Katherine Jones

Wonderful. Meet an artist, hear them speak, view their work, and then have a tutorial with them.

Katherine was very encouraging on many levels. We discussed Haunting 6, the jacket, and explored the use of symbols in our work. Mine is a shape with three holes for buttons.

Katherine loved Wayward Sisters. She also asked if I sketched or wrote as a way of recording ideas. It's a good question. How can you say my sketch book is in my head? I realise that I work through a great deal of my imagery in my thinking process. I'm not sure this is the best approach, though… It's challenging to respond to a thought.

I loved her comment about following what comes to you after making a piece of work. To follow the intuitive inklings,

Overprinting Weyward sisters.

I am testing out the idea of there and not there. Absence and presence.

To do this I'm going to screen print the Weyward Sisters using overprint varnish onto the digital print of my forest. It will be interesting to see how this works.

Halcyon Gallery

This was amazing. The image in the doorway caught my eye as did the title. (Was that Joan ‘what’s her face’ from Nuns story?)

Entering the Halcyon was quite an experience. I hadn’t excepted such grandeur or indeed to be greeted so warmly by the attendants.

The art works were breathtaking.

Apart from the Andy Warhols I found myself riveted by the holographic immersion work by Dav..…

Then there were the reimagining of classical themes by Pedro Paricio. This was quite timely as his work showed classical paintings of figures with their heads and faces ‘rubbed out’. In my mind this just didn’t work. But hey? Maybe I’m biased here. Either way it was good to see the alternatives to my personal enquiry into figure representation.

Cristea Roberts Gallery

Introduction with Paul Coldwell.

Insight into woodcut and large scale prints by Christiane Baumgartner

Planning

So here’s where I am am where I could go.

• Look at the sisters in movement. Aquire the skills to be able to photoshop onto background.

• Varnish. Develop a screen of the sisters and print it with clear varnish. This may lead to a new development. Test it out

• Witch in a bottle. Drawing inspiration from Esse Devlin and artist Richard ???? Create a witch in a bottle.

• Work up Shaman. Read Emma Wilby on Shamanisn.

• Draw inspiration from Horners painting bringing in the mistletoe.

Why do I feel so sad?

This is dragging on. This interminable sadness.

I can’t get to it or fathom it. I want to run away to stop the world, step off. I think I need to write this in my journal and see if it will bring something up for me.

Could I bring it to conscious awareness?

This feeling lasted a fair few weeks. On reflection, I think I was more affected by my son’s relationship breakup than I had realised. Grief. Plain and simple.

On the button.

It’s all about the buttons. If ever there was a metaphor for my ghost it’s the three bright sparkly buttons on the uniform.

Ironically…. This image sort of sums everything up. Encircled by a wall. Dammed off. Repressed. The physical manifestation of an internal haunting.

Silent Critique

An exhausting day.

But I have to say I loved the format and it was wonderful to see everyone’s work.

The idea was to display one piece of work then listen for ten minutes without saying anything until the time was up. We were allowed to take notes and indeed record the conversation.

I was surprised by some of the comments, in a good way.

Terrifying. Cinematic. Spooky. Dark. Ethereal.

Then there were all the film references.

Blair Witch and the Ring. Frankly if my imagery is evoking that sort of response I am pleased.

Or should I be worried? Is it all too obvious. I need time away from the imagery to let it process.