I’ve been talking about the haptic aspects of my work…

…relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception.

The work I enjoy making is the work where my fingers are in direct contact with the materials I am using. Stitching, drawing, clay work… I can feel what is going on, my brain is closely involved in the sensory output and collecting of information, and the way the material is further manipulated because of it. I think that’s why I’m not great with painting. The end of the brush is further away, on a surface removed. I can feel the paper/canvas with my hands on it and marking across it with a pencil or pen, and I love the sound of pencil or scratchy dippy ink pens on the paper. I like to feel the fabric tension between my fingers, the slip and slide of it, and that popping sound of the needle through the surface. 

In the last year or so I have also been working a little bit with clay… the slippery slip, the squelch, the unforgiving/giving soft surface of fresh clay, and the difference felt once it has been on the bench for an hour. I like making things that require my fingertips to be fully present.

I think for me, this is what a definition of drawing comes close to… how it feels, not what it is made of or how it looks. It’s how my body works with the materials. It is completely sensory. This also works with singing I think. Singing words I have written, that mean something, is a whole-body sensory experience. I am the most myself when I am drawing/stitching/moulding/singing. Aware of bodily things, but only in the way it affects the surface, or the sound. When I do this, especially in the studio without an audience, I am completely un-self-conscious. Completely engrossed.

The work I make in this state always feels “better”… truer…