The final piece
The emotions beginning to interact on the page
This is a large work that I created collaboratively with Kaj based on emotions. We wanted to explore the way in which different emotions translated visually, and how this would manifest in a collaborative process.
We started out by creating A3 works in contemplation of a range of emotions, including fear, joy, love, apprehension, expansiveness, and sadness. We used charcoal first off in order to explore line, tone and form; before making a second piece in colour that further developed it.
I tried my best to actually recall and experience the emotion whilst creating the A3 pieces, and I found it cathartic to then see the feeling expressed in a tangible way. This piece has felt therapeutic in that it's been a safe way to explore the more challenging emotions. The emotions have informed the art, but the art has also taught us things about how we approach the emotions too. When exploring Apprehension, we found that its form was very complex and tangled, and the longer we worked on it, the more we realised it was never going to resolve itself into a cohesive form- there would always be more apprehension. We reached this insight because of our shared experience.
I was surprised by the variance in the marks we made simply from the act of recalling a different emotional state. It was also interesting to discover the similarities in our instinctual responses, i.e. both making small, soft and hesitant marks for apprehension; flowing, wave-like, spiral shapes for expansiveness etc.
For me, it was interesting to tap into anger, an emotion that is particularly uncomfortable to me, and find that I really enjoyed the mark-making that it inspired. I felt confident to explore anger whilst Kaj was experiencing it alongside me.
By the time we were done with the preliminary work, we had built a sort of visual language for many emotions, (which struck me as a particularly valuable exercise to do as an artist). We then started adding each emotion to a large 1.5 x 1.5m work. As we worked, we allowed the different emotion forms to interact with each other.
Kaj and I tried not to over-compose the work because we wanted the emotions to mix in a more organic way on the paper. Each time we added an element, the overall feel of the piece changed, and it was exciting to witness its evolution in this way. For example when there's an area that I'm not sure how to resolve, it's a thrill to look over and see that Kaj has added beautiful smokey lines, making it feel complete. I think that this is one of the joys of co-creation- learning to let go of control, but trusting in both your abilities and shared vision, that the outcome will be successful.
AngerLoveJoySadnessTest piece to try out different materials
