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Athamandia Leontakianakis

@mandymakes_a_mess

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Mixed media, memory and the expressive analogue. Intentional apprentice at heart.

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I moved for a stint to an island (I move for stints a lot), with as many art supplies as I could fit in a suitcase. I was a little braced for an environment of bright brights and exaggerated azures. Great for living, but not so much for an eye-palette. And I know how much the colours in the world make their way into my art. (I’d also gotten a little product-happy with Amazon on my literal doorstep. It was insecuring to move out of range.)
Luckily, this forced me to get grounded. And dig a little deeper (the puns are writing themselves) for natural materials.
Enter this miraculous red clay. Ancient, fierce, volcanic, weathered over millions of years into something rich in iron, the same family as ochre and sienna. Sourced ethically from a construction site, where the brutal land cutting reveals actual treasure.
It grinds down easily like it’s dying to become paint, I washed it twice, let it settle, ground into it again and bound with acrylic medium. And when I added water to the rich concentrate, I struck oxide. (My favourite.) I didn’t know that foraging earth was a joy thing. But it is.
And of course it cracked the code for me: a connection between this place and my work.
No shipping required.
I’ve called this earth paint Fire. And it’s partnered by Brimstone. The black rock that plays much harder to get. I’ll post that little journey soon.
What colour is the ground where you live?
#earthpigments #mixedmedia #creativeprocess #naturalpaint #artjournal by @mandymakes_a_mess

Finding my sea legs. All at once. As usual.

Tortured hessian, earth matter, rust, bandages, burns and scratches.

#mixedmedia #sgraffito #texturedart #textileart #collage by @mandymakes_a_mess

A milestone for me: the first time I’ve claimed a board for a fully expressed ‘piece’ over a page for a handmade book. And, I’m not dismissing it in comments as an experiment. I meant it and mean it. Audacity upon audacity. And what’s more, I love it so much that I want to put it where I can see it. On a wall and not in a pile. Doubtless I’ll look back on this with critiques, but, for today I celebrate this step forward. It feels like mine.
#mixedmedia #collage #textileart #texturedart #creativeprocess by @mandymakes_a_mess

It’s love, with this little book and me. I’m on a journey into the works of Manolo Millares in my usual obsessive way. Learning about his process took me to making rustic clay stamps or pintaderas, used on these pages. Some foraged earth clay and basalt as paint grounds into which I am learning to make more and more honest signs or what Millares called pictografias and a Greek would call eikonografías (εικονογραφίας). Those most basic and potent of natural signs and marks. I am inspired by some rock art too: fascinated with how we draw and paint elemental figures when we aren’t trying to impress. This little book is the studio floor. A safer place to learn while I get over the idea that I have to ‘earn’ boards and hanging pieces and surfaces. That audacity is a work in progress. Towards less and less control and safety. As always.#mixedmedia #collage #artjournal #bookart #artbook by @mandymakes_a_mess

I finally committed my earth and tree pieces to an accordion, played here against Mauritian stone: the material and reference I’m inspired by. I love that this country of soft waters and manners (most of the time) rests on such unforgiving and fiercely forged rock. It doesn’t give an inch. And you have to respect that.

Pigments and textures responsibly foraged.
Creatively indebted to @roxanneevansstout and her class Wilderness and Wonder at @taketwoartcourses .

#mixedmedia #collage #artjournal #bookart #artbook by @mandymakes_a_mess

A small reflection on journeying outside and the limits of my practise. Challenging my own ideas of what I’m good at or allowed to do. Unearthing new mediums, textures and colours.
Letting nature have the final say.
And going slower than I ever have before.
Still, it only feels like a start.
#mixedmedia #collage #artjournal #abstractlandscape #creativeprocess

The class I’m working with is still Wonder and Wilderness by @roxanneevansstout 🫶🏼 by @mandymakes_a_mess

I am so far out of my comfort zone with this work that the only solid ground is the miraculous volcanic earth I’m standing on. Which is the anchor for this little landscape story, using foraged pigment and textures that I’m unreasonably proud of having handmade. I have only scratched the surface of the rich learning available through @roxanneevansstout ‘s class Wilderness + Wonder at @taketwoartcourses . Works very much in progress.
#mixedmedia #collage #abstractlandscape #textileart #artjournal by @mandymakes_a_mess

A lost spread in a journal of clamouring pages.

#mixedmedia #collage #artjournal #bookart #imagetransfer by @mandymakes_a_mess

I don’t know if this is burnt sienna or an iron oxide but I do know that I made it myself from foraged pigment on the land I’m trying to connect to. And I am over the moon with the result.
I am out of the Amazon radius and I thought this would be a great opportunity to embrace constraints and learn new things. I collected (ethically, from a construction site), two kinds of earth, a black rock volcanic stone and a weathered volcanic clay. The red earth has captivated me. The rich mineral content, the depth and luminosity. I am overjoyed.
Another catalyst for me embracing what’s around me is simply having watched the intro videos to @roxanneevansstout ‘s class on @taketwoartcourses (Wilderness and Wonder). Whilst it isn’t a pigment foraging class, it is Roxanne’s wonder that drove me outside in the first place and I can’t wait to get stuck into the actual projects, using my land-paints.

Facts for those interested:
The Red Earth (Latosolic Red / Ferralitic Clay Soil):
Mauritius is a volcanic island. Over millions of years, the ancient basalt rock was exposed to intense tropical heat and heavy rainfall. This caused extreme chemical weathering (called hydrolysis), washing away soluble minerals and leaving behind a high concentration of iron oxides and secondary clay minerals. This is why it feels beautifully pliable and behaves like clay paint (yum!). It is literally weathered volcanic clay rich in natural iron (the same mineral that makes traditional Ochre and Sienna pigments).

The Dark Earth (Volcanic Basalt):
The dark earth from Roches Noires comes from a much younger volcanic chapter (an eruption from the “Recent Series” roughly 25,000 to 29,000 years ago). Because it hasn’t had millions of years to weather into clay, it is still dense, hard, un-decomposed igneous basalt rock. It created a faint grey water in my first process, and that’s actually fine, un-weathered silicate and magnesia minerals suspended in the water, which explains why it behaves so differently from the soft red clay.
#mixedmedia #handmadepaint #artjournal #artprocess #pigment by @mandymakes_a_mess

The Audacity

Analog brut collage and unassuming scribbles.
Left to my own devices, and a piece of watercolour paper before I embark on my next guided process.
This little one is a palette cleanser and an autobiography. Of course it’s hard for me to accept that she doesn’t live inside a book, stand-alone pieces seem like orphans to me. But I have faith that as I continue to grow and learn, I’ll know how to brave non-bookness more.

#collage #mixedmedia #artbrut #abstractart #artjournal by @mandymakes_a_mess

As usual, this little book shows me things that weren’t ‘on purpose’, but are definitely true for me. In responding to my pages and connecting them to each other, the word ‘nest’ became less about the bird and more about ideas of home, of flight, of exploration, being a stranger and of return. Nests became vessels became nested vessels and nestlessness and so it went. And to think, all that started with ink, twigs and the most basic of marks. I have such gratitude for the discovery that making things is a way of sensing into my inner life. No matter what it looks like to anyone else, or even to me, when it’s done.
Creatively indebted to @aimeeirel and her class The Magpie’s Nest over at @jeanneoliver
I sometimes wonder if teachers realise how much they’re giving, when they build processes and experiences like this.
It’s a whole thing. 🫀🪹
#mixedmedia #collage #artjournal #bookart #artbook by @mandymakes_a_mess

For the patient amongst you, an aimless wonder through my unbound pages, just as I’ve been doing for a few days. A few things hold me back from finalising signatures: firstly, red as a focal colour. I decided to challenge myself with a colour I’ve always thought was too much like itself. But I went from zero to a hundred with a local Mauritian house paint quite literally called ‘signal red’. I deepened it, and sometimes washed it thin, and the results are exciting, but they’re also so full of personality that they ask a lot of me. Then: I love these papers, a lot. They have all my affection. So committing them to a form is a real step. I brought out all the heavy hitters to get me in the zone: palo santo and sage, a smokey inspiration halo, we hope.
Creatively guided by @aimeeirel ‘s beautiful class The Magpie’s Nest, over at @jeanneoliver : a must-class! #mixedmedia #collage #artjournal #creativeprocess #handmade by @mandymakes_a_mess