Getting started

All the information arrived from OCA and after a shopping trip to the local art shop, which is two hours drive away, the fun has begun. With no experience of art or drawing classes this really is unknown territory for me and feelings have ranged from excitement to terror. Most of all this is all part of the next stage of life's journey for me and I have recorded the following as my hopes for the course:

1. 
   
   develop new ways of seeing


2. 
   
   build confidence in making soul marks


3. 
   
   explore links between the contemporary world and traditional textile forms


4. 
   
   exploration of myself and continue a therapeutic journey
   

Making marks exercise is in progress and on the morning scheduled for starting the work, I awoke early. Still dark here in the far north, I stood at the door and heard a solitary bird brave the weather and sing in the dark. It struck me that this is the essence of faith or of an artist to dare to be in the dark and make the sound or the mark of the light held within, or perceived over the horizon.
The making of marks was done over two days and I noted the amount of energy such unfamilar activities took from me. I haven't played or worked with pencils since childhood.Since doing the exercise textures have leapt out at me , especially as we have just planted 400 trees on the croft this last week and earth and bark have been at the centre of vision.
I most enjoyed the use of colour - feeling energised by it. Printing with household objects caused me frustration as I wanted to use ideas and textures created first in the pencil exercises. Maybe I should have let the printing speak for itself and not have constrained it in the way I did.

I am surrounded by domestic extra - ordinariness and so chose as a template the bottom of my pencil pot - an old food container with a pleasing hexagonal shape. This reminded me of the joys of antique patchwork pieces and the cells within our bee hives - a source of endless fascination. I had also wanted a lens shape / structure to frame the marks as I felt both very involved in the process and also trying to learn to step back/ reflect and critique the work.

Some marks flowed without any prior verbal process for me - other marks needed me to construct a name for an emotion or action that I wanted to then portray visually. Which ever way the marks were made I wanted them named.

I enjoyed the constraint of making marks within the 9 cm space until it came to using paint and rubbings with wax crayons - size was too constricting at that point.