Myth, Story & Legend
- Aly Storey Print
- Nov 10
- 2 min read
Being part of the Made Collective since its conception in September 2023 has meant being part of a community of creatives. The size of this community in our rural area is hard to quantify; many artists have studios in their homes or gardens and there are few spaces to work collectively.
When the Made in the Pewsey Vale rolled into its second year, the entrepreneurs who started it, Alex Bramall and Catriona Tyrwhitt adapted the collective to include more artists and still offer the benefits the first year’s artists received as part of their membership. Second year artists such as I were offered the newly instated opportunity to be part of a collaborative group show with a suggested theme. The theme we were given was Myth, Story & Legend and four artists were selected, me, Freya Barton, Lucy Ball and Becky Borthwick.
‘Inside Stories’
The subject of isolated rural buildings is something I keep returning to and the stories they evoke resonated with the title of the show Myth, Story & Legend. Responding loosely to the theme, I chose to make two new large pieces which happen to be made up of 31 small print experiments. Divided by orientation either portrait or landscape.
The idea of domestic stories continually taking place in real time led to these small print experiments using tissue paper stencils, first prints off the press and second prints (ghost prints) and a combination of both.
Inspiration for the buildings came from my neighbourhood, friend’s houses in other locations and my imagination. The results are deliberately primitive and designed to convey the notion that ‘someone is home’ and the everyday stories playing out inside can only be supposed or imagined.
Like previous works preoccupied with rural structures these small prints are stylised with a focus on angular shapes, shadows and light.
‘Fragments’
One of the wonderful and perplexing aspects of printmaking is the amount of paper that is used to create the final print. Perhaps the process of making the print (or prints) didn’t quite go as planned, or the tissue paper used to protect the press blankets from transfer of ink or in my case, make stencils, starts to mount up.
Hardly any of this by-product paper gets thrown away, it is stored in a large drawer with the intention to be used at a future point.
The tissue paper was so appealing and drying all over the studio and I became preoccupied with using its transparent properties to convey a three-dimensional architectural inside/outside themed installation in connection the theme of ‘Inside Stories’ for the gallery, either to go in the window or to be mounted on the wall.
16 x Original Monotype Prints (197mm x 138mm)
Oil Based Ink on Japanese Paper
Framed Size: 106cm x 87cm
Photo: Alex Bramall
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