We were asked to put an image with a piece of our own textiles so that we could see the dialogue between them. I had opened one of Shelley Rhodes books rather randomly and so hastily flicked through it looking for an image, then I chose the most 'textiley' piece of my recent patchwork I could find; scrunched with rough edges. We had to write down what we saw when we looked at the two images together. I noted that they both seemed to be drawn from nature, copying natural forms and borrowing nature's palette. I hadn't realised how similar they were until I saw them together, that was rather a surprise.
We then had to comment on each others images. There are the comments mine got:
Colours in both feel like they are of natural forms, ocean, rock, sand. The left image is imprinted with a spiral shape whereas the right image is layered and built with tiny stitching. A landscape being built...
I get the impression of pieces coming together, almost like I’m a countryside where different fields when viewed from a certain angle or height paint a patchwork picture/painting
I feel peaceful when I see the first picture, like the depths of sea and sky. It is also like the world to colour blind eyes
The sea whirlwind viewed from an view above, its turbulent crosses the sea.
I felt very pleased that everyone picked up on the nature aspect, the links with the sea and whirlpools are interesting (the circles are meant to represent piles of felled tree trunks viewed end on). The idea of building a countryside between the pieces is lovely and links between patchwork and the countryside are there.
Next we were given 15 minutes to create something on the theme 'chasing shadows'. I took one of my lithographs and two of the ghosts printed onto tissue with the idea of creating shadows in the layers but fragmenting the tissue with the layers getting fainter in colour moving forward, similarly to a shadow. I spent all the time making the piece so couldn't get a good photograph of it (and have since tidied the loose strands). This is what I posted:
Again we commented on each others, here are my comments:
I get that feeling of when you are in a forest and the tree shadows almost seem to have a life of their own. As the sun moves through the sky the shadows changing and being chased by the moving of the sun.
Smaller plants are shaded by the trees' canopy
Beautiful piece of work with layers and stitching. You can see the shadows been represented through the layers of fabric/paper that is stitched down. It can feel like you are amongst it being chased by them too
I think my course mates were very kind and even though they couldn't see the detail of the shadows they tried to imagine what I was getting at.
Finally we were given 15 minutes to create something on one of the themes and post a picture without revealing what the theme was. The themes were: identity, home, forbidden, voices, emergence and invisible.
My comments:
Could it be identity, each layer tied describes you as person.
Ooh this is a toughie. I would guess home or voices
Home
I confirmed:
Yes, this is home... the forest I walk in everyday all bound up with my printmaking practise (as well as planet earth being our home).
The two pieces I made have given me food for thought about the piece I am creating for the interim exhibition. I am wondering whether I should include some actual materials from the forest in the piece, or maybe some very carefully cut out prints of natural materials; rather than printing them over other prints, maybe they should be printed and then collaged. I was also amazed how much I could achieve in 15 minutes, I wish there had been longer for the creating part as I really enjoyed that!