You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2009.
When I went back home to visit my parents this weekend I indulged in one of my favourite pastimes of rooting through my old things that my mom has kept hold of. Piles of school exercise books covered with my repeated practiced signature and boys names doodled in hearts, crossed out and replaced with new ones . . . Anyway, while smiling over my teenage memorabilia I also came across some things of my grandads. When he was alive he worked as a draftsman and I found an old shoe box with his beautiful tools in. I asked my dad if I could have them and he was delighted that they might be used again so they are in my studio ready to be held again. The thought makes me very happy!
While home I also paid a visit to my favourite shop in the world (no exaggeration – I really believe it is!). A tiny place crammed full of a complete mixture of vintage treasures. I spent nearly an hour and a half trying to find my way through what they had and not tread on the Labrador which takes up pretty much the whole available floor area in there. Came away with a nice haul including a Victorian girls cape (for £5!), parasol, 1920s handbag and perfume bottle, various gorgeous nic naks, and every string of vintage pearls she had (I’d been looking for some of these to work with for a while!).
she murmured, "glimpses", 2009. Reclaimed window frame, vintage lace fragments, gold thread, nails, rope.
Not the best photograph, found it a tricky one to capture well. Would be better to get a photo when it is properly installed somewhere but husband wasn’t too keen on me attaching two large hooks to the ceiling just so I could suspend my window nicely!
Detail. Vintage lace offcuts & gold thread
I really enjoyed working on this piece, slowly taking my time to stitch together the different fragments of lace whilst wondering what garments, objects, and life events they originated from. Maybe it was partly because I worked on the piece in the evenings of my relaxing French holiday but I felt the process to be really quite meditative and edifying. I found myself reflecting on my connection with the women who both worked and used these pieces of lace in the past and marvelling again how an object as simple as a piece of material can carry with it such a strong essence of its past.
Ruinous Blue, 2009. Cast resin, photograph, oils, dried cornflowers, vintage lace.
A.I.R. (artists in residence) Vallauris is a non-profit organisation that encourages international artists to collaborate with local one in Vallauris, France, by way of a residential program. One of my pieces, Ruinous Blue, will be part of their second bi-annual benefit which occurs in conjunction with the Fete Picasso (in honour of the fact that Picasso lived and worked in Vallauris from 1946 until his death). The benefit consists of an exhibition, competition and an auction.
The exhibition opens in Vallauris (and online) on 18th July at 6pm and closes on August 15th. It features 166 small art objects from 25 different countries. As part of the exhibition all the pieces will be sold by way of silent auction with the proceeds going to A.I.R. Vallauris benefit.
Beneath The Veils, 2009. Cast resin, roses.
I also heard today that another resin piece, Beneath The Veils, has been accepted into the Surface Gallery Open Show 2009 in Nottingham. Surface Gallerywill be celebrating its 10th anniversary this October and this year’s show will is hosted for the first time in Surface Gallery’s new space on Southwell Road. Work ranges from sculpture, drawing and painting, to film, installation and new media. A particularly nice bonus is that my friend Dean also had a piece accepted, This Liquid Skin (part of his gloss on aluminium range available to buy from the Liquid Gloss website). Its the first time we both submitted to the same open and we both got accepted – a good high five moment! The exhibition runs from the 24th of July – 7th August.
Despite a minor mishap with electrocuting the builder half way through the process, my lovely, lovely studio has been completed!!! Check out the miraculous transformation. I am so excited – just need to paint it and make a quick trip to ikea for a lovely long work bench, then I can load her up!
. . . finished picture of the peacock feathers on the bed!
untitled, 2009. Chantal Powell
Thanks to Jim who, for the cheap price of a few chocolate mini muffins, came round and helped transform my lounge into a photo studio for the evening and took some fab shots of this piece and another one I’ll be posting soon.
there were big lights and everything! although I was a bit dissapointed we didn't get the special umbrellas out.
The following excerpt from The Ebony Tower was influential in the emotion I hope to reference with the piece,
“the undeclared knowledge of a shared imagination hung in the air; in her half-hidden figure against the light on the floor behind, in the silence, the bed in the corner, the thousand ghosts of old rooms. One was stunned, perhaps; that knowledge could come so quickly . . .as if it was the place, not oneself”
I feel really pleased with this piece but I don’t know if the size of it will mean that it will be very difficult to get it exhibited somewhere. I guess its a big investment in terms of space. I’m going to submit it to aspex’s biennial open submission exhibition – Emergency 4. It feels like a long shot because they only select a maximum of 12 artists but I would absolutely love to show there (the gallery space – a formal naval storehouse – is fantastic and would be a prefect backdrop for the bed) so fingers crossed!
Okay so Dean Melbourne tends to get a fair bit of press on here because we work together a lot – and it is true that you should check out his fab latest painting Langourla (the promise) on his website – but I do have some other very talented friends that I thought I should share with you.
So today’s offering (in no particular order. . . ) are:
Photography by Angela Ward-Brown
Ange Ward-Brown – photographer extraordinaire! Her pics are the type guaranteed to make you go “ooohh” or “damnit I wish I could make it look like that!” Speciality has got to be portraits, they are just sublime. She has a website offering her services for portraiture and wedding photography and you can also see her work on her Flickr photostream.
Leaned Pig. limited edition screenprint by Sharon Whyte
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Sharon Whyte a recent friend acquisition – painter, screen-printer, and archive delver. You have to love her recent series of screen prints entitled A Sage of the Stage, not a Beast in a Cage. These prints are a result of her research into “learned animals” that performed theatrically from the sixteenth century onwards. Her prints celebrate this period of theatrical history making use of surviving playbills, posters etc. You can follow Sharon’s progress in her blog The Sapient Pig.
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Your final treat for the day is . . . DJ Chix - he makes me cool by association. Part of the fabulous Jellybass(check out their facebook page to listen to tracks and see the tour video), he has toured with MC Abdominal and spent this Saturday warming up for the super furries at Blissfields. A man heading on his way to musical greatness – watch this space!
Another delicious smorgasboard of delights will be coming up in part 2 of my talented friends.
Behind Closed Doors, Carolyn Mendelsohn
These enchanting light boxes by Carolyn Mendelsohn are currently being exhibited at the gallery at the University of Bradford in a show entitled “Colouring Outside The Lines”
Behind Closed Doors, Carolyn Mendelsohn
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The small black cabinets are part of an interactive installation, “behind closed doors”, that invites the viewer to open the doors to discover the secret world within. Magical back-lit images allude to childhood literature and each is accompanied by its own original music piece composed by Graham Coatman.
Love them!
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