It has been a long journey to get to this point; by 'this' I mean to my current body of work, to this website, to a place where I can handle putting this together.
The finished watercolour of the whole fruit...
As an artist I´m really interested in the process, in how things come to be. I will use this blog to document that part of the journey.
I´ve found so many possibilities for this body of work in gelatin printmaking...
What I´m doing at the moment is researching themes of illness and healing, different approaches to medicine and healing and have found a great interest in the use of plants and faith in recovering from sickness.
Fennel and rue
Through printing them, I am getting to know and understand different curative plants and herbs. In this way, I'm getting acquainted with their colours, shape, texture, smell... It´s an incredibly rich and sensuous process!
Hanging upside down so they can dry a bit before I can use them to print with
This process is also taking me to the markets which are one of my favourite places in any city. I´m learning where to get specific plants and how to keep them better. The first time I went to buy some I bought a ton of them and most of them ended up rotting. I now know I have to buy less and dry them a bit before I use them so I use my balcony for that.
My idea for trying a round format came from thinking about viruses as seen through a microscope and microbes in a petri dish...
Detail of some of my last prints
This has been an incredibly stimulating process; I still want to try various different things but can see already a series taking shape.
So far I've been playing a lot with positive and negative space but the last piece I´ve made has also involved collage-the possibilities are endless and the process is quite addictive I must say.
My studio...
One thing that is making a huge difference in my work and also helping me recover my identity as an artist is having a studio. I found a small place right around the corner from my house and I couldn't be happier. I´m still getting used to working outside of my home but I can already see how it´s affecting my work positively. More about that in my next post...