Month Jul 2025

The Eyes Have It

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I went to see Jenny Saville’s The Anatomy of Painting at the National Portrait Gallery a few weeks ago. I went thinking that I admired her work; I came out knowing that I only liked some of it, mainly her early work. It was Michael Craig- Martin all over again.

Her canvases are huge. It made me wonder whether it is all about size. If they were smaller would they still have the same impact? If something is large do we immediately perceive it as being impressive? I always thought that large meant there was nowhere to hide, but now I’m not so sure; maybe it’s just a case of first impressions.

I love the way she paints flesh, in her earlier work that is. I look at my skin and I see those colours, usually with the advent of summer, with a sigh and a determination to keep as much of it covered up as possible, no matter the heat. I have those imprints once I have relieved myself from the claustrophobia of overly restrictive clothing. I can relate.

And then there’s the work which comes later, the last image being an example, at the more restrained end of the spectrum. I can’t connect with it; I think to myself, why paint such wonderfully realistic eyes and then treat the rest in the way that she has, bordering on abstract figurativism? I feel like she’s stuck on a fence; she wants to embrace the abstract approach but still wants us to know that she can paint a good eye. I find it jarring and slightly irritating, probably because it resonates with my own feelings of indecision.

Last night I was channel surfing, and came across Alan Yentob’s last interview which he made in March this year, two months before he died. I’m a great fan of his Imagine series; you can tell that he has a real interest in people. The interview is with Jenny Saville, on the eve of the opening of her Gaze exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna. It is only 10 minutes long.

During the interview, in which it rather ironically takes her an age to make eye contact with Yentob, Saville comments that she likes painting eyes; think of all the visual information and memories which go through this structure, something she has been intrigued by since she was a child. Making her heads so large allows her the freedom to experiment with the surface of the paint. From a distance there is the holistic nature of the head, but as you get closer the surface is heightened. She confirms that she is committed to figurative painting but is experimenting with how she can get realism in the face which goes beyond a simple rendering. Whilst looking at one of her large heads, she comments that there is something psychological going on in that you are convinced by the head because of the eyes – something happens in your brain that allows you to piece it together, and as you get closer to it you go on a journey. So she’s using the figurative to help the viewer make sense of the abstract?

That’s explains a lot, but I’m still not convinced by the eyes.

Trying to Move Forward

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I decided to try and progress the idea of automatic map-like drawing by experimenting with charcoal. I drew a single line and then rubbed it out and repeated the process numerous times, building up layers of mark-making. I then took some coloured pencils and traced a path randomly following the marks.

I’m not sure that it takes me much further forward in developing this line of enquiry. However, I enjoyed the process and I like the different nature of the coloured lines which I made consciously by making decisions as to which of the paths of faded charcoal to follow, almost like a dérive – they have a different character to the ones I make when I draw automatically.

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the course, about being half-way through and what I would like to have achieved by the time it finishes – what work I might produce by the end of it. At the moment, the concept of mapping is at the centre of it. I want to produce something which reflects all that I have learnt during the course, about myself and how I relate to the world around me. It will inevitably be an artifact, a map, of some shape or form, but I want it to reflect a process which is ongoing, that will never be complete, a piece of work in a state of flux, constantly subject to change, so there has to be some sense of impermanence, of it being unfinished. I also want to encompass the idea that memory plays a large part in the process and much like maps which are constantly being made and remade, so are the memories on which the map is based. The idea of layers and distorted imagery seem to be relevant in this respect.

I’ve thought about paper and canvas, maps being folded and rolled , but I don’t think that these offer the ability to create layers in the way that I want. I’m currently thinking that I may make a number of squares which together make up the grids of a map.

I used a pen to try and keep a marble on the paper. I like the lines which were made as a result – they have a sense of fluidity about them, much more than the lines that I have been making up until now. I’ve been meaning to experiment with the size of the dots at the intersections, to see if different sizes create a sense of perspective and three dimensionality. I don’t think that I have managed to achieve enough diversity in the sizes – it was very much an afterthought – I’ll try again another time. The image makes me think of something neural, cognitive mapping?

I took some inkjet compatible transparencies and drew some lines to see if I could create layers. Unfortunately, they are not totally clear – they have a milky appearance, probably because of the coating which allows them to be used in inkjet printers. I need to do some research to see if this is the case or whether I can source some others. Having said that, the milky film does cloud what’s underneath, making it hazy, almost like a memory that’s not quite there. Ultimately, I’m thinking that I could use layers of acrylic sheets over a background image, possibly together with milky transparencies, some can be drawn, painted and printed on, and I can also include some cyanotype images as well a negatives. I could cut holes in some layers to allow direct access to layers below. The use of reflective surfaces would also add depth.

I layered up the sheets using small magnets which not only hold them stacked together but also act as spacers between the layers. I had to add one in the middle because otherwise the sheets would sag – this won’t be a problem with rigid acrylic sheets. The magnets themselves suggest impermanence, the ability to be easily changed.

One-to-One No 1

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I had my one-to-one with Janet on 20th June.

She kicked off by suggesting that I look at ‘autoethnography’ [a qualitative research method in which researchers use their personal experiences to examine and understand cultural phenomena] as well considering the Tao; an approach to life which is more of a wandering.

I should aim to have few references which are not apparently connected and find a new pathway from synthesis which is uniquely mine.

She ran through her notes.

  • It has strong potential particularly its exploratory stance and willingness to probe instability
  • There is a compelling central enquiry into mapping as a dynamic, active process
  • Its strength is the questions it raises rather than its answers

I need to:

  • Work towards refining the focus
  • Tighten the language and clarify the relationship between the concepts eg what’s the relationship between Kierkegaard and Grayson Perry? Map/mapping, reality/memory
  • The title is too long and general – need to specify the argumentative focus – although the title can come at the end
  • Personal voice in the opening paragraph is authentic but need to transition more clearly into the critical voice – set down where I’m coming from to start to see it as a critical analysis of where I’m coming from rather than a ‘hello’
  • Define what I mean by autobiographical mapping
  • Consider the difference between mapping the self and representing the self.
  • Consider psychogeography and subjective cartography – artistic tradition sits at the intersection of these terms
  • Dodge & Kitchin – ontogenesis – links to autobiographical process lived and relived through memory
  • Look at Carol Tills – a geographer
  • Memory is VITAL ie alive
  • Consider adding another disciplinary depth – so far have art, cartography, philosophy – inter-disciplinary is good. Have breadth, now need depth.
  • Instability of memory related to instability of maps
  • Good concepts and thoughtful reflection
  • Need to read more in order to narrow down the focus and more rigorous integration of theory and artistic examples
  • Philosophers don’t know much about material dimensions – when making something it gives information to you. Am I being me?
  • Paul Ricoeur, Henri Bergeron

Hand Map

Kate McCalmont-Woods 1 Comment

In the accident, a 2 inch piece of glass managed to find its way into my daughter’s thumb via the underside of her wrist (luckily missing her artery) severing the main nerve and two tendons in her dominant right hand. Fortunately, she was taken to Salisbury Hospital, the regional centre for plastics. We make the 2 hour round trip every week for dressing changes and physiotherapy. Every week I take a photograph of her wound, mapping its healing, but also so that she can look at it when we get back home – she can’t look at her hand in the moment. It’s important that she reconnects her brain to her hand otherwise the hand map in her brain will be lost, as will any chance of recovering as much sensation as possible. Whilst some of the physio has been physical exercises to rehabilitate movement in the tendons, the majority of it is brain training: visualisation and mirroring exercises, analysing touch and sensation, using the good hand to teach the injured hand how things feel, teaching the brain the new language with which the hand is trying to communicate.

So, we decided that we would make something. I’ve been meaning to try out some tetrapak printing for a while. The process of incising seemed appropriate. I feel some responsibility – if I hadn’t suggested that she leave earlier, perhaps it wouldn’t have happened. The act of sewing, holding things together, helping things to heal.

I like that the wound is the subject, that the hand is suggested by the embossing. I debated whether to add more detail, more variety of tone but for once went with the less is more option. I used ordinary cotton thread but we decided that the colour wasn’t right so we went for embroidery thread – a brighter blue. As I was sewing I knew that it was too thick, that I should have separated it, but I just kept going. I knew it was wrong; she said it was wrong because now she couldn’t see the wound – I had obliterated the very thing that we were supposed to be embracing. I tried a couple more times until we decided that it was right. By then the holes were quite large but that in itself doesn’t matter – it reinforces the idea that often we have to endure further harm or pain in order to heal.

Leave The Party Whilst You’re Still Having Fun

Kate McCalmont-Woods 1 Comment

My mother always used to tell me to leave the party whilst I was still having fun.

Fortunately, we were able to make sure that Monty left the party whilst he was still having some fun. And, as I was sitting there in the garden with the sun on my back, stroking him as his heart stopped beating and his last breaths left his body, I thought to myself, not for the first time, why can’t we do this for people?

My mother would have wanted to have had the choice to leave the party while she was still having fun, but she couldn’t, and so she turned to face the corner and disengaged from the party until the bitter end.

I don’t think that I am afraid of death. But I am petrified as to the manner of it. Best to go quickly without warning. If that’s not possible, then I’d like the choice to leave the party whilst I’m still having fun. Who knows? When the time comes to face it, I may decide, what the hell, let’s party until dawn, mine sweep all the half empty glasses and wake up with the mother of all hangovers face down in a puddle of who knows what. But at least it will have been my choice.

Catching Some Rays II

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I had a look at a couple of my pinhole cameras to see if I had any results after a day and a bit – patience isn’t one of my virtues.

I scanned the photographic paper and converted the images from negative to positive in Photoshop, experimenting with colour and B&W. I’m quite pleased with the results, and have put out a few more pinholes with a view to leaving them for varying lengths of time. One thing I did learn is that South is not where I thought it was.

Catching Some Rays

Kate McCalmont-Woods 1 Comment

I’ve finally got around to doing something I’ve been wanting to try for ages – solargraphy.

I’ve been saving up used drinks cans in preparation, and today I managed to prepare some pinhole cameras and fix them in various parts of the garden. I took the top off the cans using a can opener, punctured a hole in the side using a pin and then inserted a piece of Ilford Multigrade satin photographic paper. I then sealed the unit using the bottom section of another securing it with gaffa tape

Hopefully I’ll get some images which show the movement of the sun across the sky, mapping its path – a perfect way to capture the passage of time within a single image. Maybe something like these:

Images from http://www.willgudgeon.com

I hope, but very much doubt!

Carbon Dating

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During my tutorial Jonathan mentioned carbon paper.

It brings back memories of a time when it was the only way to make copies, of secretaries putting a sheet between the top and bottom copies when they typed. Those were the days when the most technologically advanced piece of equipment in the office was a fax machine, which would regularly spew out reams of documents on thin, shiny paper, the print fading away to nothingness over time, thus requiring photocopies to be made, just like some present day shop receipts, so I’ve discovered.

So what to do with it? Recently, I have been reading about map-making and the act of mapping, considering the difference between the two. Contemporary cartographic theorists consider the process of mapping to be of paramount of importance, the creation of the artifact of the map being just one step in the process. In particular, psychogeographic mapping seeks to represent how individuals feel about the place they are in, a process in which subjective experience is prioritised over factual accuracy. Artist, Christian Nold, who uses a bio-mapping device to record individuals’ changes in emotional state, creates emotional maps of places, and one I’m particularly interested in is Brentford Biopsy because I used to live next door in Chiswick before I moved out of London. The project was undertaken in 2008 before areas of Brentford were redeveloped, and it’s really interesting to see how people felt about the area: it reveals so much more information than you would get by simply looking at a map: a map details the historic buildings and the riverside, but not how people respond to them, their view as to how they should be dealt with in future development, and how it actually feels to be there.

So, I’ve decided to embark on some emotional mapping of my own, not in relation to a sense of place (that may come later when I revisit my grandmother’s village) but of my day to day life. The bonus is that it means that I have to make a line everyday which will hopefully lead me to doing other making. I have drawn the contour lines using carbon paper (I‘m currently thinking that they may be too dark and overpowering, but we’ll see how it goes; it’s an experiment after all) and each one relates to an individual day.

I’ve already started, and it should take me up to the 12th of August. I’ve had to invoke some rules. There are three colours which represent three emotional states which I assess at the end of the day; green represents a neutral emotional state, orange positive and blue negative. Obviously within the generalised emotional states is a whole range of different specific emotions, but I decided just to keep it simple. Each line starts from the contour of the day in question and ends by going off the sheet otherwise it may be associated with more than one day. I draw each line for no longer than two minutes. I had thought about allowing myself however long I felt I needed and varying the intensity of the line depending on how I felt, but decided that would over-complicate things. The map will give an indication of how often I was in each emotional state over a period of time. I’m now thinking that I should have had another map on the go at the same time; not just to depict frequency but also depth of emotion. Maybe next time, if this works out.

I also found some watercolour paper which I had used for an unsuccessful cyanotype and experimented with it. I like the intensity of the colour against the blue background, and the way the coloured in areas look like countries on a map of the world.

The groupings of colours also remind me in a way of the Art Emotions Map which has been produced by Google Arts & Culture and the University of California, Berkeley, which I’ve spent a bit of time exploring and which reminds me of one of our Miro boards. My husband suggested that I could do something similar relating to life experiences, with getting married to him falling within ‘Wonder & Awe’. Oh, he does have a sense of humour!