When beginning this task, I had a few ideas already of the direction that I wanted to go in. I feel like my art history course on modernism really established how I want to make art, and and have unknowingly found inspiration in the past. I really resonate with the philosophy and outcomes that surround movements such as Dadaism and surrealism. Collage is a big factor in how I gain inspiration, and doing that course allowed me to learn about where my roots of inspiration truly are. At first, I wanted to focus on found imagery in books and magazines I have found around the house and at op shops. Thus, creating a wacky and confusing scene, to provoke the viewers own meaning to the work, and cause a sense of confusion. I wanted to focus on the absurdities of life in normal and abnormal settings. The cut outs came from old vinyl record covers, books, and a children's dictionary that had some random and humorous pictures. Here is some cut outs I found:
The images represented a party which got me thinking about doing a collage style screen print of parties/pubs going out. I had a really great and interesting chat with deb who gave me some ideas and reference artists. One of the artists I resonated with is Jorg Immendorf, a German painter who paints incredible, collage like paintings with surrealist imagery. I love the complexities of his work and how there is so much going on in the one image. I like how there are multiple sizes of scenes going on in different areas. There is a very interesting level of perception in these works - something I wanted to explore.
Deb also showed me one of her works from art school, which depicted a pub scene. Since I have been in Canberra, the pubs have been open at limited capacity and the general theme of my life seems to be uni, work and the pub. Being back in Canberra has also been nostalgic, and I have fond memories of the pubs here, and a lot of inside jokes with my mates, so I wanted to take on this idea in my work.
Another artist who I take a great amount of inspiration from is Contemporary Filipino artist Rodel Tapaya. He paints collage like surrealist imagery which comments on society and politics. His works are quite similar to Jorg Immendorf in terms of perception and detail.
I wanted to create my work in a graphic and cartoon like way. A particular artist that inspired the style of my work is @calejaylabbe on instagram. This is the work that inspired how my piece was executed. I really like how there are many separate scenes going on, which are similar in theme and tie the image together. It's fun and graphic and has a sense of humour to it. I also like the pop culture references, something I explored in my piece, but from an Australian pub scene.
I gathered a variety of images, mostly my own, but also general images that I found on the internet. Images found on the internet were things like pool balls, the handcuffs and the police car; things that spontaneously and automatically came to mind. I would draw these straight onto the paper. I didn't want to have a specific plan before starting the work. I wanted the end result to be a fun surprise, taking inspiration from the surrealist method of autonomism. These images include inside jokes, friends, and happenings at the pub over the past year, especially my art school friends from when I studied at ANU, and the antics we would get up to after uni. Here is a few images I drew:
Resch's is the most delicious beer you will ever drink. Only available in NSW/ACT. An old man beer that me and my friends love. You can get a discount badge that gives you $6 schooners. Not bad. There are multiple references to the beer in my work. This is my dad.
Stealing a schooner glass from the pub, a classic pub activity when you're a poor art student.
Pool: Fave pastime.
My friend heather.
Heather and I playing pool after uni last year.
These are just examples of some of the photos I used. I also embraced autonomism when creating my work. I am drawn to seeing how the work looks as I go and adding similar things to the composition - ideas for imagery flows off each other as it is drawn. And thus, leaving the end result as a surprise. Embracing the notion of chance from what I could find on my camera roll, and the ideas that friends had. I was also inspired by my own works from last year. I did a painting course at ANU last year and one of the assessment pieces was making a collage and then doing a painting of that collage. This has transformed the way I make art as it has allowed me to embrace chance and work with found imagery. This has fuelled my creativity drastically and allowed me to create works that are confusing, weird and cooked. I took inspiration from my own work, which I make a collage, which I painted, and then turned into a screen print. I wouldn't have thought to make this work without the aide of weird vinyl covers and magazines. It's amazing to think that had I gone to a different op shop in a different area, or used a different book, the results would be entirely different.
I am super lucky that I escaped Melbourne during the pandemic back to Canberra. I am also lucky I was able to access Megalo and I already know how to screen print. I love screen printing as I am able to get a graphic, clean a cartoon-like look to my works, and that it can transfer to paper and textiles. I did rough pencil drawings to begin with and then went over it in pen. I also love the checkerboard border and it is a reoccurring pattern in my works, and it matches the cop car and handcuffs. Here is the progress of my drawing:
Here is the finished drawing, in my mood lit bedroom, ready to be photocopied, marked up and put in the exposure unit. Unfortunately, I was so busy and stressed that I didn't document the screen printing process :(
Throughout the screen printing process, there was a lot of trial and error. I used one of my own screens, which fit the image, but it was too small for the print to come out clean. So I frustratingly had to use a much bigger screen and expose it all again. On the smaller screen the images turned out blotchy and smudged. I also used a new ink that dried quickly on the screen, which caused the image to be faint. A few times I wasn't paying attention and I printed half on the table and half on the paper. After lots of troubleshooting, I was able to smash out some consistently nice prints. I also wasn't used to the large 50cm x 70cm scale I did for both works.
Printed off the page... super frustrating because otherwise perfect print.
Screen ink dried because I didn't flood it and I hate this ink that I used. I much prefer using the Lascaux as I can mix it with any opaque acrylic and it doesn't dry so quick on the screen.
More dried up on the screen. Reeeeeee. By this point I was angry and frustrated and gave up for the day. My next day at megalo I learnt by troubleshooting and was able to get some really nice near perfect prints. Practice makes perfect. Also, I sewed 12 tea towels out of nice linen for next time to print on!
Overall, I am really happy with how my screen prints and tea towels turned out. I feel like this class has really allowed me to develop a sense of style and I am so grateful that I was able to use the facilities at megalo. I really love the busyness and detail of the work and how I am able to depict such a familiar scene on a personal level and also a level in which most people can relate to. I have included things that a dear and true to me, and inside jokes that relate to my social circle and Canberra scene, but also anyone. I also feel like I achieved my aim of depicting a sense of chaos and confusion. I want the viewer to question what each element means and think about the possible story behind each element, attaching their own stories to the work. I also feel like I achieved a sense of humour and fun to my work, and depicted the absurdities of the mundane or the normal. Environments like these seem typical, but when we look at in in a visual narrative all together, we notice the humour, absurdity and surrealism in a 'normal' scene. I also feel like my prints and tea towels came out well after some troubleshooting. The only thing I would have done different with the tea towels is make them slightly bigger, as the border turned out bad due to the elevated seam. They are strong, graphic and fun. I have already managed to sell a few!
It's not often that I am happy with the work that I make, but I am excited to say that I truly like what I've done!
Here is my final work, and close ups:
Screen print on paper:
Screen-print on Handmade by me tea towel! I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier but I bought a bunch of linen from spotlight and I handmade all my tea towels! Printed permaset on linen. They turned out well, except the tea towels are a little bit small, so the seams made a bump which threw off the boarder. Not perfect but looks good and is still sellable!
Close ups:
