Assignment 4 Submission

Task 1: Project 11

In this section, all of the prints are taken from A4 plates therefore the paper size is just slightly larger than A4.

Descriptive statement: The plates for these prints were created using a large variety of materials including foodstuffs (lentils, rolled oats, bulgur wheat) fabrics (e.g. lace, denim, nylon mesh, hessian) and papers (wallpaper, foil, kitchen roll, masking tape). I have also included various organic materials (eggshells, cork, dried plant materials, feathers) as well as string and sewing thread. The base plates were made of cardboard which was sealed with PVA glue and the plates were sealed with clear acrylic lacquer before printing.

Task 2: Project 12

In this section, the first three prints are taken from A4 sized plates whereas the last two are from an A2 sized plate.

Critical Statement

Decades of working in a healthcare context as a veterinary surgeon have not blunted my fascination for biology, health and disease. In fact they have only served to fuel my enthusiasm for the architecture of the body and its associated organisms both on a macroscopic and microscopic scale.

I created these prints for assignment 4 of the Open College of the Arts Printmaking 1 course which requires the use of collagraph techniques. The second requirement is that the works should be representative or figurative. This is the reason for the inclusion of the industrial landscape here which is incongruous among the rest of the work. The remaining three prints are abstracts which use photographs, micrographs and electron micrograph images of the heart, brain and bacteria respectively as their starting point. 

A number of artists have influenced my choices in the construction of these prints. Brenda Hartill is a printmaker who makes use of collagraph in her work. I am particularly drawn to her abstract collagraphs which are inspired by the landscape. Her prints are alive with texture and rich with colours. I have also been inspired by the drawings of Daniel Zeller whose abstract works have a distinctly biological feel to them and are replete with examples of repetitive mark making. 

I plan to push this line of inquiry further. Looking more deeply into the way that biological structure relates to function as well as how ideas about bodies (human and other animals), health and disease have filtered through western culture into language, mythology, superstition and works of art and literature. This is an ambitious task - I'll be taking it in very small steps.