Ballot box battle

I have been battling with finding time to complete this work.  I keep being distracted by the anti fracking campaign in this area where I live; we are on the front line of the fracking attack here and it is very, very worrying.  I am trying hard to keep positive by doing positive things to help the cause, but it is extremely draining on my mental strength, which is not conducive to my creative production!

However: I am excited!

I have no idea how long the piece actually is; several people have asked me, so I suppose I should attempt to measure it before it is completed because I expect more people will ask the same question.  It is not a piece of purist printmaking; rather the visual version of a room filled with talk, the talk all being about the nature and importance of democracy and voting. As I have progressed with the piece, I have found more and more information that relates to the subject, which there is not really room to include, but which I will include in some of the single pieces I am going to make, and the artists' books.  It would actually be quite nice to do some paintings too, to see how the ideas translate into richly surfaced pieces.

I worked on the piece again for a day last week; there were gaps that I wanted to address; some gaps are OK; causing "pauses" in the conversation but other areas were crying out for more coverage.  I am very pleased with the Thermofax screens; they are so easy to use and made reproducing my hand drawn tally blocks and the printed quotes very easy.

The mix of mono, collograph, lino and screen print within the piece works too; the balance between the hand drawn aspects of the mono printing and the rest is particularly interesting to me.  

This shot above shows the ballot box work and some experiments I have made on wider pieces of paper, I love the translucency of the Chinese paper and its strength.
At one stage, because the work is so long and I was trying to identify the areas that needed more work, I was printing with the work on my left in folds on the floor while on the right, it was held up and draped on my wooden clothes airer.  I had to be very careful not to trip up! See for yourself:

Thanks to all of you who take the time to read this and as always, I welcome your comments.

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Great work being done to fight fracking

There are so many organisations working hard to spread the word about the dangers of fracking and helping to fight our government over this issue.  Green Peace and Friends of the Earth do so much to rally people, raise funds etc.

This link from FOE popped up on my facebook page this morning, it mentions Ryedale, and is well worth a read:
https://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/friends-earths-yorkshire-humber-update-november-2014-74775.pdf

Along with the work being done by these excellent organisations, ordinary people are gathering their strength and doing remarkable things.  Frack Free groups have been formed all over the country; web sites, twitter sites, facebook sites have all been set up to give people somewhere to gather information from, enable them to make contact and join the struggle against the devastation of our countryside.

I received this brilliant poster today, please feel free to copy it and print it off, spread it all over where you live!  

I will not be voting for anyone that condones or supports hydraulic fracturing in any way! Where is this subject even mentioned in the manifestos of our political parties?  I want to hear this being discussed as an election issue on the BBC too!