Exercise 3.4 • Image Folder

# Aim
Your image library will be an important and inspiring resource that you will be adding to throughout the course. Use a folder, box - anything that will hold pages. Not a scrapbook for sticking in, keep the pages loose to allow for more fluidity - this is a repository that needs to enable adding and taking away.

# Words and Images
Begin a collection of images and words that resonate for you in some way.

Looking through magazines, exhibition catalogues, newspapers and old books, select photographs, images of paintings, pieces of text or poetry - anything you feel some connection with. It is good to do this quite intuitively as sometimes it can make more sense later on as to why this image or text might have been important. Keep your torn pages in a folder and add to it as you work through the course. This will help you understand where your interests lie and what might be explored further.

# Scanning and tracing
An intimate and tactile response to a subject can be an interesting starting point for further investigations. 

The process of frottage is to make a rubbing by applying marks on thin paper pressed against a textured surface. Try using newsprint or lay out paper against a flat surface that has some relief, such as textured wallpaper, or wood grain. Graphite sticks work well for this - just rubbing gently across the surface until different qualities of marks appear. Also, you may want to try using tracing paper against a found image that has some interesting shapes and patterns.

If you’ve got a scanner you can place some reasonably flat objects on it, such as fabrics, threads, plant roots - you can try layering a few objects. Have a look at all the printouts - are some images appearing that might have a future in some drawings or paintings? Perhaps some of the textures could be incorporated in a collage at some point?

Keep all your prints and rubbings in a folder as part of your gathered material that you can continue to add to.