October to November
The brief - find your research question.
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Preliminary research.
I decided to use my newfound and much adored preliminary method of research, walking around musing and generally enjoying being, with the occasional foray into chasing after something that has piqued my curiosity.
I visited a few favourite haunts on my daily walks in the parks and the streets where I lived, I saw a few friends, so exciting after lockdown, and visited a lot of art shows. some more than once photographing and recording on my phone.
Finally, I ran out of memory on my phone and realized it was time to upgrade it, and time to reflect on what I had recorded.
There was a few surprise.
Light - the way it shone through buildings the way it outlined what I saw, magically bouncing of dead stars thousands of miles away sparking my thoughts and emotions.
Stories generated themselves at lighting speeds and I chased along trying to keep up with my ideas.
How we're they all connected, why did they matter, who were they about, were they memories or plans for the future, were they important, where did they come from. How to hook them so I wouldn't forget them. I needed a system, a library, vessels in which to order and store this newfound. information and knowledge. Everything in order everything in its palace. I thought about home and growing up. How I had learned to organize my world which allowed me to look out beyond the narrow domestic realm confident that I was equipped with the knowledge I needed. I thought about my adventures some actual some imagined, how they had sprung to life when we're not in order, and how things look ordinary but beneath their surfaces, wonderous "other" worlds existed waiting to be discovered.
Walking amongst the trees in the park and picking dead flowers in the field, listening to book reviews and philosophical discussions about life, I had a sense of harboured secrets worth harvesting and stories worth revealing.
The questions started bouncing, Is there a heaven on earth? Who was Lilith what was she to Eve? Where was the garden of Eden and how do they relate to me and this tree, what was so wrong with Pandoras retrieval of knowledge, wasn't it worth the cost. Is that in this tree too? Who lives in this tree?
So, I started with the tree. Light would wait.
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November into December
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I am painting to answer questions, I am drawing to investigate those questions and I am photographing to find my questions, allowing my curiosity to lead me.
I am curious to see if the picture as a vessel may contain or impart knowledge or induce a state of knowing.
Cave paintings, frescos, and cinema conjure stories, a picture as Win Wenders says of Hoppers paintings may just be a starting point or Picasso’s painting of his owl David Hockney explains is an image of something though the artists eye, that is as may be, they are both calling to us to look, to imagine and see, in Anaïs Nin's words "to taste life twice’ even if, in the case of the cave paintings, thousands of years have passed since they were created.
By sticking and pasting my photos together, I try and bring back the moment I felt that held the most charge or portent. I then painted them in different combinations of scapes or set-ups, all the while sketching the various permutations that the arrangements suggested, trying to find a way into the meaning of the vision, to rekindle the magic I had found amongst my everyday routines and domestic duties.
Sometimes my question is made up of more than one frame or image and the exact question evades me, remaining just a feeling that I want to explore about a moment that seemed magical. I ask why I am drawn to this and what is its importance, the viewer may interact with the pictures I make and find their own connection or draw their own conclusion about what they mean, but I am hoping they are inspired to look and wonder even if only for a second.
I really enjoyed looking at Rauschenberg's combines. The way they connect together to create a narrative - although I cannot decipher the message I feel some sort of exchange that is giving me a message, not unlike looking at the cave art.
December 2020 into January 2021
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Where now - reflection.
While I looked back into the past for answers that might enlighten me, I have started to combine my discoveries with the present to create and deliverer new curious questions for me to investigate in the future.
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I have identified four main sources of research; namely family and its lore, natural observation, intellectual study, and the other - sometimes referred to as instinct, intuition, our subconscious, or supernatural magic - what we like to describe as knowledge.
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I am wondering how I might evidence my findings within each piece as a back story which I could then display like curios, or conversation pieces, collected together on a shelf or stored like a treasure in a box linking and relating their past to now.
I would like to do this, If for no other reason than, to be able to revisit and share them completely, their history intact, answered, evidenced, validated, researched, and revealed.
Sharing is something that is ingrained in me. When I was born it was thought to be a virtue imperative to my existence as a woman, now I would feel bereft without the act, as in some ways it has come to define me.
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Although this act of sharing evidence is frustrating, as so many of my best outcomes are just feelings of satisfaction at untangling a thought or deconstructing an image to find the essence. I do need a way, an effective and attractive method to deliver my findings, otherwise, no one will want to look or share.
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I am inclined to keep my methods simple, so as not to obstruct the progress to bring my four paths of inquiry to one resting place, where they may be perused at leisure - a synergistic, mixed, magic domestic, everyday combo.
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Starting with photography was a good way to go and I have a lot of material to work with and in a few frames I have managed to catch that feeling that I get when something ordinary catches my eye, and it rises above the mundane. I need to discover what it means to me, and why it is important. in other pictures, I have found it necessary to combine images like jigsaws and create synergistic images to work from.
I have started sketching out my ideas again to take a fresh approach to them.
The Tree is far more iconic now for me and I am looking at ways to make it more magical.
January 2021into February 2021
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Lockdown has returned and I need to work out how I am going to pull my research and works together.
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The four main pathways are working well, and all my reading, research, and ideas are neatly slotting into four distinct piles.
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There are clear connections, certainly within the theory, physics, art, religious reliquary, magic areas. My research has revealed a lot of ancient belief structures that confirm my suspicions that art is a strong way to impart knowledge and confirm human beliefs around imagery, identity, and the human desire to communicate. All seem to be strengthened by using a synergistic approach.
to help me find a pathway forward
I have reflected upon and reviewed my work to date. I have decided to put up paper panels and stick up the images I have of the influences and the work so far this should be a good way to remind me of my intention for each piece and also the possible outcomes for my final piece.
I have found quite a few new references and have started transferring images onto canvas some more successful than others.
I have pinpointed the stage at which The Tree was holding the most portent. I have transferred its image through stop motion, gifs, and collage. Now I would like to increase its scale and paint, encompassing of my notice board ideas in a final outcome.
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I would like to carry this approach across my four paths of investigation and see if I might find a point, a crossroads, where the paths meet. I sense this is possible and that place exists, just can't see it yet.