8 Collagraph: Resolved work, ‘The Last Flight’

18 June

Part One: Playing around with the layout of seperate elements for installation

I installed my tree print first, taping tracing paper tabs to the back of the work to pin through, Michelle kindly helped me (thanks girl!), holding my work up while I used a mallet to get the pins in. I then spent a while placing my elements in different positions to see what I wanted to keep or get rid of and to create a balanced composition.

Installation

I selected the end of a wall space in the entry way to display my work for assessment.

Thinking about including some of my other print in the presentation - Michelle helping me again. Decided not to include it.

A possible layout for the Bogong moths

Arranging them from darkest to palest to suggest a fading away - communicating the continually declining numbers of this species each year.

Playing around with placing the stumps in various ways…

And again, like this better than the other layout, however ultimately I didn’t like how the stumps were sitting as collage over the top and decided not to include them in my final presentation.

Close up

I folded the moth’s wings slightly so they would cast shadow on the wall.

Developmental work

Presenting my work leading up to execution of my final prints and installation.

Experimental print

Liked the idea of the overlapping / echoes of plates - would like to continue exploring this idea.

Part Two: Final installation

I came back into the studio on Thursday evening to complete my installation - I arranged the moths similarly to my tests a few days prior and decided not to present the tree stumps as part of the arrangement. Overall, I really enjoyed the process of creating my collagraph plates, and actually surprised myself with what I was able to achieve. I’m thinking I’d like to try printing this again, perhaps even create another tree plate and some varied moth plates. I would then play around with more overlapping of printing, printing some moths directly onto the sheets while leaving some collaged. I’m also wondering wether the offset paper actually adds anything to the work - if it doesn’t it does at least allow room for me to potentially add on to the piece, like an ever expanding work over many sheets.