A bend in the path

So etch is finished for now and we move back again to relief and screenprinting, and for your correspondent it will be relief so the old sharp tools will be on the move once more - I'll be honest (amn't I always?) I really am looking forward to this; the two briefs are 'Protest' and 'Humour' but the tutors are at pains to point out that one's project can certainly be a mix of these. I have an idea but I am not sure yet about how it will work; other tutors having seen it seem to think it has great possibilities; tomorrow I will do some drawings on paper the size of the block and we shall see what transpires.

The edition was liberated from the press the other day and certainly the prints benefited and they much flatter. When  Sercan asked for a print for the wall I wasn't sure and first I gave him the mouth with the Francis Bacon:

 

But afterwards he came back to me and said he preferred the big one even though it wasn't on really good paper:

 

I suppose I would have to admit that I was quite pleased with this and I think I will do it again with more suitable paper.

 

This morning we had a full crit ( class divided into halves and each person had to stand at the front with a selection of their work and speak to the class about it, and receive what was very constructive criticism from class and tutors. All were agreed that despite some initial nervousness it was a tremendously beneficial exercise.

On the train in I wrote a 'Review' which, even though I didn't use it directly was useful in formulating ideas and it made me think about where my project is going next. I am going to file this in my sketchbook and I will use what I thought of in future posts.

 

Had a bit of a Pauline flash of revelation today and not the most complimentary to self.

I have been working on an essay for Mirrors of Enigma ( Kieran Cashell's seminar) and my chosen topic has been a survey of a recent exhibition of self-portraits, in relation to identity and narcissism. In passing, I have to say that the word count was quite low and considering the complexity of the topics I found it difficult to keep the numbers down. It's finished and ready to go.

The Pauline revelation came this afternoon when I suddenly realised that my etched project had been largely about a self-portrait:

 

 

 

Guess who ..... in full flight

 

The thing that worries me however is how many people have already thought this and are too polite to say?

OK,  form an orderly queue on the left please.

 

Have done a good bit more research and have rooted out a number of artists who may be useful during next phase and quite a few images I will use in the making of more collages

 

All will be revealed.