One of the larger "topography"drawings I have been working on (in a series of three so far). These stemmed from cleaning out my fireplace and becoming attracted to the charcoal ashes as a possible material to work with. These are larger pieces (about 29" x 39", approx). The formations are made by the imprint of the ashes on paper mixed with salt water which I then ink in with a calligraphy pen. What I love about creating these is the way they begin with literally throwing ashes, culminating in hours and hours of tiny pencil lines to make the topography. I think it is a little difficult to see in the the detail, but there are tiny thin lines covering every bit of "land" in the piece. As I made these I thought alot about "brain-mapping" and how we can now map the pattern of synapses in our brains. This for me, became like my own personal "brain-mapping", taking me through many many hours of various thought processes as I drew hundreds of tiny pencil lines, which became my personal "synapses" in a more literal way.
One of the larger "topography"drawings I have been working on (in a series of three so far). These stemmed from cleaning out my fireplace and becoming attracted to the charcoal ashes as a possible material to work with. These are larger pieces (about 29" x 39", approx). The formations are made by the imprint of the ashes on paper mixed with salt water which I then ink in with a calligraphy pen. What I love about creating these is the way they begin with literally throwing ashes, culminating in hours and hours of tiny pencil lines to make the topography. I think it is a little difficult to see in the the detail, but there are tiny thin lines covering every bit of "land" in the piece. As I made these I thought alot about "brain-mapping" and how we can now map the pattern of synapses in our brains. This for me, became like my own personal "brain-mapping", taking me through many many hours of various thought processes as I drew hundreds of tiny pencil lines, which became my personal "synapses" in a more literal way.
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2 comments:
these are beautiful! I've used ash, but not in awhile. I've been using rock salt and ink, and after it dries, scrap off the salt and draw back in. I'd like to learn more about the process.
thanks Vickie. It sounds like my process is very similar to yours- I have found over and over again is that nature is more inventive than my brain and I throw the ashes to allow the patterns to occur. The part that is me is choosing which patterns to bring out with ink and which to brush off after everything is dry...
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