CHARCOAL

Black, fire, smoke, smooth, still, burning, breaking, darkening, creating charcoal.

The ideology of burning to create something new is all in the process of making charcoal. The crackling fire results in the darkened remains that we call charcoal. When first interacting with the material, I thought of a camp fire because that's what I most commonly associate it with. The video of the classmates creating charcoal, along with the crackling noise of the fire inspired this idea. Charcoal can also be used as a base for fires (mostly in BBQ) but, it inspired me to use it as the base of my art.

Darken, smudge, move, slide, twirl, extract, discover, reveal, dust, disperse.

The charcoal darkened my hands and smudged on the paper. Dust formed on the paper as I rubbed the charcoal against it. I then noticed the various strengths of this material. This material created many different tones from dark black to light grey depending on the pressure used on it. The charcoal seemed to disperse across the paper as my finger passed over the dust. In class we read about how charcoal can communicate with you and how it can express the way you feel, so I tried to connect with the charcoal by expressing feelings through the art (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind & Kocher,2017). I started out releasing feelings of anger and darkness by pressing hard, then gradually lightened the mood and pressure as I went down the paper.

Crush, walk, create ,uncover, transfer, multiply, sweep, spread, step, marks.

​Once the charcoal was put away, what still remains is the marks it has left behind, both physically and emotionally. The marks the charcoal left on the floor were ones that were unintentionally created, but none the less, still meaningful. The print was a shoe print, the charcoal was crushed, defeated, but still left its mark to be remembered. The strokes of the broom spread and smudged the charcoal across the floor, but still it remains. The impression the charcoal created, still remains. The feelings and emotions the charcoal made you feel, still remains. The lessons learned from the charcoal, still remain. The charcoal, taught me a valuable lesson through its markings, even though you may feel defeated sometimes, your hope can still remain present.

References

Kind, S. (2014, March). Material Encounters. Retrieved March 18, 2017, from http://commonworlds.net/newsite/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/MaterialEncountersca talogue.pdf

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S. & Kocher, L. (2017). Encounters with materials in early childhood education. Routledge: New York.