The Self-Isolation Residency 1st April 2020: Day 3

Somehow it feels as though I ought to be drawing 'dark, threatening, confining interiors' or at least it feels like that is the public perception of what an artist should be doing at a time like this. Although I am attracted to the imagery as something interesting, I realise that I just find it generally interesting and not something brought on as a reaction to my confinement.  My mind certainly doesn't feel confined in any way at all, if anything it feels the reverse. I'm not saying that I want to 'paint spring meadows' either, that's never been the type of artist that I am anyway.

What I feel I that I need to be doing is exploring this self-isolation in a very personal way; the problem is as I frequently spend long periods of time by myself, particularly in the studio, I really don't find this any different from the norm. Consequently I must ask the question, 'if I just do what I normally do, am I truly illustrating what self-isolation is for me?' What I may have to do is create something totally normal but something that at the same time illustrates the difference.

'The same but different.'

So perhaps I at least now have a working title for this project.

I have also been thinking about media as a way into things. At this stage I have more or less discounted oil paint, my thought processes are moving too quickly at the moment which makes me feel the need for a quicker, almost instantly responding media right now. Watercolours or acrylics could work but I'm not sure about colour at present. This of course leads me back to drawing, charcoal or graphite, very possibly. Indeed I feel that when I have a little more direction that I will probably take it onward with one of those mediums. However I would have to say that that feels more like a medium to an end rather than an end in its own right.

What I'm really starting to feel is something more between a still life, an assemblage,  an installation and a sculpture. Something that perhaps employs object of mine, personal things that have a history or that say something about me and me me at this moment. Objects in a space that illustrate where I am, and therefore by default, where we all are right now.  So a space?  A box? A tin? A tabletop? A room? I must say that I am slightly drawn towards a tin as the idea of a survival kit keeps coming to mind, but once again is that too obvious? Perhaps, perhaps not? Bearing in mind the aphorism that the answer to the question 'should I do it?' is always 'yes' perhaps I should begin with this idea and at least see where else it leads. 

So what would be in my survival kit? Which things? What objects?

A book- of course, but which book?
A glass... of something?
Music- I would say so.
A movie- certainly!

This all makes me think of a picture that I took just over a year ago, (top image) not a posed picture, just a picture of the contents of a perfect supper at the end of a long day. The only thing that isn't in the picture is my favourite chair, which I was of course sitting in at the time. This group of object, not in a box or a tin does have the feel of a still life or perhaps more relevantly the object posed about a figure in a historical portrait that tell the observer more details about the sitters life.

I will begin here, now, with a first grouping of potential objects for what is now becoming a portrait, so perhaps I will end up back with oil painting sooner than I had expect.

'Portrait of the artist in self-isolation', assemblage.