angst

The surfaces are documented by the technique referred to as 'frottage', from Tate:

Frottage is a surrealist and ‘automatic’ method of creative production that involves creating a rubbing of a textured surface using a pencil or other drawing material.
The technique was developed by Max Ernst in drawings made from 1925. Frottage is the French word for rubbing.

The black line is the walk I walked while I documented,
tracked with a walking app and added as a monotype layer

I I was not particularly pleased with the outcome of this map. I did not like the inconsistency of the strokes, the combination of the colours, the composition,
the incoherent and disordered black line.
I considered changing it, re-working it, adding another layer, blur the motif.
But what was it that I wanted to change?
It took a while before I realised.
I can sense it in the strokes, I revisit the feeling of unease.
It may not be the artwork I want to change, it may be the fact that what it is I want to is the thing I cannot change.
But I can leave it as it is.
I can try to understand.

The title reflects the emotions I encountered when I commenced this frottage walk within a residential area. I am not particularly fond of attention and suddenly found myself in a stressful and uncomfortable situation. The coloured areas of the folded map were not the only thing I drew, but also, attention. Several other factors made me feel unease and wanting to escape, but what I did was the opposite. I stayed, I continued, I finished. Accomplished.
While I emphasise that it may not be the right thing to do in any similar situation – sometimes it may in fact be wise to emerge – I choose to focus on challenges as something to overcome. As bumps, not barricades.

As Hamish Fulton says
'If in doubt. Keep walking'.
(Ten Toes towards the Rainbow, 1985–92)