Last January I was in California, at the Lucid Art Foundation. This January I was given the gallery space at Exchange Place Studios for a self-directed residency — a month to work on a big scale and experiment. I went for it!
The first step was to clear and clean the space, roll out the large Fabriano roll and to lay out the Zen Brushwork mat and mat. To sit in meditation, and then to brush a calligraphy to start the process of charging the space with energy. Enough for the first day. The heating was not working, and the building was cold. But I was glad to be there. I knew I would expand into the space and that something new would come out of it.
The days after that started with meditation, yokiho (chi-raising exercises), and then zen brushwork. I drew 含光 — Cherish the light/Hold the light, which we had drawn with Sarah Moate sensei at the online New Year workshop at the beginning of January. I started making tentative marks on the long roll with ink and water, gathering the energy before it started to flow. Compared to the long piece I made last January, this time there was more assurance, more flow, more empty space, more freedom to move, to change course, to pause and to move on with the journey……
I wrote the words “This is not water!” defiantly in my notebook. This is energy, it is flow, it is…. (well I’ll concede that it is “of” water….!)
I brought the layers of “scripts” that I had been working on in the studio into the space to see how they related to the “Water course” and the calligraphy.
And I joined Carousel, the print studio next door to try out cyanotype techniques. Two visitors to Open Studios last November, Andy and Shirley from Carousel, suggested I could write the “scripts” in cyanotype. The first attempts were fixed in the UV machine. After that I put them in the sunlight, which although pale and wintery, was enough to turn them a wonderful blue. I’m looking forward to trying them in the bright spring and summer sunlight.
Friends joined me in the space. Norman and Hisami came and drew on long rolls, and Roanna joined us for a few experiments with cyanotype.
Cyanotype is compelling. The different tones of blue, the fact that it is the sunlight that is causing them is delightful. I like to draw looser “scripts” on strips of washi, and to suspend them in the centre of the room, with space around them and moved by the air currents. Water patterns playing on them……
The experience of walking on the paper and making the marks was very different from viewing the complete work from outside. I walked over and through the marks myself with bare feet, and traced my journey. Looking down “through” the water, following its course. When I invited people to walk through it themselves there was some hesitancy — was it ok to walk on it? And a great respect and care when they did. It affected their walking. One was moved almost to tears…..
I had a “Crit” session at the end. At first I was disappointed that only 3 people came but the conversation between them was deep and to the point. I was gratified that their engagement and conversation went on for an hour — that my work had enough to say for itself and that it had transmitted! So grateful! And a relaxation, as I now know — whereas I didn’t before.
In all, I had about 26 visitors I think…. And 26 wonderful conversations. And a new direction with the cyanotypes.
I am happy to return to my studio — it took quite a lot of energy to fill that space!