Beginnings and Endings
Beginnings: adding some paper collage to my argyrotype print made in Scotland, 2022
“To begin at the beginning” ~ opening lines of Dylan Thomas play Under Milkwood
I find it hard to start a new work from scratch. I’d rather refer to something that has come before to springboard from. That’s what I did with some new artworks I began this week using some argyrotype prints on postcards that I made at a residency in Scotland in 2022.
These were prints of ferns and stones that were outside the studio door. I made a series of these to use up my argyrotype solution before I finished the residency and was travelling again. I quite liked them at the time and added a bit of ink and green watercolour paint to get that mossy feel to them.
When I got home from that trip several months later, the postcard prints were unpacked then put aside while I worked on artworks I had made in Iceland which preoccupied my thinking and making for several months after.
I unearthed these postcards the other day and thought they had potential. They reminded me a bit of the works I had made for the recent Art for Takayna exhibition in Tasmania. These too were about the green lushness of nature, the trailing ferns and moss tendrils which had captured my attention while in the Takayna forest.
What I had learnt from making the forest fungi collages for the Tasmanian exhibition, was that kozo paper fibres could be teased out to represent mossy tendrils and that my handmade paper could be used as a contrasting ‘framing’ device to make a collage ‘pop’.
The end of a collage is never assured at the beginning of a work. All the processes in between are what the creation becomes. The beginning is the seed, the ‘activator’ or the story, just like the opening lines of the radio play Under Milkwood. It’s a ‘once upon a time’ structure which leads us into the magic of a story and sets up the drama and action for us to partake in.
I imbue my artworks with stories, some hidden in the material, some more obvious by the title. When I go into the studio and stand at my studio desk, I am opening the pages of book, starting a new story, beginning at the beginning and following on a journey of creative discovery as the materials become characters finding their place on the ‘page’.
A good beginning is always the start to a memorable story. Think of all the great first liners you remember. These are jumping off points for the imagination to dive into. Perhaps they suggest not only a way to begin, but also how navigate your path along the way. Beginnings and endings are all about everything in between.
Work in Progress: possible framing for the collage in progress
