I'm not really sure how to start this post....or even how to go about it. I was kind of nervous about going into this critique.
As I had stated before, all of this is a new way of working for me. Besides not having made a sculpture in I don't even know how long; monotyping is a new mode of working for me as well. I'm so used to stringent planning and layering of prints. While I haven't made an edition of prints in a while, I was initially planning on going back to do that this semester.
WELL ALL OF THAT WENT OUT THE WINDOW.
And that's okay.
I print to play. I start with a stack of paper and my random found materials and just go at it. What is interesting to me is how some design and abstract elements seem to come out of my work even if I don't intend it to. I'm attracted to use of line and pattern. As shown in the red piece below. I was just layering the collagraph piece I had created. The radial composition and patterning just fell into place.
Which asks the question of how I should handle printing these monotypes. Should I be more considerate of composition? Or lay objects as they are, to act as another form of documenting these objects. This question was arisen in critique, and I'm not quite sure what the answer is. I feel different people would have different answers to this question. That is one of the things I truly enjoy about abstract work. That everyone has a different opinion or different memories or personal experiences that can be attached to a piece. In other words, the question that I pose would have different answers from different people.
What I struggle most with these the margin of success and error. I knew going into this that some of these little prints would be success and some would be major fails. Honestly, its scary and I don't like it one bit. But I'm taking it as part of the learning experience, and hopefully better work will come out of it.
It was recommend that I try and work the same way concerning my sculptures. I'm not sure if I can mentally handle that. Or maybe that's not the right way to say that. The difference of working with prints and that I'm starting with a pretty good amount of paper to fool around with. While I can very easily go find more found piece of trash (or treasures) I feel that I'm limited with the amount of objects I have. Looking back I know I don't, but I feel that way once I start building. Maybe as I make more I will start to become more comfortable with the materials and feeling the freedom to create with them.
It was recommended that I become more grounded in my sculpture making. That I let gravity take too much control on sculpture. It is interesting to me because I had never considered this way of looking at it before. Or really I never realized it. I'm striving to create works that are more free flowing like my prints without putting the work to actually make them that way. SO I NEED TO WORK ON THAT.
Leticia recommended that I look at the work of Marjetica Potrc. At first glance I was really confused on why; considering Potrc creates works that are concerned with DIY social/living structures. As I continued reading I started to realize why. It was more about creating these large scale works (that also function) out of found materials. It was inspiring to see what can be created out of found objects. It just reminds me that I need to step up my game.