Final year project
'Take a breath and dive in deep' [Read more]
27: Fragmente flesh
Part of the painting a day series.
Associated poetry:
'Fragmented flesh floats by, iridescent in low tides of moons. We hold each-other close, In grasps of cold cobalt desperation. Scales of torment and beauty shed, and you cry. We bleed for change, as our fragmented flesh washes up. We held each-other close, in grasps of scorched blood, longing. Skin of hope and paranoia shiver, and we wait.'
33: My many mouths
Painting a day.
Associated poetry:
'I have a flame for a mouth, flesh searing between teeth. They sharpen in the night, where doubts are most lethal, before the sun explodes and the carnations bloom. The crows singe in devilish cries, pleas anguished when fires burn colder; masochistic urges in spreading wings of ash.'
34: Craved
Painting a day.
Associated poetry:
'Receding waves, flesh smile exposed at the roots. Stabs of people, punctuated, in loose fists of paint. You're bleeding, and not in a good way darling. Flashes of teeth, fictitious as they bite. A stomach caves in pain, consumed longing. Validation in absences of sound minds. The whites gnaw, in overflowing blood, and the pool beneath that gathers rises to wave forts once more.'
In fields we lay
Whether through poetry or asemics, language can become part of the visual language used to express mental and emotional states. Automatic techniques carry over from drawings to create these visual poetry journeys, on hopes of more clearly conveying emotion.
Untitled 3 (pink)
As part of the exploration of language into visual language, poetry over asemics was debated. This piece is part of a collection that favoured automatic drawing as its primary technique to explore the emotion corresponding with the chosen colour, and only words or phrases were added, instead of full poems.
An emotion of drowning
Part 3/- of automatic pencil drawings, created to explore emotion through pure mark-making, rather than the painting's previous focus on colour. This was also an exploration of larger scale, allowing mark and gesture to be more performative in its making and action.
An emotion of mania
Part 2/- of automatic pencil drawings. Emphasised in this piece, these collections were created to explore mark in correlation to emotion. The manic piece contains rapid slashes, built up scratches and favours a heavy hand, and as such adds to the chronicle of marks and colours researched in correlation to emotion throughout this year's practice.
Hannah Fletcher-Tomlinson
The exploration and documentation of mental health and its states through automatic and abstract drawing and painting.
Originally stemming from a need for catharsis, my practice explores the documentation of mental health and emotional states through the application of the subconscious in painting, drawing and poetry. It is both an exploration of mental health within the arts, as well as a research into subliminal visual codes within the work. It is this research aspect, that links back to the perpetuating ideas of mental health currently situated within art society and interpretation, that I believe pushes my practice in interacting mental health with audiences. I hope to continue this exploration into the human condition with further education and research, as well as curating exhibits in new and innovative ways to better interact with the viewer.
Dissertation
Expression in art: interpretation and analysis in 'untitled' abstract drawings
Final year project
'Take a breath and dive in deep'