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Making ink from foraged plants

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I have incorporated hand made inks into my current work, which I love because the process is elongated and multi layered. The foraging and processing of the plants is an elemental part of it. I don’t gather plants from exquisite gardens or areas of affluence and abundance, but scrappy wall-growing shrubs, weedy marginal places in towns and cities, and soon-to-be-developed away land. I feel an affinity with this. I look at how much insects prefer certain things, such as clover on a lawn about to be mown, or an overgrown ivy. Perhaps I’ll make an ink out of these next. I like how Jason Logan, whose book Make Ink was in inspiration to me, makes his ink from plants, and even abandoned bits of masonry and iron, he forages for on scrappy in-between areas in cities and towns.

Burrowings and foragings

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I would say that my research over the last year or so for my current practice has been taking the forms of burrowings and foragings, and that’s not unlike how I usually approach interests of mine; special interests or SPINS as they’re sometimes called in autistic circles. It was listening to Katherine May’s podcast* where she spoke to Bayo Akomolafe, and hearing them speak of burrowing and foraging as metaphors for sharing ways to live brought to light that my research has taken these forms. It’s also enlightening for me as finding their wonderful conversation is an example of it. It’s a way of digging in, deepening the search, and unearthing the right pieces to form the connections, the patterns. The right thing seems to just come along and take your notice at just the right time.

* How We Live Now, 30th June 2023: Bayo Akomolafe on fugitive ideas.

Quote: Timothy Morton

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‘The ecological society to come, then, must be a bit haphazard, broken, lame, twisted, ironic, silly, sad. Yes, sad, in the sense meant by a character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who: sad is happy for deep people. Beauty is sad like that. Sadness means there’s something you can’t quite put your finger on. You can’t quite grasp it. You have no idea who your boyfriend really is. This is not my beautiful wife. Which means in turn that beauty isn’t graspable either, beauty as such – which means that beauty must be fringed with some kind of slight disgust, something that normative aesthetic theories are constantly trying to wipe off. There needs to be this ambiguous space between art and kitsch, beauty and disgust. A shifting world, a world of love, of philos. A world of seduction and repulsion, rather than authority. Of truthiness rather than rigid true versus rigid false.’

Timothy Morton, All Art is Ecological p17 – Penguin Green Ideas 3

Quote: Timothy Morton

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‘”This is not my beautiful house…’ And this is because things are mysterious, in a radical and irreducible way. Mysterious comes from the Greek muein, which means to close the lips. Things are unspeakable. And you discover this aspect of things, as if you could somehow feel that un-feelability, in the beauty experience, or as Keats puts it, the feel of not to feel it. This ‘and you may find yourself’ tentative hesitant subjunctive quality isn’t just a temporary blip and it certainly isn’t a phenomenon that only occurs to sentient beings, let alone conscious ones, let alone human ones. It’s sort of everywhere, because being isn’t presence.’

Timothy Morton, All Art is Ecological pp11-12 – Penguin Green Ideas 3

Quote: Karen Jaimes

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“I started creating anthropomorphic vessels as a way to connect with these ancient stirrup spout vessels made by the Moche in Peru. It’s a way of sort of revering the animals for their incredible capabilities and honouring people at the same time. Cos we’re all sort of closely related, plants, animal, humans, we’re all closely related. This is the theme which has been permeating throughout my life. I think its in my blood somehow. 

Indigenous ways are not lost. Indigenous people are here. I’m just trying to tap into some of that native language, as a way to keep these epistemes and these ancient ways of thinking alive.” Karen Jaimes’s bold political sculpture | Testudo Studio Spotlights

Some news – Creative Scotland award

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I’m happy to announce that I have been awarded with the Create Inclusion grant from Creative Scotland to develop my creative practice. Thanks to the panel of judges for the opportunity, it’s very exciting to have been given the chance to make the most of this time of creative freedom and support.

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland distributing funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about the value of art and creativity in Scotland and join in at www.ourcreativevoice.scot

SUBTEXT – Exhibition at Glisk – a curated collection of art and book(form)s

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Beginning Friday 6th May, Glisk is introducing a new curation of work based on themes of books and book-forms, text and writing. The exhibition will include pieces by the ‘Montage @ Glisk’ artists; Marion Barron, Trevor Davies and Ruth Thomas, while Janet Melrose explores themes of her life experiences as someone with dyslexia. Brigid Collins will be showing some of her ‘Poem Houses’ and other works, while Anne Nicholson will be showing her painterly artists’ books, created with hand made pigments.

We’ll have publications by poet Larrisa Reid, one half of the creative collaboration ‘Rocksalt’ (which will be exhibiting at Glisk in the autumn). The collection will include zines and pamphlets by Play Radical and poetry pamphlets and books published by Tapsalteerie Press.

& more!

FRIDAYS, SATURDAYS, SUNDAYS,

6TH, 7TH, 8TH, 13TH, 14TH, 15TH, 20TH, 21ST & 22ND MAY

11AM – 5PM

Many of the pieces of book-themed art will be available to purchase, while some will be for reference only.