Online Foundation Art & Design
Exhibition of student artworkYear 1 - OFCAD show / Foundation Certificate course
Year 2 - OFDAD show / Foundation Diploma course
Louise Carr
Mixed media and collage.Total length 139cm x 50cm. (37cm x 50cm, 65cm x 50cm, 37cm x 50cm).
Title: Grey Woman, Climacteric Woman, Wise Woman (When I am old you will NOT find me inside!)
The brief resonated with my own experiences of nature and being in the countryside. Research has shown that a connection with nature has positive outcomes for women’s overall physical, mental and emotional health as they age (Husser E. K. et al 2020). My line of enquiry became an exploration of how women embrace the changes and challenges of aging by connecting with nature.
I chose to use a map motif as many encounters with nature involve a map of some description. A map is a way of ’…translating the world around us and our emotive response to it…’ (Ordinance Survey 2023). I had seen Grayson Perry’s maps, Map of an Englishman (2004) and Map of Days (2013) in an exhibition and looked at them again during my research. They helped my decision to frame the maps inside the female pelvic bones which represent change, creativity and resilience. I looked at different medical images for the bones before deciding on my preferred perspective and also referred to the tonal drawing work from the course. This drawing became the frame for all three maps with the Grey Lady/Change being a tonal study under the outer ‘skin’.
I creased the dressmaker’s tissue and used its printed lines to the reference the changes to our ‘outside’; our skin.
