Reclaimed: Grafted - bowl made; painting in process
Reclaimed: Chosen - in process
Reclaimed: Braveheart
I started portrait studies about 7 years ago having avoided portraiture, unsure where or how to start. I was also unsure how to tackle chalk pastel so decided to be brave and combine the two! Typically, portraiture has been the reserve of the ruling and wealthy but during my many hours spent photographing people and places, the significance of every person is continually brought into focus: unsung heroes who who care for people in their homes or for those living on the street; market stall holders who daily create a vibrant shopping precinct; commuters who bracket their days with a dash to work and a weary plod home. Diversity of culture and people are inspiring the world over.
I was working in a small studio, needed to break out of 'small', so covered a wall with taped-together black paper & sketched, Ryan & I. At that time RenewEL set up a workspace near me, helping marginalised people rehabilitate through work and community. I heard stories of lives changed; and the reclaimed, charred, pallet-wood they used to create new furniture, seemed a metaphor for their lives, and indeed my own. And so the idea developed to make painting boards for portraits. RenewEL made my first two (pictured left, one of which will be used for Reclaimed: Braveheart).
I then heard about yakisugi: a Japanese method of preparing wood cladding by burning and sealing, which makes the wood resilient and strong against fire, water & infestation. I was amazed at how this process so directly visualises the journey of each sitter: reclaimed from brokenness through faith has refined them into resilience and strength. And to me each sitter embodies both the reclaimed natural resource of wood and the process of yakisugi.
Breaking out of small! Covered the wall with paper and sketched Ryan
Later I made the painting board for Reclaimed: pallets were pulled apart, nails removed, ends sanded (not the surface so it retains the rough texture), measured, cut and mounted, piece by piece, in a spiral. The inspiration of RenewEL meant for me that yakisugi pallet-wood painting boards had taken on a life of what it means to be reclaimed; the spiral layout (inspired by my round weaving) visualising our spirit-soul journey of renewal, recovery, discovery. The RenewEL team then did the initial burning for the Reclaimed: Hope piece, which I twice more charred to achieve the right depth of colour.
Reclaimed: Grafted – this small bowl is the ‘canvas’ on which I will portrait paint.
Yobitsugi means, calling into, and is a traditional Japanese method of grafting a tree root into a stock tree, so then they grow together as one. Using this process to make the canvas of Reclaimed: Grafted, was a laborious slow process. I first cut sections from the olive wood bowl that would fit the ceramic pieces. The process of cutting and sanding, to my surprise, changed the shape of the bowl from round to a more oval shape. I then prepared the yakisugi surface but as I am learning as I work, hadn’t anticipated wood shrinkage! Several processes needed to be repeated and then the ceramic placed in the wood.
For me the whole making process was symbolic of what it is for diverse cultures to live and thrive in the same space. This is not fusion, but a connectedness where differences coexist as intercultural; and for me this echos the journey of being reclaimed through faith into life and a body of believers. In both cases, like with the making, there is needed the intentionality to journey into, as M. Fujimura calls it in Art+Faith, a new newness.
Prior to fixing the ceramic into the wood, I mended it using kintsugi. The pieces are glued together (lacquer is traditionally used) then gold sprinkled on the surface which creates gold veins. Alternatively the gold is mixed with the glue. The later means the gold runs throughout the mend (which I used) and for me speaks of the journey of being reclaimed, not as a surface behavioural thing, but a slow process which happens deeply & holistically. The vessel will not break again exactly where it was broken before so, with imperfection evident, transcends usefulness to beauty and strength.
The bowl is both canvas and part of the portrait
and the painting of it can be seen in Current & Recent Work
Copyright © 2024 JaneHDee - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy