Inspired by Diane Croft’s prints of landscapes, I contemplated the growing pile of discarded delivery packaging in my studio, and decided to put the two together for this personal project, using the chine collé technique. A stained-glass effect in Croft’s depiction of trees caught my eye, leading me to use the image of a church window to symbolise an historical element in this print series.

I have set out to say something about the gradual erosion, over millennia, of a sense of personal responsibility around the sourcing of food, particularly meat and meat products. From the time we were hunter-gatherers and presumably had respect for the ebb and flow of supply, until now, when we have merely to ask Alexa, and 30 mins later it is served up at the door on a bed of pizza dough or within a burger bun, what has happened? Our brains and bodies haven’t evolved particularly, but we have moved into a technological age. This technology was developed with the best of intentions: to serve a purpose; to aid humanity.

This subject is highly personal to me, as it is about food and online ordering. It would not be overstating things to say I have addiction issues. Middle of the night binge-eating and secret solo shopping trips, each internet-reliant, are not unusual. And I know I am not alone in being alone.

The beaming Amazon packaging of “One Click Smile” is juxtaposed with a chine collé linocut print in the shape of a set of church windows. Through these windows can be seen two hearts. Green with envy, they implore us to “Choose me, use me, recycle me.” It’s as though this is a church mantra, a hymn for our time. We have allowed ourselves to become hypnotised by advertising in the same way we once accepted the rule (and rules) of religion. Formerly people were under-educated; now we suffer overwhelming information overload. It’s hard to filter it out; to focus on what actually matters.

I seek to comment on the fact that we are divorced from our natural environment. Addiction to mobile technology and online activities have replaced community and any genuine connection. We crave yet more of the same damaging habits, thus proving one of the best-known definitions of madness. Something has to give.

References:

Linocuts (no date) DIANA CROFT. Available at: https://www.dianacroftart.com/linocuts.html (Accessed: 18 June 2021).

Hopefully the Macdonald’s reference here is not excessive. I wanted it to look like a stained glass effect. There should be a realisation that it’s not a church at all but possibly an ad for a fast food restaurant. I’m suggesting that one has conveniently filled the void the other has left. Or indeed, it has barged it rudely out of the way.

I used a lot of paper today, possibly unnecessarily. The following are the also-rans of today’s work:

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I’ve been waiting on paper stock supplies so that I can print from my latest collagraph plates. Having made them a bit too large for my current paper stock, I ordered further heavy weight paper from Jackson’s. This has turned up today. So tomorrow, bright and early, I shall recommence proceedings.

The following plates are what I came up with in response to the abstract brief for Part 4 of Introduction to Printmaking. My initial intention to work with the themes optimism, movement, balance, and flow have morphed into those themes surrounding COVID rules and how we have responded to them. Instead, I have created plates entitled, “community”, “containment”, “control” and “contamination”.

The above was developed from the sketch below on the facing page of my sketchbook.

My thinking behind this was about the organic nature of society and community. I likened it to the petals on a rose, only a bit more rigid in nature. The sticks are arranged sympathetically with one another to form a structure that is supportive, but also adaptable. The next plate was an attempt to create an image that depicts how it feels when patriarchal societies seek to exert control over the population.

I arranged the the above plate without prior need of sketches, as I had quite a clear idea in my mind of what effect I wished to achieve. I was pleased with the outcome below.

The enforced rigidity of the movement of the circular motifs in this print call to my mind a metaphor for limited freedoms during COVID-19 and its various strains. Whereas, the following print taken from the plate for “Containment” is less rigid in structure. It appears to exist via faith alone, as its building blocks do not adhere to the more solid rules in the print called “Control”.

The next two images are plates at various stages of completion. I need to take prints from these to determine what to add or to subtract from them to depict “Contamination” and “Community”

The above plate was inspired by the following doodle which I scrawled onto my iPad, printed off, then added to using biro and highlighter pens.

The above sketch was in turn prompted from looking at images of the Delaunay bisected concentric circles with their rich colour juxtapositions. I shall enjoy playing around with my own colour choices now that my paper has turned up.

The following is another plate – a version depicting “Connection”. Here, I have used string to form the double spiral and metal washers to ‘populate’ them. The external negative space has been textured using poly filler and sand, and by pressing corrugated card into the surface whilst not yet set to give the surface small ridges.

There is an inadvertent smiley face in this image. Appropriate or not, it is clearly visible. Perhaps re orientating it to landscape would eliminate this unfortunate effect:

The following is entitled “Contamination” to continue with the theme of how the pandemic has affected social cohesion. There is something about the way the spiral holds both the occupants and contaminants equally within its organic structure.

References:

Tate (no date) The EY Exhibition: Sonia Delaunay – Exhibition at Tate Modern, Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/sonia-delaunay (Accessed: 14 May 2021).

(Task 12)

The best (if not the only) way I can view, and try to understand non-representational art is to think of it as analogous to something else.

I attended half an online taster session in Art Therapy at the University of Hertfordshire a few months back. We were instructed to close our eyes and, with a pencil, try to locate the edge of a piece of A4 paper without going so far as to allow the point of the pencil to wander off the edge of the paper, and mark the surface of the table. Other people drew lines around where they perceived the edge of the paper to be, as though pacing a cell and surreptitiously checking for weak points . I attacked this imaginary boundary. When I was done, and opened my eyes, I saw an elongated, jagged edged shape on the landscape sheet of coloured paper. I interpreted this to mean that I was like some kind of rabid beast, hell-bent on escape from – exactly where?

The reason I recount this now is because I feel it illustrates my view of non-representational art. It’s like painting a tiger with your hands tied behind your back. (You can’t paint with your feet because you’re busy using them to run from the tiger!)

Flights of fancy aside, I do find abstract art interesting, if a little perplexing. So it is with some trepidation and with a spirit of adventure that I embark upon this latest project.

So keen was I to take prints from my test plate, that I neglected to look at the directions in the course text. I went ahead and inked my plate using some scrunched fabric. Without dampening the paper, I took two impressions.

The resulting prints were a little as though a spider had wandered across the paper with dirty feet. However, I have, at least, learned that certain materials work more effectively than others.  Not dampening the paper prior to printmaking led to weaker results, but it did at least tell me which materials were most impactful.

The following is the initial print onto dry smooth Zerkall 120gsm printmaking paper. I like this print. At least all items made some impression. The best effects came from the corrugated card, the bubblewrap and the mosaic tiles. I’m excited to move onto developing another plate – this time using a smaller piece of mountboard as the only paper I have that’s heavy enough to take dampening is my Somerset paper, which I have only in smaller pieces than the Zerkall seen below (54cm x 76cm).

I think, with the next plate, I shall attempt a more interesting and cohesive composition, rather than redoing the test plate exercise. I intend to continue with the themes of optimism, movement, balance and flow.

Update:

The following day – feeling optimistic- I set out to rectify yesterday’s error and dampen the paper before printing. This was overly ambitious in scale as the Zerkall paper I have is not quite as robust as Somerset, for example. Therefore it buckled somewhat under it’s own sodden weight. However, I took two prints regardless, as follows.:

I’ll wait for the ink to dry before attempting to flatten the paper under some blotting paper and some form of weight.

Update (May 2021)

The above print is a lot clearer than former attempts using lighter weight paper – either dry or damp. I feel that the most successful items used here are the bubble wrap, mosaic tiles, beads, and corrugated card. I shall use these in further print plates for Project 12, the abstract composition.

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Experimental Mark-Making with Lino

Hopefully, there are discernible squares marked out on this Lino plate. They were numbered 1-9 reading top down, left to right. The tools used to cut into, or at least to mark the the surface of the lino, are as follows.

1.  Steel intaglio tool, double ended. I used both ends of this tool. I pressed both the end point and the side curve into the lino. I found that this created strong marks in the lino which in turn printed clearly lines and dots.
2. Exacto knife. This cut very fine lines, as perhaps one might expect from a sharp knife. The deeper the cut the more unwieldy this tool became so that my attempts at cutting curves into the surface of the lino became angular in nature. Post print these registered as dark lines instead of white as the cut marks simply filled with ink.
3. Hole punch and eylet setter tools. These two tools were limited in their reach beyond the edge of the lino. These could be used effectively as border tools perhaps. Maybe for the centre of a flower or a jewel? Post print these printed as clear and perfect circles or little eclipses (sic)
4. Tweezers. I wasn’t expecting a great deal from these. They make marks of parallel lines and indents by pressing the tips into the lino. Post print these made clear lines as part of the print.
5. “Thing“. My partner provided this item. I suspect it’s a drill bit of some kind. It’s a bit like a cylindrical mace. I was unconvinced that anything would show up in the final print, as I simply rolled this item on its side along the lino. Post print it did however just show up as a uniform series of white dots.
6. Pencil/pen. These were good for drawing onto the lino. When it came to printing they barely showed up at all. Using a biro I drew a simple figure which was not clear on any of the prints.
7. Hacksaw blade. This was satisfying to play with, making obvious score marks in the very top of the lino surface. I felt confident that the print would show these marks clearly, however, they were not as obvious as all that. They were ink-filled lines, so black on black.
8.  Bulldog clip. Parallel lines like the tweezers – bit deeper. I turned the clip onto its edge and scored lines that show clearly in the lino. I then made dents with the corners of the bulldog clips. Post print these were clear white lines and dents in the print.
9. Sandpaper. This made nice highlighted areas on the lino but did not show up whatsoever on the print. I then used the edge of a Philips screwdriver to make bark-like impressions but these showed up in the final print as mere lines.

At first I suspected this exercise to be a waste of time, effort, resources and of my patience and personal safety in using blunt tools where well-maintained tools are prerequisite.

If planning to do any kind of lino cutting, you can’t really go too wrong with a set of decent lino cutting tools. Rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel using a fork or a knife, for example, what’s wrong with simply investing in a good Pfeil set?

However, I persevered. I tried stabbing the lino with a fork and dragging a Philips screwdriver along the surface of the lino. This did not change my view, until I tried to cut using a zester.

I made several marks using this tool from my partner’s kitchen. As well as this, I used a standalone hole punch which, by simply pressing the tip into the lino, cuts satisfyingly perfect holes every time, and wherever you wished to place them.

I used Somerset White 300gsm paper, Hosho paper, and Zerkall 120gsm for this project. I have not varied the ink colour particularly. I was attempting to gain a clear representation of the plate by varying the amount of ink I applied rather than varying the colour.

Strangely, the best representation of the lino plate in print form has been by using the lightest touch with black ink. Each of the cuts in this instance are clearly visible on the lightly inked print. I intend submitting one other pre-zester print just for completion.

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