After looking into a range of different artists, I began to
expand my work into some larger outcomes. When looking at the work of Chad
Wasser (http://chadwasser.com/), I couldn't
help but be inspired by his inky work that reminded me of something you would
find in a science lab, growing in a petri dish. As a result of this
inspiration, I began to work on PVC, drawing onto and painting the surface with
acrylic paint to create the organic shapes found in his work, before stitching
into them and leaving hanging threads. I constricted myself to working only in
a circular piece of PVC, adding to the petri dish feel. I created a number of
these for my sketchbook, before going on to create nine as mini outcomes, which
I would later mount on the wall, inside actual petri dishes.
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As the project developed, I began looking into a number of
paper cut artists including Crystal Wagner, Karen Margolis and Mary-Button
Durell. While looking into these artists, I was reminded of the work of Anna
Sebestova (http://cargocollective.com/annasebestova),
which I believed would translate extremely well into the paper-cut technique. This
led me to create a huge A1 sized paper-cut of her work, which also incorporated
areas with raised layers in a contrasting colour. I really like this outcome,
particularly its incorporation of layers, which is something I enjoy working
with. Later on in the project, I decided to revisit the petri dish idea, this time taking inspiration from an artist called Klari Reis (http://www.klarireis.com/). Klari uses petri dishes as her frame, and creates some beautiful pieces of art by adding dyes and pigments to a resin like plastic - epoxy polymer. I created my own work in response to this, in a way that was more suitable for my own resources. I used PVA glue, pouring it into a petri dish before adding inks and powder pigments to it. Once the glue had dried clear after a few days, the pattern the ink/powder pigment had made was revealed. I later extended my ideas by adding hanging threads and beads into the PVA, or drawing onto the petri dishes and dried glue to add to the patterns the pigments had made. Here are some of my favourites.
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