Uncommissioned (2021)

This work seeks to bring together forgotten observations from my urban environment and to tell a story of the physical world we inhabit alongside a characterisation of the people who inhabit it. Uncommissioned was initially inspired by the nest of a simple paper-wasp that I discovered in an abandoned doorway sitting alongside a simple mark of old graffiti. I wondered whether it would be possible to blend the natural and manufactured landscape of my urban environment, reflecting a process of evolution that would echo my own developing art practice in my final year.

Through a consistent and methodical approach of researching and finding different works of graffiti to form part of the artwork, by drawing these images each week in beeswax, the work has become multi-layered. Once the layers were thick enough to support themselves (after approximately 20 drawings) I could detach the wax block from its wooden base and the work became self-supporting, with each drawing offering itself as a canvas for the next. The work is possibly a subconscious metaphor for how I feel myself grow in strength through my developing art practise at this period of transition in my life, from art school to art practitioner. The palimpsest nature of the work, and the rituals that it required, have become a weekly retreat and a ritual that I expect to now continue throughout my life and future practice.

While my observational skills were developing further as I became progressively more aware of the subtle details in colour and energy of a graffiti work, I was also offered a freedom of expression through the fast-paced drawing techniques that are required by the instant hardening of the liquid beeswax medium. There is a looseness and simplicity in this process that I feel can be developed further to create complex and refined works.

I find the process of creating art to exist briefly in the world a humbling experience, like the skins of a building that have thickened over decades of street artists making their mark. It is only when the wall begins to fragment and break away that it reveals its beauty; multiple layers of colour that are decades old, each by a different hand and from a different point in history

materials: beeswax, dahmer oil, wax crayon, oil stick, wood, hardback paper book, acetate.