Experimenting with restrictive drawings- a fine art workshop. Drawing portraits of the person sitting opposite us- with our left hand, our right hand, upside down, whilst being “obstructed” by the other person… constantly adapting and changing our method of drawing to suit the situation we were in. After each completed drawing- we rubbed away the charcoal to introduce the concept of layers to our work. Using different colours added to the visibility of the various layers. I find it interesting to see how many “portraits” you can find in one drawing- and noticing how different the drawing style becomes as I became more restricted/obstructed. An interesting concept to think about whilst creating these pieces was “who is the artist of the work?”- is it the person who’s physically holding the pencil, the person moving the hand, or the person obstructing the artist? Or are there multiple owners?
Experimenting with performance art: creating paper gloves, and wearing them for a period of time; taking them on a journey to the university library and back. The work was titled “There and Back Again, Welsh Weather on Paper”. The gloves themselves are a drawing of my experiences that day- following me on my various adventures and activities. I wore these gloves around the studios, then outside to the library (in very heavy rain), inside and around the library, and then back to the studios. Discussing our thoughts on how to categorise these gloves was interesting- are they drawings? Are they sculptures? Are they fine art/performance art/ or just trash? Do they have any meaning? I personally think that these could be categorised under a variety of names- including drawing and sculpture. They are more conceptual drawings than traditional drawings- but convey quite a complex narrative about who wore them, who made them, why they made them, where they were worn… In this way, they are more interactive drawings that the viewer can have a conversation with.
Caitlin Noble 