RE Member Corinna Button gives us some fascinating insight into her working processes and what inspires her. 
 
"People are the subjects of my work, with a focus on women and the blurring and shifting boundaries between the private and public experience. My inspiration is drawn from daily encounters and observations such as social gatherings, images and snippets on social media. All these influences generate ideas for themes that I can build upon, "dress-up" and weave into my work.
 
I paint directly on my print plates with carborundum grits, I score and gouge out areas then sand back; I apply varnish, enamel paint, textured pastes and collage; it is a prolonged process of concealment and discovery. 
 
Everything about the way I work (both technique and subject) is motivated by the desire to reveal or "bring something to light." Thus my process involves layering then scraping back, building then excavating; otherwise peeling back layers to "carve out" and reveal something hidden beneath the surface.
 

I always need to start work whether it be a print or a painting  by getting the surface going. Even working back into a print proof is sometimes a good starting point because I need something to be there to experiment with and try out different possibilities.

 

At times monotypes become my 'working drawings ' for an idea - once printed they may end up in the ''bad'' pile or become a successful piece in their own right - and they leave me with their ''ghosts' on the plate, which after printing  give me the starting points to follow and develop on. 
 

I work in painting and printmaking and for me they have a close relationship - they cross reference each other and share textural qualities and layering techniques. I like the scraping and carving out process of print-making but I like the scraping back process of painting as well.

 

I sometimes work the surface of the paper first, perhaps  by spraying or brushing on a layer of emulsion for a grainy or textural effects and rubbing in ink or washing over paint, then I print over the top. I might even then sand it back and print back over it again and again - techniques I used in this collagraph monoprint featured below;  

 

Intention is often seduced into very different results once an image is taking shape. What particularly intrigues me about printmaking are the surprises or happy accidents that can occur along the way -  presenting new possibilities.

 

Printing and peeling the paper away from the inky plate is both exciting and nerve racking  It is a moment of great anticipation (and anxiety) of what anomalies may have occurred in the process- it can be a moment of great joy or frustration!"

 

Corinna Button RE, 2020 

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