Learning Outcome 1:
Develop and realise a self-directed programme of learning which draws from wide-ranging subject knowledge. (AC Knowledge, AC Process)

Overview:

Since the Unit 1 Assessment, my practice has continued to transform and develop in several important respects.This has been helped by my decision not to continue with the weekly exercise of self-accountability, and not to follow my restrictive Work Plan that accompanied my Study Statement (also see LO3 below). Instead, I chose to prioritise process by adopting a drifting approach in which I am drawn to the things that naturally intrigue me, rather than setting myself goals that are themselves an ‘outcome’, or an expectation to be achieved.

I continue to be inspired by everything and anything. I have attended quite a few exhibitions over the past few months, have read, watched documentaries, and carried out research for my Research Paper. The Research Paper, which was born out of aspects of my practice, has confirmed thoughts that I have had about the direction that my work might be headed towards (also see LO2 & LO3 below).

Whilst memory and the lived experience continue to play an important role, I am aware that many ideas and work from Unit 1 are informing my current practice, in particular, several aspects of the Low Res Week and the Interim Show have influenced my thinking.

I have continued to embrace experimentation, and by doing so I am consolidating my transition from an artist who was preoccupied with outcome and struggled with process, to one who now seeks to privilege process over product – this will be where I will learn and develop the most. I have learnt to be comfortable with uncertainty and to embrace the incomplete. I now seem to be naturally moving away from the figurative and actively seeking ways in which to introduce the accidental and the uncontrollable. I sense that in the coming months, whilst I will still experiment, more importantly, I will start to look at combining the various techniques and media with which I have been experimenting in order to produce work which is more resolved (also see LO3 below).

Specifics:

Interim Show

• Continuing to experiment with cyanotypes by reprocessing photos and satellite imagery, adopting techniques used by two artists I had come across:
  • Parental Loss
  • Out of the Blue III
  • Interim Show

• Inspired by a quote, experimenting with Procreate, and reprocessing previous ink experiments from Unit 1 and documenting process: Motherhood I

• Making an interactive piece and resolving how it could be presented: Interim Show

Low Res

• An exercise from a Low Res session and Unit 1 feedback feeding into the development of an idea: Raita Bitless

• The library dérive uncovers a book of Gerhard Richter’s drawings which later influences my work

Art Classes:

I have continued to attend weekly oil painting classes when I can. This has been a revelatory experience: I have found myself resisting the figurative and trying to find a way that works for me but that still allows me to complete the task, for example, by restricting my palette and disrupting the process:

• As I Was Going to St Ives – interplay between graphite and oil paint
• Just Because – abstraction from collage
• Rule Breaker – using a rag instead of a brush
• Water – deliberately creating a textured ground to disrupt the layers above

Artists & Exhibitions:

• Donald Rodney – reflecting on selfhood & inheritance
• Arthur Neal – figurative v. abstract; charcoal and printmaking; the benefits of working on a small scale
• Jenny Saville – matters of scale & figurative v. abstract
• Louise Bourgeois – matters of scale, setting and reflecting on motherhood
• Summer Exhibition – attraction to mapping and maplike motifs
• Van Gogh & Keifer – matters of scale & materiality
• Ithell Colquhoun – Surrealist methods: automatic drawing, decalcomania & parsemage, which led to experiments with graphite on water and using soap bubbles.
• Edward Burra – layered watercolour; Spanish and Second World Wars
• Lee Miller – Second World War photography
• Tate Modern, Various – Christian Schad, John Tunnard, Maliheh Afnan, and Giacometti
• Do Ho Suh – layers, grids and threads
• Richard Long – maps and inner landscapes
• Emily Kam Kngwarray – map like mark-making and colour

Experimentation:

• Using a photo to experiment with graphite and masking, frottage and automatic drawing – influenced by the Richter drawings from the Low Res, and early thoughts incorporating mapping practices – Solitude.  

• Developing work from Solitude above to explore further the specific mapping features of gridlines and coloured automatic line drawing; thinking how to incorporate layers and other media such as oil paint; and documenting my process – Rubbing It Out.

• Developing this idea further by experimenting unsuccessfully with oil paint and exploring cutouts and masks – What Was I Thinking?.

• Developing the mapping idea further with coloured automatic lines, gridlines, connecting dots at intersections and the inclusion of contour lines that have previously appeared in my doodling in Unit 1; considering how mapping processes appear in the work of Miró – Late Night Ramblings

• Hitting a developmental dead end using layers of charcoal automatic lines and documenting my process; experimenting with a marble on paper; thinking about my trajectory and the development of a project for the end of the course and exploring how layers might be used – Trying to Move Forward.

• Experimenting with video and photography:
  • whilst out on walks: Dappled ; Seeing the Wood for the Trees; and If You Go Down to the Woods Today;
  • whilst in the car, experimenting with applying layers and reprocessing footage, taking screen shots to create still images that are abstract in nature – In a Flash.
  • slow shutter photograph reprocessed using Procreate – Ice and A Slice

• Influenced by my research, creating an emotional map over a prolonged period of time that revealed negative bias and documenting my process; reprocessing and experimenting with an old, unsuccessful cyanotype – Carbon Dating & Carbon Dating II

• Blind drawing using carbon paper – Making a Face

• Tetrapak printing, embossing and stitching in the context of neural mapping and injury; processing through the process – Hand Map

• Cutting out using photographs and a map – You Can Take the Girl Out of Essex and Siblings

• Reductive linocut for the Editions Sale; deciding on an image; documenting and reflecting on the process and its connections with my Research Paper – Prints; Testing Plan A; Edition; and By My Hand.

Learning Outcome 2:
Articulate a thorough understanding of your research and establish an informed critical position. (AC Communication)

The subject of my Research paper evolved directly from my practice and has, in turn, fed directly back into it (please see LO1 & LO3 for specific references).

I am intrigued by the role memory plays in making up our sense of self and its fallibility; how it is open to suggestion by others and the act of retrieving it. Mapping and mapping processes have begun to feature in my work (see LO1 above) and I realised that this was grounded in my Unit 1 feedback. This naturally led to an interest in the theory behind cartography. I became interested in the use of maps and mapping processes in art and looked at a host of artists, some of whose work I can imagine revisiting and influencing what I do in the future.

I then reflected on my position of developing a predominantly autobiographical art practice, in which I seek to understand and represent the self whilst relying on an unstable memory and using mapping processes. I then extended my thinking to include the eventual representation and the impact of materials and their relationship with the self in the act of making.

It took me quite a long time to think of a connection, or an angle from which to approach it, but eventually I came up with their commonality: they can all be said to be ontogenetic. This made the idea even more interesting and raised the question: how can an artist represent the self in a perpetual state of flux whilst using processes which themselves are not only changing the self but are also being affected by each other? My research, discussion and conclusion are set out in my Research Paper.

Learning Outcome 3:
Analyse and critically reflect on your practice and its context. (AC Enquiry)

I don’t think that there is a clear distinction between practice and context; each one influences the other. I am my practice, and so I regularly post about life, lived experience, my work and process.

On me:

• Regular self-accountability to keep on track: 17/2; 25/2; 4/3; and 22 & 29/4

• Realising that I can’t go on like this: 15/4 and Wondering About Wandering

• Learning about myself in the process and how I think: Sorry, Are You Talking To Me?

• My difficulty in deciding on a course of action before researching and considering all the options: The Paradox of Choice

• My limited attention span and trying to decide what really interests me: Computer Says ‘No’

• Reflecting on family history and inheritance: Bus Replacement Service

• Childhood memory: In A Flash and Raita Bitless

• About motherhood: Arachnid

• A sense of place: You Can Take the Girl Out of Essex

On the Low Res, its after effects, and how I felt about my practice:

• The feeling of anti-climax, and the need to process before being able to carry on: Back to Life, Back to Reality

• Attempting to get back into making but having feelings of inadequacy: A Little Fish…

• Frustration at not having made anything and the need to reflect and unpack my thoughts: Out of Sorts

• A lack of direction and confusion: Where Do We Go Now?

• Reflecting on connection: Six Degrees of Separation

• Please also see blog posts under Low Res in LO1 above

On rejection and failure: Am I Bovvered?

On online sessions:

• The gap between intention and execution: Mind the Gap

• Reflecting on the role of writing in my practice: Keep Making Art

• Group crit: Maps

• Witness : Process is important but what is more important is for me and others to witness it (but note my current thinking in A Test of Memory).

• Considering the act of engaging with material: Clay!

• Trying to make sense of how to value art in terms of time, effort, content and materials and deciding that it doesn’t really matter – what matters is that I think that it is worth making: Making Sense of Worth

• I seek contact zones which interest me and take me out of my comfort zone: Making Contact

• My ideas come from my lived experience and are connected in a network or web: A Light Bulb Moment, Or Is It?

On making:

• Wondering About Wandering: reflecting on the making process and the development of work

• The process of making embodies memories within the artefact: Time Capsule

• Rather than listing them all again here, please also see the blog posts under Interim Show, Art Classes and Experimentation in LO1 above.

On my practice in general:

• Considering whether I need to amend my Study Statement to reflect my current practice: Loose Ends

• Reflecting on what is interesting me and how it ties in with my Research paper: Wayfinding

• Processing my tutorial in which we discussed the strong childhood memories of staying with my grandmother which were prompted by the Low Res – Raita Bitless; the elements of mapping which have appeared in my work and how this relates to my Research Paper; and my difficulty in making a decision: Wondering About Wandering

• Reflecting on my most recent tutorial – my contradictions; the importance of process; my Research paper; my possible movement towards mixed media and layers; and the idea of re-processing/ remediating: A Test of Memory

• Reflecting on the end of the unit – the ideas that I would still like to explore and develop (Loose Ends) and how I feel about the development of my practice (Reflecting on Reflecting).

On Unit 1 Feedback: 15/4; Maps; Raita Bitless; and Reflecting on Reflecting

On the Research Paper:

• Reflecting on the Research paper and trying to understand why it ended up being last minute: There’s No Time Like The Present

• Using AI with caution: What’s In A Name

On other artists and the art world:

• The rise of the celebrity artist: Is It All In The Name?

• Questioning scale and its impact on the viewer: The Eyes Have It; Summer I

• Rather than list them again here, please also see blog posts under Artists & Exhibitions in LO1 above

3-Minute Video

I have made a 3-minute video reflecting on my practice: Reflecting on Reflecting.