Blog of the week: Carol Stimpson

Blog of the week today comes from Printmaking student Carol Stimpson. Quite apart for the from the fabulous images of her work the thing that clearly stands out from Carole’s blog is the way she tests ideas and reflects and evaluates whether what she thinks of them. For example, this is just an extract of what she had to say about her series of images ‘A Macabre Masquerade’.
‘My composition of a group of decrepit revellers was certainly inspired by the painting ‘Masks and Death’ by James Ensor. I have a diagonal line of masks running from middle left to top right. I hope I have managed to introduce enough variety and interest in those masks to keep the viewer amused and to allow their eyes to wander across the image examining the details.
The use of Photoshop to assemble and change my ideas was really good. I find it stimulating to take sections of images and push them around to create something new.
I do wonder whether the overall composition is a little too cluttered. I added the feather last. Is it a little distracting? Do I have too much going on in this image? To be honest I’m not sure. I vacillated between removing the feather it and leaving it where it was.
I think I succeeded in obtaining the murky, grunge effect that I was aiming for. Whether this will be approved of by my tutor is another matter, but it’s all part of the learning process. I was pleased with the crumbling mouth and the Hessian texture of the top of the skull. I also like the effect of the shrunken lips on the other skull-like mask. I really enjoyed this assignment and I think I have gained a lot from the time I took to experiment with design ideas and printing processes.’