As soon as you put pen to paper or paint to cloth, you have started a journey of Mark Making. The term can be used to describe the different lines, patterns, and textures we create in an artwork. So anything from a dot to a scrawl or a pattern is a mark. It is the component of mark making that become art making, when the marks take on meaning, shape or a design, then they evolve into significantly more.
I began thinking a little more deeply about Mark Making (capitals added for emphasis) when I took a workshop with Dorothy Caldwell titled Human Marks. We spent five days focused on how we can make marks on paper and fabric and the variety of tools we can use to create them. It was an inspiring workshop, I had wanted to take a workshop with Dorothy for many years. Here are some pictures from the workshop:
I've been printing and stamping with black paint and ink onto white fabrics and using the fabrics in some of my recent work.
And here is part of a piece where I used some of the fabrics. I like to incorporate them as brighteners and visual breaks amongst the coloured fabrics.
Today my grand daughter came into my studio and watched as I used some markers onto fabric. She was quite interested and asked if she could do some Mark Making too!
She and I had a lot of fun playing with the markers, and I'm excited to use some of the fabrics we made in my art work!
Here's the markers I like to use:
I'll share some more Mark Making ideas with you soon!
5 comments:
Wow! That would be a great W/S to do - love your photos.
Love them!
I'd love some of that in my stash - need to get marking! Cx
The class with Dorothy Caldwell looked like a lot of fun. Working on the fabrics on the grass looked interesting too. What were you using to create the marks? Markers?
Valerie, we were using mostly india ink with brushes and other tools. We diluted the inks as well as using full strength. Some of the work was done with Pigma markers and brushes.
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