Lace, Openings and Spaces

This series of images shows the development of this experiment taking the Venus de Milo form and combining it with a lace like paper collage on a glass support.

 

Materials; Acrylic paint, paper    Support; Glass



 

 

Paper collage adhered to glass 

The paper painted with acrylic paint.



The glass support.

 Scraping back into the paint with sandpaper

 Further paint applied.

 The other side of the glass - quite interesting.

 

 

Reflections

Venus de Milo, Women and Art

I've noted that many contemporary artists reference and appropriate the work of other artists particularly classical and renaissance art.  Their recontextualisation of these appropriated images often brings a new perspective to that work.  I decided to reference the 'Venus de Milo' as a classical female form and combine with a grid form.  I'm trying to work through how a lace network of sorts would work with this.

 

 

 

Masking fluid lace again

I tried out the masking fluid again on an earlier piece I had worked on.  Although it has certain qualities, I don't think there is any durability in that it was quite delicate and tore easily.

 

 

 

 

Below - this was the first stage - after painting on the masking fluid, drying and then opening up the network of holes. 

 

 

 

Masking fluid lace

This series of images shows some experimentation with masking fluid.  I was trying to think of ways to create the look of a lace network within a painting without necessarily using actual lace.  The masking fluid was painted onto  unstretched canvas and when dry, rubbed back to create openings.  



 

 

 The image above shows paint applied over the masking fluid and below shows the marks left once the masking fluid was removed.  Not particularly lace like.

The piece above shows the masking fluid itself painted - this had a bit more promise.

Working with Paverpol Piece

 

This is the completion of the test piece using the Paverpol fabric hardener.  I have explained it's use in an earlier post.  These two images detail how the work was then painted after the paverpol had hardened the fabric.  The paverpol rendered the fabric extremely hard and it accepted the acrylic paint very readily.  This test piece shows what the product is capable of but I don't know if its something that would actually want to use.

 

 

 

 

 

Assignment 2 - Revised Artist's Statement

At the beginning of Painting 3, I had outlined my interest in both textiles and painting as a combined approach.  The impetus was originally the shirt industry in my home town and the thousands of women who worked within that industry for over 120 years and how it had shaped the history and culture of this city.

I've realised that during the course of this assignment though that it's the nature of fabric itself and the stories that are spoken through the metaphor of fabric and thread that are at the core of that 'thing' that makes me want to make art.  I'm interested in the domestic, the work that women did/do and what was created in that doing.  I should clarify that I'm not interested in the decorative or pretty.  How to resolve a number of issues?  Textiles as an expression of women - a secondary 'lesser' art form - painting as masculine - an art form, along with sculpture,  that had primacy over all others, at one stage.

The warp and weft of fabric sent me in the direction of grids and networks and then onto lace. I looked at many artists who have incorporated the grid in their work and noted some scholarly writing on this subject - particularly that of Rosalind Krauss.

I'm not a fan of lace per se and its cosy connotations of doilies and so forth.  I've looked at many artists who use lace as part of a conceptual language in a radical way and I'm curious about how it can work with painting - either physically in paint or the idea of using the spaces in between that lace creates. 

In reading 'The Subversive Stich' which I mention in this blog, I was interested in how 1970's feminists had first rejected and abhorred the practice of embroidery and how they had then taken embroidery and used it towards their own ends.  Judy Chicago's 'The Dinner Party' and Tracey Emin's 'Tent', comes to mind.

The investigations into materiality for this assignment have made me realise that there is a strong feminist element developing in this work - it may not be visualised yet but it is there.

I have asked myself the question 'Why am I on a painting degree when I'm so interested in textiles?'

If I'm honest, one reason is that painting is still regarded as a 'higher' art form over textiles. Another reason is that it is challenging to work at combining and therefore 'elevating' textiles (and by association, women) to the same level as painting.  It may be that I let go of some preconcieved notions that I must have some form of fabric/textile in each painting.  It may be that I have grasped at textiles because underlying all this is that maybe I am a closet feminist waiting to emerge!

A2- Copper Support Tests

I've overpainted the blue acrylic squares with varying thicknesses of oil paint.  The acrylic paint scrapes off very easily as I guessed it would do.  Any work in acrylic paint would have to be sealed with suitable protection.  I'll wait to see what happens with the oil paint when it's dry.