Professional Practice - Chris Lewis Jones

 

When Chris Lewis Jones gave a presentation at college, he showed us a huge range of different projects he has done throughout his career. He has an honest approach and refers to himself as a ‘flaneur’, meaning a person who wanders, observing the world in a leisurely way. I think this is a positive attitude to making art because sometimes inspiration is harder to find if you are seeking it very actively - so Jones’s approach feels like a more natural way to gain ideas and collect thoughts. He showed us various frottage work of his which I find really interesting because it is like an easy and effective printing method, where you can make an imprint of a surface in moments and capture it forever. The markings are quite raw and have a primal quality too which I really like. At the end of the talk we made some of our own graphite rubbings of surfaces around the room, and Jones pointed out that we can layer them and make patterns which I hadn’t thought of when I did this method in the past. I think mine was effective and I like all the different patterns that create what my peers described as a ‘dystopian cityscape’ (picture below). I felt inspired by Jones’s talk because now I pay more attention to the details of surfaces around me and in the street, it would be cool to start a sketchbook where I can make graphite rubbings wherever I go.

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