Relaxed tutorial with Brendan Burns who is a painter. I am having doubts whether I am a painter? Much interaction when viewing my experimental images using paper and ink which showed a variety of approaches - acknowledgement from Brendan that I am a painter! Suggestions that seemed to resonate with me were use of materials. Working on what can be perceived as more 'Western' rigid surfaces were discussed plus my rather persistent habit of working up to an edge of paper, filling the space. Acknowledging comments made re materials I set aside a day for experimenting with more translucent fabrics and found some garden insulating material which is semi-transparent with a fibrous content. This material was light and airy, more flexible and could provide more movement as well as reflecting more traditional Eastern use of materials. Working in the kitchen with this material I used wax resist, tie dying methods to create ground I developed oak leaf forms by melting fabric over heat and applying additional ink in random areas ink as well as cutting and burning into fabric. I found I could also create texture by scrunching material up and placing over direct heat. There were some interesting forms, overlapping of material, melted areas and burn holes all relating very much to decay and the dying process of leaves in autumn. The cut and melted fabric echoed the bark of the tree but in a soft, rather romantic way. The big question was WHY? My answer was the focus on how the material would respond and I felt that I was looking towards creating a layer that could be used to work over with another media. The process was more about the interaction of various elements and resonated more with manipulation of fabric within textile design and I reflected on Sue Bradley's lecture and felt this had influenced me alongside my love of textiles. At present I have no intentions of taking this forward in its present form.
Textures created were dependant on the construct of the material which appeared mesh like, highly inflammable and responded very quickly to heat. The process was exciting but I feel is too far outside my 'remit' - it is a separate journey. However, I have thoughts of using larger scale photocopies of this work as a background and creating layers using different media which respond to my initial proposal.
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