With having a studio to myself it has it's bonuses of not having to restrict myself in any way for space, as the days have gone on I have managed to spread further and further out.
Few snaps of what I have been up to....
The idea of the boxes came up when thinking about all that has happened just in these past 7 months alone. It has been a constant stream of one problem/issue to the next; straight after dealing with one another would come along with no let up. I wanted to replicate this idea of things piling up, being overwhelmed, trying to organise life.
Original sketches (who would have thought I was practicing art!) were of using a gradation of white to black, but with the choice of black paint which is actually a waterproof paint for outside uses combined with standard matte white paint it mixed to a murky brown colour.
But I prefer the stark white and black combination. White representative of normal everyday life clashed with the black which is very symbolic of those exhausting days of worry, anger and frustration, with the ratio to be very much in favour of black.
Just been playing about with composition of the boxes. Have a mixture within one stack or two seperate stacks of white and black with the black towering far ahead of the white. Prefering the one stack just now anyway.
I have another stack of cardboard boxes I have managed to get but have yet to paint, as if I am to follow this idea I need to have many more boxes to create this tower, which looks very unstable and could topple over at any point. But so far I have not continued this, well it's only been 2 days since I really kicked all this off, and have been experimenting with other things....
I had been thinking to use resin to explore the theme of preservation - but realistically not going to be enough time for this module but something to carry forward - but been experimenting with silicone instead, which is the most fowl smelling thing!! This very aged page is from a book found in an abandoned house. I wanted to 'seal' the moulding page to capture it's decay. Also the title of that page caught my eye. Using a silcone layer has turned a once fragile piece of paper into rubber, it's a fantastic tactile thing now. But it now has a shiny translucent cover too.
These paint 'pieces' was using some of the left over black paint I had from pouring some out when painting boxes and wanted to use up. I love the glossy finish against the paper.
Following on from the hand 'print' from previous - where I have since learnt that perhaps a disposable plastic glove would be better for cleaning up! - experimented with different mediums - sealant and paint - continuing this idea of present absence.
Also something which stuck with me that Billy Connolly had said within a standup performance I was watching on DVD the other day (I've said it before and I will say it again, inspiration comes from everywhere!) "I am closer to death, than I am to birth."
I'm not saying this is not just fully applicable to myself, as I not quite 23 yet and ideally have many years ahead of me yet. But life simply doesn't work out like that, you have no idea what day will be your last.
This grim reality is something I was trying to convey in the repeating handprints, where there I 'inked' up my hand only once and continued handprinting, with the outline fading each time becoming more ghostly. However, I go slightly carried away with myself and wanting to create a complete series, did 24 handprints where 23 was enough!
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