States of mind / April 21, 2022 by Justin Harrison

I’m working on assorted projects in the studio. With the mantra ‘make lots’ in my head. I know I can get caught up with trying to perfect stuff and so faster ‘physical sketches’ and experiments makes sense. But I do find it hard and it has been so for the past few days. A lot of my work feels silly. I care about making good work, but then to make good work means letting go. Work that is constrained doesn’t breathe, but is stifling. So I come back around the circle again to - just get on and make.

I start by cutting more wood with no real plan, other than dividing it up to smaller and smaller pieces, with a loose plan of reconstructing it.

Implementing more time limited piece - I set the clock for 1hr. By the end of 2 hrs I have two pieces partially made - (gluing). And a third is glueing to0 - but that’s been evolving over a while.

I’m trying to capitalise on the limited deadlines as a launch point for developing the thread of ideas. Although today I don’t feel entirely convinced. But I do know it works, things reside in my preconscious and I all too often reject them and don’t document them. but if I’ve learnt anything it’s that making and blogging captures the elusive and transient thoughts that actually coalesce into more.

Also this helps document some practical stuff like better ways to secure items whilst glues sets. (String wrapping).

It’s an interesting process - moving through different emotional states with my practice. Some of which I’m learning to ignore as they are counter productive, arresting my process.

I like the more inquisitive states I’ve been finding, photographing and writing and reading as well as making.

Disrupted averages / January 25, 2022 by Justin Harrison

Disrupted averages (Concept - Jonathan Kearney)

In the studio I have an hour or so.

Not long///

I have left items out on the desk from my last visit. I do it to provoke myself. It’s irritating and funny at the same time. Pieces of textured leather - favourite tools. It all makes me want to make things immediately - the materials speak, not a language I entirely understand but it is language none the less.

I hang some large watercolour paper I have plans for - been day dreaming about making huge black ink drawings. Bold and sensitive, ink dispersing to granular clouds of vapour.

My phone is a pain in the arse and kepis turning off ###

Disrupt your averages///

I tried to make something in a hurry tonight.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I decide I have to make something in the next hour, using what I have collected or hoarded around me. This means working fast, the opposite of what I normally do, usually I take long, considering, measuring, crafting experimenting. This has to go out the window.

So I begin, I keep it simple. I take two pieces of wood cut the other day. I had plans for them, but I can always cut more. (I have a generous supply of old fence panel wood stashed in the corner). Playing with the two pieces in different arrangements I decide I want to join them somehow, I consider plaster but know this will take too long, instead I cut a small piece of leather with the intention to make a cuff to join them.

I’m already breaking my own rules by not sharpening my head knife first - it should cut in one or two passes - it takes too many and leaves slight double edge. I cringe internally and move on.

Then get annoyed an go back and clean it up, but quickly. Next I soak the leather to wet form it. I run it under a tap - ideally I’d leave it in a clean bowl of warm water and watch the bubbles ecstatically escape the back of the leather but again this all takes time. The skin takes long to relax under the cold water. Like me it's cold.

As I fold the leather around the wood and clamp it - I realise that it’s too small compositionally, intuitively I want a larger cuff - to have more presence. I should have seen this before I started.

Then I have a some realisations as the hour comes to a close///

I’m no way gonna finish in time.
I failed and that’s fine.
I will need to cut more leather and reform it and wait for it to dry.
Thats annoying ### It’s annoying as its wasteful, and is gonna cost me time and finance. Then it occurs to me that this is an issue for me. Like a big issue. I don’t like to waste anything, because I can’t afford to. I realise that historically I have always worked very carefully and methodically and meticulously. I thought it was because I liked well made work. (I do - but that’s not the point) It’s mostly because I’m afraid to make mistakes. I’ve learnt to work this way to not spend money or make errors.

I think about the maxim - the rich stay rich while the poor get poorer. (This week it was announced that the worlds 10 richest men have doubled their wealth over the past two years whilst more people have fallen into poverty).

I wonder if rich culture increases and advances, because it can innovate far quicker, it doesn’t need to conserve its resources. It can afford to waste a few prototypes, raw materials, money and make mistakes. Where as poorer cultures work must work carefully and methodically with the precious few commodities or compromise instead, still creative and innovative, but advancing at a slower speed.

I also realise:

All the work I've done is really useful and informative and it's ok to experiment and waste a little bit of leather. No time has been wasted but well spent exploring. It's informative.

So. interesting. I disrupted my average tonight and I saw something in myself, my practice and perhaps my culture.

IMAGES+++

My own

Studio / November 25, 2021 by Justin Harrison

Working in the studio. I've been drawing these articles for some time and it was good to have my hands on physical materials, to work towards making. I feel like I'm getting stuff done when I hold a section of metal or batton of wood.

There were various plans I had and I knew I wouldn't get everything done, but I was glad have charred some wood and dipped it in plaster. That's not it - the work. Just a test of the materials to see how they behave and look together.

I had a bunch of questions in my head - trying to see where the work can go. Essentially it should work. I want to build up the layers of plaster enough to carve back into forms, polish and refine. I realise that I need to use scrim if I am to escape the form of the baton, although this could present problems later on when carving back if the scrim is exposed.

For some reason I have chosen the shittiest wood, old fencing panels. Sometimes it disintegrates as I cut it. But there is a charm to it too. It's honest and lacks pretence. If I were to use new wood somehow the dialect changes. The other thing I note is the wood came from an art director who I worked for back in the day, she's passed on now and there is an element of memento mori and honouring to using this wood. It smells too - the creosot gives off a tar like scent that isn't unpleasant, but some how a little unsettling. The associations and the scent jar almost - stood amidst it all I find the moment odd.

The plaster makes a heat of its own as I mix it in the cold studio. It's always a fight, waiting for the right moment the only lasts a minute or so. I dip the wood and then immediately figure out a way better way to do this. Next time I can production this a little better if I set it all up and have the battons suspended.

I'm not entirely sure the plaster is white, it seems to have a cast to it. Will need to research it there are better brands to use. Was good to be making.