The last edition of The Kick-About was a rich investigation of the self-portraiture—with all the insights and reflection you might expect, as we considered—and reconsidered—how we see ourselves. The idea of Rorschach’s famous ink-blot test is that we further reveal aspects of ourselves through the meanings we give to these otherwise abstract forms. With ink-blots as our muse this week, enjoy this latest collection of ‘new works made in a short time’, and for all previous editions of The Kick-About, go here.
Francesca Maxwell
“What fun this is, I can go on with thousand of variations, and I have chosen the less imaginative and the simplest version of it. I imagined all kind of shapes and pattern mirrored in half but the ink blobs are very appealing to me. And a kind of mono printing as well.“
Judy Watson
“I thought this prompt was a great opportunity to join in the Kick-About again, because I already have some artwork to begin with, and it’s not my collection of blob drawings. It’s this illustration (below) from my upcoming picture book with Kyle Mewburn, Jo and the NO. In this illustration, Jo traverses ‘lakes as still as mirrors’. So creating background mountains and their reflections from Rorschach-style inkblots seemed like a good idea.”
“I did produce something new for this Kick-About prompt. I’m not finished with ink blots, and I‘m not finished with islands reflected in still water. The theme makes me think of (self) reflection, and it seems the world is full of people who see themselves in different ways. Some don’t like what they see. Some delight in it. Some tell themselves they’re something different. Some refuse to look at themselves at all. Some see in themselves what others can’t see. And the opposite is also true. So I sketched 12 small characters with dip pen and ink, to place into a scene of self reflection. Here are a few of them. “
“This ink blot on yellow paper is so evocative of a rocky island, that it didn’t need my interference at all. And the yellow just added to the atmosphere. But I wanted to use at least one of my characters, so I added some mist, and background islands, and then put my character in. I was quite pleased with the result, and I feel for this little creature having an identity crisis, all alone.“
“And then I played with a second character with no background at all. The drawing works just as well upside down.”
Lewis Punton
“Over the past week or so I’ve been periodically nursing an injured crow that’s found itself landlocked to our front garden, offering up a mix of mashed banana and bird feed in an attempt to take the sting out of the poor beast’s broken wing. This meant that when it came to sourcing a route into the latest Kick-About prompt, I didn’t have to look far for inky inspiration.
I’ve always thought that birds seem so different in flight, like a different part of their brains kick into gear as they blaze through the sky; forgetting immediately what it feels like to be on the ground and becoming their most free selves.
Armed with that little nugget of inspiration, I took to penning my idea of the duology I’ve attached to our feathered friends. Exploring what it might feel like to imagine who you become in flight…”
James Randall
“I often play with reflected images and had only just rediscovered an image that I had put aside for a future project – so I pranced off without an end game and kept layering stuff both reflected and not with a near monochrome palette. I stopped when it felt full enough. Don’t know what it means – a reverse Rorschach? Then because I didn’t really want a dense image I did a quick second image.”
Gary Thorne
“These are purely decorative, more butterfly-related versus prompting a required level of profound reflection like the work of Rorschach. Each is a mono-print; achieved through cut squares of gloss paper being folded, opened, inked with splotches of acrylic, folded and gently finger pressed, opened then stamped/printed onto paper. Shaping 3-D relates to displays of pinned insects. The acrylic paint, which I never use, finally came to some good. A meditative process across three days, which was so enjoyable.”
Charly Skilling
“So, Rorschach. Making blots should play to my strengths, I thought. I can do this! But my first attempt just looked like—a blot. A blobby blot, it is true, but a blot nonetheless. Then a memory came from the dim and distant past. Half a century ago, when my kids were small, I worked at the local playgroup. On this particular day, I was in charge of the paint and paper table and was encouraging young Neil—a sturdy three-year-old with a serious disposition—to participate in some string painting. (For those of you not familiar with this technique, it requires dipping a short length of string in paint, laying the string across a sheet of paper, folding the paper to cover the string except for the very end, then whipping the string from between the paper folds and opening it up to reveal a fascinating and absorbing shape.) After many demonstrations of the technique, Neil finally felt up to attempting the whole process on his own. He dipped his string in the green paint (green being Neil’s colour of choice, with no other colour getting a look in), laid it carefully across the paper, folded the paper and held it flat, then slowly drew the string out. With some trepidation, he slowly opened the paper out to reveal the image within.
“Oh, Neil,” I cried, “That’s effective!”
Neil looked solemnly at me, then studied his artwork.
“No,” said Neil, speaking slowly (as to an idiot). “That’s a caterpillar.”
And, of course, he was right. He was talking to an idiot.
So, back to Rorschach. This is my first blot—of course it is—a caterpillar. Not long, green, and a little bit wiggly like Neil’s, but round, full-faced, and hungry! Blot no. 2 was instantly identifiable—Quatermass and the Pit—those huge, alien, ant-like creatures. No question. Blot no. 3 offered up more possibilities. At first sight, maybe just some trees and bushes? Or no—two fat little witches on broomsticks jousting? Ah, turn it up the other way and what have we got? Yes! Two ducks, scattering in sudden flight. And finally, I started thinking about the word BLOT and about what started Rorschach down this path. So my final “blot” is Rorschach’s Muse. Who knows what he saw in her?”
Ashley
“Self-analysis is a great tool that I’m sure most of us have used at some point in our lives.
Over and over,
I ponder me;
Who?
As I missed the January Kick-About for Self Portrait, I thought I’d combine it with another tool of assessment. Using a set of ink-blot images, an expert can determine underlying perceptions and thought disorders. So, what do you think Mr. Rorshach?“
Vanessa Clegg
“A bit stumped by this so started with slippers as though folded over between pages but dissatisfied by that so decided to ‘play’ with ink. Whilst looking into the subject I’d read that at one point they used an ‘eye’ on the head as part of the research (!), so keeping that in mind, I did quick intuitive sketch/blots….some turning out a little weird but, to me, interesting, so these are a few of the ones I liked.”
vanessaclegg.co.uk / vanillaclegg
Phil Gomm
“These bug-themed images began life very simply – as random mirrored silhouettes created using…. wait for it… the ‘insert random shape-maker’ tool in Powerpoint. I was looking for a starting point with minimum finesse or creative promise: much like an ink splash or accidental ring of coffee. After that, I was able to take the silhouettes into Premiere Pro (film-editing software), where there are some disparate techniques I’ve learned to combine in some interesting ways—but not to produce moving images. Rorschach’s inkblots always put me in mind of those museum display cases containing pinned specimens of insects, so with that in mind I went about creating some specimens of my own.”
Kerfe Roig
“You know this is a favorite form of mine, so the challenge was to try something different with it. I wanted to do a Cosmic Tree of Life, and I looked at a lot of cultural representations. My first few attempts failed—both the paint and the paper I tried to use just didn’t give me the results I wanted. So I went back to liquid watercolors and used some heavyweight watercolor cards with a lot of texture. Much better! Some are more treelike than others, but then not all cultures see the Cosmic Tree as being exactly like an Earthly Tree. And then I made a pantoum composed from lines from various tree poems I had written.“
Cosmic Tree
vessel of awakening
filled with sky
deep primal mystery
reflecting what is not there
filled with sky
attached to the circle
reflecting what is not there
the universe unfolding
attached to the circle
inside the mirror
the universe unfolding
releasing its essence
inside the mirror
ancient and rooted soul
releasing its essence
the voice waiting to be sung
ancient and rooted soul
the answer blowing in the wind
the voice waiting to be sung
the bridge that portals time
the answer blowing in the wind
deep primal mystery
the bridge that portals time
vessel of awakening
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
And from the glimmer of the subconscious…
Red's Kingdom 
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