Scottish journal

I was working away from home most of today so didn't make it to the studio until after dinner this evening but then had a very pleasant time finishing some more pages in my overdue 121 art journal and then just spent some time playing about with some stretched video tape creating a sort of freeform brooch which could be mistaken for an unruly bow tie!  ;oD  Pics of that tomorrow!

While I was in the studio I came across my holiday journal from earlier this summer and remembering that I haven't blogged about it and desperate not to post twice in a row sans pictures, here are some edited highlights.... ;o)


On the journey up to our holiday cottage in north east
Scotland we stopped off at Killiecrankie. 
Soldier's Leap is where reputedly, Donald MacBean,
jumped the18ft across the gorge in one leap
fleeing from the Jacobites in 1689.

I always keep a bird list in holiday journals, this year we
saw 60 different species during our fortnight stay.

A bit of Sunday afternoon fun!

Pen & watercolour pine cones

Quick pen sketch of my daughter applying
herself to a crossword.

A page of experiments in different media.

One of the rugs in the cottage got me thinking about tesselation.

Colour experiments with magazine scraps and Neocolors

One of several Haiku poems I wrote.

30 Days of Get Your Art On

The eagle eyed among you will see that I have sprouted a new widget on my sidebar...eyes right...there it is!  ;oD  I've decided to do something about my recent lack of productivity so I'm joining Traci Bunkers, and a host of other folk, on a 30 day odyssey in my studio being creative everyday.  ;o)  Since my solo exhibition in May I've been remarkably unproductive in the studio, I've come to realise over the last couple of years that after finishing a piece of work or a particular project I need a bit of time and space to mooch about before getting back down to business.  The exhibition, my first solo, was a major deal for me and it took alot out of me in a variety of ways but I never thought it would take this loooooooong for me to get back to some serious studio time.  I've also been busy over the summer with projects in my capacity as artist in residence for the  Fenland Arts Association but putting all that aside, it's time to get creatively jiggy again and have some fun studio time!  My self imposed guidelines for the next 30 days (technically 29 since it's now the second day as I type this!) are:

• to spend a minimum of 30 minutes everyday being creative in my studio (this includes making art (doh!), writing, playing with materials, brainstorming ideas, reading, researching, drawing, art journaling, staring out of the window, drinking coffee... no, maybe strike those last two off... ;oD but you get the picture!)
• to not get hung up on finished pieces, there doesn't have to be an end result everyday!
• having said that...I would like to complete 30 new pieces of jewellery over the 30 days!  Hmm, that may be a tall order but I like a challenge and, what the heck, I'm aiming high!  ;oD
• to blog about said studio activities on a daily basis.

I was going to blog seperately for today (well, as we've established it's now tomorrow so I'm talking about yesterday! lol) but since I'm here anyway... this afternoon I spent some time working on a 121 art journaling project which is somewhat overdue.  My art journaling exploits have been pretty thin on the ground and, at best, sporadic so it felt really good to ease back into some journal ju-ju!  ;o)  So, a low key start and no pics as my camera is being temperamental but I'm off and running so watch this space... ;o)

A place for everything and everything in it's place...

... well, not really but I'm talking storage here!  For the last few months my lack of storage space has really been hampering me but plans were afoot and they've been completed now to the effect that I am now the proud owner of an outdoor storage area converted from what our ex neightbour referred to as "the fruit hovel."  The walls have been lined with hardboard and a variety of holes from previous little visitors have been blocked up, a lick of white paint, some lighting and an assortment of furniture and Bob's your uncle!  ;o) 

View from outside

This cupboard was in the fruit hovel originally. 
All the black bags house my dismantled plinths from Beyond Convention.

You can't beat a groovy old sideboard!

Stuff is beginning to arrive in it's new home!

Adding this one for no reason other than I like the shape of the light on the floor!

All the above photos were from last week, yesterday I spent all day sorting and shifting stuff from the studio and spare room (aka overflow dumping ground! lol) to it's new home and it now looks like this... 

Looking in from the door

Found this racking to add to the top of the sideboard

The big box houses my huge hanging video piece, nicknamed The Vortex ;oD

Space rapidly filling up!

The majority of what I wanted to move is there now, just need to spend some time sorting, organising and a drawing up a loose plan of what's where to aid my memory when I'm hunting for that certain something, darkly muttering "I know it's here somewhere..."

Walnut Tree Studio

Is there any greater compliment for an artist than to inspire someone else?  I recently had this experience and it's a lovely story that I'd like to share here.  ;o) 

At my exhibition, Beyond Convention, back in May I exhibited an installation piece called The Journaler's Retreat.  For those who didn't see it in the flesh, it's a shed turned into a little haven for art journaling.


The Journaler's Retreat
Photo courtesy of Rob Morris

Inside, the shed has a workspace to sit at and is furnished with materials and equipment to be wildy artistic with!  There is also a shelf of inspiring books and journals, fairy lights, a radio...everything you need to shut yourself away for some quality creative time!  ;o)

The Journaler's Retreat, interior
Photo courtesy of Rob Morris

At the launch event for the exhibition the piece was really popular and particularly so for Neil & Rachel Blue and their children, Rane and Eran.  Rane and Eran were so inspired that the family went home and decided to convert their garden shed into a creative zone!  ;o)  Neil and I are members of the same life drawing group at Savage Studios in Chatteris so over the last few months I've been hearing about the progress of their garden shed and then recently they asked if I would come and officially open the shed, by now renamed as the Walnut Tree Studio.  ;o)   So, a couple of weeks ago I went along on a Monday evening and performed in my debut opening ceremony!  ;o) 

It wasn't the sunniest of evenings so the pictures are a little dim but hopefully you can see how much fun it was!

All ready for the off!

Out in the rain fuelled by excellent pre ceremony tea, scones and biscuits!

Neil making his, obviously amusing, opening speech!

Wielding the scissors as I make my little speech.

Off we go!

Rane (back) and Eran in Walnut Tree Studio

A view of some of the decorations in the studio.

Neil and Rachel on the threshold.

Rane and Eran's fab welcome posters.

My thanks to Neil, Rachel, Rane and Eran for a delightful evening, I was so flattered to be asked to go along and perform the official duties and the studio itself has a lovely atmosphere, I'm sure it will get alot of use and I'm now eagerly awaiting the first exhibition at the studio which will hopefully be at the end of November (won't it, family Blue?).  ;o)  It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy to know that a piece of my work has been so inspirational.  ;o) 

Venet à Versailles

On my recent jaunt to la belle France on a twinning visit we stopped off at Versailles on the long trip down to the Loire Valley where our twin town is.  Starting that very week was a new sculpture exhibition by French artist, Bernar Venet. 

Outside the palace was a HUGE piece of work, very akin (to me anyway!) to a whale's rib cage. 

These massive steel structures, 22m high, frame the statue of Louis XIV and offer a completely new perspective on the palace itself. 

Visitors can walk among the arcs, get really really close to them and experience their grandeur.

Sadly we didn't have enough time to see the full exhibition in the gardens but from what I've seen online since I came home, it is most certainly worth a visit if you're in the Versailles neck of the woods over the summer.

Collage

Have you been a good girl, Jane?

Collage: corrugated cardboard with dried paint, papers, stickers, crayon

The Family Bible

Many moons ago you may remember me posting about being commissioned to alter a family bible.  You can see the original post here.  The bible is with it's new owner now so I can share a few pics of it.  ;o)

It would be fair to say that this commission has been something of a challenge!  The sheer size and weight of this beast of a book made it difficult to work with at times and it didn't behave how I expected it to alot of the time.  The ideas I had for the piece originally evolved as I worked and the finished piece is quite a way from how I envisaged but that's the nature of my work and an aspect I love about it!  ;o)    The basic premise of the bible is that of life's journey. 

Here we go with some pics....

The first spread... 

 

The second spread...

The third spread...

The last spread...

And the drawers...

Throughout the piece I used Brusho Crystal Colour watercolour ink powders to colour the pages and also incorporated crayon, pencil and gesso.  The twice repeated T S Eliot quote, "In my beginning is my end", and all the words on the spreads are inkjet acetate transfers (using Ecover All Purpose Cleaner).  The little tin drawers represent mind, body and spirit.  The leaves in niches on the last spread and the lock of hair in the tin representing body were both found between the pages of the bible and it seemed appropriate that they were incorporated back into the piece, connecting old and new and completing the journey. 

Beyond Convention

Summer Exhibition

My entry form for the 2011 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition is winging it's way to the metropolis as I type so I thought I'd share the two pieces of work I've submitted this year.

Possessed by My Own Shadow

First up is a piece of work I made earlier this year for a local exhibition organised by the Fenland Visual Arts Collective and the Fenland Arts Association.
I'm a journaler, well, nowadays I'm more of an art journaler, but I've kept journals in various guises for most of my adult life.  I kept written journals for years and never throw them out.  I've burnt them, altered them, added to them and worked over them but never got rid of them.  I rarely look at them, my purpose in writing was, and still is, to release feelings, to get stuff out of my head to free up space, to purge, to rant, to ramble.  Recently while pottering about the studio waiting for inspiration to swoop in and slap me into action I came across a stack of old journals in the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet.  I flicked through a few of them, they were from a time when I was in an intense, stressful situation that was very much out of my control.  It was a difficult and distressing time for me and the words are very uncomfortable to read even now.  Shadows from that time still fall across me periodically, the experience shaped a part of who I am now.

An on the spot decision to use my old journals in a piece of work found me tearing pages from the A5 books in a manner bordering on frenzied!  ;oD  It was oddly satisfying to deconstruct and repurpose my journals into this piece of work.  I wanted them to be tighly held in a vessel, open but inaccessible, visible but indiscernible words.  The box is vintage, it was used by my former neighbour to house things he used for fretwork.  I love knowing it's provenance, knowing the lovely gentlemen it belonged to and, in my mind's eye, I can see him at work with it sat beside his tools and materials on the workbench.

The cord tied around the box is stretched video tape.  My work over the last year has featured alot of video tape and I continue to be excited and surprised by my experiments with it.  I have been exploring the properties of stretched video tape and have another piece under construction at the moment using it.

I've exhibited the piece a couple of times since I made it and it has elicited some varied responses ranging from outright puzzlement to complete connection.  Job done.  ;o)   

The Internal Lexicon      

My second piece I made specifically to submit to the RA Summer Exhibition.

This is one of those pieces that started off in my mind as something completely disparate to the eventual finished piece!  ;o)  I love the evolution of my work.  Contrary to what some people might think, it doesn't bother me when a piece becomes so utterly different from how I had initially planned, quite the opposite to be honest, it feels right, it feels like my mojo is home to roost, it feels like I'm doing what I was put on this earth to do.  ;o)  

My mind is usually fit to burst with words and phrases and, added to that, I am of the ilk that when I lay my head on the pillow of a night time my brain instantly clicks into overdrive and off I go on a jaunt through every whole and half formed thought, phrase and word lurking in the darkest corners of my mind!  I wanted to construct a piece which reflected this in some way.  All the words were written on the spur of the moment, just a stream of consciousness with no rhyme or reason.

I read a book recently which mentioned the phrase "internal lexicon"  and it seemed to fit this piece perfectly.

The piece is constructed from a pliable metal mesh and roughly 150 food bag ties. 

All I have to do now is wait...

All images courtesy of Rob Morris.