Month: March 2021

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FMP – Enquiry and Research – Focusing My Project

When beginning my research on PTSD and also thinking about my own experiences, I realised I needed to focus my research and topic more. Due to the fact PTSD mainly occurs due to the way memories formulate themselves during traumatic events and experiences, I decided looking into how trauma affects your memories and then how PTSD presents those memories to you would be an interesting focusing point. This then opens up the topic into many different fields, including scientific, psychology, mental health, the media, but also looking into a more broader space of how different artists have tackled the idea and representation of memory and how do we record memories e.g. photographs and diaries.

I am also wanting to reach out to others who have experienced traumatic events, and see how their mind has processed their memory of the time and how they have dealt with it because we are all unique. However, due to the current social climate and context of Sarah Everards death in South London which has opened up the topic of how women lack a feeling of safety and opens up the conversation to unfortunate reality in how woman live in fear today, due to the nature of the crimes committed against woman. But also, due to the fact the way the mind processes traumatic events, that it is extremely normal for one to remember a whole traumatic experience, or none at all. And this is used against woman in courts and in the media to insinuate the belief that woman make up and falsely report men of rape. This is one of the reasons I believe it is important to explore this topic to help dissolve this misconception.

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Print, Print, Print

As I had 6 different plates, therefore I used the mixing and adding of different plates to create several different images, this was to create the frames in my animation, and to create a bridge between the images. I choose to print these on newsprint sommerset, the colour of the paper really offset the pink and pushed the black back.

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First Prints

Below are photographs of my first proofs of my multiplate image, I used a an aquatint soft ground plate for the pink and a photo etching plate for the black photo image. After this I decided to use a photopolymer plate for my other photo images but keeping the other plate the same. Even though these plates are more expensive, they are 5x quicker to make, and I had very little time, and I was wishing to create a little animation from these prints, so I needed more than one image. Also they have smoother tone instead of the bitmap.

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The Print Process – Test Plates

When originally starting this process of printing I had in my mind I would use two photo-etching plates, both in zinc, however I knew I wanted to experiment with these images. This is because I am wanting to explore and experiment more in preparation for my FMP. Using photoetching plates would allow me to add and change as I can always add another ground, or aquatint or image. We originally started off create two mini plates for photo etching (I am not going to explain the process here, as I have in many other posts in the past) but also one plate with aquatint, where I can explore mark making and tone through different dips in the acid.

I then experimented with taking the black photo plate and using a softground on top to then use pressure from a pencil drawing ontop to create a soft sketch of the flower underneath. Here I had a breakthrough, I loved the affect and the slight distortion however I decided to use it on the second plat, which was going to be pink in colour to set this drawing slightly into the background.

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Same concept – different process

After my 1-2-1 tutorial, I had to get thinking, I was stressed and anxious and my mind was at a completely block for a moment. But after a walk, and me picking up some lilies to experiment with, and the idea I should work with the techniques which worked so well for me in the project.

I changed from lotus to lily, even though I prefer the concept more of the lotus. Because it would be extremely hard for me to get my hands on a lotus, however I was easily able to order some lilies off the net for same day delivery, and I also was able to pick some up from tesco. So now my living room is full of lilies which haven’t bloomed yet. I choose the lilies, not just because of the practical reasons but they have similar connotations and symbolisms of fertility, rebirth and also of motherhood, with the meanings Greek mythology and many other religions.

At the moment, because the lilies haven’t bloomed, and I want to start experimenting with print tomorrow when the workshops reopen. I took one which was starting to open and broke the petals and the stamen off and then positioned them in a photo copier. So had the same idea of fracturing and not being whole like my last sketches, but more organic and simple. I scanned it a few different times to experiment with composition, before editing it in photoshop to get rid of the background but keeping some of the noise and getting and levels, brightness and contrast right. I think for this image, which I kind of love at the moment, I am going to photo-etch it onto zinc, to keep some of those pure whites and I am also thinking about how I could introduce some colour into this image.

I have been wanted to create a multi-plate image, something I haven’t truly done before, therefore as I was thinking about adding colour, I was looking at how it could be affective, but also how just one colour could impact the image. The next image is just with the colours split into a layer of black and a layer of pink.

And the next image is experimenting with the pink fading in and out like I did on my first experimentation ideas.

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Live Brief 2 – Initial Ideas and Sketches

I decided to choose the brief, A case for her and refinery 29. This project is about menopause and looking at all ages and how it affects women, but also trans men. I picked this project due to the fact I suffer with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), and I have a personal experience of the hormone in balance, but also being told at the age of 19 that it would be incredibly difficult it would be to have children naturally. Also how this affects my relationship. How my boyfriend found it very difficult to come to terms with as biological children is very important to him, and the pressure I feel plus the fear of resentment if I can’t have children.

While researching the topic, I found there was a lot of information about the symptoms and what it is, there was not a lot on how difficult it may be and how it can feel. Therefore I decided to go down this emotional route instead. I found the quote ‘I didn’t want to have to tell them I was flawed, an insufficient woman’ by a young woman who experienced early menopause. I could relate to this, as my boyfriend knew of my diagnosis before we entered a relationship however it is a conversation I always avoid because I am scared he is going to resent me if I can’t have children, and how I don’t feel good enough just because of how my ovaries operate, not well.

I started researching symbols on fertility, and got down the route of flowers and mythology. I got the idea of using a lotus, as it is a symbol of fertility, but also birth and rebirth, and female sexuality. The goddess Isis in Egyptian mythology was born from a lotus flower. But also the idea of even though when they grow in the dirtiest water they still produce the most beautiful flowers, and I thought that was also a good metaphor that even though the circumstances may not be great, and being told you can’t have children is difficult on yourself and your partner, you are still a woman and beautiful.

I then started experimented with, for now, a photograph of a lotus, and breaking the image into shards like it has been broken apart, and with pink fading in and out of the image. I experimenting with different compositions, with the image having a darker background to fill in the shard shapes, and overlaying the shards. I am looking at printing these, using some different methodologies for some of the shards to create difference to texture especially if I overlay it. But also we are not all the same and we are multi-dimensional people. I want to create a plate for each shard, so the deboss affect is around each shape.