After leaving this post online for a long time I’ve decided to edit it. There was too much content in one post and then Id like it to be a little more clear and to add a conclusion.. or at least try to. I will leave it as I wrote it, minus spelling mistakes and maybe a couple of added information. Here goes, post number 1.
Next Friday, we have the upcoming Summer Show, for the graduates of the Master of Fine Arts at Newcastle University. Of course, as a first year (first year of a two years master), I’m only an interim artist and as told by some of the teachers, this is the year to experiment and try things I haven’t tried before. So very well, I said, lets try. First I choose a space that is HUGE, ok, it’s not the Tate’s Unilever space, but for a student it’s more than big. When I asked for the room it was full of undergraduates and tables, it didn’t seem so big and it has nice natural light. When I saw it empty, I was scared, big time.
I decided to move into it and let it grow on me. I continued to do my work in there as I had been doing in my little space, "small" paintings on watercolour paper. Trying different compositions and fighting to achieve colour richness; an achievement yet to happen in a real professional level.
I then started to put these paintings on the wall, as a critique was coming my way I needed all the feedback I could muster. I wanted to put everything there and wait to see what people had to say, which was a lot. One of the comments that struck me most was made by one of the second years (of the master). He said that my space looked like a giant sketchbook. Which it did at the time, though of course I hadn’t seen it. It takes me time to come to see things in my own work. I think it’s the same for most people.
Other than that, many of the things I heard were things like, it looks like your having fun painting and go for it. Go for it? (Meaning my monster, go for it, make it 3D.) It has taken me a long time to "go for it". Most of the time of this year has been spent on me learning how to do that. Doubt less, do more. It’s scary but it works. On that day we had to show our artist statement, which Shere helped me with. (Ok it was a LOT of help...I’m an artist, writing is hard for me). Here it is, I think it’s worth sharing.
Diana Afanador.
" In my work I portray organic shapes and presences that grow inside and outside the space of the paper. It started as a response to emotions, and through an intuitive process, it has become a reflection of living beings. This is achieved with organic shapes, the use of colour, biological elements and human presences. The shapes have changed, reproduced and grown, sometimes leaving a trace behind them, shifting and permeating the space.
As I understand the shapes as an expanding, growing element in my work, I began to associate them to biological elements. I work with the images of neurons; they appeal to me because of their function within the nervous system, their different patterns and the possibilities they offered as the image themself. Later, I added an image from the immunological part of a cell to convey the protective needs of living beings.
I use watercolours to achieve movement, fluidity and transparency. I’m interested in layers, and so I work with overlapping found images on the paintings. This is done through mechanical processes like screen-printing, and the prints are made either on top of the paper or are pasted later on.
I’m interested in the affiliation between a contained image, the area around it and the way these two elements interact. As the shapes leave their boundaries and invade the space, evolving, as would a living being, they create a dialogue between these two elements."
I later took out the neuron explanation, (after the critique) since people insisted that I needed no other reason to like the neurons, but for their shape and composition possibilities. I still have some "mental problems" with this. I always think everything has to have an explanation. I have come to find, though that the "explanation" is something quite...personal. I mean, of course, you have to have reasons for why you do your work, in a certain way, the use of colours, techniques, etc. But, if I’m interested in a shape, is as valid as a reason as all the biological explanation. I like my artist statement, it’s very to the point and it explains most of my current work, even though it has moved from its first proposal.
