Spaces, Structures and Systems: abstraction & figuration helps build new worlds

Basic elements such such as lines, shapes and forms present rich visual possibilities for creative journeys, whether to explore physical spaces, structures & systems or psychological or inner spaces, structures and systems.
I always work from a personal angle. I went home and photographed familiar physical spaces and memories associated with those spaces.
I'm interested in the idea that generations of the same family would have used the same physical spaces for similar purposes.
I found old photographs of my grandmother & aunts and uncles paddling at the river in the very same spot where we used to paddle at when we were young.  Different generations of the same family using the same space decades later, recreating similar memories without even knowing. I compared these photographs to photographs of my brothers and I paddling and fishing at the same spot. Will the next generation come to that same spot to explore in Summers to come?

Original colour photograph (1960's)

black and white photocopy of the photograph, looking for tonal qualities

biro line drawing of the photograph

blown up photocopy of the drawing

plate lithography of the same image

drypoint etching

Plate Lithography

drypoint

drypoint

Current photograph of the river in Corbett's field

My younger brothers playing at the same river 15 years ago

pencil line & tonal drawing of the photograph

biro drawing

drypoint


Etchings

black and white photocopy enlargement of my youngest brother's profile

 An edition of etchings with aquatint

drypoints of the same image

etching with monoprint

etchings with aquatint and experimentation with ink

The following series of photographs continue the concept of people in familiar spaces, this time the windy hill. I was interested in how people occupy the space.

My first attempt at etching

etchings with monoprinted background

Contextual Research

Andre Zorn

At the Legion of Honour Gallery in San Francisco the other day I visited a temporary exhibition covering the lifetime work of Andre Zorn, a Swedish painter, sculptor and etching artist. He became an international success as one of the most acclaimed portrait painters of his era, but it was his etching portraits that I was drawn to. His skill at the craft of etching, to see the etchings up close was a privilege. They even showed his process of working. They had a series of photographs, sketches , the actual copper plates that he worked on and then the edition of prints. It was great to see the process. His use of light, a linear technique and his attention to detail is evident in the following etchings.

Rosita mauri etching 1891

Augustus Saint Gaudens II 1897

Three Sisters

Against the current

self portrait

Jennifer Cunningham

A local Galway artist Jennifer Cunningham also helped to inspire my work this semester. I went to her exhibition as part of the Galway Arts Festival a few years ago at Galway University Hospital. It was part of her N.C.A.D. Fine Art show in 2008. Like Andre Zorn, Jennifer also specialises in copper-plate etching.
The following excerpt from Jennifer Cunningham's artist's statement resonates with my work from this semester, how a place can take on aspects of the people who once lived there.

' The work is about my own subjective perception of a strange place and deals with a hidden substrate of the visible world. It looks at how a place can take on aspects of the people who once lived there and in a way can be construed to represent ones persona, which is invisible at first glance to the outside viewer.I use the beautiful romantic landscape as a backdrop for the psychological inner struggle of my subjects. Time and form are subverted and re invented through structural fragmentation which is used to amplify the sense of the uncanny. '
Jennifer Cunningham,  2008, Black Church Print Studio.

Ascent- copper etching

Factory

Reservation

The Gaze - Mixed Media on Paper

The Play Etching

Branch- Mixed Media on paper

Vacillation

Peter Doig

Another artist that draws similarities with my etchings- profiles against a vast background

White House 10 Etchings

Red House 1996 10 Etchings

Pond Life 10 etchings

Pond Life 10 Etchings

Claire Harvey

Claire Harvey's work consists of solitary figures engaged in day to day activities. It was amazing to see how well she had captured the mood of the subjects in her work considering how small the pieces were. The size, spacing, and subject matter of her work had an amazing ability to block out all the noise of the exhibition.

Frieze Fair 2010

Relief print: Woodblock
Humour & Protest

Two types of woodcut- multi-block and reduction block
I chose a combination of reduction block, using the one block of wood and taking away parts of the image as you print & multi-block.
This is the image I chose to work from.

Bertie Ahearne and Brian Cowen in cahoots. The caption that the journalist had put with the image was 'I've got your back.'
I made some drawings of the image.

I transfered the image onto the woodblock, using acetone.

I carved away the background and all the lighter areas on Bertie & Brian

I rolled the block with ink to make a sample print to see how it all looked.

I made a series of on colour prints in black and gold, gold to illustrate the millions they squandered on us. I made a series of prints incorporating chine collé, using the business section of the newspaper as a background.

I worked on the block again, this time removing the heads, so that I could put their heads in gold and suits in a navy/black.

I wanted to lift the image so I transfered the print onto the 2nd block of wood and lightly carved the profiles out, leaving the backgound uncarved.

I went back to the first block, where I'd carved off the head off the profiles. The block itself looked interesting.

They looked like two hoodwinking, thievin, scumbags  . . .
I made a few prints from this block.