UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #79

“Crazed – Cutting and Piercing” (Drawing)

Carbon, Ink, charcoal, watercolour pencil, Silver leaf on paper board

75x75cm  (unframed)

ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

 I had a friend whose daughter was self-harming.  This dysfunctional behaviour is much more wide spread than generally considered.  My drawing reflects on this dysfunctional behaviour.   Statistics show that it is mainly distressed young people (mostly women/girls) who self-harm.  My professional background is that of a qualified Art Psychotherapist so through my line of work I am familiar with this aberrant behaviour.  It is prevalent in Western countries and is considered to be a way of expressing emotional pain and externalizing it in a very damaging way.  The pain is said to release and relieve the tension that the person is experiencing. The person who self-harms will carry the scars of these actions for the rest of their life.  It is also very distressing for family members who are often bewildered and powerless to prevent this dysfunctional behaviour.  The young person may cover their wounds and scars with long sleeves and often will withdraw from socially healthy interactions.  The person who self-harms should seek professional help because there are many alternative healthy ways of gaining release from tensions and stress that are very effective.  A person who is self harming really needs to contact a mental health professional NOW.   Harming yourself is definitely NOT COOL!

 Artistic techniques used in this painting:

This painting is not framed.  It is never meant to framed.  The title is important too.

I selected a thick white paper (almost like a thin cardboard) and tore the edges to 75cm square.  I wanted a square to provide stability for such an unstable subject.  I started the work by masking out a border around the entire sheet so that the sheet had a contrast of a white border and then dark grey (which was pierced) and then a black band thus leaving a square interior for me to draw.  I knew in advance roughly what I wanted to draw.  This drawing is not spontaneous but it is experimental in that I used methods which I had not done before.

The dark grey border of the paper was pierced with a sharp instrument in order to achieve a patterned effect.  Some of the red acrylic paint which is on the reverse of the painting shows through the pierced holes in places. 

The centre of the drawing was planned in advance.  I have a beautiful piece of pottery, the glaze of which has a “crazed” look.  According to Wikipedia “Crazing is a  web pattern of cracks penetrating the glaze on pottery.”   I took photos of this pottery piece and enlarged the crazed patterns to a size that fitted the centre of my drawing.  I then printed it out so that I had six images of the crazed pattern.  I placed these six images on the centre of my drawing and cut (by tracing their lines with a razor) through the “crazed” lines into the surface of the paper board.  I then discarded the photocopies and outlined the cut pattern with black ink.  I used a watercolour pencil to achieve the red tinge on this patterning.

The silver leaf represents the sharps that are used by people when they cut themselves.  I stiffened silver leaf and tore it at random so that sharp shapes were formed.  These I adhered to the crazed image.

The back of the paper I painted with red acrylic and purposely stained the edges of the artwork so that the red edges are seen from the front of the drawing.  This represents the internal emotional pain which people who self-harm strive to release and the externalization of that pain.

Self-harming is a cry for help.  Seek a qualified art therapist or mental health professional if you are self-harming.  I do not practice any more but qualified art therapists can be sourced on the Australian and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association (ANZATA) http://www.anzata.org/  (Go to Professional Registry).  There are art therapy associations in other countries also.  They can be sourced on the internet. 

Self-harming is an illness not to be silently suffered.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com