Author: Chloe

Final Post

Throughout this brief, I have created an inconclusive explorative narrative in art-making. These artworks show the quick movement I have had stemming from just using a scratching tool to make lines. Through this exploration, I have attempted to use all elements and materials around me and have upon response to previous works, built up an ever-growing series of artworks that explore the different ways you can use scratching in the effect of art-making. 

The first artwork focuses on the idea of creative resourcefulness, and the alternative impacts a technique can make when approached differently. When scratching into paint on paper, embossment also occurs in the paper which proposes another avenue of art-making that can be taken into account. This artwork is an effect of this process, it is the product of embossment in my scratching made through monoprint. 

The second artwork is in response to the monoprint. Instead of the oil-based ink solely being used for monoprint purposes, you could also scratch into the ink and then transfer it onto a different material. This was a purpose to explore the ways scratching can be impacted through using different materials and processes of making, other than only using paint. 

The following two artworks are in response to the idea of scratching and removal and also in response to each other. When scratching, removal occurs. In response to the scratching used in monoprints and paint on paper, scratching removes sections of the pigment, wet or dry. These artworks show the exploration of scratching away an image, thus adding to the artwork. These artworks explore the impact that scratching can have when used for specific purposes and intent. The re-introduction of the combination of scratching and oil-based ink was purposeful in the intention to show the bold contrast that one technique can have when used in different ways. It is a representation of the possibilities of techniques when they are repeated and explored in different ways.

This final artwork is the direction I would hope to go if this brief were to be continued. The idea of removing through scratching and then using the scraps created from this technique is full of creative promise. I have many ideas as to how I could continue this work, one most excitingly being to create my own piece of paper using the scraps, and then going in with ink and scratching away at it again.

Lockdown

Today I decided to do some oil-based ink printing on my Toulouse-Lautrec works. Originally, I wanted to create an artwork that only incorporated my use of erasure, but once I had done this I found that I could do more to the artwork. I felt that they were only partially made. So today I did some printing on top of these artworks. I worked ink into four of my artworks but I have two definite favourites.

The first artwork I did was the artwork with the missing woman sitting down. I decided that I did not want to affect the actual image itself, but rather the thick border alongside the artwork. Once I making taped off the border, I moved in with the ink.

Because I was working in my own artistic aesthetics into the work, I wanted to make sure that it fit with the aesthetics of Toulouse Lautrec’s work as well. And so with some deliberating on the work and a look back on the blog I made about Toulouse Lautrec and the notes I made about his painting style, I decided that for this work I wanted to be quite gestural. To achieve this, I looked at the works I had up on the wall and found that mixing colour on the page was quite similar to the gestural aesthetics of Toulouse-Lautrec’s work. And so, using a square piece of card, I lathered the masked-off area with multiple different colours and mixed them on the page. I wanted my scraping to be similar to that of Toulouse-Lautrec’s paint strokes and so I made sure to be very loose and decisive with my scraping.

Once I was happy with the scraping, I went in with my scratching tool. Because the ink was still quite wet, and it would not dry for some time, I took my time scratching. Thinking about the origin of my scratching, I attempted to bring in a small amount of the gridwork I had carried with me throughout the brief. I also attempted to carve my scratching around the scrape shapes I had made. I found that unlike the acrylic paint I had used previously because the ink is oil-based it takes a long time to dry and so I was able to slowly work in my scratching and consider the placement of it in the effect of the compositional aspects of the scraping.

My next work was that of the erased woman dancing. I very much enjoy the blank shape of the woman and how, even without a form description, you can tell that the woman is captured in a state of movement. This atmosphere of movement and energy was very enticing to me and I wanted to use a monoprint technique to channel and enhance that sense of movement. And so using my estimation skills, I placed the image face down onto my thin rolled-out ink and attempted to emphasize this sense of movement. To achieve this, I wanted to be quick and random – not put too much thought into what lines I would do – so that the candidness of the image would not be lost. Through using quick action, I allowed my body to naturally decide where to emboss and where to leave untouched on the back. I found this exercise quite successful and surprisingly I managed to estimate correctly where the figure was placed.

I have also been thinking about my use of materials. I always like to keep any materials I remove from my artworks just in case I have use for them later on. In this circumstance, I managed to continue this by gathering all of the shavings that come off of my scratching work and put them all in a bowl. I have really wanted to incorporate these shavings into one of my works because I think that it could serve as an interesting avenue to explore. My artist model, Lee Krasner, has definitely inspired me to attempt this and see where it goes.

I decided to attempt to use my shavings in one of my Toulouse-Lautrec works. This is because while I was working on the artwork with only one woman depicted, I found that I was constantly gathering the shavings coming off of the work on top of her face. This obscured the woman and her features and introduced an atmosphere of anonymity. It is interesting because this obscuring effect is similar to that of my total erasure of the figures in previous works. But it proposes a juxtaposition in a sense because the shavings are the result of my removal of the image, and I then used them to add to the image.

I have also attempted to print on other images but I found these three to be my favorites and the ones most worth writing about. Ultimately I am very happy with the outcome of my artworks and I think that these will be the last exercises I attempt before the hand-in this week. It is quite saddening but I am very happy with the journey I have made to finish on these works.

Artist Model research

Lee Krasner is an artist who pioneered the abstract contemporary movement in New York, she is an artist who greatly impacted the contemporary community in New York. Her career as an artist was greatly overshadowed by that of her husband, Jackson Pollock. That, however, is not to say that her work was not recognized in the world of contemporary art.

Lee Krasner never allowed herself to be tied down by one distinct style of art. She was an artist who constantly sought inspiration from the world around her and the events in her life, like that of the death of Jackson Pollock whilst drunk driving. Lee Krasner was a painter artist who thrived off of her natural ability to make art. Her resourceful personality, found in both her art and her inspirations, allowed her to extend her art-making past that of starting and finishing an artwork. One of her works that most intrigued me is the mosaics she had made.

Using leftover scraps from her artworks, as well as old jewelry and trinkets, Krasner made an artwork using multiple resources. “When the bitter winter of 1947 forced Krasner to work in the living room (they could only afford to heat one floor of the house at a time), she decided to turn two old wagon wheels from the farm into mosaic tables, using leftover tesserae as well as bits of costume jewelry, keys, coins, and broken glass. (Barbican Gallery Guide)”.

Her ability to find art in the most abstract of inspirations really inspires me to attempt to use leftover scraps from my artworks. I have been working with oil-based ink and I have kept the rags that I used to clean up my work. I wonder how I could incorporate a resourceful perspective in my work. What scraps, pieces of art, am I disregarding because I am not considering the possibilities past paint on a canvas?

Web Links

https://www.moma.org/artists/3240

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/may/12/lee-krasner-artist-formerly-known-as-mrs-jackson-pollock-barbican-exhibition

https://www.anart4life.com/lee-krasner/ – Quote Reference.

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/mosaic-table-1947-%C2%A9-pollock-krasner-foundation-lee-krasner/aQEvEccWZLvrZw?hl=en

Lockdown

I have continued my work using the Toulouse Lautrec images that I have. My scratching has naturally surpassed the original intent of removing the focal point of the image, and come to an exploration of the impact that removing has. I have explored this impact by removing different aspects in each image.

In one of my images, I not only removed the outfit that the depicted woman is wearing but also incorporated my scratching in the background. In this background, I had a different approach than previously where I attempted a bold removal. Instead, I quietly incorporated the scratching in the background itself, making it a seamless work. This attempt was successful because I used this approach in an artwork of which I could remove aspects without it having a huge impact. Quite unlike Toulouse-Lautrec’s other works, this artwork only depicted that of one woman, with no other participants in the background. The background for this image had a series of different coloured shapes, the light and washy painting style worked very well with the distinct removal of my scratching.

I also attempted to work with the front cover of the book. I thought that this would be an interesting interaction with my scratching because my approach to using this book is removing the images that it holds. The first impression of this book is held on the cover, and so I think that this idea of removing it holds a further understanding of my work. The cover holds Toulouse-Lautrec’s name, as well as one of his artworks. With the removal of some of this front-page artwork, I think that my intentions have become more clear. The context is shown, and the intention is boldly implemented. In this artwork, I wanted to incorporate a series of different degrees of scratching. This works well because the artwork itself has multiple layers, foreground, midground, and background. One perspective for each scratching technique I attempted.

For the background, I completely removed any person who was depicted. This is because I have a running theme throughout my work that removes the depiction of people. I also very much enjoy the boldness of the white paper in a painting that is supposed to be a dark atmosphere. Next, I channeled the actual use of my scratching tool into my removal. The scratching tool I used was originally an etching tool that is used for printmaking, and typically when describing a form with etching there is the prominent use of crosshatching to achieve a tonal shift. And so, I attempted this on the midground depiction of a woman. I also removed her face to further emphasize my scratching in her body as it was quite easily overshadowed by the bold white background. For the focal point, I had a different approach than my previous works, instead of an entire removal of the form, I left it as is. This is an impact due to the composition of the work. Compositionally, the bold touched figure works well with the other forms. As well as this, I wanted to emphasize the impact that a focal point has on an artwork. And this is further explored through my other work.

I am excited about this series of works because I have more ideas as to what I can do with them. This includes incorporating some of the other mediums I have used in previous works, as well as some of the inspiration from the artist models I have researched.

Artist Model Research – an artist I am using for my scratching.

Toulouse-Lautrec was one of the most well-known post-impressionist artists in the early 19th century. His most renowned artworks are that of the bohemian life of Montmartre. His early entry into this lifestyle allowed Toulouse-Lautrec to emerge from the restrictions of studios and commissions and allowed him to explore and establish his true love for art. His art style flourished through his love of Paris and the party lifestyle in the area. This city allowed Loutouse-Lautrec to embrace his abnormalities of being a dwarf and also allowed him to meet and paint famous entertainers of the burlesque industry – one that was booming at the time.

Some of Toulouse-Lautrec’s most famous works depict that of the burlesque lounges and parties which he attended for many years. Toulouse-Lautrec sought to capture the movement of the body and the atmosphere of the parties he attended. He was greatly influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock printmaking as well as Edgar Degas. Degas works depicted a careful rendering of the anatomical structures of groups of figures closes together, attempting in this way, to capture a figure caught in a moment in time. Toulouse-Lautrec however, no longer bound by the careful descriptions of figures in lingering classical art guidelines such as Degas was, was able to embrace the idea of movement shown through a loose usage of colour and line. His form descriptions capture the essence of movement through his juxtapositions of intense colour, and lose representation of anatomical correctness.

A common technique that Toulouse-Lautrec adopted was neglecting to render the legs of those he depicted. Whether this is a result of his own lack of efficient legs or if it was a product of his aim to capture movement, the lack of solid rendering allows for a further capturing of the essence of movement. “The result was an art throbbing with life and energy, that in its formal abstraction and overall two-dimensionality presaged the turn to schools of Fauvism and Cubism in the first decade of the 20th century.“

I very much enjoy studying Toulouse-Lautrec because his art forms are very expressive, and although his art is not that of realism, he is able to capture the unique forms of bodies in a true candid state. His gestural brushwork allows for a description of texture and movement, but without the laborious work of true detailed description. I enjoy his use of colour and how he utilizes it to communicate more than just a shade of skin tone, or the lighting in the room. His genuine understanding of how colour can not only influence form but also the atmosphere is one of the reasons why his artworks are so eyecatching and mesmerizing. You can see the individual strokes he made, a narrative as to his own experience of the parties – expressive, energized, gestural, dominating. The multiple elements of movement not only in the subject matter but also in his painting style show the speed at which Toulouse-Lautrec described these scenes. He is painting them like a memory or a moment in time that has quickly passed.

Web Links

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/toulouse-lautrec-henri/

https://artsandculture.google.com/theme/7-things-you-didn-t-know-about-henri-toulouse-lautrec/rALibNRB0espLQ?hl=en

https://www.biography.com/artist/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-de-Toulouse-Lautrec

Lockdown

Robert Rauschenberg’s idea to completely remove an image was something that I am quite interested to try out myself. This idea of removal as the only artistic process used to make an artwork is very different from what I had originally been doing during this brief. My approach has always been adding to the work by scratching through wet mediums. I think that I would be able to attempt my own versions of ‘The Erasure of William de Kooning’, except in my own way. I am quite interested in adopting Rauschenberg’s preference in using another artist’s image to work from and so, I will also be doing this.

During my search for resources and materials I could use for this brief in lockdown, I managed to find an old paperback book about Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. I had this book because I very much like his painting style and have also studied him before. Because my resources are limited, I decided to use this book with his paintings as my artworks to erase.

My first attempt at this was isolated from my scratching technique because I wanted to explore the ways that you could erase an artwork. For this exploration, I used three different tools to use for my removal. My first choice for a removal tool was an eraser – the same tool that Rauschenberg had used. I briefly attempted this on a comic book. I found that the erasure technique worked, but it was a very lengthy process and the rubber constantly had to be wiped of ink. My next attempt was using masking tape to remove the ink. Placing it on the comic book page, I found that if I hadn’t taken away some of the stick from the page then it ripped the paper, but upon making the tape less sticky, it was not very successful in removing the image. My final experimental attempt was made using sanding paper. For this process, I used one of the images from my book of Latous Lautrec because the comic book paper would not have been able to withstand the roughness of the sanding paper. I found that this process was a lot more successful in removing the images, I think a part of it is to do with the strength of the paper I had used. The sanding technique was a very long process because the paper kept catching in the sandpaper thus making it smooth instead of rough – which is what I needed. The sanding technique was by far my favorite because you can visually see the movement of the sandpaper when it was removing the image.

Once I had removed the entire image by sanding it back, I decided to return back to scratching and attempted to erase Toulouse-Lautrec’s images using my scratching tool. I found that when I removed the entire image through sanding, I was missing opportunities to manipulate the image itself. I was more interested in how you could affect the artwork by taking away seemingly important parts of the work. And so, for my first two following artworks, I scratched away the entire focal point of the image. The outcome of this process was very interesting because the concept of erasure is taking away something entirely. It is a process of removal. And so, in theory, by removing the focal point of the artwork I remove the relevance of the focal point. But I found that in these artworks, by removing the focal point by scratching it away, I made it much more dominating and noticeable. I find this concept really interesting and I am keen to explore the impact on Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings when I take away different sections of the works.

Artist Model Research

Robert Rauschenberg was an artist who explored the limits of art-making. In the 1950s Rauschenburg set out to attempt an artistic concept of removing art from its canvas, focusing on the idea of removing marks as opposed to making them. Rauschenberg first attempted this idea with his own art. Although he managed to complete the removal process, he was unhappy with the removal process being only half the work. He found that in order for this experiment to succeed, he needed an artwork that was significant in its own right.

So with this idea to create an artwork using only a removal process, he decided he had to approach artists which he most respected to attempt his removal exploration on their work. One of these artists was Willem de Kooning, an artist whom he knew personally and had the utmost respect for. Upon approaching the artist, Rauschenberg asked for one of his drawings so that he could erase it. Willem de Kooning gave him a drawing made with charcoal, oil paint, pencil, and crayon, to make it difficult to erase. Once possessing the drawing, Robert Rauschenberg attempted the laborious work of erasing the drawing.

“The power of Erased de Kooning Drawing derives from the allure of the unseen and from the enigmatic nature of Rauschenberg’s decision to erase a de Kooning. Was it an act of homage, provocation, humor, patricide, destruction, or, as Rauschenberg once suggested, celebration? Erased de Kooning Drawing eludes easy answers, its mysterious beginnings leaving it open to a range of present and future interpretations.”

I chose Robert Rauschenberg as an artist model because I find his exploration of erasure similar to what I am doing now. I like how he has decided to use artworks that have their own artistic integrity and removing the entire concept of that integrity. I find it interesting how he looks at artworks and sees them not as something to build onto, but something which to take away from. And that doesn’t necessarily remove the entire value of the work, but it brings to question what is art-making.

I am quite inspired by his work and I also think that these ideologies could help me to further extend my explorations of scratching into an act of removal. I most often use scratching to make an image, but I have not yet explored how I can remove an image using scratching. I am interested to see where this can take me and I would like to see what my own removal processes will look like upon using this inspiration.

Web Links.

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-robert-rauschenberg-erased-de-kooning

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/post-war-american-art/new-york-school/a/robert-rauschenberg-erased-de-kooning-drawing

https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2013/march/01/how-robert-rauschenberg-erased-a-willem-de-kooning-and-created-a-landmark-of-postmodernism/

Week 4

Today I began working at home during lockdown! I was lucky because I managed to find lots of tools that could help me continue my work. One of my favorite finds was some printmaking equipment that I had from last year. This included an entire selection of oil-based inks as well as an ink roller!. I also managed to find myself an unused oven tray that was flat and smooth enough to roll out my ink on. I also managed to find some old pieces of calico and an old sheet with gridded circles on them which I could cut up and use for my printing.

Scratching into Ink

Today I started off with rolling out some ink in purple color to scratch into. I came up with the idea to use oil-based ink to scratch into because I was making monoprints for my minor subject. I wanted to use a thin amount of ink because I was interested in how it would transfer onto paper as well as material. The outcome was interesting as the ink was better able to transfer onto a more textured surface aka the material.

I also decided to create a thicker surface of ink so that I could see the difference between using a thin layer as well as a thick layer. Obviously, oil-based products dry a lot more slowly and are shinier when dried so it was interesting comparing that medium to acrylic paint. I found that the thicker layer was more effective when transferring it onto paper and material but it also moved around a lot when pressure was applied so it impacted the scratching lines a bit.

Reflection

I thought that it was really interesting extending the idea of scratching into different mediums. I still very much enjoy exploring how the scratching technique can be impacted by using different materials to make it. I very much enjoy the concept of using ink to create scratching artworks and so I think that it is something I would like to continue into my next artwork.

Monoprint

Because I was comparing acrylic paint to oil-based ink I decided that I could make both an oil-based ink artwork and an acrylic artwork at the same time through a monoprint technique. To do this I rolled out a thin layer of ink onto the stainless steel – the thin ink allowed for less oil transfer upon interaction with the paper. Next, I painted a thick layer of acrylic paint onto a piece of A4 paper and placed that on top of a clean sheet of A4 paper. Lining them up perfectly, I placed both sheets of paper on top of the rolled-out ink. Next, I grabbed a pencil and used the flat edge of the end of the pencil to scratch lines onto the acrylic paint. Through scratching lines into the acrylic paint, the embossment of the pencil then pushed my piece of paper underneath my painted paper into the ink, successfully transferring my scratches onto my bottom paper as well. When I had finished my scratching, I removed my top paper so that I could then carefully remove my bottom paper which was pressed into the ink. When I peeled up my bottom layer of paper from the oil, it revealed a mirrored image of the scratches I had done on my acrylic paint. There were however a few differences between the two works. On my bottom sheet, the medium was oil paint, the colour was burnt sienna as opposed to purple, and the scratches were inverted. On my top sheet, the painted acrylic was thick and dense, the scratches had lifted the paint, and the background was completely coloured.

Reflection

I was really excited about this because I enjoyed combining these processes and I felt very creative in doing so. I thought that the images helped to clearly communicate the visual impact of the scratches as well as how this technique could be impacted through using different mediums and processes. I really liked the concept of making two mirroring artworks in one. And so, I am considering attempting this same technique except through using two sheets of fabric as opposed to paper to explore the difference. As mentioned before, a more textured surface can transfer even with little to no pressure, and scratching back the paint would be interesting as the fabric can absorb wet mediums very easily.

For my lockdown workspace, I have had to set up my art in the main living room. I have found it tough to maintain a clean workspace because it is very small in comparison to the room I have in the studio.

I have left a lot of paints and tools at uni that I could have used at home which I have found difficult. I have had to resort to using personal acrylic paint and oil-based ink as opposed to the house paint I was mainly working with. I did manage to find lots of different tools I could use from around the house. This includes sanding paper, sharp objects to scrape, leaves and sticks from outside, etc. I also managed to find lots of old books and comics with beautiful images that could be nice to work with. I am keen to keep looking around for some more objects to work with but I think that for now, I can see where these materials can take me in my exploration.

I am already finding it difficult to continue to work off of the artwork I had done in the studio because I didn’t manage to get good photos of them or bring them home with me. I can work from memory because I do know what I am doing but I would find it more insightful if I had more of my own work to gain inspiration from. I enjoy making comparisons with my work and seeing the visual narrative I make through my explorations. It helps me to extend my thinking and hone in on specific aspects of my work that could be interesting to further delve into.

But for now, this is the space I have to work with, I am excited to see what influence my new materials and environment will have on my art.

Continuation of my Scratching

Today I continued my scratching technique and after a conversation with Amber about my work, she said that my rock renditions with scratching are definitely in the right direction. I was instructed by her to remove any images off of my wall that weren’t related to my scratching so that I could have complete inspiration from only those works. She also rearranged my works in an aesthetic exhibition arrangement so that I considered them as actual artworks as opposed to only exploration.

Doing this made it a lot easier to continue my work by using inspiration from my pieces. This is important because the task for this week was to make artworks in response to something you liked in your previous made work. It is quite similar to that of the Palimpsest Brief that we had in semester one.

Today I explored the use of colour. I painted yellow for my first layer and once dried, painted blue on my second and scratched away. This artwork explored how I can use scratching in different ways, not just to describe an image but also to create a tonal difference through removal.

I also explored my use of gridding through layering. On my first layer of paint, I scratched out a series of lines both horizontal and vertical, and then repeated this process again on top but with a different colour for my new layer. I was interested in seeing whether the scratching would reveal my scratching underneath the second layer. I found that I could see the scratching underneath which revealed the white of the paper but I think that thicker lines would create more of an impact because the etching tool that I was using created very thin lines.

Today was a successful day because I found myself having fun with this exploration and I also managed to complete a few works that I was happy with. I am keen to come in tomorrow and continue my art-making because I am interested in further exploring how different paints (house paint and acrylic paint) react to this technique – how fast do they dry/not dry? how would the drying time affect the scratching if I were to draw off of an image?

Note* I wasn’t able to take photos of last week’s work or today’s work because my phone’s back camera broke over the weekend.

This was the only photo I was able to take which was on my front camera hence the bad quality.