This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/acceptedfor publication in the following source:

Jewell, Sharon L.(2015)Surface materials and aspects of care: A study in modes of being in avisual art practice.PhDby Creative Works,Queensland University of Technology.

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1. INSCRIPTIONS

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Braille In 2012 I took a ten week course in Braille at Braille House, Annerley. In the early stages of my awareness of surface as a field of interest, it occurred to me that Braille is that sort of marking that takes the surface as its raw material for text. For ten Saturdays I made the long trek carrying my heavy Perkins Brailler, and old style machine with six resistant keys. I produced masses of Braille pages. My mother had an aunt and uncle who were blind. They lived in a dark house of Adelaide stone. Braille books, great dense tomes were always lying open on the table, and my aunt would write with a stylus, thus punching the letters from the back and therefore forming the letters in reverse. Uncle Harold had Finches in an aviary out the back. He could whistle like a Finch as he moved toward and amongst them. He was gentle as a lamb but being unable to see his little birds, would occasionally tread on one and squash it.

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These small pieces were made on heavy tracing paper, following the Braille. Script like marks pushed into the paper as it lay on a soft surface, produced this beautiful white line. All expression, no more symbolic structure, the writing brought together the mechanical and gestural functions of the hand. This process of thought, given over entirely to the hand, found expression in numerous “letters” written from the affective body.

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