Final Conclusion

As this module comes to an end I would like to reflect on the past semester spent in printmaking. The module for very enjoyable although at times challanging. I think the most challenging aspect of printmaking is to make a process work for what you are trying to communicate, to be inventive and original in your thinking so that you are using a process in a new and experimental way rather than the conventional way. I have a body of work which, given more time, I would have liked to push forward and explore the idea of shape of my object. In my sketchbook I was working though ideas of outline shape of my object, creating block shapes with paper to represent this and working with found crochet lace and again cutting this into the outline shape of my fabric. Given more time I would have printed with these shapes, like stamps, a way of mono printing in an unconventional way. As a whole, the process of print is something I will continue to use and explore as the year progresses.

A little catch up with myself

I am really enjoying this module and I feel very motivated with what i am working on right now. I had a fantastic talk with my tutor and this really made me start thinking about trusting myself and to just trust that it's ok if you don't always get what you're doing because eventually you will - so I'm going to try that. Another thing is that I need to step back a bit from where I am, and explore my object a little more because I sort of sped off with my idea of idols and obsession. I'm just putting that to the side and I'm going to get a bit more basic and look at my object as more of a detective discovering this object for the first time. With this in mind I made some prints, below.

I drew around my object in the first print and then around my hand whilst holding my object in the second. I then drew the images bigger, through the process of monoprint. I really like the rawness of the line, I like the simplicity and the idea that you don't really know what you are looking at especially because I have enlarged them.

I then began drawing using my object and mono print, rolling and pressing my object onto the paper and therefore pressing the paper into the ink.

Object Fetishism

I read, in the Telegraph, about a woman who has a condition, Objectum-Sexual and due to this married the Eiffel Tower. The woman claimed to be in love with objects before this. Apparently there are around 40 people in the world who have declared they have 'Objectum-Sexual' and all of them are women. A psychotherapist, Jerry Brooker who was interviewed for an documentary on this, remarked that women with Objectum-Sexual are motivated by an intense need for control and fall in love with objects because objects will not let them down in the same way a person will.

Lissie Gill

An artist exploring the malleability and strength of idoloty. She said, "From my work, I take away the notion of obsession, one person's desire to glorify something that may have otherwise gone over looked." This is a great idea

Idolising my object

Through painting free hand onto a screen, I explored the idea of turning my object into an idol and so I began to create an image to show this idea of adoration. I mixed my own colours, I wanted a palate that was bright and vibrant that similar to something you may see in some religions that worship gods and goddesses. The screen prints came out great i think, I just need to go over them in detail with some line to create shape and form. I further developed the above process by screen printing it over an already etched image from a previous week. I wanted to give the impression that the radiator thermostat was glowing, like the golden bed knob in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I wanted the image to scream 'wow look at this amazing object'.

t was interesting - my flatmate, who knew nothing about my project, after seeing this print said, "oh look it's a radiator thing" and then looked at the two above prints and said "and this is an abstract radiator thing". This comment was very pleasing because he was interested firstly, he found the object bizarre and wanted to know about my project but also because he know what the image was, especially in the above prints. The etching under the screen printing ink doesn't quite work as well as I had hoped as it masks out the black line so i think i shall etch on top of the screen print - this is my next move.

Experimenting with "godlike" and "divine" colour through screen print

idolatry

noun1 the practice of worshiping statues as gods2 (formal) too much love or admiration for someone or something