Work in Progress - Change of Direction/Revised Proposal

I've completely altered my theme, media, proposal subject due to my vision deterioration. It has become increasingly difficult over the past few months to deal with what I had initially planned and presented in my Speculative Proposal back in the Fall.

My regular treatments were delayed and when I did receive them on March 6th, they did not work as fast as previously. While there has been improvement over the last week, I am still struggling to focus and my depth perception is pretty much non-existent. Reading is extremely difficult and limited so I've not been able to do the reading I had planned.

Trying to continue with my original proposal - sculpting, mould making and casting figures - is now too difficult for me. Dealing with mixing, measuring and pouring without focus and depth perception is quite stressful. There is also the finishing work which would involve sanding edges with either a Dremel or files which, when you can't focus is a bit of a health & safety risk.

My original goddess sculpture in polymer clay on the left and the first (and only) cast made in the mould. I misjudged when filling the mould - as you can see she's been cut off mid-calf. I could not judge where the top of the fill was when pouring in the resin - probably shouldn't have picked black pigment for my first pour! She's got a seam around her all the way which would need to be sanded off too. But other than that, I think she turned out.

I really enjoyed the induction to mono-printing and find it is a medium I can work in without my visual acuity being as important as in other media. In some ways not getting clear focus on what I am doing gives me very interesting results!

So... Here's the plan, aka Revised Proposal.

My written work will be my own story and experiences with my vision/visions. It appears that I've been dealing with Charles Bonnet syndrome - individuals who are losing their sight can begin to have visual hallucinations. It is something that the brain does when it starts to lose visual stimulation - it creates its own. 

I had believed I was developing latent psychic abilities (thought I might be the next Nostradamus!) having massively detailed, interactive visions, where the people I was observing would "see" me too, and come towards me.  But, nope. 

Once I found out about this condition I've not had many more visions... which is disappointing as they were really interesting. I still have "kaleidoscope"  effects, but no more interactive people. The condition generally isn't permanent and the literature says once you know what is going on it often stops - I would actually have preferred to keep having them!

My physical art work is now going to involve using various printing processes and experimentation incorporating mixed media into the works. I have access to a lot of tools and materials at home (die cutters, embossing machine, Cricut, etc.) that I've already started using in the printing I've done recently.  The die cutting machines can work as presses - they roll plates through to cut paper with metal dies, but if you don't use the dies, it is a printing press! Only issue is that the maximum size I can run through is A4.

I've also got printing inks, rollers, lino, screens, stencils, stamps, etc. so intend to incorporate all mark making methods into the work.

I am quite excited about printing - the next technique is collagraphy which I will be learning from Helen next week

I can do a lot of the mixed media and experiments at home and then scale up some ideas to do in the studio on campus.

For critique purposes, here are the results of my experiments with mono-printing - first from December, and then from last week once my vision improved.

This botanical monoprint was my first ever in December in my induction workshop with Helen. Really happy with it.

I drew and cut out the leaves, then playing with turning and moving them on the ghost prints (second and subsequent pressings.)

Last week I spent the whole day in the Printing studio and produced the following prints. I played around a lot, re-inking plates without cleaning them, using palette knives instead of rollers to apply ink, using die-cut and hand cut cardboard shapes I made as well as grass, leaves and plants I'd collected and pressed. I also used paper at different level of wetness - I soaked half the smaller sheets of watercolour paper in water and only blotted some of them, which gives an interesting effect in the ink that I quite like.

These aren't in the order I made them - they're in alphabetical based on the names I gave them.

This is meant to be a background for a mixed media piece later - it is the sky. I rolled on the Prussian Blue and added the white with a knife. The image size is A4 (Helen cut the metal plate to be exactly A4 for me.)

Next I layered yellow and brown - trying to get a sepia effect. Also plan to use these as backgrounds. On the second print I used some of the die cuts I had made. This is A4 as well.

These next are larger than the previous, but not much. I was playing with the roller making marks on the plate with it, then used my die cut/hand cut circles and some pampas grass. I was thinking of crop circles with this one. Then rearranged the circles and grass on the two ghost prints.

The following two were meant to be backgrounds for further marking, BUT, they are pretty cool so I probably am going to leave them alone. I put on the base with a roller in yellow and brown, then messed it up with a palette knife, adding in bits of white. These are A4.

The next three were done on top of the same plate the two above were, I reapplied yellow and brown to the plate with the roller and textured the brown with a palette knife, then used my pampas grass and a die-cut circle. These are A4. I moved the grass around for each pressing and took off the circle for the third one.

These are on the slightly larger plate. I applied all the ink with a palette knife and it is pretty thick! It all smooshed up in the pressing really nicely. On the second pressing I added in some of my die-cut leaves, and on the third I moved around the leaves and flipped some over. The last pressing has some die-cut large flowers, a bench and an abbey - but it is very faint so you probably won't be able to make them out.

This last group I was making a "scene" with my cutouts. Not sure if I will leave as is or use for mixed media work, The messy one I really like, but the flat ones, I think, need to be more interesting. I rearranged and re-inked this one so it isn't really ghosts of the previous on some, but I kept working on the same inked plate through all of them. Using the A4 plate again.

I managed to make 21 prints last Friday - I was in the printing studio from 10 to 3:30. I went in with all my paper and cut-outs ready, and got right to it. Next session will be on March 24 (I don't go on campus when there is job action/strikes.)

I hope to make some of my mixed media/prints into illustrations of my visions - many of which are set in historical context (from hunter gatherers to American Civil War era.) I'm still working through how to do it with the techniques I am learning and what I already know. 

What is taking up my mind is HOW to create the imagery. As I can't see to draw accurately/realistically (as I would normally do) I need to move on from that and try to loosen up enough to create the impression/feel of the scenes. I will be doing a lot of trials with ideas.

So this is where I am as of today (March 14th.) Finally have enough vision back to start working with materials again, and will try to get some reading done if the eyes cooperate.