College week 11/2 More Pathway Project 21st November

A whole day working on our Pathway Projects.

I wrote a draft project Proposal (I had done one last week on the computer but forgot to save it and it's disappeared into the electronic wasteland) which formed the basis of a discussion with Mark.

I am working on the Place/Site/Map theme,  focussing on Maps.  What is a map?  What elements of a map do I want to develop?  A map of somewhere or nowhere?  Or just the idea of a map as a (normally) two-dimensional representation of a physical place or of a complex set of information.

My chosen pathway is printmaking, possibly also fine art/making.   I have started by plotting my journeys from my house in and around the city, but I intend to leave the literal representation behind and develop  some images/objects which are derived from, but not necessary represent, the actual map.   For instance,  I have become interested in the use of contour lines as a way of drawing the topography of a map.  I could use contours in a more general way for drawing...

I'm not at all sure I've explained this well - I will have to do better in my revised Proposal!

The discussion with Mark was useful.  The key issues emerging were:

• the proposal needs to follow the prescribed format - this seems to matter more than I had expected;
• I need to document my research better;
• I could take photographs of my frequent walking routes;
• I need to be aware of the physical and technical resources available for this project (and the limited time) so that my ideas are realisable;
• perhaps I am trying to do do too many different things?

However, I did get on with some practical work today, to add to the start I'd made at home last week.  Today I decided to cut some plates ready for 'poor man's etching' and/or collagraph printing next week.  I did three boards:

one based on my walking route to town:

 one based on the overlaid tracings of my various walking routes:




 and one derived from the idea of contours:

I gave them each two coats of shellac varnish, but they weren't dry enough to try printing today.  I hope there'll be sufficient time to do quite a lot of printing next week.


While they were drying I also did some tracings of the aggregate set of drawn-out routes.  Not quite sure what I'll do with these, but I like the idea of doing something by way of a digital print from them - or perhaps a stitched piece.  For the moment, this is what they looked like....