Tuesday 12 May 2015

a map of me and my place ......


Mapping 'my place' - the image is not as yellow as this, just really aged.

I have been working really hard in the studio for the last ten or so days and am only now just starting to work out where I am heading with this very large book.  As I have been working through the planning I have come to realise that I can't divorce my emotions and myself from the land I live on - all are inextricably entwined.  From the onset this book, which will be about six metres of work, was going to be just about this beautiful block of land we live on.  As 'the story' has been evolving for me visually I realise that though the books will contain many fragments of things that have meaning to me around the land, it is starting to contain much more.

I am feeling the need to include some of the pieces missing from my life now, by including marks and images which will represent some of the major happenings in my life since moving here towards the end of April 2010. By pieces I mean incorporating work that reminds me of those recently absent from my life and also the newcomer who has fulfilled my life.  So my story about the land will now be one overlaid with a more personal story - all pretty obscure but it will all mean something to me.

Well, that is the plan .... As we know, work can have a way is leading us off in tangents.  This body of work has already taken a fairly major shift of direction.  

Below are some of the photos of false starts, which may yet lead into other images,  beginnings of ideas, the trying out of technique to make the lines I want to use and so forth.  I have found that I am needing to experiment every single step of the way as I am using layers of different papers left over from my father's architectural practice, various other transparent and fine papers and I have to work out how they all react to various techniques.

Heading for the bin - though some of the ideas I will re use.

A bundle of old, very old, tetra set from my father which will find its way into some of the work .

Blending and bleeding with conte - one of my favourite tools.

I decided my book needed some king of cohesive thread running through the pages to help tie the story together.  Hence an afternoon of printing on numerous papers.

Ideas forming.




Working out how to suggest rather than draw lines.


More possibilities I think.  For me it is like working into already messed up paper which is far less daunting that facing the big blank white.  Only I need to muss up lots of paper and create layers into which I can work and then paste them down onto the papers I am using.  Pasting has proved almost hazardous with may of the film papers and tissues.

12 comments:

  1. Beautiful, beautiful work; I can't wait to see how the book turns out in the end.

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    1. Thanks Sharmon .... fun to show all the 'scrappy' stuff along the way. The book is slowly coming together.

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  2. what a wonderful post Susan & funny how one of the most exciting images in this set is is the one heading for the bin!

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    1. I had to chuckle at your comment Mo. The image heading to the bin will reinvent itself in another image .... I was just trying to put too much information into one work!

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    1. Thanks so much India .... so nice to know that people actually take time to read my ramblings! Somehow it helps to get one's thoughts down .... helps the work unravel. And I like the 'diary' type effect of the blog.

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  4. Beautiful beautiful beautiful !
    i´m so glad that i found your blog!
    thank you for sharing your work.
    best regards, magdalena

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    1. Welcome to my blog Magdalena - that you so much for stopping by and leaving your message.

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  5. Interesting beautiful work Susan, looking forward to seeing it resolved. How wonderful to have been immersed in the studio for the last ten days. I also like the image heading for the bin!

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    1. Thanks Helen... am struggling with and yet thoroughly enjoying this one. After all, I am doing it for myself and though will reshowing it at Noosa, not sure that I would part with it ...
      The image for the bin has reentered the story, altered but present.

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  6. Hi SB - amazing textures and marks - funny how the idea is there but the art and the medium tends to take us on its own journey; and we tend to know it is resolved when the work itself says enough the journey has reached its right end point. Go well. B

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    1. Sometimes I think the ideas are the hardest things to come up with - the process only the artist knows and the viewer is rarely away of the time that takes - and other times it is finding the right approach in getting those ideas down on paper. All good fun. x

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