This looks a intresting method of manipulating graphite, have you thought of applying other mediums to the canvas as-well suchas print and or small 3d objects. Maybe as it progresses they will introduce themselves. Good luck! Will try and keep track of its progression

thanks for sharing this – look forward to progress reports

Thanks for the comments guys – Nawroski…...I did think of pasting a print of the earlier work ‘Pterosaur’ onto the canvas, but figured as this was an experiment I’d try to keep it simple to begin with – once I’ve worked out how the stuff behaves I’ll maybe try out the idea in a later work.
Janis – thanks for the tip. I’ll try and get hold of some and give it a go…....it can’t be any messier than using the powder is! :-) I look like I’ve been down a coal mine after a few hours of using this stuff.

Useful tip here is to give the work a very light spray of either fixative or spray varnish every now and then just to hold the more mobile bits in place!

next stage – progressing slowly because of a thousand other things that need doing at the same time…..

blocked in some bones and started laying in a map layer and a grid layer…......

heavily worked over the whole surface to give me something to cut through on the next stage

began a second work…........starting to like this powdery black stuff :-)

Sorry for last remark! you obviously do – else you wouldnt be doing them.
Ps: Think it was the pickle I had for tea((::

really liking the depth that’s developing and what you’ve learned already about the medium shows in the new one. Love your way with words too ;)

All good questions N – the kind of things that I ask myself all the time:-)

There are probably no short or easy answers to any of those…….
The process, by which I mean the mental process that results in an image (as opposed to the mechanical process or technique used) is, for me, the most important part. The resulting image itself is relatively unimportant – it represents the ending of a particular exploration through a landscape of ideas and feelings. I very rarely pre-conceptualise a ‘finished’ work – there are usually a few components and elements that I wish to include, (in this case a crucifix and a pterosaur) but when first confronted by a blank canvas, I have no conception of where they are going to lead me. It’s an unfashionably modernist way to work, but it is the kind of approach that works for me.

We’ve had long discussions here about when exactly the ‘process’ ends, particularly the relationship between artist, work, and viewer. At one time I would have insisted on the autonomy of the artist – a state of existential subjective isolation. Recently, thanks to having my eyes opened in other directions, I’m more accepting of the continuation of the work and process beyond the artist – of course, it changes the work, but that may well be a good thing (?)

The Christian symbolism……. Again, your earlier comment reveals the subjective nature of reading too much or little into any perceived symbolism. A cross may well be regarded only in terms of its art/historic cultural symbolism – but I think it is a mistake to attach a simplistic graphic label onto something that can contain a multitude of ambiguous subjective meanings for an individual (particularly if that individual is an artist)

This is a violent work with an act of violence at its heart – the crucifixion is real, as is the struggling extinct creature – but it also has a narrative factor (using this term in a very broad sense) it is not simply an act of violence that is abstracted, it is also an act which embodies a recurrent and recognizable motif. It suggests a transcendence of finitude even beyond extinction – in the expectation of redemption. The act of violence, in other words, signifies an imperative. It is recognized not in its own right – as a murder, but as a vehicle to a message. We do not know what that message is (it is unimportant) but we should feel that it is there (which is important)…..it’s there because I put it there, even if a viewer’s subjectivity sees it differently.

It’s also a violent work in another sense – the distortion and the reduction of basic shape and space (as in all abstracted work) gives rise to a more ‘primitive’ and thence more direct communication between artist and viewer – (a recognition of the/my process moving beyond the artist which should please my friend Mufa no end:-)

In other words, the violence of the technical and formal means should not be seen just in those terms – as an act of aggression – it signifies a rejection and reformulation of a rigid relation between painting and viewer. The crucifixion then, is representative of a dimension of violence in terms of the subject-matter of a painting and also the medium of painting – violence which can also serve a broader narrative function bound up with the affirmation of prevailing sets of cultural/spiritual values, or with the rejection of such values.

This is the kind of broad conceptual framework that evolves, and often crumbles as my work progresses – it is often ambiguous, illogical and unfinished, but it serves its purpose – which is to give a visual structure to a mental process.

My own views on Christianity and anthropology would probably fill a book…….the short answer – I see doctrine as metaphor and faith as a matter of personal subjective experience. Anthropology is a fascinating science that I’ve always enjoyed reading about.

Why do I do them?.........
Beats working for a living:)
(Question too difficult :))!

ps. none of the above has anything to do with working with graphite….........apologies for the interlude…..

Good answers! Mr Kafka,
Analysis / feedback: Your progressive Modernist approach to a peterosaur & cruxifix are worked exterior to your application & image construction, eg: automation driven by artist passion’s. This approach giving you a journey that leads you to an ending – with newism to your already established proceedural concept’s. I feel from what you have stated is that the work you are doing tells you when it is finished & prevents you from further application or process.

The visual aggression shown in your crucifix uncontrolably draws the viewer’s eye in a downward fashion from the top of the canvas towrds the bottom of the canvas, this I personally feel is how you are working this to make the viewer acknowlege what you are saying, and have control over your subject matter. Your affirmation to cultural / spiral value’s within a society of decision making is simply a underlinig ethical approach, unlike your working process in this subject matter.

I agree on all you contexualisation’s of a working process this method cannot be surpassed as a pure way of working.
And it would probulary take the entire internet to convey the history of anthropology alongside christianity.
Nice talking with you!

I haven’t really commented much on your recent work because it appears to be focused on an area to which I can’t relate, and I’m ever mindful of sensitivities that I can’t even start to consider.
However, after reading the ‘artist’s statement’ above (which I very much enjoyed – I should have known we’d find the usual onion) – it struck me, for the first time in two years, you are a budding conceptual artist. This is not just based on my current mind-set – you basically concede the fact with this introspective revelation….......

@Mufa – Thank you (really) for considering my sensitivity on matters of faith, but please don’t feel you need to hold back from comment – my own beliefs are entirely subjective (to me) and are impervious to any other contrary (subjective) view. I appreciate that it may well be pointless anyway, given that we would likely have entirely different frames of reference to the subject, but I’m happy to thrash it out if you feel like it :-) (just don’t expect to get anywhere with it!)

It’s been a while since anything about me has been described as ‘budding’ (I feel quite chuffed:-) – Yes, you’re absolutely right. There were some very distinct conceptual elements that jumped in there right from the start – but I tried not to let them interfere too much with the other more instinctive strands of the work. I often find that thoughts and ideas about things like spirituality have a way of filtering through (almost sub-consciously) into the work as it progresses – it’s like a reverse process whereby a shape or mark on the canvas resulting from an expressive move then suggests a conceptual trigger for the next series of mark-making – vague I know….I’m loathe to over-analyse it at this stage for fear of killing it off….......
I’m beginning to wonder if Modernist/expressionist and Conceptual have to be rigidly mutually exclusive (?) – I know that much of my work during the past two years has been a mixture of both – but the ‘finished’ works generally seem not to self-destruct due to mutual repulsion……

You won’t be getting any religious/spiritual discussion from me – I haven’t really had THAT discussion since my student days. It soon became apparent after about 40 of them in quick succession that it is the most useless activity known to man (I mean the discussion – not any particular viewpoint).

Conceptual existential expressionist – got an impressive ring to it.

Of course, it has been readily evident all along that there is a strong conceptual/intellectual element to all your work – but when you add in the trademark ‘the finished work doesn’t matter to me’ plea – the modernist side of the balance begins to look increasingly flimsy and the day when the painting as work of art is finally eliminated draws nearer….......!

Zefira – Thank you! – I figure it’s about getting the right/left brain thing in some sort of balance that works for each of us as individuals – I’ve tried making works where the conceptual part is totally pre-planned in advance, but I usually get a little way into it and the whole thing just goes out the window!