Reduction

"the simplification of a subject or problem to a particular form in presentation or analysis" (Oxford Languages, s.d.)

A word that needs little explanation to its meaning, and yet I make a conscious decision to quote a definition in order to directly reference the intent at the point of creation of the fourth in this series of self portrait - the simplification through reduction of usage of colour to a particular form. The positioning of pencil on paper began simply with a line that to paraphrase the artist Paul Klee was taken for a walk echoing the walking studies that underpin the fungal work but perhaps also echo the lines of our faces that speak of living life, of experience, of growth and of ageing. Separating the artistic self from the personal self, the face became merely an object to be studied and to be reduced to just a series of mathematical and curved lines - nothing more, nothing less.

Furthermore, having pushed the boundaries of disruption to its furthest point in the previous work, critical analysis within this journal revealed, and demonstrated, an artistic need to pull the work back to realism but with the intent on focusing on 'correct' values and improving my skill-set in terms of the facial form itself by using just white, black and a variety of grey pastel pencils. The grey pencils I will admit were initially pure laziness, or even a lack of confidence in abilities, but their usage reduced through the working of the piece although they proved useful to achieve a specific tonal grey or to deepen a specific area without the need for excess layers. Note how I write 'correct' in speech marks because I seek, intentionally and consciously, to create a degree of separation between the self and the artistic other in order to give the latter agency in the depiction of the personal self: the artist other, through objective criticality and reasoning, has the ability to make the decisions on whether to create a harsher, or even older version of the photograph I am working from or a softer, perhaps more blurred rendition leaving out the lines and signs of the personal self's ageing face. Experience has informed me how light (value) has the ability to increase or decrease, recede or bring forward through shadowing or highlighting the depth of the lines and wrinkles of the natural ageing of our faces which is something as a woman in my mid fifties I seek in fact to do now with make up e.g. the use of colour correcting concealers or light reflecting powders helping minimise the appearance of fine lines, under eye circles, the depth of laughter lines or the nasolabial folds around the mouth. The agency therefore of the artistic other found itself questioning, literally rather figuratively, the agency of the personal self into how or what to depict in this piece: an internal mental but conscious argument persisted over a period of days as both ego and the reality of seeing the reflection of an 'older woman' in unflattering shop windows or doors staring back at me asks me to reconsider the view of the beauty of ageing. This is particularly pertinent, and relevant to this portrait as during its process I spent, not inconsiderable, time in front of the harshly lit and often brutally unflattering, (or perhaps honest), mirrors of shop fitting rooms where there is zero compromise in how you are seen and at what angles much to the angst of the wider collective general society! 'Selfies' taken on our mobile phones also often reveal (too much) of what the public sees which may or may not echo our own personal perception of our physical selves. With this in mind I find myself reminded of my work at undergraduate level that sought to break down historical, but persistent, societal stereotypes in order to celebrate and embrace the beauty of our aging bodies:

I stand by many of my statements in terms of societal expectations and acceptance of ALL body types, but also on my feeling that fashion industry was merely ticking boxes in terms of utilising supposedly plus size models in runway shows and fashion shoots: 'supposedly' is the correct term as fashion dictates a normal size 12 and 14 is plus size which even now I find horrifying as the average size of the British woman is a 16! Moreover, I have noticed that there has been a distinct reduction in the number of 'plus sized' models on the runways once more that continues to instill a narrative that our natural bodies are still something that the fashion industry continues to ignore ...... and I can feel my anger and frustration rising, just as it did 3 years ago, at the height of my research! .... but I digress and perhaps this should be the subject of an updated blog as writing this has demonstrated to the personal, and academic other, that my interest, and passion, is still clearly very much there ! To get to my point of mentioning this undergraduate work is that project was done at a period whereby I was seeking to change my personal self, my bodily shape as this project itself informed me, albeit subconsciously of my unhappiness with my weight: it was at the time, and is not, my natural size which I am personally comfortable with. Since the completion of my undergraduate degree, just shy of three years ago, I have been on a weight loss journey that has, and is continuing as I near my goal weight, with the loss undoubtedly being seen within my face - I have discovered cheekbones once more but also the onset of soft jowls that seek to soften my jaw line and neck which are taking a little more embracing and accepting. The working of the self portraits is forcing me, at times uncomfortably, to accept the reality of aging and see it as beauty that include the softening of our facial features - it is much easier to write it objectively than to actually accept it through lived experience which I am more than willing to admit! Henceforth, the artistic self, which retains a quite distinct sense of otherness and the aforementioned objective separation that enables the stepping back from emotional and subconscious influences, was consciously given the agency to decide whether this two dimensional piece reflected what the personal self sees in the home mirror or those horribly unflattering fitting room mirrors.

It is also worth noting too that the work was done over a two week period of emotional upheaval, that incorporated both highs and lows, meaning that I struggled to focus in the way that is normal to me (hyper-focused and hyper-fixated): I am very much aware of the neurodiverse trait of oversharing but in this case it is relevant to mention this interval as it impacted, to lesser or greater extents, upon rendering the form, the shadows, tones, and saturation particularly around the eyes, bottom of the nose and the bloodhound puppy-like jowls. The hyper-criticality that I am prone to became ever more pronounced due to the emotional swings that, although less than those of the menopause (mercifully I may add!), meant that stepping away from the piece became necessary for longer periods than I would normally do. However, this time did mean consideration could be given over to how saturated I wanted the work to be when working within an unfamiliar monochromatic colour scheme; whilst also contemplating whether to add in some elements of the hues of our natural skin: was this piece purely to be worked as an under-painting or was it in fact a stand-alone piece? how much colour and at level of saturation do I add? at what point is any colour added? and to what purpose would its addition be?

Consequently, the deliberation turned back towards whether the intent of the work was in fact to purely reduce through a simplification of the work to a particular form or presentation? and if so how could this be done through a representation of skin tones and facial form within a simplistic monochromatic colour scheme? in addition how could the reduced palette focus the viewers eye on the structure of the face through the usage of light and shadow then I questioned whether in fact the usage of colour would be a disruption or distraction? however, I also questioned the purpose of what is ultimately a human-centric body of work as I am placing the self, the human self, my self at the centre and I purposefully emphasize ....AT THIS POINT IN TIME ...... but...

.... the work of Wylde Oake Artistry (the artistic otherness) ultimately seeks to create an interconnectedness between the human and non-human other, of fungi and its related ecosystems, by the removal of the human-centric focus in order to situate the work within the potential of a new materialist framework and context:

"New materialism's post-anthropocentrism shifts humans from the central focus of attention, not only emancipating the affective capacities of the non-human but also establishing an ethics that can engage productively with human culture, with other living things, and with the wider environment of inanimate matter" (Braidotti, 2013:60 cited in Fox, 2019).

This post-anthropocentric viewpoint has long underpinned the fungal work of WOA and continues to be a vital aspect but I find myself also drawn back to Haraway's proposed Chtulucene epoch wherein we, as a species, becomes immersed and a part of nature, not as separate from it - this is something I will come back to in a later blog. However, "...... an understanding of agency that no longer privileges human action. Rather a 'capacity to affect and be affected' (Deleuze and Guattari, 1988: 127-128) is a feature of all matter: human and non-human....." (Fox, 2019). The whole ethos of the work of my artistic other which creates, inevitably, an assemblage with the personal self if both are seen as separate and yet interconnected through existing consciously and subconsciously within a singular entity i.e. my own human body, is to create and raise awareness of the fungal kingdom. I seek to change the question from what the fungal world can do for us but instead asking what we can do for them as we ultimately may depend on them for our very survival. I propose there is a valid argument for stating that we need to remove our human privilege if we are to truly re-connect with the natural world and to stop seeing ourselves as the primary species. Within the botanical and conceptual work the intra-action of the personal self and artistic other creates further assemblages, that establish ethical boundaries and considerations, with the non-human world that are both sensory and physical. The simple act of walking studies, that assault the senses, threaten to overload the autistic other or create peace and an escape from the disruptions of modern urban life, also create physical interactions that have the ability to become intra-active becomings. The art work itself merely becomes a vehicle that enables the expression of the non-human objects or experiences that have existed within that walk as the self, autistic other and artistic other as co-constituents take " to a boat and becomes part of the flow it wants to fully understand" (Deleuze and Guatteri, ibid: 372 cited in Fox, 2019).

I re-affirm the contextualisation and narrative of WOA in order to contemplate, the as yet unspoken and unsaid, longer term purpose of the self portraits as this is a case of 'watch this space'. However, the series continues to have the potential to explore a phenomenological and also separately or intertwined new materialist post-anthropocentric/Chtulucene context through much broader reading of philosophical subjects that both refresh/revise existing knowledge but also seek to instill a much deeper, and more complex understanding. Separately to the research that is now underpinning the work the introspective nature of each portrait has created acceptance of not just physical but also conscious and sub-conscious traits that impact upon the work of WOA: each has revealed, perhaps more than concealed, aspects of my personal self, that are both expected and unexpected and the affect and effect that the personal self has upon a sense of the artistic other. The reduction of colour within this piece to a monochromatic black and white scheme has revealed something else however: the exacting nature of autism that means that those with neurodiversity often see things very much in black and white and have a tendency to often be very literal in our interactions with the world and our understanding of it. The removal of skin tone colours within the final piece furthermore could be deemed to reduce the white noise of modern day life that creates sensorial overload enabling the self, as depicted by the artistic other that has the ability to create separation through conscious masking, to be seen. So what happened in terms of the introduction of skin tones, i.e. colour? when and for what purpose were they introduced?

A trial of adding crimson red to just the highlighted areas of the cheeks, nose and chin unexpectedly created jarring emotions - it felt deeply uncomfortable as it emphasized the deep shadows under the eyes and the nasolabial folds aging the face before me. The primary red also emphasized issues of form that were irritating me: the chin became too prominent, the mouth seemingly off-kilter, the nose wonkier than it already is, the shape of the right hand side of the jaw still needed adjusting and so forth. The addition of the red also added to a hypercritical critique as the face became a mere object, as mentioned above, that was not mine but was simply a non-human form to be studied, annotated and adjusted with turning it upside down repeatedly throughout the process enabling the aforementioned faults to be seen. However, the colour that included a soft pink, process yellow and violet, on the mouth worked together with the olive green, burnt ochre and Payne's grey blue in the - the juxtaposition of those softly muted hues and the monochromatic background created an element of life without the ghostly overtones that had often, almost literally considering the aforementioned emotional time, haunted the piece throughout its creation. Even as I write I spot faults within the depicted image - I know they have been corrected but the artistic self wants, almost begs, the removal of the image to replace it with the resolved work thus reflecting too on how the consideration of what is seen or unseen within this blog: the professional self, which is the artistic self, consciously chooses to reveal the process of creation through the PowerPoint videos that are created with photographs taken at regular points such as between layers of glazing, adjustment to facial elements or changes of colour. However, the personal self, me, has chosen consciously not to use time-lapse videos thus far as they have created a distraction, or disruption from the act of creation itself with this refusal enabling the concealment of process and often the correction of specific elements - those corrections can be seen if studied carefully but the intention has been to blur and blend to create subtlety without drawing attention to the very faults I have mentioned above. On a technical note I am also aware of a need to resolve some recording issues - the placement of my camera in particular as my current set up is not producing the quality of recording I would now like: research is no underway to resolve this going forward.

To finish this blog I find myself drawn to act of the sketching and altering of the facial elements: portraiture is not my 'thing' as I have stated within this journal previously. I find it full of complexities and have struggled with the placement and proportion of facial features and the head itself. Henceforth, I am finding it logical to work from a central horizontal and vertical line from which measurements can be worked out in a mathematical manner which have been left in the resolved piece: these lines are a part of the work, a part of the process and hence although within the face itself they are hidden beneath the layers of pastel they can be continued to be seen, in reality, at the edges of the paper. From the initiation of this project part of its purpose was to learn to draw the face and to find my own personal style and methods but the methods used thus far I feel are potential restrictive going forwards and henceforth I have also taken the time to view, as yet undocumented, YouTube videos on both the Loomis and Reily methods with time being taken to explore and understand how they may impact upon the artistic renditions. At the point of writing I am aware that the intent of the next piece will be to continue the work on reduction but to what extent is not yet worked out - time is, even during the writing of this blog, being taken to both consciously and enable the sub-conscious to work through possible compositions but tomorrow a pencil will once again be in my hand.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Folio Presentation FINAL (s.d.) At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C97dVQOvUw8 (Accessed 10/08/2024).

Fox, N. J. (s.d.) 'New Materialism' In: Fox, N.J. and Alldred, P. (in press) New materialism. In: Atkinson, P.A., Delamont, S., Hardy, M.A. and Williams, M. (eds.) SAGE Research Methods Foundations. London: Sage. At: https://www.academia.edu/34669365/New_Materialism (Accessed 10/08/2024).

Haraway, D. (s.d.) Donna Haraway - Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene - YouTube. At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrYA7sMQaBQ&t=15s (Accessed 11/08/2024).

Hosie, R. (2017) How women’s bodies have changed over the years. At: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/womens-body-changes-since-1957-self-image-fashion-weight-health-sizes-positive-a7633036.html (Accessed 10/08/2024).

JFox, N. and Alldred, P. (2022) New Materialism. SAGE Publications Ltd. At: https://methods.sagepub.com/foundations/new-materialism (Accessed 10/08/2024).

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Oxford Languages and Google - English | Oxford Languages (s.d.) At: https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/ (Accessed 10/08/2024).