Not blogged for ages...

I'm off work for two weeks - yaaaaay.  So I'm going to clear all the crap thats been thrown into my spare room come studio, buy a canvas and PAINT.  It's been way too long and I may have forgotten how to do it, but I'm really looking forward to it.  I doubt it will be anything deep and meaningful but it will be nice to be immersed in beautiful colours again.  I've got a mechanical thing going on at the mo so we'll see how it turns out - hours of frustration no doubt...

It's been a while

Ages since I last did this, and although this isn't really about art, I thought it was time for an update.  Life has taken over again and I have been enjoying mindless crap, a new job and stuff that I'm not going to bore everyone with here.

I gave up on the Textiles A level - no time and lack of motivation.  Looking forward to starting the History of Art Degree in October though, before I go completely brain dead.

Did a bit of drawing at the weekend.  Nothing of any importance, but it was good to actually do something creative.  Will put pics up when I get a mo.  Funny how you don't think you miss it till you start doing it again.  It just feels right.  Must make the effort to do more.

Textiles; the story so far

So, I haven't blogged for a while.  Life got in the way.  But now I'm back, up to speed and on top of my 'projects'.  My themes are Vintage Paris and, predictably, Memories.  I'm making a corset and skirt, vintage can can style for the Fashion part of the course.  I've got some beautiful french erotica pictures from the early 1900's to use in the design - not sure that it's appropriate for the Lower Sixth though!  For the more craft based side of it I'm making little dolly clothes to display in box frames.  Using images of my daughter as a baby and children's story books trapped in teabags and layered with Latex I'm making some lovely fabric.  It does have a bit of a skin like feel to it though.  Very 'Silence of the Lambs'.


I've added a few pictures of my portfolio samples.

Textiles 'A' Level

I've decided to do a Textiles 'A' Level at school.  As I'm working in the classroom with the students I thought I might as well get something out of it.  The theme is 'Trapped, Encased, Enclosed' that sort of thing.  We're just one homework in and I'm already struggling! Trouble is it's pretty stuff again, and as we all know I have issues with pretty stuff.  All we have to do is cut out words relating to the theme and trap them on to backing paper with Sellotape.  Doesn't sound difficult does it?  But then I start thinking about relating the words to the backing paper, and if I'm cutting out the words from a newspaper what are the connotations of that...It's all too complicated!  Anyway, the next class is tomorrow so I'm taking what I've done so far.  I think I'll just see how it goes - but one thing is for sure - I am not taking part in the end of year Fashion Show at Athena!

Calke Abbey

This week's outing was to Calke Abbey in Derbyshire, it's only 10 mins up the road from me - don't know why I didn't go sooner. There are some lovely walled gardens, and luckily it was a sunny day, a rarity during the summer (or any other time come to think of it).  I thought I was going to be disappointed with the house when we first went in.  The rooms were very 'put together' in much the same way as any other stately home, but as we continued the tour it really improved.  The house is in various states of abandonment and decay, just as the family left it when they began to shut off areas from the 1800's onwards due to the cost of upkeep.  The kitchen is exactly how it was when last used in the 1920's! It's a really lovely place and particularly appealed to my love of decay and memory.  Well worth a visit.

More photos...

Book beads

After the Origami workshop the other week I've been thinking about how to use the techniques in my own work.  I am interested in the current trend for book sculpture and bookbinding and paper art in general really, and what better way to recycle old papers?  I'm thinking of using photographs to make memory books, journals and sculptures next year - along with all the other ideas that are whizzing around my head....
With this in mind I have been working on a couple of 'beads'.  I was unable to find any tutorials for these online so I've had to study pictures and then think about it for a long time.  My mind doesn't do mathematical process thinking!
Here's the results.

London again

Yesterday was a mad dash round London, it wouldn't have been but I decided last minute to go to Tate Modern to take part in the Lazy Oaf Self Portrait event being held there.  We walked from Tate Britain, next time we will take the Tube - it's further than you think when you have time restrictions.




So, first of all we visited the Henry Moore exhibition at Tate Britain, it was busier than I thought it would be considering it was the last day.  I liked the sculptures but I preferred the drawings.  The mark making involved is amazing, you can really see that Moore was a sculptor at heart just by 

looking at his lines.  There were 

some of his sketchbooks included in the exhibition which I thought were fascinating.  The drawings were so simple, almost childlike, but they led to some groundbreaking sculptural work.  I often think that sketchbooks are meant to be pristine works of art themselves but in reality they should be a working document full of ideas - which in itself makes them beautiful.  Must relax about this next term. 

In the afternoon we went to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.  I hadn't been before - I loved it and will definitely go again next year.  There is so much to see that you really need to visit once, reflect on what you've seen then visit again.  I thought all of the work was of a really high standard, it's really good to see professional and well known artists' work alongside amateur pieces, although I really couldn't tell them apart.

Tracey Emin has an exhibition on at the RA at the moment, a collection of her prints.   We had a look at them and thought they were
lovely.  So delicate, many of them were less harsh than the Emin pieces that we usually see although the sentiments were the same.

Blists Hill

What a lovely place.  I love a bit of Victorian history so the Town near Ironbridge Gorge was the perfect day out for me.  The BBC filmed The Victorian Pharmacy at Blists Hill, the chemist store is fully stocked with all sorts of medical, dental and veterinary paraphernalia, some of which I can remember from my childhood!  We had fish and chips for lunch, cooked in beef dripping - delicious.  There is a Baker's shop; we bought some bread and a fruit loaf, a Sweet Shop; we bought a selection of traditional sweets, a Butcher's shop selling pork pie alongside other homemade products, and all sorts of other establishments to look round.  The Print Shop was good, they print all the paper bags for the shop and the newspaper that you can buy from the Post Office.  There is even a bank where you can change money into Shillings and Pence to spend.  I'd definitely go again, despite the fact that we got stuck in traffic on the way home...

The Decorative Plasterers had a selection of beautiful plaster mouldings on show that are 120 years old.  The plaster and the invoices (underneath the photograph of Queen Victoria) are the original ones found in the building when it was restored.

More photos in slide show....

Today's creative endeavour

Or should I say failure.  Thought I'd try some more origami. I had an idea of boxes strung on to ribbon hanging up and looking pretty.  But as I struggle with pretty I'm not happy with the results.  Things never seem to look like I imagine them!

Origami

£20 well spent this afternoon I think, when I say £20 I actually mean £30 because I came straight home and ordered two books off Amazon - bumps the price up a touch!
I have been to an Origami workshop held in the Catmose Gallery, Oakham.  The workshop was run by Phiona Richards who is exhibiting in Fusion at the Gallery until 28th August.  There was only me and a very odd man in a rain mac in attendance, most peculiar...
Phiona demonstrated how to make boxes, simple stuff but it can be developed.  My favourite is made out of an old Victoria Holt novel I took with me.  Book sculpture is really popular at the moment, I think it has so much potential and looks so beautiful.  I really enjoyed it, so much so that I came home and purchased an origami encyclopedia and a bookbinding manual.  Can't wait to get started. Phiona is running some more workshops at Catmose, I think I'll see about booking a place - I've come over all creative!

Here's the links if anyone is interested;
http://rarenotions.co.uk

http://www.catmosecollege.com/?gallery=gallery_exhibitions&left=gallery

       

Nottingham Contemporary

Nipped down the M1 to Nottingham this afternoon, I wanted to visit the Contemporary Gallery.  I have been meaning to go since it opened 8 months ago.  I hate driving in Nottingham so have been putting it off until now.  As per normal I got lost on the way home, ended up going in the wrong direction on the motorway! The Gallery was good though, I was impressed and inspired.  I liked the print qualities of some of the Gert and Uwe Tobias works and the rawness of the sculptural pieces.The Diane Arbus photographs were amazing, and so many of them. They were what photography should be; interesting, moving and beautiful.  They provide a fascinating insight into the lives of so many people in an era long gone.  I'd love to be able to capture moments in time and preserve them forever in such a magical way.  My favourite thing was the Small Collections Room.  A tiny room with gorgeous ornate cabinets against the walls.  That in its self was lovely enough, but there was more.  Each cabinet was filled with a collection of objects chosen by selected artists.  The objects ranged from exquisite tiny pieces of mosaic jewellery to outsized drawing pencils.  It was one of those exhibits that leave me wanting to go away and create something...

Stratford Upon Avon

Instead of sitting around the house on my own today, I decided to go to Stratford.  The traffic on the way in was jammed, but it wasn't that busy once I had parked.  I walked along the river up to Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare is buried, and back towards the town through a little park.  The Oxford Theatrical Company were performing The Taming of The Shrew in the park so I sat and watched that for a while.  After that I wandered round the shops and pretty streets, got annoyed with the tourists - why film a pigeon eating a bit of bread?, had some lunch on the river bank and went to the Butterfly Farm.  I'm not kidding, there were Butterflies everywhere.  They were massive and landed on you.  It was frightening, like having a dirty great bird/insect thing crawling on your skin.  No thank you.  I got some photographs of cocoons though, which I want to use in my art this year - or at least an idea based on the safety of a cocoon...
So after the Butterfly ordeal I walked round the shops a bit more and nipped into Whitehall Gallery where they had a Rolf Harris Exhibition on.  The woman was really nice, I think she thought I was going to buy something.  Very much mistaken I'm afraid.  Then it was back to the car and home before it started to rain. A Saturday well spent.

Oversized Tote Bag

Really big bags are so handy when I'm trudging between work, uni and home.  This year I have had innumerable bags break mid journey, spilling sketchbooks, lunch and laptop all over the studio or the street. Well no more.  Today I made my self a lovely big Tote Bag.  And it's fully reversible.  I'm ever so proud of it!