Working through process.....

Recording particles created by the elements on paper is a time-consuming process that takes months even years as can be seen with Stephen Turners 'Tree Rings' consequently I've been thinking of ways to facilitate faster responses to elemental mark making.
After seeing an image from an Instagram post by @margaretsoraya; a photographer based in the Isle of Harris, I started to look at my project #disjointedhorizons from a different perspective. Margaret had taken a particular image submerged in the ocean, with the snowy mountains in the distance and the sea in the foreground, this linear/horizontal close view of the water soften the image and portrayed the view as if swimming in the sea and the water enveloping around you. The stunning image got me thinking about viewing the earth from a different perspective.; instead of always viewing work and making from above, as is often the case with Google Earth and images from space, this horizontal position feels like a new way of observing and making.

. I've always been fascinated by the act of digging into the earth and the enormity of carving out the land for both construction and quarrying earth's resources. Working on a horizontal level, going down into the earth below the borderline of ground level presents some new challenges and ways of working.
After visiting my good friends exhibition (click Here -) Nunnington Hall opens for 2022 with a new exhibition - Castles Gardens (castlesandgardens.co.uk) I started to revisit the light sensitive process of cyanotype and the process of placing paper within cut out openings in the ground to enable a juxtaposition between the above, the below and the broken 'crust' of the earth. Cyanotype for me can be very restrictive as far as always being blue tones but by using materials unconventionally i.e. mixing with earth pigments such as clay, charcoal and rust and allowing  the earth and detritus to connect with the paper there have some surprising results. Using the cyanotype more as a painting medium at the point of experiment rather than prepping paper before hand which is traditionally done has helped me push the process further. There's no getting away from the fact that cyanotype is a great light sensitive medium that can interact with the elements and produce some great marks and drawings but I want to work through ways of making the cyanotype a less dominant feature in the work.