I have been quietly working on more small, intaglio print canvases (if that is not a oxymoron in artistic terms)...Here are some artfully stacked up in the studio.
I have had four of these small canvases accepted for a show in the summer, NCA 2010 - quietly chuffed as I thought at first it would be a risk to submit some lightweight small works rather than a large canvas or two, but out of 596 submissions they've selected just 69 works for the final exhibition.
I now have to work on my artist statement for the illustrated catalogue. So firstly, what are these little things, and how are they made...? Below shows one intaglio print as it is collaged onto the canvas...
They first look like this one, below (printed on hahnemule paper). I think I will keep this one as a conventional flat print, but the others begin their transition into a more 3D object...
some more prints... decidedly green and grey...
Why prints and not paintings? It has something to do with the initial fabrication of the matrix (and the resulting multiples) which can be subtly transformed each time - altering by sanding, incising, cutting and pasting - so no two prints are the same... and a smooth sheet of paper is infinitely mouldable, thereby the altered print becomes a tactile object...I have been jotting down a few words to explore further my idea of virtual world travels inspired by colours (read more about my colour values here)... in turn creating a faux object, a fragment, symbol, souvenir, memento, a remnant, an abstract relic or an impression of a location. I have another twelve or so virtual destinations to explore this week...I sometimes feel I am just talking to a brick wall... but nature sees every crevice as a potential growing opportunity... yep, I probably do need to get out more...
[buddleia, brick wall and drainpipe]
[apple tree in city building lot]...As an addendum, I recalled today the time that I sold off the majority of my possessions (the usual bric-a-brac - vintage clothes, lots of kitsch, retro stuff, even two director's chairs and a fake palm tree) at a Brighton car boot sale, in order to buy a car.I kept back one one thing - Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' as a jigsaw puzzle (it was a feat to complete and was suitably framed). It was a trashy souvenir of sorts, a personal reminder of student digs and student days - but different to the holiday souvenir, one that is manufactured in duplicate to fulfil a desire to take something home 'unique'... most of those souvenirs end up at the memorial service to forgotten holidays: the car boot sale.