Methods and Materials

Unit 3

This page highlights my explanation into methods and materials. As you scroll down the page, you will find the work fro Uni1 and Unit 2. This work has been labelled as so, but included on the page so the journey of my process though Methods and Materials can be clearly demonstrated.

Gesso Ground

Hard Press Etching : Environmentally Friendly Method

These etching prints are of Dr Brusha. This the first print you can see it's much lighter than the second. This is because I wiped two mugs of the ink off before printing.

While creating my egg tempera paintings, I observed that the mark making method at the start of the process, was like the method I employ when creating an Etching. You can see in this method of mark making in this print by Käthe Kollwitz, working women with Blue Shawl, created in 1903. Kollwitz, use of directional mark making, is a method I have emulated within my own printing and painting practice when creating and using cross-hatching and horizontal and vertical lines to represent light and shape. Kollwitz created a differing representation of women that moved away from the archetype image of women and instead represented the horrors of war from a female perspective, as well as the result war has on the female body reinforced by poverty. Her work demonstrates and highlight social injustice, in an emotive and powerful way. ‘Kollwitzs concern for women and their well-being remained constant throughout her life and work’( P43 Women Picturing Women) I find the method of cross-hatching and etching practically reflective when creating, this is because you are physically scratching into a surface to represent a face. The act in of itself feels violent and surgical.

Hard Press Etching Aquatint

These images represent my recent experimentation with etching. This felt quit exiting as I was using Aquatint. This is an intaglio printmaking method, which creates tone instead of line. However, for the examples you can see I have used Aquatint over the top of an existing print, creating a beautiful combination of line and tone. When using this process, you started from light to dark, painting in the lightest tones first, then bathing it in acid for 15 seconds, then the mid tone for 25 seconds, and finally the darker tones for 40 seconds. Leaving the area’s, you want almost black unpainted. This felt backwards, and quite counterintuitive when following the process.

Dr Bushera, Etching Aquatint

Ellie, Etching Aquatint

I adore this method of etching, using the Aquatint, gives me the opportunity to create fluid painterly marks over the top of my line work. Previously I had scratched into the surface of my plate, while for the process of Aquatint, I placed my plate into a red machine that was filled with resin, and we bashed on the side of the machine, and wound up the handle, so all the resin particles moved around and then settled onto my plate. Then I used a camping stove under the plate to gently burn away the particles. This was then I was able to place paint and block out my tones before placing my plate into the bath of acid, in a round of three for short periods of time. The time in the acid had to be tightly controlled and not going over 2 minuets. Otherwise, your tones wouldn’t be as rich.

Egg Tempera

Am I am feminist, if I am using the eggs of another?

During a recent presentation , it was brought to my attention on that my work can't be feminist if I am using the egg's of another animal without their consent.

This option surprised me and I was rather taken aback by it. As I had considered the use of the egg as a link and connecting to other feminist artist's before me like Sarah Lucas and Marilyn Minter. Who use eggs physically in their work, and depiction of the female form, but also as a metaphor to symbolise and link to women's reproductive rights and female beauty standards.

On reflection, I moved to egg tempera because it felt like the middle point between oil and watercolour,. Giving me that beautiful watery transparent quality, that I can layer up, without the toxic harmful nature of oil and white spirt, which can't be easily disposed of. Egg Tempera painting instead gives me an elegant luminosity of colour, which I've never been able to emulate with oil.

Therefore like Roxan Gay, I am a bad feminist.

“I embrace the label of bad feminist because I am human. I am messy. I’m not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I’m right. I am just trying—trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself.”
― Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

Within my practice I explore ethics and the voice of women, but as a messy human my work can't be completely non expletive and I need to acknowledge the ethics of using eggs.

Risograph Printing

These images represent my recent experimentation with Risograph Printing. I wanted to re-created the Lloyd George envelopes, as I want this envelope to hold my publication. Almost like medical files held inside. However, instead it will consist of images of the Women of the NHS and quotes from our informal interviews. I was only able to buy 4 Lloyd George envelopes from eBay. I carefully took one apart and completely messed it up, so this one had to be thrown away. However, this allowed me to then very carefully take the next one apart so I could see the net.

Lars and myself then we scanned the envelope, to recreate the text. However, the scanner couldn't pick up the shape of the envelope, so I then traced around the envelope and this worked. This has resulted in the edges of my envelopes having a blue outline. Which I like, this makes it feel more vintage. This vintage old feeling is significant, as when being handled by a slightly older generation to myself a nostalgia is generated as the person holding the publication remembers these items from their past.

Once the Lloyd George envelope scanned, I then printed into the closest coloured paper Risograph had to my original. Then I sat down and slowly cut out the envelope from the A3 paper. This is a slow and tedious process. However, creates folders where my publication can fit neatly inside.

These images, demonstrate the cutting process to create the Lloyd George medical envelopes. The second image highlights how my envelopes compared to the originals. I'm really pleased with my outcome, I have created 40, this was largely because I expected far more errors to occur, than did. I really enjoy the handling of these envelopes and the process of placing papered drawings inside and then taking them out again. With a bound book inside, the envelopes have a lovely weight to them. .

Book Binding

Following on from the Lloyd George Envelopes, I went to a book binding workshop and these images represent some of the different book binding methods we explored within the workshop. We looked at lots of different methods to bind, and how the bind, and paper and significant with regards to the meaning of the publication. I am interested in using a single section binding to create my publication. I will then place my publication inside the Lloyd George Envelope that I created from a Risogrpah print. For these publications I have been considering creating a publication for each woman I’ve worked with. This would consist of Risograph printed images and quotes from our informal interviews. I could create a book for each person I’ve worked with, and the images would consist of the paintings and drawings I’ve made of them. Then on the cover of the Lloyd George Envelop I can then write the person’s name.