Exercise 3 Listening and drawing

For this work I chose one of my favourite pieces from an artist from the sixties Judy Tzuke. The record is titled Stay with me till dawn. She has such an amazing voice. I played the piece in my studio and followed the advice preparing charcoal and crushing some up ready. I used the wallpaper lining paper as the exercise suggests. I decided to use the charcoal and smash this up on the paper.

I smash up some charcoal with the use of a hammer. I find that dragging the hammer in the dust of the charcoal makes some nice lines in different directions. It’s at this stage that I put the music on as the hammer is a distraction. I have all my other materials to hand. I am going to use the charcoal with a variety of inks and I’m going to see the effects with just using my hands.

As the music starts I get quite composed and find I go with the rhythm of the song. It’s quite an intense piece, romantic and sincere. I get into slow motions swirling motions with first the charcoal as I’m wanting to use this to it’s full.

At this stage I’m loving some of the finer marks on the paper. I continue but my hands are too messy to keep stopping for photos. As I apply the inks the music is still helping me to sway my hands and fingers. I drop the in and run some up the paper with the stopper. As I continue I’m influenced by the music with my directions but there’s nothing too dramatic. What I love as I add each colour is the overlays and how I’m building up layers and the previous colour shows through. I’m also still moving the charcoal around and I just love the finer detailed background of the grain. The whole experience was quite liberating but I wasn’t going to use knuckles or nails as my music wouldn’t allow such drama. the flat and sides of my hands was more fitting to my music and I needed to respect the beautiful sounds.

My final work is below.

This close up of the main area shows the fine trace of the charcoal underneath and the rhythmic flow of the lines.

This image of the work on it’s side reminds me of the Doris Salcedo’s work and immigrants crossing borders. I’ve created a dark divide.

I really loved this exercise and may try it at some point with more lively music. What I loved was the real abstract feel of a landscape. I enjoyed the looseness of how I was working and I’m really trying hard at the moment to create loose and more realistic figures. By varying the strokes and lines and working more spontaneously I think will begin to work for me.