otro mundo es posible

The mid session review is a great way to crystalize ideas and sort out where I am in my work. On one side of my studio 'booth' I had displayed digital images from Chania reworked on aluminium and transfer sheets beside a large painting of a Chania wall where I was experimenting with layering oil paint over acrylic. I want to experiment with the idea of mixing up digital imagery with paintings:  On the other side I had a large mixed media painting of a Guanche cave wall alongside sketches of cave art: and the 'otro mundo es posible ' photobook: After very useful discussions with Gordon Brennan and Joan Smith, my next step is to bring the key elements together in my work - graffiti/cave art, posters/layers. Gordon suggested I should introduce a motif, and as it happens I already have one, with my collection of Guanche symbol graffiti. This 'Guanche icon' could be added to my work after installation. Meanwhile, Alex Rowell has been bac...

I can't allow myself to get carried away with the glorification of suppression, war and suffering in the name of art. These are all too real and harrowing experiences in the world today. What do the walls of war look like for an adolescent in the 21st century? Almost 100 years on from Tapies' experience of the Spanish Civil War, refugees escaping the atrocities in Syria today are faced with a rather more flimsy affair, as described this week by NOW  reporter, Alex Rowell, on his visit to an 'informal tented settlement' in Nahiriyeh, Lebanon: 'Invited inside the home of Umm Ahmad, a warm-spirited grandmother from Qusayr, NOW saw few means by which the family of eight would be able to escape the rain and snow. The roof comprised cardboard box panels supported by wooden beams. The walls were carpets held in place with nails. The floor was a mat thrown over an uneven, cracked layer of concrete; ' Read the full report with photos of Umm Ahmad's makeshift home...

Antoni Tapies describes the walls in his paintings as 'fundamentally a form of artistic organization.' (Tapies, 1970). He traces the source of his awareness of walls and their evocative power to his adolescence spent mainly shut in within walls during the Spanish Civil War, and recognises that his early works of 1945 'have an air of street graffiti and of an entire world of protest - repressed, clandestine, but also full of life.' (Tapies, 1970) 'How many suggestions can be derived from the image of the wall and all its possible permutations! Separation, cloistering, the wailing wall, prison, witness to the passing of time: smooth surfaces, serene and white; tortured surfaces, old and decrepit; signs of human imprints, objects, natural elements; a sense of struggle, of effort; of destruction, cataclysm; or of construction, reemergence, equilibrium; traces of love, pain, disgust, disorder; the romantic prestige of ruins; the contribution of organic elements, forms...

I find it fascinating that in times of civil and political unrest in the Canary Islands, the people look inwards towards their Guanche heritage. These ancient and fundamental origins that the indigenous population have been at great pains to conceal since medieval times are now emerging again in their expression of discontent at the contemporary economic and political  climate in 21st century Spain. Walls have been the canvas for creative expression since the beginning of time. I have observed that the fever of creative expression seems to escalate in direct relation to the suppression and suffering of the people. My incidental monitoring  of the walls of Lanzarote indicate a fairly modest and low level of discontent. . On a recent visit to the ancient Venetian port of Chania in Crete, I was able to observe a heightened outpouring of expression on the dilapidated walls of the old harbour area, which spoke of the reactive tension to the miserably failing Greek economy. This...

I have found myself delving into the aboriginal beginnings in the Canary Islands and have made some significant discoveries. The original inhabitants of the islands were Guanches, who are thought to come from the Berber tribe in North Africa. This tribe were reputed to be very tall, with blond hair and blue eyes, a description which also fits the Grooved Ware folk from Orkney who I believe could be one and the same. The graffiti that I spent much time photographing around the island turns out to be a Guanche motif. There is a  neolithic settlement on Lanzarote called Zonzamas which seems to have striking similarities to Skara Brae in Orkney, although it is very hard to find and not promoted much as a visitor attraction. In fact, I had great difficulty in locating it on the island. During the Spanish Inquisition anyone of Guanche origin was hunted out and put to death, so many islanders denied their Guanche history from that time onwards and it still seems to be rather a taboo ...

Following an inspired suggestion from Liz Adamson, I am working on a series of paintings based on the final version of the CMYK screenprint. I subconsciously was a bit heavy handed with the Magenta layer which resulted in the colour of this final version turning out quite similar to the hue of Caldero Colorado. The first painting is in acrylic on canvas. It's a couple of years since I did a large canvas work, so I am using this one to practise various techniques and printing ideas. Actual size is 1020 x 920mm and I worked on a cropped version of the screenprint. This painting went through a couple of revisions as follows... ...but I never was able to make it work for me, so I had to shelve it the idea of working directly from a source. What I was able to salvage, however, was the idea of extracting what interested me about the CMYK screenprint images - such as the lines of single colour that appear when slight mis-registration is allowed to occur in the printing pr...

Getting back into college over the last couple of weeks has been a shock to the system as always. After group crit with tutor Liz Adamson and her third year students, I had a useful discussion with student Lydia Honeybone about CMYK screen-printing process. Thanks for your help Lydia. Decided to get straight to work in the printmaking workshop, before it gets too busy. Having chosen one of my digital images to work with, I used Photoshop to separate 4 colour-way screens of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key as demonstrated by Lydia. This week I have printed the acetates and had the screens prepared with the help of printmaking intern Natasha. I mixed paint to approximate tones of cyan and magenta and printed the first two layers. It felt great to be back screen-printing. It's two years since I did my last screen-printing project and I had almost forgotten how satisfying it is.      Original Image: Red Tubes     Cyan separation     Magenta...

After photographing the cyanotypes, I experimented with various digital processes to rework the colours.

That's what I'm calling these images, digitally reworked from photographs. I'm thinking of lifting some of the lines as monoprints... or collographs?

As usual, my camera was kept busy during the trip and I have now completed a Photobook 'Otro Mundo es Posible' combining digital images created from shots taken during my trips in May and July, which can be viewed here: http://www.photobox.co.uk/creation/2012501830

Thanks to Joan Smith, (ECA Tutor), Pat Beveridge (ECA colleague), Linda Green (and her inspiring exhibition From Straw to Gold) and Ruth Brown (Stone Creek Silk) for helpful suggestions and advice on working with cyanotypes, I went out to Lanzarote armed with materials to experiment with this process. Focusing on the flora that manages to prosper from the lava flow, I worked with pre-prepared papers and coloured cotton sheets to collect some simple images Coloured Cotton Samples

Just had a great forward planning meeting with Joan and feel so full of optimism for the year ahead. This is the start of the 12 month countdown to my degree show next May. We have agreed that I shall do two Studio Practice modules and an Advanced Drawing module, along with Reflective Practice. My intention for this blog is to write notes about my work, record ideas I have, sources of inspiration or guidance, and threads of thoughts which might be insightful to look back on when the body of work is complete. I will also keep a digital record of my work in progress. The focus of my research at this stage is be based around Caldero Colorado in Lanzarote, the site of our theft incident in May, when John and I had our bags and passports stolen from the locked boot of our car, whilst walking around photographing  this very remote location. Evolution is Almost Imperceptible I have ideas for a site specific non invasive intervention in the landscape, which I will recor...