(I can't believe it's December.
It has been 7 months since I graduated college, 6 months since I went to Catalonia, 3 months since I started my new job and got engaged, and now I am blogging about it. Finally posting these images has come about because of my recent frustrations with not making art. I have been so wrapped up settling into this new season of my life that I used the excuse of "I'm too tired" to make anything. At first, I was ok with this, but recently it's been eating away at me. So i've decided to start the creative process again by making a motivational poster (seen right), getting my work out there, and making this list of things I'm interested in exploring in 2015 (seen below in quote form) .
“portraits
more painting
artist statement
photography-digital for now
develop a relationship with printmakers
healthy competition
get an exhibition
read art books
blog more”
I went to the residency with a very loose plan for what I wanted to make. The proposal for my project was that I wanted to visit a land I had never been to in order to explore it and create art that speaks of place. I wanted to bring Catalonia to people who may never get to experience it.
The first piece, Arenys de Mar, is a landscape abstracted by using textures in place of trees, buildings, and water. The textures are drawings based off of living things that I found while exploring. Cork tree, fish scales, vines, and unknown little plants are some of the things I encountered. I chose these things because I either encountered them everyday, or they were specific to the region I stayed in. Either way they spoke to me about place and home-even if it's not my home.
The second piece is called Hills of Arenys de Munt. It's based off a photo I took of a scene I saw everyday on my walk into town. It is a hillside that has been washed away from rain and wind, exposing the roots of the local plants. I soft grounded plants from my hosts' flower bed onto the plate. I love the idea of archiving actual plants onto something as permanent as copper. It's as if I created my own fossil that will last forever, or until the copper is melted down or the paper breaks down. The tone in the background was created from mixing earth with the etching acid, and spit biting the plate with this acid-mud. Using actual earth to create the tone of the earth in my drawing is a parallel I really enjoy. I also soaked paper with the etching acid to make area specific tone which can be seen in the triangular shapes.
The last piece is of the creepers that dead vines leave behind. These little feet have so much personality and leave a history of vines that once were. These little pieces of plant fascinated me and they were everywhere in the house I stayed at. I wanted to replicate the little vine feet and the texture of the rusted wall with all of its texture and little quirky marks and scratches. It allowed me to observe and appreciate something ordinary that people walk by everyday and may never notice. I wanted to capture a segment of this and preserve it for everyone to see.
Thanks for reading and I'd love some feedback,
Hillary