It's all about the packaging!

Lured by 'French Toast' Turquoise - fused plastic collage & stitching 15 x 15cm

When Patrick returned from Ethiopia he brought me some presents.  Although they were beautiful, I have to admit being as least as excited about the plastic bag.  That bag formed the basis for this collage.  

While Patrick was away I had been doing a big pastel drawing of a 2 meter long still life I had put together in the studio. The dominant colour is red so the red polka dot bag that the Ethiopian earrings came in spoke to me. I also found two balloons this week, fuscia and pink and that was perfect too as there is a fair bit of both those colours in the follow-on six-canvas-painting of the same still life set up. The final main colour in the still life is turqouise and as I gathered my plastic this week it was the plastic I bought because of the packaging that made this collage relate so perfectly to what I've been thinking about in my painting and drawing.  The intention happened somewhere in the middle of selection. 

I was sick while Patrick was away and pretty much ate leftovers every day and night but I did go to the grocery store on one occasion. I shopped purely by colour, though. I found myself walking down the biscuit aisle and chose something I have never bought, never imagined buying and had never tasted - 'french toast'.  It is quite sweet and I wouldn't buy it again, but I did eat it all and so it was obvious I would use the plastic this week! The turqouise wrapper of the 'french toast' is a little shimmery too. 

The collage and the painting have a similar sort of ratio of colour. Gillian Ayres was whispering to me.

Woodchips and Cherry Coke

Woodchips and Cherry Coke fused plastic collage and stitching 11 x 12 cm

While walking the other day, I found a sunbleached cherry coke wrapper.  I also discovered that I had found some plastic the week before, so I dipped into that plastic as well.  And I finished off the chicken's woodchips, so I had that to add to the pile. Exciting things like stripes from a caramel wafer bar (found plastic) and the fuscia of a cherry coke wrapper, do not guarantee an exciting fused plastic collage. Even the lavender of a rocket salad wrapper can die under the iron.

I arranged and ironed and cut and ironed and after a while the plastic was tough and the colour was getting stained from the melted ink.  In the end I cut things down to about 11 x 12 cm, pulled some pictures out of a book I keep around (someone's funny family photos) that I bought in a Stowmarket charity shop, dabbed a bit of color on the faces and clothes and began to sew.

I'll put some UV varnish over it and probably send it out as mail art. This one is a curiosity and was demanding to complete, in the way an over-worked painting can be.

Fishing for Biscuits

Fishing for Biscuits, fused plastic collage with paint and stitching, 21x21 cm

I have had a 'Tanzanian cold'.  Whether it was that, or the fact that I found no plastic by the side of the road, I had a limited amount of plastic to play with last week.  It also took me quite a few days to complete, but maybe that's a good thing? I have been thinking and looking more than usual, over time. 

As I began composing the piece, the colours made me think about Peter Lanyon again - I was soaring through the horizon in a glider.  But after assembling and resassembling, the sea declared itself. There is a bit of blueberry wrapper, the black of a Sainsbury salad bag.  Plastic turned over to make it grey and that shocking blue shimmery blue of a package of biscuits I couldn't stop eating.

Mozarella & Mangoes at the Pier

Mozarella & Mangoes at the Pier, stitched fused plastic 23 x 23cm

As well as plastic from two kinds of Mozarella & mangoes, this week's fused plastic collage also has found plastic (see yellow and black on right), papery plastic from a salad greens bag and some new toilet paper plastic.  I have to admit to buying a different brand of toilet paper just for the lavender plastic - shopping has never been so complicated! 

As I assembled the pieces and cut them up I was thinking about Peter Lanyon.  My point of view is looking down and out.

I have started a sketchbook project and before I had finished this, I drew from it in my sketchbook which is an altered book…

Mozarella & Mangoes at the Pier (sketchbook)

Carrot Orange Downriver

Carrot Orange Downriver - fused plastic, paint and stitching, 23 x 23cm

On Monday I gathered my plastic from the previous week and began assembling pieces and fusing.  It was the evening and  my finger hurt, my eyes were having trouble focusing and the plastic smelled particularly toxic.  I had lots of ideas and hope, but when the majority of fusing was finished the plastic had shrunk and twisted and although there were lots of exciting places I felt the the result wasn't strong.  So I began cutting it up and as I did I remembered it was Valentines day on Wednesday, so I found some pink and took off on a different path and had something a little corny but pretty to give the following morning - I don't let failure get me down. 

This is my second attempt at this week's plastic.  The centrepiece was a bag of mini cheddars I found while walking. I had lots of green organic carrot bags, some potatoes and Patrick's Private Eye wrapper. Also, Pamela returned some books in a bag I asked if I could have that came from Cornelissen art shop.  Turning the plastic so you have the right side and the wrong side results in different tones.

Before I began cutting, assembling and fusing I looked at Barbara Rae's Sketchbooks. I got the feeling of England's waterways in my veins and thought about a trip I'd taken to Flatford and the Stour River to draw with Ruth Philo. When I had my fused piece I kept thinking about Rousseau and then I started to paint the framed area.

Beetroot and Ties

Beetroot and Ties, fused plastic collage with stitching, 16x16cm

A few weeks ago my friend, the poet and educationalist Jeni Smith, gave me a couple of bags she had collected: beetroot, parsnip and vegetable crisps. They are deep colours and the plastic fuses well. Patrick had also been eating crisps: and his bag was fuchsia with black (ridged popchips - smoky bacon flavoured). That bag was silver lined so tricker to use. I may have had one or two of Patrick's crisps, but this fused plastic collage is a mixture of my dining and that of others. The wonderful turquoise comes from the bag that held the handle tie freezer bags. Other plastic comes from  potatoes, carrots, toilet paper and  there was a red bag I had that I needed to use in order to create the intensity beetroots need. As I worked I wanted to evoke a sense of the movement of unearthing root vegetables - red sky at night.

Potato Famine and Found Plastic

Potato Famine and Found Plastic
fused plastic collage with stitching, 21.5 x 22.5 cm

What I noticed as the week wore on was that the plastic I was generating wasn't the most suitable for my collages. In fact, only potatoes,  carrots and ice came in bags that melt without shrinking and stinking enormously. While walking, I found a range of gold and yellow pieces of plastic, though, a bag of quavers (with aluminium inner which is tricky, but I can make work), a balloon,  and some tobacco pouches that needed lots of cleaning to use. As I moved the pieces around on the ironing board to find a 'landscape', I knew I needed a canary yellow to pull it all together.