→ ∗ I am here.
After a one-to-one with one of the tutors (JC) she suggested that I might try “maps”. Oh! The beauty of maps and atlases, and me with my constant itchy feet… I so enjoyed experimenting and exploring maps over the following days.
Here following are some of the tests I did in my journal first:
And then I tried to transfer the ideas onto paper and see how it felt:
Especially when I then tried watercolour and I wasn’t (and still am not) sure if it worked or not, or if it simply looked a little drawing made for a sugar-coated cartoonish little girl kinda bedroom. Don’t get me wrong: drawing maps did not come easily to me. I was trying to remember streets I lived in, streets I walk on now; I even tried to imagine I was drawing imaginary directions to an imaginary friend sitting close to me in my living room. (I know, I know…). So, not that easy.
But then, whoo-hoo, I actually had some real fun, with these:
These came easily, natural. My hand for the first time felt like a logical extension of my heart and my brain. If was flowing. It wasn’t drawing. I like my sort-of-an-island and I really like my sort-of-archipelago. What I have noticed at the end was that, maybe for the first time, these were just drawings: drawings of islands and sea, and freshness, and freedom. Some greens and blues. That’s all. There was no therapy, no clients, no hidden message.
I do not like AT ALL the cheapy watercolours I used but they have to do, for now. And I can also try some guache, and see the final effect…
And then, because I am me, I tried the following:
And I really liked the idea of combining maps and glasses and look at shades and shadows and optical effects. Of course, I would love to be able to have way more pots and vases and the opportunity to make it on a larger scale, a proper installation, of random objects displayed as a map: kitchen objects for the kitchen and bedroom objects for the bedroom… maybe!
And I am very happy with my T-shirt. If I used a permanent marker, I would be even happier, though… (!)
For the timebeing, the tutor lent me a wonderful book: “The Map as Art” by Katharine Harmon which I am sipping gently as if it were an old respectable wine.
All’s good in my world.
♥