of digital technology out there to be had.

Living remotely, I need to find new and innovative ways to make and disseminate my work. Recently a fellow artist suggested showing my work in exhibitions online.

* Can anyone recommend reputable online exhibition platforms that I could have a look at please? 

I end by reverting back to the old fashioned method of making. I still want to make using my hands. How can I improve on the very dirty application of black pigment onto paper, and what other processes could I use that move me on from piercing paper with a needle?

Blog 42

As I go about my daily existence I will often think up ideas for making and start to create 'to - do' lists of possibilities. I am a big fan of the Post-it notes! Then when I go in the studio I will pick out which ideas I think have potential or I just want to try out and see...

A post-it brainstorm of ideas.

This summer 2013 at the Vous Etes Ici Gallery in Amsterdam I presented the beginnings of a series of pigment on pierced paper works that explore the notions of folding, tearing and dividing. I think this is perhaps influenced by my book making course that I did back in March earlier this year?

Presented in Amsterdam Summer 2013

Pigment on Pierced Paper 

From left to right: 23 x 28 x 4cm and 28 x 38 x 4cm

Presented in Amsterdam Summer 2013

Pigment on Pierced Paper

38 x 56cm

Presented in Amsterdam Summer 2013

Pigment on Pierced Paper

38 x 56cm

As I experiment by making I might doodle some quick thoughts to visualise how something might look. 

And then work up some small maquettes to visualise from the 2 dimensional to the 3 dimensional.

And then I will start making some potentially 'finished', 'exhibitable' artworks...

Pierced Paper

Diameter when flat 49cm 

Pierced Paper

Diameter when flat 49cm

Pierced Paper

Diameter when flat 49cm

Pierced Paper

Diameter when flat 49cm

Pierced Paper

Diameter when flat 49cm

My collection of circles are growing and I would like to blacken them with thick black pigment. 

Hmm, now how to present them??

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.

Blog 40

Last time I wrote I was just about to embark on a trip to Amsterdam to help set up a show that I am in with the artists' group Plastic Propaganda. We had a few hectic days installing the work and all went well. I love setting up for show and I will put a link to the gallery's website at the bottom of this blog.

Coming home, two main things came out of this experience for me. Firstly, the cost, time and effort it takes to exhibit in an international exhibition, and secondly, the vast difference between Amsterdam and where I live now.

In terms of professional ambition I have always wanted to be an international artist, part of a global network of creatives. This, my premier showing outside the UK has proven expensive on my budget and I need to find ways to manage this whilst remaining true to my artistic intention and identity. This is tricky, and I need to think more carefully about what I make, how it can be transported and can it be installed without me? Can I find funds to make this happen, how do I distribute my money and what are the most important bits from the development of the artwork to it's exhibition and display? This I'm sure is achievable and I may need to think differently at certain points in the creation of new artworks. I employ the word 'may' because I mustn't put up barriers when in the flurry of creativity, although many artists as part of their practice set up rules or boundaries deliberately as part of their creative process.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city, vibrant and colourful. I walked everywhere whilst I was there and got lost in the process, still not finding all that I had intended to go to but happening upon other places in the interim. Everywhere there were bikes and cyclists, very innovative in the designs and use of their vehicles. You can purchase anything you want here. They have dedicated chocolate shops, cheese shops, sex shops, pancake bars, flower markets, I could go on...

The island I live on in Scotland is remote, but not the most remote. I have my silent place where I go to have quiet, just me, the loch, the mountains, the occasional sheep and birds. We have one street in our village which provides me with most of the essentials that I need. There is a community around me and I sometimes go further afield, even off the island, and that is when it gets expensive...

I regularly talk about de-cluttering in my life. It is a life style objective. We won't live on this island forever and when we move home next I surely cannot take all my art miscellany with me, not this time. I have started to reconsider old artworks, retrieving forgotten drawings, and liking the idea of making them into something new - the next stage in their development I guess. It is all relevant.

I have read about an artist who has set them self the target of writing each one of their blogs to a maximum of 50 words only. I like the idea of re-cycling and the concept of 'make do and mend' and embracing what you have got. Can I produce artworks that are aesthetic and worthy (whatever that word means) from this stand point?

I have some slate monoprints that I made back in 2008/9 and I have cut into them, dividing them up into portions. I am back into thinking about travelling, displacement, maps, territories etc. I would like to draw into them and change their appearance. Potentially I could have up to sixty drawings, a series, or one big fragmented piece?

Various including divided slate monoprints

You see on the right hand side of the photo above there are some fragments of a map, a series of line drawings I started on postcards, portions of places I had visited when I was travelling the UK back in 2010.

Photo still from film by Stephen Hurrel

You can just see a hint of these postcard maps on the wall behind the red chair when I was piercing my roll of paper in 2012.

Photo still from film by Stephen Hurrel

 And notice the view of the world from space in the background.

Photo still from film by Stephen Hurrel

And behind me in this image are some large line drawings of whole journeys we took in the 18 months we were travelling around the UK and Europe. 

Dress pattern paper yarn. Work in progress.

Whilst pondering I have done a little more yarn making with the dress pattern paper that has been in my storage for at least eight years. If you are able to look at the image closely, I particularly like the black markings that appear intermittently along the line of the thread. What can I eventually do with this? Present it as a ball of yarn? Or an installation of thread unravelled in a space...? N.B. I have tried knitting with it and it was horrendous with no give or elasticity, and this process seemed to complicate the simplicity of the thread, that being the 'star', the main focal point...

Three dimensional divided slate monoprints

With some of the portioned slate print cut ups I have been along the three dimensional route, influenced by my book making courses. I can visualise these as sculptures in their own right. They need drawing into, more work on them. I can also see them as large pieces, scaled up to walk around, imagine that.

The other thing that has been highlighted recently is how isolating living on an island can be. This is both a blessing and a curse. On a professional level I need to be in touch with my audience and the global creative community and I am working hard to increase my social media skills. I have spent quite a lot of time recently on the computer doing some online internet training, setting up a twitter account and working to improve my Linkedin profile. Do take a look and join me if you would like to. 

I'm aware I haven't mentioned piercing paper in any way this time which is my identity and what I am known for particularly at the moment. The process of putting a needle through paper hundreds of times still sits there as part of my practice. My needle is poised you could say. 

And the knitting with fishing wire? A piece is hanging suspended in front of my studio window, glistening, then vanishing in the changing light.

Here are some links to the various things I have talked about in this blog:

'The Critical Image' An Exhibition of Contemporary British Art by the group Plastic Propaganda

26 June - 27 July 2013:

http://www.vousetesici.nl/

The artists' group Plastic Propaganda which I am a member of:

http://www.plasticpropaganda.co.uk/index.html

My twitter page:

https://twitter.com/emmamoodysmith

My LinkedIn Profile:

uk.linkedin.com/in/emmamoodysmith

Blog 39

I have been using fishing wire to hang some of my paper works and it occurred to me what would this material be like to knit and crochet with? So I have been slowly knitting with fishing wire as a tester to see it's potential. And what a wonderful, if slightly tricky, new material / object it becomes. I like the play on light, in fact a very important component to the piece, and it's sculptural tendencies. It has an invisibility, and with the right factors can play tricks with your eyes. I like the act of knitting, something I can pick up and put down. It's a flexible making process, at least at this scale...

I've been thinking, wouldn't it be a great to link up with an artist who works with light or sound and see what creations we could produce?

I'm trying to work out what is the connection to the knitting compared to other works that I make - is this a red herring or a creative side track to something else? But I can see connections between the fishing wire knitting and my mud drawings, pen and ink works and bubble paintings of the past.

Mud Drawing

Pen and Ink Drawing - detail

Bubble Painting

I want to continue making my paper yarn out of dress - making pattern paper, collecting the colours of the paper together ready to cut into strips. I found a complete paper kit for a dressing gown and cut it out as a template liking the shapes that it formed and the markings (directions) on the paper.

It then got me thinking and I decided to deconstruct a man's white shirt which I purchased at our local charity shop. It's about the shapes that the unpicking of the shirt forms and I particularly like the holes left visible where the cotton stitching once was, a neat uniformed line, a trace. 

I like the shapes of the cuffs with the slit of the button hole at one end and the puckered mark where the button once sat, and the thick part of the rectangle where there is extra material for reinforcement and the thin part where there is no reinforcement, it's parallel partner. The cuffs in particular are very like canvases. 

And I like the cotton thread that I have pulled out of the shirt, all curly and 'wiggly', a 3 dimensional line drawing. I would like to unpick the fishing wire once it is knitted to capture all it's kinks and curls, the visual of it's first making process.

I am on the look out for a second - hand sewing machine so I can stitch (and unstitch) into paper...

Taking reference from the work I saw in Edinburgh recently of David Batchelor's sculptural drawings, I have been trying to draw the 3 dimensional work that I make, but I am struggling with this, it is not something I find easy. To pursue, or not to pursue? I guess I should.

Stephen Hurrel who I worked with last year on my solo show has edited a version of the film that we presented in the gallery - I have put a link to it at the bottom of this blog. Having played the film a few times there is a real sense of calm which perhaps I am not quite feeling at the moment? The simplicity of the work I produced and presented last year makes what I am doing at the moment seem cluttered, too busy - perhaps I am going off at a tangent? Sometimes this is necessary in order to work things out. Often unexpected surprises occur which can inform your current work or help you decide what you should do next. Sometimes it is just a happy detournement! 

Next week I head off to Amsterdam to set up for a show with the group Plastic Propaganda. There is so much to be done besides the work that the viewer sees in the gallery space. From packing up the artwork securly in crates (made for me especially, thank you), to sourcing couriers to deliver it, arranging insurances, flights, accommodation, labelling and costing the artwork, providing information for catalogues, updating website etc. The list goes on... It is all part of the bigger picture of exhibiting your artwork and these last few weeks particularly have left less time for practical making.

I am looking forward to meeting the team at Plastic Propaganda and I love the process of installing artwork for show. For me it is still part of the creative process, the act of making, and the work can take on a new nuance and come alive in it's new setting. 

Here is the link to film that I made with Stephen Hurrel http://vimeo.com/67584892