Critical Mass Finalist (again!) for 2024

Untitled (Entanglement series) 2024 copyright Douglas Stockdale –

I am really excited that I was selected as a 2024 Critical Mass Finalist, as one of the 200 individuals chosen to move to the next step of judging process. This is also the second consecutive time that I have been selected as a Critical Mass Finalist, and both have been related to my project, Entanglement using the cyanotype printing process.

In 2023 I had only recently been making cyanotypes from an earlier local urban landscape project, which I had just re-conceptualized my artistic investigation. Thus I did not have very many cyanotypes to choose from for my 2023 Critical Mass submission, but apparently enough to become a Finalist. I did not make the cut for the Top 50, while I received some excellent feedback from a few jurors which I then applied to this on-going project.

Essentially I narrowed and enhanced my artist statement for this project, while implementing other alternatives to my cyanotype prints to create and hopefully enhance my narrative. I experimented with intervening with hand-sewn representative red lines, sometimes adding embroidered knots, and later I began constructing photomontages, some of which were then hand-sewn with the representative red lines.

As a scientific engineer by training and what I rely on for my day job, this subsequent artistic experimentation was really pushing my boundaries. Probably in a very much needed way. To be honest, sometimes with the photomontages, the final print that results after melding the two base prints together can be difficult for me to visually decipher and I wonder if I have gone toooo far. Nevertheless, I persist in my deconstruction and subsequent mosaic print weaves and trust my audience to figure these prints out while I concurrently learn this new artistic language. The unexpected results can also become an enjoyable, if not sometimes unsettling, experience.

This is all good. Now to wait until the Fall, perhaps about September, for the next round of judging to be completed and see if this year, I am included in the Top 50 for 2024 Critical Mass. The validation of my continued effort to develop this project cannot be overstated.

Concurrently, I have a couple of gallery submissions that I had on hold pending this Finalist decision that I will now start to make. Maybe even a book submission. Last, while working on this recent phase of my project, I started to envision how the scope of this project could extend beyond a site specific location, while that future project probably will require some grant funding, a relatively new aspect of my artistic career. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Cheers!

Doug