Experimenting was the theme of this week. I bought a supply of lokta paper from Hollander’s, learned how to sew on the new sewing machines in the fibers studios, and practiced several different types of hand stitching.
All in all, supply collecting and sewing machine learning was couple hours, and I practiced and experimented with different hand stitches for about 5 hours. (Took way longer than I anticipated, something to keep in mind when putting together the final larger pieces). But the time was worth it, cause I have a much better idea now about what I want the stitching in the piece to look like. I intend to do some sample drawings in the stitched paper next week, just some small studies, to see if the stitching I like best right now meshes well with the actual drawing.
I also continued to draw, for a good three hours or so. This drawing was frustrating me quite a bit. Actually, it’s frustrating me still, but I did feel I had made progress in the right direction after the three hours. I'm at least learning a lot about what does and doesn't work in these drawings, and what direction I want to take in future drawings.
This week. This week, was a long week. Grant preparations were far more time consuming that anticipated (although isn’t that how everything always goes?) and with All Student Exhibition pieces also do, it meant a lot of writing and a lot of drawing. The grant application took me a good 4 or 5 hours, and the time I spent finishing my drawing, which I then proceeded to submit to the All-Student Show, was a good 10 hours or more. I lost track after so many, but I think it was worth it. It’s nice having a finished product, even if its only a study of sorts. But you can at least check out the final thing here:
To be honest, this isn’t even all the final work. Silly me didn’t take pictures of the framed piece, and there was a definite darkening of certain areas, other areas with details added, etc…but I like it. It has me intrigued to try new stuff on the other drawings. It also has me hyped to start experimenting with the paper from Hollander’s, which is what I plan to do this coming week. I bought paper and lemon juice and coffee and I’ll be calling an artist about coffee staining techniques this week (I got the go ahead from Joe Trumpey) and overall I’m pretty pumped. I’m kicking it into high gear these next few weeks, cause I know next semester will fly by and I want to feel like I’m standing solid ground by the time January rolls around.
For the grant application, I also did a sketch of a final display plan (at least what it is at the current moment, lord knows how these things change…). Here is the diagram:
Here are my thoughts: I am definitely doing one large-scale drawing. I would like to do more, but I am trying to be reasonable here. If I want to devote the proper amount of care and attention to detail that I cherish so much in my work, I will reasonably only have time for one drawing. But, I would like to supplement that with multiple other drawings, a network of drawings, systems, and thoughts. I figure the frame, made from reclaimed wood as illustrated above, will add one last dimension to the networking/system theme. Plus it would look super cool (but that’s an added bonus). The number of drawings will also allow for interpretation of process, and an overall feeling of complexity. The goal number right now is 15, and I’d like to the largest drawing to be about 10 feet long by 5 feet high. Ideally, that is.
Needless to say, I have some work ahead of me.
Outside of drawing, though, I spoke with Sadashi and Peter about going large scale, and after that discussion and seeing some artwork from Mike and Doug Starn (Thanks Pete!), I'm going to experiment with sewing pieces of paper to the size and scale of my choosing. I'd like to look at maps as patterns for this sewing, which I would like to do by hand. This idea seems not only the more economic route (large rolls of paper are expensive!) but in line with the theme of my work as a whole. It also will be very time consuming, but I think I will feel more connected to the work this way and much more aware of what I am doing and for what purpose.
I also spoke with Professor Joe Trumpey this week, and he is trying to get me in touch with an artist who uses coffee stains for much of his illustrations work. Seeing as I've been doing research myself in this area, I am thrilled at the possibility. Hopefully this will pan out, we shall see!
