Wooden constellations

These wooden outcomes are constellations of different communities that I find myself in. I am not going to say much about this here, as it is heavily linked to my current research and I fear I would end up writing you an essay, rather than showing you some art. But just know each represents different things in my life. 

These started as digital line drawings, but I wanted to bring them into the real world and make something that could be held - and maybe even hung. 

I am not really sure what I will do with these beyond this, the digital line drawings are colour coded, but these were time-consuming to make and I don't want to ruin them with paint! 

I will let them live in my studio for a while and see what happens!

Laser cut letters - Part 2

The experimentation continues, this time with sticks.

I have made work before which I have then wanted to stick into the ground (think outside installation) and have previously tried using garden wire. With the wooden letters, wooden sticks felt like they would make more sense. 

Without an indefinite supply of letters, I decided to go for one of each letter of the alphabet as a test, as I do not currently have any words or phrases in mind.

The gluing of the letters to the sticks became a balancing game, as I quickly realized I didn't have the time or inclination to hold a stick to each letter while the glue dried. 

At first, it was a little like spinning plates as I had to keep catching falling sticks and re-gluing and re-balancing. However, after a while, I must have got into the zone, and after a couple of short trips to the studio, all letters had sticks. Then it was just a case of waiting for the glue to dry.

The end result is quite satisfying, I think partly due to the process. I now have a bunch of letters with sticks waiting for me to do something with them.

Backyard Artist Exhibition - A look back

 Earlier this year I took part in the Backyard Artist Exhibition.

I took this as an opportunity to showcase a selection of my work created over the years - each piece uses my font, ACComplte4.

This yearly exhibition is the only time that I exhibit work in such an ad hoc way, however, it sums my practice up well as I always tell people that it is the text that is constant, but that the materials change. This kind of display shows that well.

On the far left there is paint on a wooden board, a framed cyanotype, and a painted fabric wall hanging, the table work included lino prints, hand stitching, and wire and string letters.

(And missing from this is works in plaster and my new laser-cut wooden letters).

Laser cut letters - Part 1

My first instinct with what to do with the laser-cut letters once I got them back to my studio was to play with them! I didn't have any words or phrases in mind so I thought I'd experiment with the aesthetic of them instead.

While I was initially drawn to the rawness of the laser-cut letters as they were I thought I'd throw paint, glue, and varnish at them to see if I could enhance them at all.

Paint - an obvious choice, I went for black, white, and purple (a colour from my research into artist-teachers). I found that thick coats were needed to ensure full coverage. I wanted to keep the natural burnt sides of the letters so had to practice my best 'staying in the lines' painting - something I'm still working on!

Colour still makes me a little nervous so at the moment I am preferring the black and white letters. The contrast of the white paint and burnt black edges pleases me, but I also enjoy how the black letters almost become voids. 

Glued together - the laser cutter can only cut letters so thick (6mm I believe), which these 'm's are, however, I wanted to see what happened if I made them taller. As with my painting, I also need to practice staying in the line with my glue. 

Once dried I wasn't too convinced the extra hight added anything. 

Varnish - I like the idea of outside art and varnish is the way to go to achieve work that will not just rot away. There two k's took a dip. More coats are needed, I found the MDF just seemed to drink the varnish in - I'm not too sure how water proof they are currently. 

Sanded - the burnt edge of the letter is one of my favorite parts of them, but I wondered what they would look like without it! It was difficult to sand off the burn, time-consuming and fiddly, and then after all that I was not a fan of the end outcome. I felt it made the letters feel wrong in some way.