

In term one i did some collaborative work with a nother student with simmilar interests, Lauren Ryan. we both have been using bones in our work, and i had taught her how to do the image transfer techniwue which i had been isung in my work. Ryan’s work at the time has used other artists work as source material, combining it with her own, so it made sense for us to work together to add my work into the mix.
we used a combination of photocopies of my work, hers and famous works which she has been previously using in her work.
… (The Collaboration Paintings are) a physical conversation happening in paint instead of words. The sense of humor, the snide remarks, the profound realizations, the simple chit-chat all happened with paint and brushes…There was a sense that one was watching something being unveiled and discovered for the first time.
— Keith Haring
an examply of a colaborative art piece is JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT AND ANDY WARHOL, Olympic Rings from 1985.
“Warhol’s contribution to the collaborations can be seen in his distinctive technique of hand-painting ready-made iconography, an early practice that he revived with Basquiat. In the case of Olympic Rings, he made several variations of the Olympic five-ring symbol, rendered in the original primary colors. Basquiat responded to the abstract, stylized logos with his oppositional graffiti style. Between clusters of Warhol’s Olympic rings, he imposed a bold, dark, mask-like head, like a medallion in a link chain, undoubtedly an allusion to African-American star athletes of past Olympic Games, such as Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos.”
in this case there is also similarities between this pice and the one we did as Worhol uses ready-made iconography, similarly to how Ryan used well known works by other artists in her parts of out work and made it her owm.
in our piece we both sat together and arranges the various pieces together, and both worked to transfer the images. as there was so many this was a lengthy process but i think it was ultimately worth the time it took.
what i find intersting about colaborative works like this is that they could mean very different things to both artists who made it, the same way that we all look at work and interpret it in a way that may never be identical to someone else. even when we explain what we see and talk them through we will never know if we understand it in exactly the same way. such as how you may see the colour red differently to someone else your whole life and never know thatits not the same way that another preson sees it.
Image Transfer
As part of my current work i have been using photocopies of my drawings and photos and transferring them onto paper blocks to make them easier to paint on, since I am using a lot of water which will warp the paper.
This technique is something I was taught in high school.
To do this I print out images or photocopy my work using a laser printer, and then using masking tape to hold it in place (image side down) on the paper block. To transfer the image, I use cellulose thinners. This is painted in small areas on the back of the image, and then using the back of the paint brush I scratch as the area to transfer it onto the image.
Cellulose thinners can cause headaches if you spend too long inhaling the fumes, so this should be done somewhere well ventilated, I also place the lid back on top when I’m not dipping my paintbrush.
All images will be backwards when transferred so if the orientation is important it may need to be flipped before printing.
This technique can be used to collage images together, by transferring them together or even on top of each other.
Although detail is lost when doing this, especially if its not a particularly clear or highly contrasting image, it creates a somewhat aged looking effect, which I like. It can also be worked back into, with paint pen, pencil etc to bring back some definition.
An artist who had used image transfers in their work is Rauschenberg.
https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/lightboxes/transfer-drawings
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/08/arts/design/08raus.html
Initially I was doing this to preserve biro drawing which took hours to make, as I didn’t want to destroy them by adding paint and potentially wating hours of work if they went wrong, however I found that I really like the effect given by transferring the images. It makes the drawing look soft and somewhat ages and creates a good base for adding back detail and colour with paint