Secrets - Part Deux

So another secret project is enough off the ground to talk about.
Secret project 4 as I have said is printmaking based. Taking inspiration from (as usual) postcards and touristic imagery and using a monoprinting process called drypoint I have recreated a selection of my drawings into black and white prints.

It took a little while to hit on drypoint as a good process for what I wanted. I tried a woodcut but the result was too blocky. Trying to recreate a fine line using a relief process is not at all easy. However, drypoint is a process where you etch lines into a sheet of perspex (or metal, but perspex is cheaper and easier) using a needle like implement. The ink then sits in the grooves you have made and is transferred to the paper when pressure is applied.

Original Photograph

So why make prints of drawings? Well I love the drawings, but sometimes I'd also like to see them with colour. Now I'd never want to colour them as they are because it would dirty the concepts and reasons for them having among other things, black skies. However I was particularly intrigued by the process of printing and it's ability to recreate images on many surfaces. So taking inspiration from my drawings I created drypoint plates from them.

After thought, I hit on the idea of taking my postcard imagery back to it's roots. This meant creating postcard sized prints of drawings that were originally created to subvert the postcard image. The size aspect of my work has always been part of the subversion, the paintings are giant postcards and while the drawings probably take more from tourist posters and their scale is less of an issue, they also have links with postcards and as such are also far too large to be realistically postcards. But it was important that they really resembled postcards because I had found another way other than size to subvert the postcard.

Drawing version

My initial idea took some time to pull off. I knew that I wanted to play with the postcard itself rather than the associated imagery. I already had the imagery, but what else was there to subvert that would also fit in with the desire to take them back to postcard size. The answer seemed obvious when it hit me, material, however while printing on normal paper was no issue and produced some really interesting results printing on anything else I had in mind was fraught with difficulties. However in the end I managed to produce a good result printing onto tissue paper.

So why tissue paper? Well most importantly was the aspect of fragility inherent with it. Tissue is so easy to tear and crumple, and doesn't stand up well to damage of any kind. It would not cope with being posted, transported, put through machines or any or all weathers. It is also quite transparent and so trying to write on the back would obscure and alter the image.

Drypoint Plate

As I said I wanted to colour these images as well. I really wanted to see what effect reintroducing colour into an initially monochromatic drawing would have. It also seemed natural to add colour and make it resemble traditional postcards even more. Initially I have chosen to hand colour as I could control the colour better than I could using printing processes (I am a painter after all). I wanted to use drawing inks to maintain transparency and depth/clarity of colour however it also meant that the inks were not light fast At first I thought this was a problem but actually it added another dimension of fragility to the postcard print. I did know that I wanted the colouring to be as much as possible block colour, tone and line being defined by the print. As such the colour of the sky was an issue, do I have it black or do I introduce a stormy apocalyptic sky? However I realised that strangely these skies should be blue, unlike all my other works. Blue skies meant that block colour was easy and they looked even more like traditional postcards.

Print onto paper

Like all traditional printing techniques you don't get exactly the same print twice. With drypoint I have been getting quite a variation in strength of line. Each time you print you need to reapply the ink and prepare the plate. As such the surface sometimes has more ink left and sometimes less. No prints are the same, especially so when you also start to hand colour them.

The first attempt at hand colouring was almost disastrous as I didn't realise that the shellac based ink would dry and stick to the paper underneath the print. As such I had to very carefully peel the print off the paper. Since then I paint sections fast, move the image frequently and dry them hanging on a rudimentary washing line.

Millennium Dome Print on Tissue

So why have I only started doing prints? Well the last time I had access to a good print studio was back at university (2003-06). Back then, while I picked up a few techniques, I was also only just understanding what this obsession with postcards was and was concentrating on getting the paintings right. I can do this now because I have found the wonderful resource that is the Printmaking Studio at South Hill Park Arts Centre in Bracknell, Berkshire. I signed up to a course because I needed the experience of full time printmakers to assist me. Currently the Artist Printmakers in Residence are Chris Smith and Holly Drewett but I've mainly been working with Holly, who is a star even if she keeps trying to get me to print in colour :P

So future plans for the prints.

Well as you may have seen from the website already I have prints on there right now. I plan to release a new one every month so stay tuned. I need to look further at ways to frame and exhibit them and I am thinking about other print process other than drypoint that I might use. These would have to be processes like drypoint to achieve anything a finish that is anything like the original drawing, but could be etching or solarplate.

Final Coloured Version

Sound

So a little more about my sound art foray.

Before I start, I need to name the project. Please feel free to leave comments or tweet me with your ideas ( @noblueskies ). Currently running around my mind is some variation of Welcome to.... or Greetings from.... but all ideas are welcome. The individual tapes have names but they are pretty uninspiring and intentionally so, no need for the entire project to be like that.

So some background on what I learnt when creating the “Picture” side.
(If you've not read my previous post about this you may need to http://noblueskies.blogspot.com/2010/12/secrets.html)

I found that I was both extremely aware of every sound it was picking up and yet feeling very exposed and impotent. Not wanting to get any trace of myself on the recording meant I could say nothing, nor move and not be too near to the recording device just in case I made an inadvertent noise. I'm still not sure why I didn't want to get any of me on the tape, mostly I think it is for purely personal reasons as I can't stand to hear myself. But after listening to my first recording I realise that apparently this extends as far as occasional noises, not just speech. 

When I got to Virginia Water that first day I found it was very busy so I placed myself a little off the beaten track with my recorder on a stump and me on a nearby log. I wanted to avoid having anyone too near me, in case they tried to talk to me and I wanted to record the wide variety of noises not just people chatting. Unfortunately I seemed to become a little bit of an attraction for kids and dogs as I sat there watching the world go by. I got so irrationally pissed off that there was all this really loud close noise, but really it was exactly what I wanted and I was just responding to a loss of control that I hadn't foreseen.

However I then got caught up with this family that after messing about right near me, with their children almost crawling over me to stay on the logs (being unable to say anything as the tape was on). Then one of the adults starting shouting about the boy and that he was going to pee his pants, over and over. There's freaking out about loss of control and there's 10 mins of irrelevant and in my mind (rightly or wrongly) crude and overpowering conversation. At this point I stopped the tape and attempted to start from the beginning again, I'd been going for all of 15 mins.

However I decided that I would try to record while I walked around (not realising quite how much I would cringe listening to it back, hearing myself). I rationalised that as it was autumn hearing someone walk through the leaves would be appropriate. It probably was but not for this. Listening to it back I realised that while appropriate to the season it wasn't appropriate to a “picture” side of a postcard.

The picture is taken in one place, as such the recording should be a stretch of time in the same place, not moving through a number of pictures. So I resolved to return another day, relocate myself and record for the entire time, no matter what happened. In the end I picked a well known view (well worth a postcard) at Virginia Water Lake. There are still some things to work out but it was a lot better.

Pictures in this post were all taken that day. Though none are of where the recording took place I still felt that 1 it was a really nice day photo wise and I should show off and 2. you all deserve some visual relief when reading my writing. 

 

If you like my photography you might want to follow me on Flickr if you have an account.

http://www.flickr.com/noblueskies

Secrets

I think I have been really blessed, since leaving University I haven't experienced any long term artists blocks. I know that for many of my peers they find they find times of utter inability to produce new work. I've not really encountered that as yet. Maybe it is because the obsession with postcards is only becoming more pronounced just when I thought it would fizzle out. From just producing my paintings and the occasional drawing I have found myself producing more and more drawings recently, devising installations and finding ideas for secret projects that are potentially all  postcard related.

As many of you might have noticed on Twitter or Facebook I have been talking about secret plans again. This time last year when I was talking about secrets it was the elephant I was creating, this year I have currently 4 secret projects. I actually had to write them all down so I could remember them all!

However unlike the elephant none of my secret projects this year are dependant on an outside company so, if I wanted I could just reveal all. However for many of them they are in early stages.

But I promised to reveal one this week on Twitter, and I stick by my promises. So here's a few hints about them, in reverse order:

Secret project 4 is printmaking based. Currently nothing really at a finished state. Still many in the way of assumptions about materials and processes to get what I want. So not a lot to show but if things continue to go well there will be something to talk about in a few weeks.

Secret project 3 is photo based and very undefined. What it's relationship is to postcards is unclear right now. It probably won't get looked at further till some of the others are established or finished. Also since I currently have a photo project on the go this may be a long time secret.

Secret project 2 is a collaborative piece and online. It will only get going if I actually get on with some work for it a quit being a freeloader.

Today however it is Secret Project 1 that I will reveal.

I wanted to spend a bit more time on this project before I revealed what it was all about, however I think that I will not be able to do any more work on it until the spring/summer so I will talk about it now.

Secret Project 1 is a foray into the world of sound art. This is an area I know very little about, but it is also a project that has been planned for about a year and thought about probably for longer. It is also a project that will not easily be described here on the blog as it is very lo-tech and intentionally not image based. Some of you may have heard me talk about it previously but it's been a while and I now have a better understanding of what it is and why I am doing it.

Most simply it can be described as sound based postcards on cassette tapes. It came about one day while I was thinking about the Internet and the digital revolution, realising that like many things cassette tapes were going the way of the dinosaur and that saddened me. I can of course see the need for things to progress (as many of you may know I embrace and love new technology) but the first music I ever bought was on cassette and I continued to buy cassette tapes well into the 90's when CD's were at their height. I am also a fan of owning a hard copy of things. While technology like MP3 and the Kindle are great, there is no substitute for owning an actual CD, DVD or book. There is just something psychologically right about being able to touch your possessions rather than see them in a digital and disembodied form on your computer.

The digital conversion of letters and postcards is also progressing. Letters certainly are being replaced more and more with email. Even postcards have their e-counterpart. With social networking these days you need only update your twitter and facebook statuses with an image taken then and there on your iPhone and uploaded with a message. It's quite a bit easier and faster than buying a card and stamp for all your friends and family and writing a message 100 times. I hope this doesn't kill the postcard, it seems so impersonal compared to the postcard (which is if you think about it a fairly impersonal or at least open way of communication anyway) and as I said it's really nice to own a physical thing.

Finally the physical similarities between postcards and cassette tapes were not lost on me. In fact this was probably one of the prime reasons I started thinking about tapes as a medium. Both have two sides, and while postcards have a clearly defined picture and reverse there was no reason that the definition couldn't be enforced by me on the tapes.

It was really hard to find blank cassette tapes! But the other month at the tail end of the autumn after 6 months or so of aborted attempts I finally made it out and recorded the “picture” side of the postcassette. Then I had to go back the next week to rerecord. (The whole recording really requires its own blog post, to explore the event and give more depth to the project so that will have to wait for another day). While out I made notes about what the message side should read and then later when I got home recorded the message side using an open source text to speech editor. I did not want my voice on the recording and wanted something with as mechanical a sound as I could. I am still interested in subverting postcards you know! What better way than keeping the two sided quality but removing the easy visual clues and personal nature. Now if people want to imagine being at this place they have to use the text, speech and sounds and try to guess what that place looks like.

Unfortunately it does also mean that this an image light entry. Just the one below of the first cassette in, I hope, many.