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Look at this... 👀 https://pin.it/6pUnYkN

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https://assets.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_295_300325661.pdf

Although I have not yet visually incorporated what I have learned from looking at Jasper Johns work I found that the pdf article which explores his work gave many valuable insights for understanding my own process and hope to return to his work in order to help me progress with my own. I find his work visually appealing and his approach is very down to earth and has an authentic quality that is also attractive.

Jasper Johns incorporates themes intrinsic to printmaking — reflection, reversal, and transfer additions, subtractions.  This is a very integrated way to work. By using the basic elements of printmaking the artist already has a visual language from which to work. From this basic language a narrative can be built to speak about other themes.

The proofing process allows him to record the stages of an image's development. I have found that the process of developing a print is where the most significant and exciting things happen. Over the years I have lost most of my work.  This feels like memory gaps and I begin to understand my work as autobiographical and also begin to value the process. In terms of psychological development  this keeps me grounded in the present experience as opposed to striving towards a future goal. One way of doing this is to use better quality paper for the documentary process. It does not have to be high end but acid free and of relative archival quality. 

Overdrawing with chalk, ink, paint, crayon, or pencil, re-evaluating images without reworking the stone or plate. Quite often established artists give me permission to do things that I might not otherwise do. I feel this is the most valuable aspect of getting to know artists work. Very often I feel I am drawn to artists because the are speaking in a language that I understand but do not use. I speak Irish and French and do not get the opportunity to use them and as such there is a sense of something valuable that is not being nourished. Similarly the visual language I have acquired consciously and unconsciously remains dormant until I find artists who are speaking it and this allows me to speak back through my own work. Significant in this respect is Joan Miro, Matisse and David Hockney particularly in relation to the use of primary colors.  

"Printmaking encourages ideas because of the lapse of time involved. The medium itself suggests things changed or left out." This is something I discovered through my own process in particular with woodblock and lino relief. Not just in terms of how the image might be manipulated or developed but also the possibility of returning to the image as a response to certain emotional or psychological states. 

Repetition of images in changing contexts. Again building a store of image blocks and etchings is similar to developing ones own alphabet , words and phrases which can be reused in different contexts.

Johns's long-held fascination with visual memory and the evolutionary process of image making. Again this refers to how I perceive my process as visual autobiography which marks and expresses and records moment in time, psychological and emotional states.

But typical of Johns, every mark of illusionism is countered by its denial. I do not understand this statement in relation to jasper Johns work but feel it is an important thing to understand. I have found though that I am resistant to forming any clear statement in my work especially in regard to the use of text.  I find that in poster making for example there is often a didactic tone to text use which is really dislike. As a storyteller and poet I prefer open ended systems of meaning. It is probably the post modern tendency to resist ultimate truths. In this regard I tend to use symbols or glyphs or near language forms that refer to languages as opposed to ideas and politics. In this regard the Dadaist use of text appeals to me.

The dialogue between positive and negative areas continues in later proofs. This balance is something I have been conscious of as perhaps the overarching philosophical approach to printmaking. The Yin Yang or balance that is the defining quality of the good life. Perhaps it appears as accidental in some of my work since I am not yet skilled at consciously working this balance into my work any more than I am skilled at maintaining this balance in my life. I am hoping in 2021 that developing balance becomes a key feature. Coherency will be the outcome and perhaps at this stage my work remains incoherent as a result of life long existence in no mans island where what I say has been irrelevant or incomprehensible.  I came to art college to be part of a community and through interaction with other students, guidance from tutors and getting to know established artists i hope to find a place where my song line interweaves and connects with those of other people and I no longer feel like a marginal outcast.

Color subtly invades the back ground. Presently my work is dominated by primary colors and always has been. I have been aware of the need to move into more subtle colors. This is not to say that I would discard the energies of primaries but perhaps in the development of coherence colors will also develop a coherency that is not based on contrast and the fight for dominance that is reflected in binary psychological and political experiences.

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William Blake.

William Blake is the artist of most interest to me.  His philosophy, poetry and illustrations appeal to my sense of the aesthetic which is based in values of authenticity and truth.  The scope of research I have done in relation to his work brings me only inches closer to him. I have bought a copy of the complete works and need a magnifying glass to read the text which can often be obscure.  Jacob Henry Leveton suggests that Blakes move into abstraction is a response to growing state surveillance and censorship. The first book of Urezin is defined by illegibility. https://www.academia.edu/34908020/_William_Blake_and_Art_against_Surveillance_

After reading Warren Chriswells article I ordered a diamond tipped etching pen. Chriswella uses this to etch lino to create his prints. Below is my first drypoint ecthing from Blakes work. By working with his images in different formats I am getting familiar with his drawing style and in particular his human forms

The William Blake Archive gives a comprehensive look at Blakes life, work and methods. it is here that I learned  how Blake made his etching plates which is very labour intensive .

http://www.blakearchive.org/exhibit/illuminatedprinting

Blake saw the things he read, including the Bible, as containing images of underlying truth which could not be communicated literally. “if the truth could be told so as to be understood and not be believed” . This is a difficulty that I understand and I am interested in finding ways of speaking the truth that can be understood but not taken to be a gospel I am toting. That is of course if I have anything at all to say. I find that abstract image and text can satisfy this need not to be defined. In a much simpler approach to obscuring than Blake complex mythology and illegible text I enjoy creating images that are not defined.

Bellow is an image which came about when a piece of ink soacked tissue fell on a piece of paper, I got some scrim and made two posters through the process of flinging the ink soaked skrim on the paper This was a very physical exercise and reminded me of Jackson Pollock being in his painting. This relates to the chance element that is characteristic of some Dadaist works and Jungs idea of the active imagination. 

Allen Ginsberg sings Blakes https://youtu.be/luUCgQ84sO4

Visions, Symbols and Intertextuality: An Overview of William Blake’s Influence on Allen Ginsberg  by Alexandre Ferrere  gives an insight into Blakes work through his influence on Allen Ginsberg. https://www.emptymirrorbooks.com/literature/william-blake-influence-allen-ginsberg

Characters in Blakes Mythology

Los depicted below represents the imagination, and corresponds to the loving and forgiving Christ of the New Testament. For Blake the imagination was the 'tree of life' and science the 'tree of death'. Urizen represented science and reason and according to Blake, is the vengeful and repressive God of the Old Testament. Los often appears as a blacksmith with the tools of his trade. Blake sees Los crafting objects from molten metal, as he himself forged his visions and inspirations into poetry and art or as Jung would view the imagination and the individuatuon process.

The name ‘Los’ may also derive from the word loss and refer to man’s having lost Paradise. It may also be ‘Sol’ (sun) in reverse , since in Blakes work Los is shown creating the sun or surrounded by flames.

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Great Books

Carl Jungs Red Book

During the first world war, Carl Jung began a self-exploration he referred to as his 'confrontation with the unconscious'. At the heart of this exploration was The Red Book an illuminated volume which he created between 1914 and 1930. The book is a blend of calligraphy and art. Jung considered  The Red Book his most important work,. Nearly 80 years after it was completed, it is available in a facsimile edited by Jung historian Sonu Shamdasani and published by WW Norton. 

Jung encouraged his followers and students to create their own versions of the Red Book.. encouraging his analysands to record their own visions, as he had done. The book a patient created would be, he said, “your church — your cathedral — the silent places of your spirit where you will find renewal.”

The Book of Kells

The Book of Kells contains the four Gospels in Latin which are based on the Vulgate text of St Jerome. It was created in a Columban monastery in either Scotland, Ireland or England which were also previously the locations of the bardic schools.  It is believed to have been created c. 800 AD It is a masterpiece of  calligraphy.  It is also regarded as one of Ireland's national treasures.  The decoration combines traditional Christian iconography with the ornate swirling motifs typical of Insular art. Figures of humans, animals and mythical beasts, together with Celtic knotwork and interlacing patterns . Vibrant colors enliven the manuscript's pages. The book is written on vellum (prepared calfskin) in a bold and expert version of the script known as "insular majuscule". It contains 340 folios, now measuring approximately 330 x 255 mm; they were severely trimmed, and their edges gilded, in the course of rebinding in the 19th century.

William Blakes Illuminated Books

Blake’s greatest achievement was his illuminated books, which featured pages that combined text and pictures and were hand-printed using a form of relief etching that he developed himself. The books often presented controversial and radical ideas. This method of printing gave Blake full control overproduction and publishing. He first successfully used the technique for Songs of Innocence, printed in 1789. This work and its companion volume, Songs of Experience (first published in 1794), remain among the best known of his illuminated books.

The Great Book of Ireland

The Great book of Ireland 

The Great Book of Ireland  (Leabhar Mor na hEireann)   is a modern, large-scale, vellum manuscript comprising the original work of 121 artists, 144 poets and nine composers. A gallery of original modern Irish art, an anthology of poetry and a selection of musical compositions all bound in one single volume, it's one and a half times the size of The Book of Kells and required over 110 calfskins to complete.

Produced in Dublin between 1989 and 1991 the Great Book was bought by UCC in 2013 to be preserved  on behalf of the Irish people.  

Having been recommended to look into this book by Ciaran I was very heartened to see that the extraordinary talents of Blake, Jung and the Monks of Kells were not necessary for making an illuminated book. The book of Ireland has a raw unpolished quality that has beauty reflective of those other great books but is also very expressive and inclusive. I was most  inspired by the double page spread that is used which gives the book unity.

In the article  linked below artist Denis Brown gives an account of his involvement with the creation of the book.

https://www.quillskill.com/gt_book_of_irl/gt_book_of_irl.html

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Andy Warhols inkblot technique.

In exploring ways of applying text I came across this technique used by Andy Warhol where an image is traced through acetate for example and then the wet ink is blotted onto paper to create an image or text.

I enjoy the chance element of this technique which creates something new although and played with just creating random shapes to see what transpired

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Mhttps://warrencriswell.com/butler%20presentation%20for%20web/the_criswell_linocut.html

This is a a very simple way of creating prints. A black or dark ground is put on the paper and outlines and shading are removed feom the block which is inked with a very opaque and light coloured ink. At the time of making these prints I did not hacpve calcium carbonate to mix with the ink to both stiffen it and make it more opaque. There are other hacks like this. Picasso for example would sometimes use only one block and ink a color area then removed the ink and put on a new colour

The Seer

This image is derived from a chalk pastel drawing on board. It is a female version of the hanging God Odin who sacrificed one of his eyes in order to have the gift of knowledge. The glyph like symbols in the image refer to language in its runic form which is essentially the secrets of mystery the silent knowledge or Platonic realm of forms oer Jungs collevtive unconscious which communicates through symbolic imagery.