Today I had my tutorial with Jonathan, which I found extremely valuable and motivating overall.

I began by giving Jonathan an update on my current circumstances, and we briefly discussed how difficult things had been and its impact on my experience of the course. He has always been very supportive and today was no different. Jonathan reassured me and we delved into my current work with cyanotypes and its many possibilities within my art journey.

I think it was very apparent how relieved and excited I am by the cyanotypes. Relieved due to the recent feeling of being lost and frustrated with my work yet excited by the ideas formulating.

I put to Jonathan that I love the idea of climbing a selection of the Wainrights in the Lake District and collecting soil samples from each of the summits before using them to tone cyanotypes of images of the mountains. Jonathan agreed this was a great idea and further added to it with the idea that soil samples can also become part of an exhibition of the images – this filled me with excitement! Shortly after I mentioned it to my son, Owen and his response was “that’s really cool!” – If my 17 year old son thinks it’s cool, then I’ll roll with it!

After recently coming across some contemporary cyanotypes artists who use cyanotypes as part of animation, I was really drawn to this and mentioned it to Jonathan. We both agreed that 24 frames per second – or even 12 – would be a huge undertaking, but that tweening two images could provide an effective result, whilst concentrating on the simple cyanotypes. By having the images + soil samples + animation + audio = an array of exhibition opportunities and a feast for the senses!

I mentioned other materials which could be printed onto and the full circle of developing on concrete – Jonathan mentioned how interesting it would be to place a concrete cyanotype on the site of the demolition site in Warrington, which really illustrates how everything feels like it’s coming together and very much connected. Whilst I will probably delay the concrete idea for now (reminded by Jonathan not to try and do everything all at once!) it really encouraged me.

We then went on to discuss the interrelating and connecting ideas of divisions, social class and contrasts, which is very much where my research and ideas began. This feels like an exciting adventure, whereby the process of gathering the soil samples, recording audio and other data and processing the images as cyanotypes, not only reflects this artistic journey, but a journey that spans a lifetime and one which I have been attempting to convey for so very long.

Finally, I mentioned my interview on Wednesday with Cumbria University for my PGCE. Jonathan gave me some great advice regarding the 8 minute micro teach which is to be done online to a group of other interviewees. I am going to do a couple of practice runs but excited by the idea of doing a live developing of a cyanotype following a discussion around the notion of Blueprints – hopefully providing an insightful takeaway for the group – regardless of whether I am offered a place on the course.

Overall, it was a very valuable tutorial and helped me to refine some of the ideas around the cyanotypes.