One thing that the painting teacher told us which I found
really helpful, it is so obvious but it hadn’t struck me until he said it. “A
painting is not the thing. It can be inspired by something, or based on
something, but it becomes something else entirely. People get worried about representing this
thing but you are not trying to recreate it. You are making something
completely new, a painting.”
In the same way, if I am influenced by someone’s work,
whether I know or remember it or not, and I go and make something, whatever I
make becomes something in itself. My style, my work, even if it’s not original
or cutting edge. I have to talk myself into acting sometimes, there’s always
doubt and lack of confidence to stop you. And in the end, who cares but
you? (also more practically, there’s a lack of
space. Where am I going to put this stuff once I’m finished?)
So, this idea is a compound of things. I want to make a
house structure, like a children’s playhouse – so this might involve some kind
of metal frame, or maybe a light wooden one. The frame needs to be delicate,
sketchy, though. Like it might fall down at any minute. I’d like the walls
& roof to be made of prints which are printed on some kind of glassine or
see through, or semi transparent paper. They could be photo based, or etched,
or something, I’m not sure. Maybe a combination of different techniques. It could be lit from within like a paper
lantern. At the same time I quite like the idea that people could crawl inside
it to have a look. And to hide away,
relax, have a lie down..
I was thinking where this might have come from and realised
there’s about a million sources.
Katherine Jones beautiful, luminous greenhouse type etchings.
Katherine Jones beautiful, luminous greenhouse type etchings.
My prints dangling from the clothes rack to dry, reminding
me of tents we used to make from the clotheshorse when we were kids in
Wynchgate. (This has just triggered a painful memory – voila. That’s the theme
of this work, memory and how it makes you.)
The Thames Parade of Lights and fish lanterns made of paper.
Walking at night and seeing other people’s lit up windows,they always look so cosy and homely when you’re outside.
Russell Hoban’s Amaryllis Night and Day and the dream-like
bus made of Japanese rice paper.
Lorca’s poem about a house “located in the
foundations of rainfall” “a tent
surrounded by the sea and broken panels dripping brine.”
I could go on, but I won’t. Going to let it percolate for a
while.