May Days

In the print studio, getting ready to create a cyanotype outside in the sun

May days are here and suddenly the sun has come out. The hedgerows are filled with flowers which seem to be on their own flowering schedule from bluebells to daisies in one week. Yesterday a local village had the crowning of the May Queen and everywhere the sound of birds, and bright light green of trees gaining their leaves.

I’ve been creating prints inspired by the birds and flowers now that the sun has come out. My cyanotypes have focused on places where I pause on my walk from the campsite at the bottom of a hill, walking through the Dartington estate gardens up to the print studio.

There’s an atmosphere of play and experimentation in the studio as we prepare our digital portfolio for the end of Module 1 of our MA Arts + Place. It’s been all about Dartington, our time here and the areas we have each found to focus our research on.

For the first time I have focused on myself, the artist’s body as a site in space. Counting the steps on my walk, considering how I feel, the things I ate or consumed. I’ve loved repurposing boxes of foodstuffs and the small boxes with raised braille marks on them of the paracetamol I’ve taken for my painful knees at the end of a busy day.

The jackdaw has become a motif of freedom, flight and play. They are a very social bird, interacting with humans and are a bit cheeky. Their cries as they do aerobatics from the roofs and chimney tops are a staccato note to the soundscape of birdsong all around.

I’ve been making a video where the jackdaw features, a work still in process. It’s been a joy to write poetry again, make videos, print, draw and combine them all into my creative practise. Permission to play is a ticket to freedom.

Cyanotype of the jackdaw on a box

Multiple print layering, with the jackdaw