dan asked her if she is going to describe this in words or draw the proposal and she said probably draw it out or even collage (maybe I can do that too) - and dan said the description is doing a really good job illustrating the idea as well (and I agree, maybe I should think about text in my proposal as well as it gives so much clarity)
dan said lena and my work could almost be compared as kind of opposites, lena's work is quite hopeful whilst mine is more dystopian/gothic, he said, which I think is true. (though slowly it's getting more hopeful, in subtle ways) lena also said she saw my drawings I emailed them the day before, and she said she is all about doing automatic drawing / drawing from the subconscious so she totally understands where I am coming from.
I asked dan about his pixel landscape paintings and he said
'I have a data projector, so I project information, and I separate images into layers corresponding to different colours. It's very mechanical (swatches of colours - match the pixels I'm projecting) then I mix with the paint, so I don't paint things exactly. Something always goes wrong, and that's hopefully the point, (technology and my hand) hopefully it contributes a human element into quite a robotic process. I work in this very mechanical way, I'm doing it to save anyone else for having to do it...I'm desperate to become more intuitive, like the way you are working, both of you, but it never seems to happen ... (the grid, imprisoned state) it's very meditative, the way I work. (a lot of work?) is done digitally manipulated in photoshop before I actually paint..'
he also raised the big question for me about how to show/print a digital painting/drawing. and how much people know it's your hand or algorithm. he's got a student in saint martins with a similar dilemma. he was saying how incredible the digital brush can be, painterly and shadows and textures.. but it's like 'a trick of the eye, maybe it's very plausible to call it painting, it just exists digitally..it's a real dilemma like does she just print them out? they look like she's trying to convince people that they are paintings. and I've seen in art galleries which are half digital half paint (real paint over digital print) cause really you're being fooled. so I guess your dilemma is that you gotta embrace the digital aspect when you output it, like projecting, maybe that's what you're leaning towards..' he also said digital/virtual .. 'a dilemma, but an exciting one to play with.. or you can output them in print and work on them physically..
he also said the limited colour palette for the drawings is good otherwise it would be too much. he even suggested animation for the drawings. I said maybe like going through, navigating the drawing like a landscape? I was thinking of the zooming in and out screen recording I do when I post them on instagram... he said I am discovering a land/place that is alive..