Where Do You Draw the Line?

I’m finally beginning to see the way as my experiments lead me to various results. There are no failures in this process. It’s all about discovery – what works and what doesn’t, what you like and what you don’t. It’s being completely involved in : “What if?!”  Some of it’s about the technical aspects of what works physically and other times it’s a question of “Will this communicate what I want to express in a way that I want it to? Sometimes an artist will try to emulate the work of other artists whose work they consider to be successful and pleasing to them. It’s just one technique often employed in the developmental curve. But, in the end, one wants to create original works that express something that’s unique to themselves and expressive of their own sense of self and voice.

Today I’m showing you one of the pieces I’ve come up with, although it’s still in process. Not sure yet what the next step will be but there will be a next step. It demonstrates what I’ve learned about employing print paste and in developing a whole cloth piece, as opposed to a pieced collage. This piece should stand well on it’s own.

I took a previously printed piece of cotton and reprinted on it. I first laid down various leaves that had been soaked in ferrous sulfate: raintree pods, rose petals and cranesbill geraniums, and left those in place. Next, I printed horse chestnut leaves with an India ink paste. On the top right I placed a maple leaf that was soaked in ferrous sulfate; after that dried, I placed a rusted tin can lid over the maple leaf. In terms of composition, I anticipated it in quartered sections.

I laid plastic over the top half and proceeded likewise on the bottom half, only this time I placed the leaves on top of the plastic in an arrangement that would work when I folded the bottom half up on top of it, with another tin can lid as a resist. After folding it once more, I wrapped the whole thing in plastic and clamped it between two 8″ ceramic tiles and steamed it for 2 hours.

Although this was a critical step in reaching my goals for this round of experiments, I’ve taken it a couple steps further. However, I’ve had some problems with my camera and SD card and I put in a new card that I only realized it didn’t work for my camera until after I took a bunch more pictures…so that’s for another post to come.

But I think you may find this video as interesting as I did. Where Do You Draw the Line? This post is so spot on for me. Hope it is for you too.

Nicholas Wilton On Forgetting:  https://www.art2life.com/2018/09/02/feeling-or-thinking/

Thanks for following along!