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Sometimes all you need is a question mark.

How about a whole host of them?

Lino printing turned into a digital repeat. 

I like the idea of using a repeat in an installation setting, as a backdrop to an exhibition and other works. I'm not sure if I'd go for hand rendered or digital, like above. 

I am also likely to work in black ink going forward.

Stick letters

With still more laser cut wooden letters hanging around the studio I wanted to explore them more. This time with outside installation in mind. 

Stick letters felt perfect as this would allow me to stick them into mud, spell out words, and increase their visibility. 

The process is very much reliant on good balance and fast drying wood glue. Many ended on the floor. A number of letters remain missing!

I am considering using the stick letters to tell a story around a space. I'm just not sure on the story!

Words from letters

Starting from a pile of letters I looked at them until words emerged, either in the pile of letters or within my mind. A simple process, but a process no less. 

My organization method for these laser cut wooden letters is not great, and so upper case and lower case letter mix together along with 1mm and 3mm thick letters. In an effort to find the correct letters I soon gave up on finding matching letters.

The works are currently not secured, I'm in the stage of collecting phrases and deciding what to do with them. The studio play took place a top my square sketchbook and I have come to like this aesthetic. I've always liked squares!

Arranging the letters is a work in progress, but I am more drawn to the layout in the top images, with letters and words arranged as the page dictates. 

I'm not sure what is next for this project. I still have many letters to play with!

Watercolour letters

Returning to the idea of letters and words that are there but not there I wanted to play with watercolour and wet-on-wet painting.

The idea worked better in some places than others and I made the mistake of marking the letters in pencil first. This really ruined the final outcome. I am after more of the 'ask questions' and less of the 'answers.'

I'm not sure of the blue, but it echoes the blue of the paperclips I am also playing with. 

Paperclips as linguistic units

Much of my work is created with what ever it is that I can get my hands on, and that is the case with this new idea which sees paperclip transform into linguistic units. 

I wanted to limit myself to one paperclip per letter, but have found that this is more challenging with some letters, than others. 'C' has a surprisingly long circumference meaning the letter is not completed. This is not too problematic for 'C' as you can still read the letter, however, the reading of other letters maybe more difficult, 'F' and 'G' will be a challenge. 

It is not the easiest material to work with, and many paperclips have not survived the re-shaping process, instead snapping into two. 

I am not sure where this will go, but it has become a little office desk art practice which for the time I am enjoying. 

Text that is there, but not there...

This series of work came from initially playing with negative space. As I work to create soft edges to my letters I started to see them as there but not there. The appeared the more I added the negative space. I started to question how much negative space was needed for a word to be read.

At first I was working with biro, but quickly moved to pencil for a softer finish. 

Autoethnography on research as art

Within my Ph.D. research, I am using autoethnography to write about my own experiences. I had been using these to talk about the past. However, I have now started to use the methodology to reflect on the here and now of my research as I strive to be reflexive.

The two images below come from longer stories, but the phases presented struck me as having a quality in them that would work in my art practice. This quality is related to throw-away comments, slight humor and hopefully reliability. 

The first image/text is about researcher positionality and how you cannot research - or do anything - and ignore the fact that you are there. 

This second outcome is a thought process that I had when thinking about my relationship with research participants and truth. But could possibly be applied to any relationship and the idea of truth. 

I am not sure what I am doing with these, but they joined me in the studio. I am interested in the use of differently-sized font within one piece. I do not think I've done this before, but I would like to explore this and how it can bring attention to specific words in an outcome.