PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE MONICA WILKINSON
ABOUT ME MY PROCESS- NATURAL DYES
CLOUD WATCHING
INSPIRATIONS FINAL MAJOR PROJECT, THE END IS NIGH THE NEXT STEP EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS CURATING EXHIIBITIONS PROMOTION
About me. I am inspired by things which imply a humble, simple celebration of life. In the past I have found it difficult to pinpoint in words excactly what motivates me to make work. I have applied it to different themes ie- a landscape or a Journey. However in these themes, they embody the same feeling of freedom and youthful joy! I have been using the natural world and taking directly from it in my work as a catalyse to represent this feeling of pure, untainted happiness, for even just a moment. Standing beneath the trees, the sun beating down, tingling through my body, I have never felt so alive, sensations running all through me. It allows me to take a step back from life and put things in to perspective.
There is nothing more important than enjoying each moment we spend on this earth. In the most simplest situations; this is when I am most aware of what it means to just be. There should be no separation between life and work. From applying this to the Journey; as I did for a project last year, I began dying fabrics with natural substances then, and then after walking across Spain last summer, I was inspired to experiment with everything I had thought on this journey to my practice.
'Better to have a short life that is full of which you like doing then a long life spent in a miserable way.' ALAN WATTS
MY PROCESS. NATURAL DYES Working with natural dyes has been an amazing material to work with, each dying process becomes an experiment. I began working with natural dyes last year and the simplicity of it reflects the feelings I want my work to convey. However it has taken a long time to get to this point with them as before I tried dying on silk, the colours were a lot duller, now I have managed to create some very vivid patterns and colours in them. Not only has it really made me appreciate natural colours but also the amount of colour that surrounds us daily, that we are numb to noticing. Reading 'Chromophobia' by David Batchelor has reinforced my appreciation for colour in our lives! He reminds us to notice the importance of colour. It is EVERYWHERE!
Colour is relegated to the realm of the superficial, the supplementary, the inessential or the cosmetic‌ It is perceived merely as a secondary quality of experience, and thus unworthy of serious consideration‌colour is routinely excluded from the higher concerns of the Mind. It is other to the higher values of Western culture. Or perhaps culture is other to the higher values of colour. Or colour is the corruption of culture. DAVD BATCHELOR
Collecting materials to dye with from bark and berries to onions and turmeric, is an addictive and fascinating process to undertake. The outcomes have been beautiful and the colours are surprisingly vivid. On silk, the lightness of the fabric hanging on the wall and the brightness of colour have worked better than any other fabric. It is rewarding
when a col-
our comes out well because of the sheer amount of time spent dying it.
I have had trouble getting caught up in the process of dying and losing sight of the final image, so to begin with the fabrics did not illustrate the message successfully. However as the project has gone through many turns, from patchwork to fabric collages with photographs and drawings, the colours have got brighter and the images have become clearer. I think that the fabric hangings themselves would work really well in an exhibition space, as pieces of art. Placing them alongside the drawings gives them more of a context.
CLOUD WATCHING AND DRAWING. LESS IS MORE. Creating something which allows people to step in to my
imagination for a moment. This project has allowed me to indulge in taking a very simple idea- something that is
relatable to anyone who has been a child, and using a lose and fun drawing style to put these characters on to pa-
per. Although I admire intricate ways of working, I much prefere a loser way of drawing where I feel I can create much more intriguing and suggestive charcters.
The clouds have been a great catalyse to creating my
characters, in relation to my project, they work well as a series of ambiguous characters and drawings, showing the
power of imagination with my 'head in the clouds' however I am excited to develop them further in to making strange tales for some of these characters.
“The capacity to see the world through the eyes of a child permits the youthful drawer to discover the inner sound of an object. There is an unconscious power in children that places them on the same level (and often much higher than) the works of adults� -Kandinsky
INSPIRATIONS There have been two books in particular which have made me feel excited about these illustrations. The first being- Life Cycle by Johannes Dorflinger- this book illustrates each season with a picture and a poem. The second is by Fiona Tann. She collects family photographs from all over the world, arranging them in a way which highlights the similarities in each photo. Both of these books inspire me because of the documentary and honest feel to them. It's like stepping in to the artists mind when looking through them. By collecting images from other families, they manages to make an audience feel sentimental to images which are not their own memories by reminding them of similar photos they have. Through simple l ine drawing and universal childhood imaginings; making images in clouds, I would like the viewer to also feel personal nostalgia and excitement towards the drawings.
I am also influenced by artists such as Marina Abramovic and Pipilotti Rist who create immersive environments for the viewer. I am drawn to art like this because I like the feeling of being totally consumed by something, I think this is why have enjoyed dying fabrics with natural dyes so much, it began by collecting materials to dye with from the environment, and so by finding them I was indulging in walking through beautiful places!
JOURNEY AND YOUTH
Final Major Project. The End is Nigh... In this Final Major Project I have used natural dyes and drawing/painting to make images which illustrate the beauty that surrounds us everyday; this was initially shown through the natural dyes. The drawings were taken simply from what I could see in the clouds, they too illustrate the beauty of life, giving the viewer an insight in to the world through my imagination. I am so happy to have these two processes working alongside each other. To begin with, I struggled to show illustration through the dyes, or perhaps I found it difficult to say exactly what it was I was trying to capture. I focused too much on the process and in doing so neglected the reason I was making work- the outcomes. With my interest with immersive art, I have found it difficult to seperate the process with the final outcome of an image. I can get sucked in to experiments which has meant I have not concentrated on the image itself. However, the combination of the more abstract images with my drawings, work well together.
However it was such a natural process to add the drawings to it- as the dyes resembled clouds (which linked in very well to my theme; cloud imagery links to an open space, light, immersing yourself in the outdoors.) I began drawing what I saw in the supporting photographs that I had taken. I would never have considered them good enough to be apart of my body of work, they were something that I kept for myself. Now it is great to draw them for other people see. It all came together when the drawings took off and the dying became brighter and more vivid. The end colours that I have created remind me of psychedelic patterns of the 1970’san era celebrating youth and freedom. The drawings have become characters, standing without the cloud images, I think the ambiguity works well, it becomes an imaged world, created from every day life.
The Next Step. In the three years that I have been in Bournemouth, I have lived alongside a group of friends who share similar outlooks and ambitions to my own; most of which are also from Norfolk. I plan to go back there for a year, with time spent in Bristol and London, I will set up a platform to sell and promote my work in a collective of creative people who have graduated in the last two years. I want to promote a lifestyle that people will be buying in to when they buy my artwork, it is important not to leave the creative minds which inspire you, you all drive each other forward. This summer I will be holding a Silent Auction in the Canteen, Bristol from work made people I know who have also recently graduated. I also have exhibitions lined up with Therese Vooght in Bristol, Brixton and Norfolk. I have previous experience working in a gallery in Norfolk, and I am lucky enough to go back there and gain more insight in to curating and organising exhibitions.
When you buy from an independent artist you are buying more than just a painting or a novel or a song. You are buying hundreds of hours of experimentation and thousands of failures. You are buying days, weeks, months, years of frustration and moments of pure joy. You are buying nights of worry about paying the rent, having enough money to eat, having enough money to feed the children, the birds, the dog. You aren’t just buying a thing. You are buying a piece of heart, part of a soul, a private moment in someone’s life. Most importantly, you are buying that artist more time to do something they are truly passionate about; something that makes all of the above worth the fear and the doubt; something that puts the life into the living. –Rebekah Joy Plett
EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS LADYLIKE EXHIBITION- A collection of work made by housemates working alongside each other for 3 years. April 2013 at Open Space Gallery Bournemouth. Sold one piece. SENSES EXHIBITION Holdenhurst road- Monica Wilkinson and Therese Vooght; collaboration for film about the senses and the simplicity of childhood inhibitions. BOSCONOVA EXHIBITION-2012 CURATED A SHOWCASE OF SECOND YEAR ILLUSTRATION- Open Space 2013 ORGANISED AND CURATED SILENT AUCTION alongside Laurel Turner, Adam Bourne and Katie Macon- April 2013 EXHIBITION IN NORFOLK- 2012 COMMISSION- Fabric Piece- 2013
PUBLICATIONS Ladylike 2013 Sense 2012
CURATING AND PUTTING UP EXHIBITIONS.
I really enjoy the satisfaction of seeing my work and work that I have curated displayed in an exhibition space. It gives the work the credit it deserves and it is great to see people enjoying it. I have been part of a team curating exhibitions in Norfolk and last year exhibited a film in Bournemouth so that the space became part of the work. It is a wonderful thing to be able to create a whole experience for the viewer around your work. This year, I have had the oppertunity to curate a Second Year Illustration exhibition, it was challenging placing work together which was not made to go next to each other.
SILENT AUCTION Working alongside a few of my peers, organising the Illustration Silent Auction gave me a greater insight in to the organisation and promotion around an event. I designed the poster and we emailed artists to donate work. The day of the Silent Auction was hard work but so rewarding, it was great to have such a huge team of us setting up. This inspired me to do my own silent auction in the summer; Bristols creative community will be a perfect place to hold events like this. I work well in a team and would like to continue curating exhibitions, the events and exhibitions that I have coming up in the summer will be an excellent chance to get my foot in the door!
PROMOTION WEBSITE AND BLOG Having a blog is an invaluable tool for clients to see a good working process. I use my blog as a visual diary and update it regularly, it shows a strong development of my work and ideas. Getting good feedback from my work encourages me to keep making it. I have another blog full of my inspirationsW which is a great place to store images I like, I'm careful not to mix my own work with images I like because when a client looks at my blog I want it to run smoothly with just the images I have made.
BLOGSmonicawilkinson.tumblr.com monicawilkinsoninspiration.tumblr.com
WEBSITE monicawilkinson.com
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