This is the indeterminate gap between submitting the final project of a course unit (and shortly afterwards the materials for assessment) and beginning the next. For me, this will be the last of this undergraduate degree and so it carries weight in terms of how I see my future and what I make of my time between the two units. A rehearsal, if you like, for a sustainable independent practice and/or a portfolio with postgrad in mind.

For me, this is likely to be a digital/physical fusion in which painting forms the standalone base and digital – mood changes using colour adjustments, animation and other layers, giving rise to filmic art-work that itself can stand alone but that also functions as augmented reality layers – extends or changes the raison d’etre of the original. I can see that becoming a better physical artist will feed my imagination so that the additional layers extend rather than obscure the original. For me, technology should not function as a screen for poor physical substrates and so, in the immortal words of Tess and Claudia, I will Keeeeeeeep Painting during this hiatus.

Here’s the first. And again, this river, this sky, these clouds form the inspiration.

There’s often a tipping point for me when I think yes, that’s done while also knowing it isn’t because of a disquieting mental twitch that’s not in agreement. The last image above is that stage and it’s the one that also challenges the just enough/too much tipping point. [The blurring comes with the text.]

The video material is by Ton Souza via Pexels and is free to use. I have clipped and repeated the same clip several times at different sizes and added a further iteration in Artivive that sits outside the frame as a 3D representation. The audio is an effect via Epidemic Sound which I’ve slowed to maximise the unsettling rumble.

The story above was prompted by Margot Lanagan’s unnerving 2004 short fiction, ‘Singing My Sister Down’, first published in Black Juice by Allen and Unwin.