Tide Mark – i a transitional zone, appearing as a wavy line, that marks the junction between 2 material states; ii a mark left by the highest or lowest point of a tide; iii a mark showing a level reached (by a liquid); iv a trace or indicator of past activity.
The Tide Mark Project was conceived of and run by Sara while she was on the AA2A residency scheme at Arts University Plymouth between 2013 and 2104. Based in the newly built area of the college designated for students of Painting, Drawing and Printmaking, Sara was encouraged by the then programme leader, Stephen Felmingham, to energise the area with ‘tide marks of paint’.
Working with children from local schools and students within the art college, Sara facilitated the transformation of the Tide Mark space into an area covered in mixed media and paint. Walls and floor were a vast canvas or stage on which collaborators played, intuitively responding to each others’ marks and colours.
Reworking and responding to the collaboratively-made wall and floor artwork, Sara superimposed her own workings and ideas. What evolved was a space very much identifiable as her own piece, but with layers of others’ contributions visible beneath.
The end of the residency meant returning the space to a ‘blank canvas’. In stages, Sara gradually ‘painted out’ the tide marks of paint. The space in the end, was left as she found it, ready for its next purpose.
