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28 June 2006

extending practice


I am beginning to realise that I find new work situations are a combination of stimulating and terrifying, the adrenalin is only useful of planning and structure is in place. This has brought me back to thinking about the structure of my overall practice - how everything is related to spinning, twisting, combining threads together. I could not express this in words until I had made a model of my thought pattern, in an atttempt to do this I made the model seen in this image as part of a piece of writing at Norwich School of Art and Design in 2005.
Next week I will be spending time working away at RANE Artful Ecologies Conference Falmouth, with Janette. Time to plan future projects for L@tE and for creating and reviewing. As always I will take my spindle - either a form of security or just continuity of practice - only time will tell.


26 June 2006

Time out

I needed time out to make and do physical work without doing the over analytical. There has to be a balance. Handling material and relating to people and place has to be a part of my work.
I go out walking to relate to the scale of the places & physical effect of environment on my body before sitting in the studio again. I listen to and relate to people to find out whether my ideas and images convey any sense.

There is a piece about footprints & traces currently on the loom that has been there too long - not sure it will work but it does need to be finished rather than discarded. I may leave it deliberately unfinished to be part of the series 'Dancing with your Shadow'
I still have the shadow element in my mind - making work to show just the shadow - how will that work? When displaying the sampler of sacking it worked best as the shadow - the implication being that the work is finished and audience can only see a trace. I have some work to do on this & will be playing with the ideas over the next few months, so images to follow.

If you have read this far, please comment - it's what this blog is meant to be for. I would like to hear reactions.


Exposing surface and depth



After all that wrapping and binding I felt a bit restricted, the same way as people say they are about all the legislations relating to land ownership and agriculture. Maybe that is why I started to uncover and unwrap the branches I did not want to use for exhbition, the bark is being used for other projects, currently sitting in a tin bath and going dark blue-black with the iron dye tho so nothing is wasted. The cut branches will be used as well, nothing is left unused.

I found myself expressing a thought that I had not heard before, about the unfinished expressing something of the sustainable, the living and continuing. Is this really a
cop-out for not finishing things or did it happen because that is my instinctive approach. How do you do instinctive once you have verbalised and analysed it? More reading and considering other practitioners approaches to work does not always provide the information that supports or justifies ones own; not that I need justification - but being aware of others exploring similar fileds is reassuring.

Working outside, alongside the river and at the allotment I have again been looking at the earth. I am more and more tempted to use it, draw with it in some form. That is what 'exposing surface and depth' is all about, not sure where this thought is going, not doubt some images will follow when I am more certain of the ground!

Photos by Tim Frost