Title: Head, heart and hand - a visual autobiography
Abstract: The visual autobiography entitled Head, Heart and Hand is a research project in
which one visual artist interrogates environment as artistic crucible. The concept of
Head, Heart and Hand corrals the various domains of studio practice, the
intellectual, perception and cognition (Head), the emotional, memory and intuition
(Heart) and, the technical, skills, media and processes (Hand). These three domains
form a triangulation of artistic activity to guide the researcher’s examination of
practice.
The journey begins with the personal dilemmas embedded in the artist’s practice.
The genesis of ideas to creation of artworks and exhibitions, reflection on practice
and on action expose aesthetic decision making through the voice of the artist.
Drawing, using traditional and emerging contemporary media and processes, is the
core fine art studio medium and practice integral to the research and the primary
instrument of Hand.
A theoretical framework derived from the writings of Bell (1914), Langer (1954),
Arnheim (1974), Csikszentmihalyi (1993) and Damasio (1994,1999) provides the
framework from which the researcher shapes the various drivers (intuition, memory
and perception) for artistic practice. The research deals with such academically
unfamiliar concepts of feeling and the sense of rightness so comfortably a part of
the creative process yet generally grounded in the somewhat tacit knowledge of
artists. An extensive survey of drawing as a core fine art practice and as a stage en route to
other art forms or realizations maps out the various attitudes and categories of
drawing practice that exist within the context of the Western Fine Arts tradition.
With a particular focus on Australian artists and personal mentors, particularly those
highly regarded for their draughtsmanship, the Australian foregrounds the
researcher’s studio practice.
A personal research tool termed visual autobiography is constructed from
contemporary social science research methods used to explore culture and cultural
production. From an artist centred model, this organic research methodology allows
the artist/researcher to experience periods of intense studio immersion and to extract
a meta-narrative from which patterns of behaviour become explicit and therefore
examinable.
A substantial autobiography maps out the life-world of the artist and explores the
very foundations of his belief system and the elements that shape particular personal
perceptions about art, drawing, environment and his place in the visual arts world.
Traditional artist research tools such as visual diaries, sketching in-situ and
photography describe the way the artist moves through sometimes-exotic far-away
environments to find inspiration for future artworks.
From the written autobiography, three pivotal environments emerge to become the
fertile ground from which individual episodes of artistic production emerge. Paris
and Provence, France, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and Cairns, Far North
Queensland, Australia develop into the significant sites for stage one of the research. The outcomes of these investigations culminate in a solo exhibition
comprising an installation of thirty-six drawings.
Using the visual autobiographical tool as a mode of reflection on the content and
process of work in the exhibition, it became clear that the circle had not yet been
completed. As a result of this reflexive process a further body of drawings was
created to test the theories and models generated during the initial phase of the
research. This final body of drawings explore the morphing of memories with the
factual observation of place thus exposing the insider’s view of the city of Sydney,
Australia.
At the end of the journey the artist/researcher pauses to reflect and look back at the
terrain thus covered as a basis for speculation about the implications for future
research and future studio practice as well as a retrospective look at the exhibition
outcomes.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Language: en
Type: dissertation
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