A important diversion on the path.

I know, I know, I'm always moaning but the last ten days have been fraught and the much overused phrase 'roller-coaster' (on which I will have to admit, I have never been) comes to mind.
There have been, to say the least a number of dead-ends which produced images not universally adored - but that's alright : you have to expect that not everything is going to work.
The long and the shirt of is that while Dissolution has been fairly thoroughly explored albeit at a kind of an angle, the process moves on. The focus on the body that became part of the last project has been retained but it has been narrowed down and the concept that has always been there lurking in the background moves into the light once more. The next enquiry will be into Edge...... edge of me .... ie skin , my skin.

The first signs of this will be in the digital prints I will show in Revive  - the Third Year Print Show @ the Sailors Home in O'Curry Street , opening on Tuesday Feb 3 at 7pm. There will also be a piece from the end of the Dissolution process

Now to the Sailors Home the inside of which I only got to see  for the first time last Saturday when bringing the stuff in. What an interesting space .... I am going to show a few photos here of the site as it is prior to installation and later hopefully a record of the show.

 

 

New Limerick lurking

 

 

 

PCP 3  Students lurking

 

 

 

Wall Space being discussed

 

 

 

 Through various windows and doors

 

 

Some textures

 

While there on Saturday the natural light kept changing and produced some good interiors:

 

 

 

One final full view down towards the port makes Limerick quite a fascinating mixture of past and climbing into the present

 

 

 

I will resume musings on art and artists and discuss some new names that have come my way and how these are influencing my thinking regarding the sort of images I want to make and what I want these to show.

 

All this after Revive is over.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Path of Steel

Early morning on the train - bit of a gap in communications due to pressure inside  and more outside  : so not as much time available as one might have hoped .

- inside pressure consists mainly of Y3 Print show which will be revealed to the waiting world in all its glory tomorrow - for blast see various F pages -library, su, et al -


I know you can't wait but I am afraid you will have to  - because we're worth it !!

Did some print, though : discovered the lace-like plate that had been left for a long time in the acid and decided to make blind emboss and to print:

 

The plate - you can see how heavily bitten it is

 

The emboss  -very poor image: conditions bad - but maybe you can see how fine the emboss is - a thicker plate would be need to get a serious image - I am considering blowing podered graphite across the surface but I think that should be done at home - very messy stuff.

 

 

 

The print

 - maybe  I should have used this in the decaying ear series because it really does represent the loss of hearing with age.

 

Coming into Limerick -more later

 

Capital Path

I had to be in Dublin today and a beautiful day it was:

 

 

What is it and is it an addition architecturally... or an obtrusion (being tactful) aesthetically? Well what it is . is the new(ish)bridge and lift at Booterstown Dart station and while one is close to it it is quite impressive but from this angle and distance a degree of doubt creeps in.

I made the mandatory visit to the Turner watercolours (on show in the National Gallery for January) and I reiterate my annual plea that anyone with the remotest interest in art should see these not least because it is a wonderful privilege to have them here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both of these are in the Exhibition - I did not take the photos

 

I came across some more interesting ground art also:

 

 

I think it is way past time I did another volume of ground art - after Y3 Print show of which more anon -suffice to say at this time that it will be in the first week of Feb and in the words of an eminent curator it will be

 

EPIC!!!

 

 

Ideology

When I made this woodcut last year I had originally intended it to be considerably more direct in it statement  and more referential and I was persuaded against that  - I think now I am sorry I allowed myself to be so persuaded.

Anyway I never thought then that it would become quite so relevant

a plague on all your houses

Dead end

best foot forward

 

You cant beat a cliché to get things going in the new semester.....in defence of clichés : a poet I once knew said that clichés were clichés because they were true...

OK, this is about art not literature although there are of course visual clichés too.....enough!!

Here are some of the latest Holgas:

 

 

 

 

No Comment

Later

There was a new show in the Source in Thurles and one of the artists is a printmaker called Liz Nilsson and after I had been in to see this work I thought to myself ' that's you back in your box!!'

 

These are really big hybrid screen prints with thread worked into them

 

this is about 15 feet long

 

this is the thread on the surface

 

Really impressive

The other interesting thing I came across were monoprinted etches done by a favourite artist  -Yves Tanguy - |I had always liked his surrealist paintings but had never before seen any of his printwork -

 

Yves Tanguy, Rhabdomancie (From Brunidor Folio) - etching with monoprints 1847

More to think about.

A new path.....or just an old one rehashed??!

I know people think students just sit around scratching various parts of their anatomy meditatively (well, the males, anyway) but some work does happen  even if it might be a little pointless.

Anyway the book re-established itself in the forefront of consciousness over the last few days with this result:

 

the book in the press

 

out of the press

 showing endpapers

 

 using the first pages - drawing then W/C

 

The reason I show all this is that it was an exercise in using what is available - the pages were made from offcuts of Fabriano left after big sheets had been sized for the digital printer; the board or the case (cover) is again offcut after a bigger job. However the real advance here is that I made my own bookcloth by ironing on Heat n' Bond to fabric which with the addition of tissue then becomes cuttable and glueable onto board to form the case for the book.

The great thing about this is that I think I can at last finish my little edition of 'To The Edge' which is pending since last summer - watch this sp........

 

Back to Dissolution

When I was beginning work on the Box I first tried caustic soda to try to destroy the surface but it wasn't fast enough - and the blowtorch was much more fun. However I recently came across the results of the caustic soda and maybe I should have had a bit more patience...

 

 

....because a few days of decay will do much for the process of dissolution (dear me, how turgid!)

back to the pictures - here are a few more:

 

There is another crop maturing at present and it may produce better images.

As regards interesting images, I have shot another couple of rolls of 120 with the Holga and later I will scan them in for crit.

 

Two last shots from the festive season:

 

 

 

Buddy  - a  well-known 'charachter' in Rathfarnam circles found Christmas difficult,

 

but ultimately, the pig ruled

"Will nobody rid me of this of this turbulent pig?"

 

-apologies to Henry II