I am developing a new body of work around the themes of breath, water, earth and life in the Anthropocene. They will likely be separated into individual bodies of work, but I find it more productive to work in interconnected ways. I find it helps me keep momentum and stay productive. I thought I would share some processes and works I have been working on this week, as it is a mid-term break. I have a little time to do the work I have been planning for the last two terms. These works are unlikely to see the light of day, but process is essential in art. Making leads to making.

reflections on creativity and proccess in art-making

Much like other research forms, art-making is a practice, practice and reflection process. It is making and thinking. Good work seldom emerges all at once – but develops over time, with the themes being explored by the artist. Creativity, I am convinced, is not the stuff of alchemy; humans have an immense capacity for creativity. Nevertheless, like all talents, it requires cultivation. Care, fresh air and maintenance. Creativity is not a finite resource; instead, like a muscle, it needs exercise, and the more one uses it, the more it is available. It requires a certain tolerance for mess, chaos, and experimentation. Perhaps what creativity truly thrives on is a lack of fear of failure. The oh f-ck that did not work of it all.

Boundaries to entry into art making are relatively low; some artists work with trash. I worked on my PhD with Rubble, a ubiquitous commodity that random strangers would offer me piles of each time I required more. Even if you are committed to being an oil painter or watercolour painter, shockingly to many, it is still possible to make oil paint from raw ingredients; one can find both minerals and ochre required fairly readily and the oils at pretty much any local hardware store, despite what a visit to your local art supply store may suggest.
In some cases, a body of work develops between practice, theme, and research, which takes time but can be spread over multiple weeks, months or years for people with other paid employment. A small amount of persistence is key; finding creative solutions also seems to fuel the creative impulse, so I encourage you to lean in.

Proccess work

In my early process, I will usually explore ways of representing the theme, and materials for mark-making. In the later ones I’m exploring scale, of marks used. Some sense of composition would best work before properly planning the works for production. Although I prefer to leave a sense of openness in my final works, I do like to have a sense of what is possible and if I need to produce anything. For example, do I need to make or collect ash? Do I need to reddy some more negatives from my photographic archive to work with, and so on? Below, you can get a sense of both mark-making materials and process explorations of emulsion application. I think the best options for these are complete coverage or total coverage with a bleed in the vertical direction. Side-to-side is more successful in the more minor works than in the more significant works. I need to use a different application brush for larger artwork.