I think I may just be emerging from the winter blues. I have been for a walk today. Yesterday was the final session on a seven session course in Creativity in Care Settings. It has been very interesting and inspirational. I have met some very creative people and we had fun!!

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Here is a self portrait using collage techniques

The Spice Merchant sells warm smelling spices all over Camborne

 

The Spice Merchant and background using newspaper and masking tape.



We turned our pictures into story books



 Over the weeks we tried all sorts of ways to spark our creativity.  We had lots of materials to hand. 



Using pencils and text we wrote down our hopes and fears for the course

I led a session making hearts to decorate a Valentine Tree



Nicky led a session on Willow Wands.  Mine is a Magical Memory wand...I hope.

Taking a Line for a Walk with different kinds and thicknesses of crayons was very inspiring.



Taking a Line for a Walk - detail



A Big Thank You to the tutors and the friends I have made from all over the county



The next exhibition!

I am exhibiting one piece of work in another U:1 exhibition.  The exhibition space is Cafe 45 in Ebrington Street, Plymouth.  It opens Wed 20th Oct and will hang for a month.  The cafe is open 7 days a week. Mon- Thurs 9,30-6p, Friday 9.30-8pm sat 10-6pm Sun 11-4pm.
The group have responded to the urban theme of the shop decor and stock.
The piece I am exhibiting is titled Cornish Quarry, (30x51cms), acrylic on board.

The First Exhibition with U:1 Sept 2010

The exhibition, at Batter Street Studios behind Plymouth Arts Centre, was a great success with so many friends and family attending the opening night.  It was a real party as so many of us were exhibiting with the group for the first time.

The piece I exhibited concerned the debris always left on the coastal footpath in South East Cornwall. 

Cornish Landscape 2 is a knitted piece dipped in plaster and threaded through with copper band, strips of plastic bottle and aluminium can. A sound piece accompanies the work created while cleaning the footpath and collecting the rubbish. The underground can not devour the plastic and aluminium.

The white 'bottles' represent the water carried along the footpath and consumed by walkers. They are heavy; the plastic empty bottle is light.

The final element in the installation is a group of bottles with messages inside!

The sound piece can be heard on the right side of the blog titled Rubbish Project

Labels: recycle

Getting ready for a new Exhibition!

I have also joined the Big Saltash Picture Show; a website for Saltash artists  to share their work.
The U:1 exhibition  will be showing  new work from members of the group.  I am re-editing a piece about debris left on the coastal path.  Visual pieces include a knitted textile dipped in plaster of paris and threaded through with copper, strips cut from plastic bottles  and aluminium cans.
Why can't walkers take home their rubbish? Carry the can home; it is light now- it's empty!

After all the excitement

The graduation ceremony was a surprisingly moving event; good to share it with friends from the previous five years of adventures and hard work! Now it's on with exhibiting my work where I can and making new pieces.

Exhibiting My Work

An exhibition, Threads, opens on Saturday 24th July 2010 at the Duchy Centre for Creativity, Princetown , Yelverton, Devon Uk PL20 6QF until 5th September.  The Centre is open from 10am until 5pm everyday.
Entrance is free to this interesting building where exhibition spaces are to be found along side artist workshops.
The exhibition is textile based and I am very excited to see how my work will sit in this craft environment.  I have exhibited four interactive pieces; 3 soundscapes with textile lables and one sound piece with accompanying book; one piece of hand knitted fabric dipped in plaster and then threaded with copper wire. The knitted panel of copper wire that sits on the top has blackened with contact to the air.... how will it take to go blue?  or does it have to have some acid rain to that?
 I hope you will be able to drop by for the exhibition sometime during August.

Working Hard

I am working very hard on the Journeys project.  I have plans for at least 3 sound collages accompanied by small textile labels.  I have business cards, printed in Holland, and postcards.  This is stationery on a new level!  Oh yes, apart from being an artist, I am addicted to stationery.  I have recorded speech pieces and I am extracting the audio track from a video file I shot while I was in Brittany.  There are some good footstep sounds on a dirt track.