Fantastic news

Two lots of amazing news. First, I had a phone call from the RWA informing me that my work 'We Should Smile More...' has won the student prize at their open exhibition 'Drawn'. I was so thrilled but also could not quite believe it. I have always loved drawing but never confidently. To help improve I started exploring the unorthodox ways  to work that could help me relax and become free  from  my inhibitions.   By not making any preliminary sketches and relying only on direct observation and my  sewing machine to make marks, I was able let the thread take on the vulnerability  in the most magical way. As already discussed in my post on 18th January, the camera was no longer  an object, it was about why I had made it and why I didn't mind it's new sense of fragility and how these imperfections add to the beauty. And during this process I made a piece of work that I felt confident with, confident to enter an exhibition that is all about drawing. So now I hope that I will be able to go forward strengthened by all that I have learnt.

                                          http://rwapresident.blogspot.co.uk

Second, we had our private view for the  Professional Practice module at Walcot Chapel, Bath. A lot of hard work by a core group of peers produced a well curated exhibition with good food and wine for our guests. I felt that the art on show  truly demonstrated a passion for exploring ideas and mediums with finished work that we could be proud of. Now we are working hard to invigilate the exhibition whilst we reflect on what we have learnt: what was successful and what could have been improved.

Walcot Chapel
Tell It Like It Is
Group3, Professional Practice

I have entered a piece of work for the RWA Drawn 2013 Exhibition

I have just submitted a piece of work to the RWA Drawn 2013 exhibition.

http://www.rwa.org.uk/whats-on/open-exhibitions/

I am very excited about this: even if not selected, it feels great to have a piece that I felt able to submit to such a well known and respected established exhibition. I will find out at the beginning of next week if I am successful.

'We Should Smile More...' framed

Drawing suspended in the middle of the frame by using monofilament to attach camera to side of box frame.

The exhibition is getting closer...

I haven't made an entry recently as I have been quite preoccupied with my Professional Practice module Just in case I haven't made myself clear about this module I will just give some information about it: The module has now been running for about seven years and provides students with the opportunity to organise and exhibit their own work in the lovely Walcot Chapel, which is at the end of Walcot Street, the artisan centre of Bath in North Somerset. The group that you have to work in is chosen by the university and therefore provides an eclectic mix of students who may or may not be able to form a cohesive team and most definitely will approach the project with various skills and opinions. This year, not only will we be marked on how we manage our role in the team, but also on the piece of work that we exhibit. During the module a lot of careers advice is provided by lecturers from both inside and outside of the university. The aim - an artist who can make it in this very commercial world!!

So we are now in the last week of preparation for the show, and what started out as a very scary module is now providing a lot of fun as well as proving a huge learning curve. Our title 'Tell It Like It Is' has been interpreted by the individual students  (although some have not clearly identified what their work is...) and all that remains now is to set the stage.

see link to our facebook page     http://www.facebook.com/groups/321810801250961/

Meetings this week have been held at various cafes in Bath where we have discussed the list of jobs to be done and what we should do about the people who really haven't been a team player. This was always going to happen as it is a well known issue with this module and just has to be managed. Lists of jobs have been drawn up and put on Facebook, plans for the siting of work have been discussed, food and drink organised for the private view, invites delivered, artists statements provided and the catalogue is on order. It is hoped that in the final push, everyone will have some involvement, but if not the core group are ready to go and looking forward to a pre-private view drink together to celebrate all that has happened, the tears and the laughter which will all makes it way into the presentations given in uni after the exhibitions are over.

Also, more artist to research...

During last weeks tutorials, three other artists were suggested to me by tutors. The first is a really interesting mixed media artist called Anne Wilson. Traditional textile techniques such as lacemaking, crochet and knitting and key to her practice. These feminine activities which are executed in unexpected ways to create powerful, complex and delicate forms. Wilson uses sound, glass, video and collaborative practices, rather than simply being defined by one way of making. I really like this image but perhaps the most interesting part is the film that she made which bring loose threads and pins alive. I really want to try and recreate something like that next year in Art, a way to extend my investigation into the vulnerability of thread!

 in progress, topologies

Chiharu Shioto was the next artist recommended, and once again I find myself regretting the fact that I didn't goes to the Lost in Lace exhibition in Birmingham last year. In her installations Shioto creates chaotic webs with yarn that takes you on a journey around the gallery space in which personal objects are cocooned. Personal experience is central to Shiot's work. in earlier work she asked people to donate footwear with memories attached resulting in thousands of shoes, many of which had belonged to loved ones who had died. A taut red thread was attached to the shoe, a symbol of the path through life as well as the impact of journeys taken. 

Again, this fascination with objects, memories and the extraordinary change that occurs when the owner of the item is dead. (Remember, Cornelia Parker and Tilda Swinton, The Matbe, 1995). This symbolic use of imagery is of huge interest to me and I do find it hard  move on from this fascination. But at least the way I use this subject is evolving and moving towards the positives: whilst holding on to memories, I am finding new doors that are opening. 

Dialogue from DNA, 2011

Walking in My Mind

See www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/feb/24/dist-chiharuu-shiota-installation

The third artist was Georgie Meadows who is an occupational therapist as well as artist who crafts uniquely affecting and compassionate portraits translating line drawings of people she knows or who she has cared for. This feels very relevant to me: can I use art and link it to role as 'Midwife' or will I just want to keep the two separate. I think already I know the answer: I love working with people and this is showing in my compulsion to take photos of people in the street going about their daily routines. I also have to work on projects that contain lots of personal issues so the two seem inexplicably entwined. Below is a piece of Meadows work which currently on show at the RUH, Bath...

The Man With Two Ties

From tutorial to lecture: maybe the turning point...

A lot has happened recently: had a tutorial with Carol Waller on Tuesday 26th Feb and I actually had some solid ideas to discuss with her and an artist who was forming part of this plan was going to be giving a lecture three days later that week.

So what happened:

Firstly I discussed the idea of entering the RWA with my drawing of Carls camera with thread on dissolvable fabric (as seen in a previous entry on January 18th, 2013). I have now given it a title 'We Should Smile More" and taken it to Meltone Gallery, Bath, BA2 6QU,  to have a frame made. 

Meltone Gallery

Very friendly and helpful staff in a building that looks like an old chapel as can be seen above. I decided on a white glassless frame that I will then try and suspend camera in using monofilament: hope it works.

I will try and make more images like this so that I can have a series: thought I could work with things that I have learnt to do since Carl died such as a drill, saw, checking oil in car, putting air in tyres, etc. Jobs that could be seen as a negative impact, trying to be perfect and do everything that he used to do or as liberation - finally managing to do some of the things have always frustrated me and once been left to a man. These male skills will be interpreted in the feminine art of embroidery. This leads me nicely on to the idea of also trying samples on felt, either through stitch or needle felting as inspired by Heather Belcher...

Sugar and Spice

Belcher uses still life drawings - saying 'that familiar objects and treasured possessions can remind us of the proximity of the human figure, but also reming us of a sense of loss or dislocation', how true!! 

see www.heatherbelcher.co.uk

The third and last idea discussed with Carol was suggestion of taking photographic images apart and remaking in with fabric and thread. At my last assessment a camera was suggested as a way of taking my project on perfection forward and this idea is being influenced by Anna Glasbrook (as in blog on 23rd November, 2012). Having been to her exhibition at Gloucester Cathedral entitled The Architecture of Cloth, Colour and Space, and then to her lecture at Sion Hill on Friday 1st March, I felt so encouraged to start looking at my photographs, consider taking them apart so that I could by find shapes and patterns that could inspire my work, (also remember workshop with Brendan Stuart Woods in previous blog).  Anna's sketch books were also impressive, so looking forward to using some of her ideas of experimentation in my work. I now know what I want to do...

Her lecture ended with some keys words to remember when the going gets tough:-

1 - work out what you are good at

2 - follow your heart 

3 - who you know, not what you know

4 - persistence and resilience

and suggested links for helping with  careers (professional practice)

            www.thedesigntrust.co.uk

            www.a-n.co.uk/publicliabilityinsurance/allvisualarts

            www.creative-choices.co.uk/careers  -  for knowledge, tools, support in creative industries

            www.artquest.org.uk  -  critical engagement and practical support for visual artists

            www.artistwhothrive.com  -  defined as effectively marketing and selling

            www.creativebath.org  -  for local enents, talks and networking

            www.enterprisenation.com  -  general small business support