a snippet from
a corner of a part
of a frame
As a practicing artist (mostly installation artist) for the past 30 years I moved into drawing as a larger component of my practice during my PhD years. I had always had a strong interest in tattooing as mark making/drawing & so I found myself one day with a second hand machine in hand and willing participants setting out on a journey to understand the nature of the kinds of marks I could possibly make. One thing I knew for certain is that I didn’t want to deny the tattoo mark; to hide it, as a mere vehicle for the drawn symbol. I saw the particular mark making has having its own potential & value. My desire to know the tattoo marks intrinsic value, not wishing it to allude to anything else..
I want it to remind us of our actions together.. of the time we mark together, of our greater connections.
Of course there was a steep learning curve in the beginning . After all the human living breathing person arrives in a myriad of ways to tattoo. Each person is not a blank canvas or paper.. They arrive with their own concerns, their own internal landscapes & this has become the core part of my tattoo practice over the years, exploring where we meet. Working with tattooing to do this.
Through my Art practice prior to tattooing I have explored the potential of the maker and the materials, where our momentary bodies & minds manipulated materials in space to perform a tableaux for the viewer.. The leap was minimal for this methodology to translate into the tattoo landscape/practice. Working in installation set up the tattoo practice as one that works with the body as a three dimensional ever moving organism. My wish is for the marks made with my clients to work in a dynamic way where the tattoos move with the body rather than sit static to be viewed from one position.
The development of your tattoo on the day of your appointment comes from our discussions/consult where we will try many combinations until we are both in a place where it feels exactly right. In my experience this happens sometimes quickly & other times it takes a little longer. One way is not better than another. It take as long as it takes.
I express to all my clients that this work belongs to you, I am here to guide you with the work that I do until we can meet at the place where the drawing can then proceed into a tattoo. You have agency & a voice at all times along the way & I will listen closely to what you are saying & what you show me just as I hope my clients will with me.
This is a true collaboration with all the sensitivity that is required with this kind of process. The process has developed over time as I have fine tuned it to where I am now.. I feel like it will continue to evolve with my changes & the changes of my clients.
Each person arrives as a whole new potential.. We meet & extend an intimacy towards each other through this process of discussion & exploration & finally tattooing.
The capital P
Process
is a collaboration/using drawings/part of drawings combined together to make a unique piece.
Each mark is like a word that we string together with other words that makes your sentence. It means that you may see part of your tattoo reflected in the tattoos of others meaning that you are all connected & not so special (hey we’re all human) & yet truly unique to you (there is no one like you), working with you & your body in a way that we have developed together.
Myths/internal landscapes/metaphysical worlds
Currently in my practice I use elements that reference landscapes, plant life & objects that we feel like we may know but are just outside of our periphery. They entwine in a kind of metaphysical ikebana.. or plants that feed off each other, entwined to make a hybrid. They attach & float with a body moving through space..
Exploring my maternal ancestry I have formed a strong love for Chinese painting, the evidence of brush strokes & vertical landscapes all of which you will see referenced in my work to some degree. Sometimes it shows up as movement & air between marks, the use of space & imagery moving up and across the body.
I am most heavily influenced though by my cartographer father. I was often given the opportunity to draw one of the layers of the maps he was working on which on reflection was kind of wild (did he throw them away after I was done with them?). As I drew I began to see the lines as landforms.. as mountains & ravines. The lines were compressed three dimensional spaces.. & so began the way that I saw landscape and line marking. Morphing into “seeing” as the compression & expansion of all the dimensions. Lines drawn into the body compress the world around us & within us and then expand onto the hills of the shoulder or the ravines of the lower back. The expansion & collapse continues not only at the time of the tattoo but continues as a moving tattoo in our own minds.
I wonder what small piece of information or dream will move the practice further. I love the not knowing more than anything really.
