Process Art has always appealed to me. Like clues left behind of a journey and purpose.
It has played a central role in much of my own art since I was a kid although I didn't realize it at first. The first Art School I went to was in Canterbury, England studying sculpture. It was a pretty traditional school at heart but somehow it had become a magnet for some very cool people. Characters like Ian Drury (Blockheads) and David Thompson (drummer and sculptor) were our teachers and there was some fantastic art being created.
One of my personal faves was a series of paintings by a girl who used her naked body as a brush, dipping herself in paint and then rolling across the canvas in various poses. That will always be my clearest introduction to 'process' as art.
As I was taking Sculpture I was expected to buy my own materials and learn the skills of the trade. The problem was that I also wanted to visit Greece and Scandinavia during my holidays and the only money I had was my materials, food and lodging grant. I had to eat and sleep, so my material budget became very very small. In fact all I could afford was paper and string. I was also able to buy a few panes of glass that I would use over and over for the next couple of years.
To be honest I think my teachers kind of wrote me off as a lost cause at least until we got a visit from an artist having a large retrospective at the Tate Galley in London. He was the first person I ever met who actually took what I was doing seriously. Seriously enough to offer to trade any piece of his in the London show for one of mine. I took him up on it and then he suggested I apply to NSCAD in Halifax Nova Scotia, which I did and subsequently went to several months later, leading to dozens of adventures.....
All this to say, here are some pictures taken yesterday during some fairly boring sanding stages of guitar building that never the less included some nice visual moments that I wanted to share.
More again soon.........
