Methodology

Experiments with resin

My initial NLP was to create a large set of resin lungs to reflect my struggles with long covid, I tried casting these but my health was too poor to carry on with this project.

Resin experiments

Casting clay pieces for the resin lungs I wanted to create. This was not successful as they did not cast well, looked murky and not clear as I wanted. I moved on to making mobiles and hangings with waste resin and I was again unsatisfied with the results.

Resin Work

Resin lung casting in silicone experiment, waste resin mobile and hanging experiments

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Resin experiments

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Resin NLP Research

After reviewing what i wanted to achieve from this module, I decided I had been too ambitious in wanting to create resin lungs. I have been collecting 'waste' resin since I started using resin to make household items, i found these waste pieces fascinating, in shape, colour, and accidental design. These pieces create themselves through the process of turning the cups I use upside down and letting them drain, using the hardened drops that settle on the silicone mats i use to make my placemats and coasters. I played around with this waste and found the circular pieces would make great necklaces or mobile pieces. I used the irregular shaped pieces to create a mobile using UV resin to bond the pieces to silver chain.

I decided to take my work in another direction. After I had a laparoscopy to diagnose endometriosis, I asked my husband to take photos of my body, with its stretchmarks, scars, bloating, weight gain and the battle with gravity that comes with aging. I used these photos and edited some in photoshop, to look like landscapes, it overlaid the stretchmarks with black lines to empathise them rather than hide them away. I used one image as the foundation for a large acrylic portrait with shows the lines and marks. I wanted to challenge my perception of my body and my body image. This progressed into looking back at photos of myself to see aging and I wanted to paint my favourite photograph of myself, from when I was 27, and was posing for photos for a friend who is an artist. I love the innocence in my face and how soft my face looks, in comparison to the harsh aged look I have in my 40's.

This lead to wanting to create more work in portraiture, so I researched famous women who have or had endometriosis. I didn't want to simply create portraits of these strong amazing women, I felt that would be too simple. I decided to use sanitary pads as the canvas for these portraits. This was an incredible challenge as these products are absorbent. I found an article with numerous women with endometriosis which documents their own struggles with the disease, and picked 4 women either for my own personal liking of them or because the image was so striking I chose Whoopi Goldberg, Marylin Monroe, Dolly Parton and Halsey.

My artists research lead me to finding a piece of artwork that was an image of a snake like creatures eating ovaries and overlaid on a womb, from this piece I drew some snake drawings and sketches, and created a piece which I tried to envision the pain, and agony that endometriosis causes.

Research Sketchbook and experiments

Inveterata Infirmitate

Artists research and studies sketchbook

Information about endometriosis

Endometriosis research

Medium experiment

Alcohol ink on paper

Inveterata Infirmitate

Artists research and studies sketchbook

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Finished Pieces

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ut cicatrices ostenderem (scars)

Acrylic painting on hardboard

Whoopi Goldberg

Acrylic paint on hardboard

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Photo editing and filter experiments

Pixel

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Pixel

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NLP

I wish to develop a new line of work in this NLP. Having had covid 19 and becoming a ‘long hauler’, I want to create and exhibition of work around this. I have started working with resin over the summer and want to expand and learn how to use this medium. I want to create a final piece which will be a large set of resin lungs which can hang from the ceiling.
I want to try using diachroic film with resin to create artworks that use light play, and lighting to create artwork.
I want to research glass sculptures who use diocroic glass in their work, and replicate this with resin and film instead. Chris woods creates cold glass pieces that will would like to replicate or emulate in resin and film, or jack storms who does similar artwork. I have not find any artists who use resin in this way, I want to explore if there is a reason for this, is it possible to use resin to replicate glass?
I would like to make some glass pieces if possible. I would like to see or make some diachroic glass pieces to include in my work. So learning to work with glass, would be a great opportunity.

Updated NLP

2020 has been a very difficult year for all. For me personal its been a year of diagnosis. I have been diagnosed with two chronic incurable illnesses. Long covid and endometriosis. This has meant tests, investigations, hospitals, doctors, xrays, EKG’s and on and on. I started out this semester wanting to create lungs in resin. I tried and failed. Then I just gave up working on anything for methodology. My mental and physical health plummeted. I had an laparoscopy, which is an investigation in which a surgeon makes keyhole incisions fills the abdomen with o2 and inserts a camera to investigate and was left with wounds and scars, and a huge amount of pain. I was diagnosed with extensive endometriosis, a disease where the lining of your womb grows outside, and adheres organs to each other. Leading to needing injections to start early menopause and an hysterectomy. This had lead me to think more about my body, health and how I feel as a woman.

Reference’s

https://www.behance.net/gallery/9840289/Human-lungs

http://solomonkammer.com/

http://artofchristy.blogspot.com/2014/04/endometriosis.html?m=1

https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-Endometriosis/1238057/4938787/view

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/chronic-pain-endometriosis-and-the-distorted-forms-of-tracey-emin#

https://www.reddit.com/r/Art/comments/ib18zl/mm0043_endometriosis_me_digital_2020/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7796557/Graphic-photos-bleeding-stomach-illustrate-invisible-pain-endometriosis.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5010537/Adelaide-artist-endometriosis-paints-Lena-Dunham.html

https://www.everydayhealth.com/endometriosis/best-endometriosis-instagram-accounts/

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/438397344958527065/

https://lupuschick.com/5-inspiring-artists-with-lupus-and-other-chronic-illnesses/