The doing of thinking is not a hands free conversation

As artists we are working through a process of exhausting representations in an attempt to assimilate ourselves to our experiences and our changing identities. We offer audiences the residues of this through relationships with objects that are made, or used to both supplement an illusory ideal, or to mirror truth. When making art, the enquiries, practices and processes vary, but by the very action of doing are we simply saying to others, and ourselves, “look. This is how I feel”? …the work goes on. Because it is controllable reality. It is a form of thinking that frees up thought. It is time consuming but time slowing, isolating but self-fulfilling. It is part of life, but also a metaphor for how life should be, with everything in place, every pattern clear, every rhyme exact, every goal near. An education in art allows a fostering and acceptance of life-long learning on the part of student and lecturer. This paper will explore the learning through doing that originated in a work started by Elizabeth Wright on the MA Fine Art course at Lincoln. Elizabeth made pots as a catalyst for conversations between herself and others, to explore the relinquishing of attachment to memory and material objects which vanquishes grief to create a gain in self. Elizabeth and her ex-tutor Andrew Bracey will discuss the principle of knowledge being created through the act of doing, whilst making. This conversation will start with the digging of the clay and end with the paper. The activity will be filmed, distilled and presented as a joint paper for the Dirty Practices symposium. We seek to confirm our belief that the doing of thinking is not a hands free conversation