Accumulate and disperse: Contemporary print

This is my print project, the theme being accumulation and disperse.

Screen print on satin fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Colograph on satin fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Colograph on PVC fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Colograph on PVC fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in 

Colograph on PVC fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Colograph on satin fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Colograph on PVC fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Colograph on satin fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Colograph on PVC fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Colograph on satin fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

screen print on paper 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

screen prints on fabric 2012
16.5 x 11.7 in

Print Artistic statement:

As a reaction to the brief, Accumulation – Disperse, I first explored all different topics. I went from looking at fame and how easily in this time it is to achieve and lose (looking at 15 minutes of fame, fame the musical etc.) I also explored the ideas of psychological disorders such as hoarding where people accumulate a lot of items and find it difficult to let them go due to emotional ties. Finally I settled on the idea of the magpie and how magpies and jackdaws are fabled to steal shiny and valuable objects. I also linked this to disperse via the term “flying the nest”. Within the workshop sessions I developed this using monoprinting, Drypoint, colograph and Screenprinting techniques. I have been particularly interested in the mono and screen printing techniques in monochrome as they mimic the colours of the magpie and jackdaw. I really enjoyed the ink and system 3 method as it was a quick easy way to make many reproductions and produce a great deal of work. I researched the artist Julia Burns with her animal and bird prints as I believe they are tied to my work. Painting directly onto the screen I have made varied marks to suggest the ragged magpie stealing. I also focused on feathers as we all know how birds, especially chicks, malt. I have also thought about printing onto Perspex style material as well as different types of satin to accentuate the ‘shiny’ attraction magpies and jackdaws have and I have experimented and trialled printing on other fabric and foil. As well as the set topic, I want my work to show that feeling of when an item has been lost – people say things have been stolen by the fairies, or misplaced. I envisage this hoarder of a magpie sitting on a fat nest full of objects and tokens; like a dragon sitting on treasure.