Due to the fact that memories are usually not whole, and there are normally seperate thoughts and memories which make up a larger memory of experience I thought it would be interesting to research artists who use collage. During the second live brief, I started to explore more printmaking techniques which combined photographic techniques, which I am extremely familiar with, such as photo-etching and photo-polymer. But also drawing based printmaking techniques, such as aquatint and soft-ground etching, this gave a collaged look. I want to incorporate this more into this project because I truly believe this is like how memories are. Somethings are remembered clearly and photographic, and others are like a pencil sketch, or a bit blurred like a water colour etching, which I could use spit-bite technique, where one paints with acid over an aquatinted plate. This is a technique I would really like to explore with this project, and we began discussing in the printmaking workshops during my last project. As my work develops for this project, especially as I will have a delay for getting back into the workshops, as having to self isolate when I get back from the US at the beginning of term, I will be in contact with the technicians to discuss options. Because we have already begun discussing how they can accomodate a larger scale project with limited time in the studio, like maybe incorporating more dry-point, using hard-ground instead of softground in certain scenarios where I can take the plate home and draw on it instead. And how after I have aquatinted plates in the workshop, they can provide some stop-out and other varnishes so I can take home and draw on them then. Already discussing that even though the most expensive option, but also less experimental as the plate cannot be changed or added to, photopolymer may be the best option for my photo-images.
Anyway off-topic a bit. Next is going to be a selection of collage work which I find inspiring and I think could bring beneficial ideas to this project.
I absolutely love these collages from the Artist Julien Pacaud. I love the compositions of them, and how he has incorporated text, images and textures, as I have started to explore this with my memory sketches. But they have a feeling of being disjointed but being cohesive at the same time. Looking at these images gives me some inspiration, and also how to incorporate some of the imagery I started to explore in the minor project. But I also loved the feeling of the black and white of these imagery, I found a lot of his other works and projects which incorporated a lot of colour came too much and I preferred the simplicity of these images.
Pledge 1968 Robert Rauschenberg 1925-2008 Purchased 1985 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/P77108
These are works from the artist Rober Rauschenberg, and here I found his works inspiring because of the mix of photographic and more markmaking techniques. But also the use of print, the image in the top right is a lithograph and the image at the bottom is a screen-print, with painted marks over the top. As I use more intaglio techniques for photographic images, and it is a process I prefer, but the idea of using screen-print off adding pops of colour.
These have started to give me ideas how to make more elegant compositions using ‘collage’.