Psychogeography - Active Wandering

Who knew that I would learn about Psychogeography at Art School? But more of that in a minute.

I have been finding it hard to get going again with my Art Work - perhaps that's a New year syndrome anyway - but after the novelty of starting life as an undergraduate art student and managing to complete some art work for assessment in January the muse seemed to leave me and it has been a struggle but this past week she seems to have returned from her Christmas vacation.

So my piece of work, inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworth, had me arranging my preserved leaves in the next door churchyard on a cold frosty day toward the end of December. This is going to be easy I thought but after very few minutes I was puffing and panting whilst calling for a stool from my studio assistant (aka husband) so I could try and do some of it sitting down. I tell you it gave me a whole new respect for Andy Goldsworthy who does much of his work outdoors in all weathers.

The spiral of leaves with a shadow running through is my interpretation of 'Tension and Collapse' and with it it I am trying to express something of my own inner processes. The spiral for me represents an image of a life journey where you keep returning to the same path the same issues but seeing them with a different perspective as time, growth and hopefully healing have made their impact.

Anyway that's all done, dusted and assessed and I'm really pleased with my result so what's next?

We have arrived at the 'negotiated outcome' phase of my artistic career and I realised that I'd got to come up with an idea for an art project, put it to my tutor and agree what I will be working on. Help, no wonder the muse took a vacation!

So what do I want to do?

Well fortunately on the last day possible 2nd January 2017 I went to an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in London and managed to catch the Abstract Expressionist exhibition - it was stunning. These are my people, I have found my artistic tribe - colour and pattern all over the place. Jackson Pollock has a particular appeal - or as he is affectionately known 'Jack the Dripper' because of his practice of creating art work by dripping paint over large canvases. I'll leave you to find him on google.

But what I really like about Pollock is this statement:

"The method of painting is a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than just illustrate them. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement - a general notion as to what I am about."

Art critic Harold Rosenberg put it like this:

"The act of making is the true subject of the work of art"

So like humans since time began, Pollock is driven to make images as an act of communication. The muse begins to murmur:

'Ah so I don't have to wait for inspiration or have a good idea I can just start art making!'

I can do that - it's just playing with colour! If this is true then it means we can all be artists.

Which brings me to Psychogeography.

The brilliant thing about going to Art School is you are never quite sure what you're going to get. Take yesterday, I went thinking that there was a visiting artist delivering a lecture only to find I had got the time wrong and instead I was met by one of our enthusiastic lecturers inviting me to join him and some others on a psychogeographic walk in Wolverhampton. So umbrella in hand I explored Wolverhampton as though for the first time, seeing through fresh eyes things we take for granted or never really notice. We were curious, we counted bollards (54 just in the open space in front of the university) and wondered why they were there. We noticed a venue called 'The Cuban Exchange' - what happened there historically - maybe long before the EU or even Castro, Cubans were frequent visitors to Wolverhampton and Cuban goods could be bought and sold.

And then we met Lady Wulfruna - the noble matron from the 900's AD who clearly had girl power as she pretty much bankrolled the setting up of Wolverhampton and her statue resides just outside St. Peter's Church.

I have lived in the Wolverhampton area for over seven years now and I did not know this. Art again has worked its magic and this time in the form of Psychogeography - active wandering.

Lady Wulfruna you are my new s/hero.

I may start calling myself Wulfruna - except if I do I may get mistaken for the Bishop of Wolverhampton whose ecclesiastical title is Wulfrun.

So active wandering, psychogeography, I see it as a close cousin of mindfulness which itself is the art of living fully in the present moment and being aware of what this world has to offer both seen and unseen. I am a convert, I am an artist - again.

Next time, sculpting wire and more life drawing but until then remember as Gandalf said of Frodo in the Lord of the Rings:

"Not all who wander are lost"

And if you do wonder as well as wander - I'd love to know your thoughts.