Each month one of our Directors chooses an art.earth member to become ‘Artist of the Month’. What follows is a conversation with that artist, together with some examples of his or her work.
What are you currently working on?
I work principally in printmaking and drawing but I am currently making some plaster casts. The process is not far removed from the activity of printmaking, as it is still that of taking an impression. Every now and then I return to the materials I used in the past when making sculpture at the beginning of my art career and plaster is one of those. The processing of a powdery substance that reconstitutes through a liquid state to a solid form reflecting minute textural details is infinitely satisfying. The plaster casts are still experimental and their final form has yet to be determined but there is a hint of influences from time spent observing the use of stucco decoration on historic buildings recently.
In the studio I move in and out of processes as well as drawing and writing in a sketchbook, which I find very liberating. There is no expectation of perfection there. Through drawing the plants I collect I try to understand their structure. Chaotically arranged pieces of natural debris are compressed in the ball of soil at the root of the plant alongside the exquisite organised finery of a leaf structure.
Charlotte Price: work in progress
The work has been focused around one idea for sometime being The Path and the ubiquitous presence of ruderal planting found at the wayside became the physical manifestation of that place. Although rural it is a landscape of not only agricultural practice but also artificial slopes and shallow dips which trace the spoils heaps of the industries of the 1800’s. There are relics of a working landscape that continually draw me to thoughts of their utilitarian purpose and a sense of other time and presence.
I consciously create work that reinforces these ideas of past time. The Victorian fascination for the collection of natural history permeates into my practice of collection, pressing and storage of the printed plants. Visits to museum herbariums have inspired me with the ordered beauty of catalogued specimens.
Are there some writers or publications you would like to share with the art.earth family because they have particular importance for you as a maker?
Some Influences:
- Anya Gallacio Silver Seed (2005) Exhibition. Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, Scotland
- Edward Chell (2013) Eclipse Stour Valley Arts, (2015) Bloom Horniman Museum & Garden and (2011) www.edwardchell.com/gran-tourismo-text
- Michael Landy (2002) Nourishment A portfolio of 12 etchings
- Prints and Drawings Rooms. Tate Britain, London
- Joseph MW Turner (1814) Devon Rivers Sketchbooks
- Prints and Drawings Rooms. Tate Britain, London
- Tufnell, B. (2007) Richard Long: Selected statements & interviews
- Tom Trevor (2013)Three Ecologies
- Lois Weinberger, Paul Farley, Michael Symmons Roberts (2011) Edgelands
- Rebecca Solnit (2001) Wanderlust
- Christopher Tilley (1994) A Phenomenology of Landscape
- Various Museum Herbaria
- Numerous Field and Pocket Guides to Wild Flowers
Charlotte Price: work in progress
Charlotte also has some work available in the art.earth shop.