The Moon Remembers Her Name (Ode to Diana the Untamed) - Framed

Cyanotype, handmade paper, 24-carat gold leaf, multi layered paper cut collage

Inspiration
Inspired by Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt, the moon, and nature, often depicted with a bow and quiver of arrows. She is the daughter of Jupiter and Latona, and the twin sister of Apollo, the god of the sun and music.
Revered as a virgin goddess, Diana is considered a protector of women and children, as well as a guardian of the wilderness and animals. In Roman mythology, she is often equated with Artemis, her counterpart in Greek mythology, and is revered for her strength, independence, and fierce hunting skills.

Technique
In the Wake of Moonlight Study (Ode to Diana the Untamed) was created by constructing a hand-cut collage using female photographic portraiture and a handmade headdress, combined with photographs and models of trees, foliage and leaves, alongside illustrations of flora and dogs.
After coating the handmade paper with light-sensitive chemistry, it is left to dry in a dark room. The large- scale negatives are then printed onto the paper by exposure to daylight (UV rays). The prints are processed thoroughly, soaking and washing in water to remove any unexposed solution. The parts can then be hung to dry, developing to full density Prussian blue after 24 hours . All the individual sections are hand cut and set into the multi layered assemblage before finishing with 24-carat gold leaf.
My unique portraits have a distinctive painterly characteristic made by embracing technological advances in large-scale negative printing whilst staying true to the purest and earliest forms of photographic techniques. I examine complex interactions between human experience, environment, materials used, light and time combined with deconstructing and reconstructing images to create intriguing, surrealistic stories.
I explore the boundless possibilities of image production in the age of modern printmaking with an aim to reinvent, recycle, redefine, experiment, preserve and celebrate processes. Using a variety of traditional photographic and alternative processes and cameraless techniques combined with painting, illustration and collage within my current practice including photograms, chemigrams, gum printing and experimenting with different substrates such as silk and ceramics. My process is devoted to exploring my relationships to subject matter, materials, environment, in creating a narrative, a record, a footprint. I've always been curious to discover and to better understand my relationships with science, natural history and art.
By going beyond the blue, I am creating a majestic modern aesthetic to this antiquarian photographic technique. Allowing each separate element to support the others, not one overpowering the other, adding depth and uncovering the non perfect surface beauty below. Using naturally occurring chemicals, cotton and precious metals combined with the sun's rays and water is one of the purest forms of photosensitive image making that has stood the testament of time from its discovery in 1842.
Each piece is constructed from scratch, fabricating the paper or porcelain foundation, starting the life cycle, building up the layers. I hand finish my pieces with precious and chemically treated metals to enhance the textural quality of the surface, revealing hidden details and creating an evolving luminous landscape.
I love to celebrate the naturally occurring materials I use, the way they were so exquisitely made, letting their organic textures emanate, the undulations of the paper sheets and the hand deckled edges be seen.
Each piece of handmade paper is a work of art in itself, the recycled cotton rag pulp creates the base structure upon which to let my pieces develop. I love watching the way the tones of the cyanotype chemicals develop on the porous surfaces, the way they evolve during exposure to natural sunlight and seeing the colour intensify when washing in water.
Natural forms and cycles feature heavily within my creating my collections of work.
The history of the Natural World, anatomy and Science Art has always fascinated me, everything is related, connected, part of a chain, a cycle, an ever revolving and evolving changing, hence the idea of using circles arose.
It is a marriage of natural phenomena and artist intent, a harmonisation of the natural and human worlds. I became more aware of how I wished to use these experiments and research within my pieces as a metaphor and a commemoration of mother nature and science's astounding power.
These ideas are reflected throughout my working methodology from the creation of the paper (handmade from recycled cotton rags and circular moulds), within the construction of the images themselves, (featuring circular motifs and objects from petri dishes to the moon), the process of exposing using natural light and washing in moonlight, in all weather conditions throughout the seasons, and the circular theme carries through to framing the finished pieces in hand made round frames.
The repeating shapes and patterns represent life cycles, borne from human touch and made from recycled materials, taking on new lives once coated with the light-sensitive solutions and exposed to the elements. The process of capturing Mother Nature and creating artworks using her power is a marriage of natural phenomena and artistic intent.

Signed by the Artist.

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