I had my tutorial with Betty today. She was really lovely, very easy to talk to, full of enthusiasm and good ideas. I talked about how I was feeling slightly stuck, I have lots of ideas but seem to be struggling to really get started with them. I talked her through how nice it's been to make this little linocut which feels quite safe and familiar, but is still new in many ways and testing a new paper. It really has given me the kick up the backside I needed to get on with something.
I talked her through the experimental parts of it and that there are still a couple of layers to go.
We moved on to talking about the mini prints I made and the tearing up of them. Betty seemed really enthusiastic about this line of making and thinking. I talked about how I find some things 'too easy' and undervalue them. She reminded me that things become easier with practise and that sometimes it's not about how technically difficult things are but the thinking and process it's taken to get there. This is a really good point that I must remember.
I talked her through some ideas for an exhibition in the forest - log piles, chipping piles, planks instead of logs, maps and shapes. I think I almost have too many ideas and I need to just start making them and let the rest follow. Betty reminded me how important the photography part of this would be, that it could become part of the artwork rather than just recording it. This makes me nervous as I don't want to 'waste time' perfecting the photography part as well as the printmaking! I'm not really interested in the photography side, but annoyingly I know I'll need good photographs to properly record it but I really can't get that enthusiastic about digital photography and video making ('proper' photography I love - Mum was a photography teacher - there's even a darkroom in their house!) I wonder whether my Dad would be up for coming and doing the photographing part?!
It reminds me that I really do just love analogue processes, traditional printmaking, wet photography, stitching... I really like 'real' things rather than things on screens! I think the only thing I'm looking forward to about completing the MA is that I will be able to record all my thoughts on paper rather than on screen. I would much rather write with pen and ink on paper than type (but you wouldn't be able to make sense of my scribblings, and I'd get annoyed by having to add pictures etc. etc. which is why I resist at the moment!).
At the end Betty suggested a wonderful way to think about my work 'intervention'. I loved this as a way of thinking and will do some further thinking about it.
Overall I feel really positive and enthusiastic again. I just need to get on with it. I know I'm stalling, but I think I'm slowly making progress.... I'm off to the forest now with the dog!