Reflection on Feedback to Assignment 5: Personal Project

My tutor began by congratulating me on completion of this module Introduction to Printmaking. It has been a wonderful journey into this fun and fascinating medium.

She described my approach as both professional and ambitious. This is very gratifying. I also agree with her statement that “with quantity comes quality”.

I need to continue the work on developing ideas in my sketchbook and continue to collect information within its pages. I was also reminded to look at the Cut and Paste exhibition at http://www.nationalgalleries.org, which I shall do.

Task 1 Project 13

Interesting and political juxtaposition of church and amazon packaging, poses the question, “What are we worshipping?” A good use of chine colle, especially the larger scale images of One Click Smile and …And he shall have dominion…

Look at Barbara Kuger’s I Shop Therefore I am

Research Ed Ruscha’s work using text, as well as Rauschenberg and Corita Kent.

Task 2 Project 14

My writing and thinking have become more sophisticated. I feel this is a consequence of reading the section on Artist’s statements in the Gilda Williams’s book How to Write About Contemporary Art – highly recommended by my tutor. I shall look at increasingly sophisticated sources for my research – access UCA ebooks for this.

I need to continue in this vein of challenging my thinking around my work as well as that of contemporary artists.

Look at Art Terms

Wiki for Arts

Glen Ligon – flipping text – look at stencil process

Personal Project: Part 5: Chine Collé: Artist’s Statement

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).

Part 5: Personal Project

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:

Less successful for various reasons pertaining to inking issues, paper placement issues, and poor composition of the separate chine collé pieces

Part 5: Personal Project: First Steps in Chine Collé

I started this project by drawing spiral arrangements in my sketchbook. My thinking was to produce abstract designs for the final series of prints for this course unit.

I then went on to look at other people’s chine collé creations. This one, by Diana Croft, caught my eye. The archway suggested by the tree put me in mind of stained glass church windows. I thought I could have fun using different colours and patterns – including spirals.

I produced a test plate with a basic church window, as follows :

From this I produced my very first chine collé print:

Chine collé test print with tissue and textured paper

Enthused by this, I designed a slightly more complex image and went off to do something else for a while. That “something else” was, among other things, to dabble further in abstraction. I spent a few minutes following an online video on the subject of abstract painting by Tracey Verdugo. I then created the following images using contrasting elements as inspiration:

Buoyed by this, I extracted some of the more interesting elements from the whole piece and printed them out on my Epson printer. I then used these, in conjunction with my test plate to produce the following using the chine collé technique:

The more complex plate has now been cut, though further cutting may be required. I took the following proof earlier today:

Proof using basic lino printmaking technique

I have been experimenting using packaging from Amazon, McDonald’s and Aldi products, as follows:

Hand prints on packaging in the style of cave dwellers’ art from thousands of years ago

It is my intention to try to say something relevant about how Mammon, and the new religion which is consumerism, has taken over from the church as the chief mind control system of the masses. This is not to say that I think it has been any one person’s brainchild, more that it has been a gradual takeover since the industrial revolution. I find it to be interesting how people accept this transition almost as though it hadn’t happened at all. The church has been all but usurped from its position of power over western communities. Instead, branding is the new power.

I shall print over the top of this packaging with my church plate using chine collé technique. If I mess it up, at least I can console myself by purchasing another Big Mac – purely to acquire further packaging for the purposes of experimental art, you understand.

References:

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

Tracy Verdugo Art (no date) How to Paint Abstract Artwork for Beginners. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdjfHmQ1JRc (Accessed: 8 July 2021).