Adventures in Art

A blog about my journey as an Artist. Become a Patron!

[anniesartthings]

And relax........the show is done.

So after over three months of thinking, creating, reflecting and tweaking I am so happy that the final major project work and end of year show are complete.

This project has been about ‘creating recovery’ . My plan was to expand on the ‘Mend and Repair’ theme from the unit 1 workshops completed last year and combine the concepts of ‘Art as a Healing Tool’ with transforming ‘useless’ or ‘damaged’ items into something beautiful.

I also wanted to capture and reflect on experiences of the meditative and healing process that creative activities bring. The plan included connecting with community art &’craftivism’ collaborative projects and facilitating a series of public workshops to capture participants experiences and emotions whilst supporting socially engaged creative activities.

The focus for the work created during the project was process- oriented and experiential. I had intended to make a film, but I was asked to move from this elective to the ceramics space to accommodate bubbles and social distancing. This was a blessing as I really enjoyed learning how to make pottery!

I did make some short timelapse films of the processes as I completed them, including the start of a co-created work made by fellow students and staff in the week we returned to college after lockdown. These were shared here on Tumblr and my Instagram blogs.

End of Year Show sneaky peek!

Here is a whistle-stop tour of my end of year show installation at Strode College Art department.

As one of the projects I had connected with was the Glastonbury Rose festival, I learnt how to throw pottery as a new skill and reflected on this process. As the project evolved, I developed more of the ceramics work as I found the process of throwing and waiting for the different process stages very mindful and a great indicator of how much my own healing journey has progressed as I embraced the ‘mistakes’ in the same way as the ‘successful’ thrown pieces. These rose bowls became a major element of the final show display.

I did not run as many events as originally planned, but instead spent the time connecting with local community art projects and creating work around those

-SEED Sedgemoor collages & Art for Resilience workshops,

-Sew Buntiful Wells making and donating bunting,

-Reminiscence learning paper butterflies,

- Clayhill arts correspondence collective ‘Restriction’ exhibition,

-Wells Coronavirus network Logo competition.

When making the rosebowls I realised that roses had been a theme running through my artwork for many years, from an early acrylic painting, to the business cards and ‘nittenrose’ trading name I used when first selling my work as craft fairs and exhibitions.

I collated surveys and interviews with artists, college staff and students, and members of the public into an audio installation, ceramics and sculpture pieces, and ‘repaired wood using discarded guitar strings.

The Audio installation is housed in a tree made from recycled packaging from our music and home items. And is a combination of performance poetry written at a ‘Take Art’ wordplay workshop and excerpts from a series of interviews conducted with fellow artists and collaborators. I combined these using Logic-Pro with a background recording of early morning birdsong from my garden captured during lockdown, thus including the importance of connecting with nature for wellbeing.

In this project I have tried to utilise all of the creative skills areas I have learned in this Foundation course: Graphics, Sculpture, Photography, Textiles, Ceramics, Painting, Drawing, Printing and Filmmaking.

One of the key references that has influenced this work is ‘The body keeps the score’- a book and conference about the impact of Adverse Childhood experiences and trauma on developing minds and how this affects people in their adult lives: This work transformed understanding of how traumatic stress affects the brain, revealing how it rearranges the brain’s wiring in areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. It also explained how these areas can be reactivated and restored through treatments including , mind-body practices, psychodrama, play, and other creative activities.

‘Our great challenge is to apply the lessons of neuroplasticity, the flexibility of brain circuits, to rewire the brains and reorganise the minds of people who have been programmed by life itself to experience others as threats and themselves as helpless.’ (Bessel Van der Kolk,2015)

I hope this interactive work will provoke some thoughts and conversations about how we can be more Trauma-informed in our approach to dealing with ACE and trauma survivors, and promote collaborative creative practices as healing and general wellbeing support tools.

I love this quote, which sums up how the arts need participation from the audience to have most impact. As a performer the lack of interaction with audiences this year has been really difficult (I also covered this in a film project called ‘‘Hope’- a film made about the impact of Lockdown on Social Isolation-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyBbjBi4mhI)

"We the readers, listeners and watchers are crucial to the text, story, performance becoming powerful. We are not the impartial observers, we are a fundamental part of the circuity, if we are not connected, the charge will not be able to flow." Kate Tempest

[anniesartthings]

FMP Week 12 progress

Last week of making as I move onto building the show display.

On Monday- I applied the digital ceramic transfer into the glazed teracotta tile that had been fired over weekend. it was not completely flat, so I had to cut the transfer into smaller pieces to get it on without air bubbles.

Interestingly I had ordered two transfers, one as a spare in case of accidents. The second one had not been printed A3 but as 2xA4. As the clay shrinks in the kiln and I hadn't taken this into account when cutting the template for the clay slab, this worked out better- a "happy little accident" as Bob Ross would have said! Cutting the tranfer allowed me to rearrange the words to fit better on the glazed piece, and I noticed that the font colours I chose for the original wordcloud matched the terracotta clay perfectly. I love the greens and golds with a blue contrast. The transfer pieces were wetted in a bowl of water and placed on the piece making sure not to get any air bubbles. A sponge and rubber kidney tool were helpful to smooth out the pieces. The finished piece was checked against the light to spot any air bubbles and I used a pin to pierce persistent ones. The next step after drying was to fire at 810oC to seal the transfer onto the surface.

I discussed how to mount the piece with the ceramics tutor and technician and decided to try a plate holder to hang it on the board. This turned out to be not a viable solution due to the weight of the piece stretchiing the springs so reverted back to the glueing attachments onto the back of the piece.

I moved onto building the tree and getting the display board ready and on reflection, I hadn't really anticipated how long this was going to take! i spent all Monday afternoon and most of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday building up the structure with recycled music equipment box and used loo roll tubes to firm rounded branches before covering in gummed paper tape and sealing with shellac. This was then covered with hessian borrowed from a roll my husband uses to cover lime-mortar walls at his work. It gives a lovely natural look and does not detract from the work on display.

I spent some time this week discussing logistics of the sound installation with Martin and Dave and tested different speakers and cabling arrangements. This was slightly modified from my original plan of placing the music player inside the tree structure, and a new plan was made to place speakers underneath trunk and place player behind so it can be switched on when needed for display and connected to power supply. I tested with a USB stick with the sound file on it and the player i had bought for the show did not support connecting to speakers so I borrowed an MP3 player from college and tried that instead. This was a much better solutionand i could leave simple instructions for the viewers and assessors.

I also uploaded the audio file as a presentation on You Tube, and generated a QR code so viewers can listen to the file on their headphones and anyone who can't access the show can listen whilst look at images online. This is important to me as I want to make the work as accessible as possible to be inclusive.

A plan to place the wood sculpture inside the tree to give a focal point when listening to the audio and reinforce the "play more" message was not possible as the hole was not wide enough to accommodate the piece so it will be placed on a plinth instead.

I decided to use the screenprint made from the stencil I generated in week 2 on the laser cutter to print the words 'Not Broken' and 'Play More' in luminescent paint onto a discarded camouflage top that my children had outgrown. I wil place this inside the tree and surround with the lights I bought for the project.

On Friday I finished the last two ceramics pieces which looked beautiful after glaze firing- I applied words from the digital transfer to the blue bowl and photographed them, I also resolved the tree structure with shellac mounted the branches so I can focus next week on setting up shelving and hanging work. Really pleased to see the light at the end of the tunnel and looking forward to pulling it all together for the end of year show.

[anniesartthings]

FMP Progress Week 11

Another busy and productive week- so happy that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now!

On Monday in ceramics I tried throwing left handed ( reversed the wheel direction). I found this much easier and happily made 2 pots , 1 wasn't quite centered, but I was very happy with the second. As there had been a power cut in Street that morning we also had a visit from the College photographer who took pictures while I was throwing- not offputting at all!

The pots were left overnight to dry enought to be able to turn and shape them. I glazed the teracotta speech bubble piece with a paint on transparent glaze ( 2 coats on back 3 on front) and put on pins ready to fire. I made the creative decision to glaze back after the discussion on how to mount the final piece and felt that glue would stick better to a glazed surface to attach brackets for hanging.

The afternoon was spent in Sculpture deciding on fonts for the skull piece mirror writing. I used PowerPoint to try different fonts and then printed and traced the chosen font (Apple Chancery italic) onto the back of the skull. I then used fineliner pens ( 0.8 and 0.5 mm) to write on the skull and added gold leaf to the eye sockets after applying size (glue) to the area I wanted to gild. I next measured and cut the piece of linen canvas gifted by a fellow student to make a mask, following the template paper pattern I had made earlier, and drilled holes in a mount block I had made at home from a reclaimed fence post that had been planed, sanded and painted black. I cut a piece of metal rod to the required length, polised it and drilled two holes in the plaster skull at 2 different angles to see which worked best.

On Tuesday I turned and shaped the two bowls made on Monday, practicing how to use turning tools in the reverse orientation and also learned that I used the wrong shape tool to get the shape I wanted!

I played with textural effects on the inside and outside of the 2 pieces cutting a rim and decided to use spare ceramic transfer words on the inside of the small bowl.

I found a broken tile in the style of Rennie Mackintosh that had been in our previous home, and wanted to replicate the style on my bowl so I piped on a rose outline with white earthenware slip using a fine-nozzled stopper bottle. I later added velvet underglazes to decorate the inside and outside of both bowls.

I made further progress with the skull sculpture on Wednesday and fitted the linen mask made at home using pins. I need to get nice gold pins to finish it. I also bought a mirror from a local hardware shop to display with the sculpture- it is bevelled and perfect for showing the writing, but may need framing better as it is made of plastic.

The music file was tested in the tree 'headspace' and it works, and I started the build, using recycled cardboard boxes from music equipment for our home studio (another connection to creativity).

At the weekend- I spent Saturday writing up my notes and sketchbook, and Sunday finishing painting the canvas tryptych- inspired by quote from Ruth Lanius at a disassociation after trauma webinar that said to heal traumatised clients you need to help them transform from a Larva into a Butterfly. I thought this tied together the project nicely with the Reminiscence learning Chrysalsis moments theme and the concept of Art as a Healing tool. I painted a Larva on one small canvas and used a Butterfly wall frieze collaged onto a second small canvas. Also added more paint to the self portrait with abtract paint glued onto it, but struggled to get the skin tone right. Happy with final results and these will work well with teh teracotta speech bubble piece capturing the comments from the survey on what creativity means.

[anniesartthings]

FMP Progress week 10

Getting closer to the finish line now and trying to make final #creativedecisions on pieces so I can move onto getting display set up and finish writing up sketchbook notes and gathering all my #processevidence.

On Monday I was delighted to see that all of the ceramics pieces I made came out of the final kiln firing intact and was really pleased with the finishes. The combinations of glazes and underglazes with sculptural pieces and melted glass really worked and the aim to turn the 'failed' pieces into something beautiful and functional was achieved! I spent a happy morning photographing and reflecting on the pieces, talking through with the ceramics teaching team how they turned out, then working on the final process on the moulded bowl- weaving old guitar strings and fine gold wire from packaging into the holes to form a mesh to hold flower stems.

My initial inspiration was the pewter rosebowl I was awarded at school for leadership and filled with paper roses made in GCSE Art Theatre design workshop for a school production of Oliver, where I played the Rose seller. By creating these rosebowls, and 'Rose' bowls it has reconnected me with that piece (I gifted it to my stepnan who took me in when I was kicked out of home at 17 and helped me to complete my A-levels).

Work on the Plaster skull progressed also with the test piece surface treatments of either shellac and diluted PVA painted with 3 layers each of white gesso and acrylic paint before testing scratching and stamping into the surface.

Tuesday was a work from home day and I resolved the wooden heart scupltural piece by redrilling holes to enable the guitar strings to pass through. The strings were a little short to reach through all of the holes so I had to make a creative decision on how to finish it. I added a finer guitar string to the last few holes as a contrasting texture and colour.

Wednesday was back in college and creating final ceramics piece as my response to the surveys completed on mentimeter. They generated a wordcloud to the question 'what does creativity mean to you?' and I had been trying to find ways of resolving how to display them. I decided to create my own wordcloud using the words in the response in the shape of a speech bubble and transfer this onto a clay slab and mount alongside the portrait I painted last month. I generated the wordcloud, saved as a png then printed at college as a PDF A3 size. Problem was that the printers at college are toner ones and not laser prtinters so the inks are not compatible with slip transferring, so had to change plan and ordered a digital ceramic transfer which i could add to a bisc-fired piece. I chose Teracotta clay as the base and rolled out a slab on no.2 sticks then used the printouts to draw a speech bubble shape as a template to cut out the slab. This was left overnight to dry before being smoothed and 5 layers of white earthenware slip applied, making sure to dry between layers and apply the slip evenly and smoothly. This was left again overnight then I scratched into the surface around the edges of the slip to enable the teracotta to show through and tie in with the reds in the painting. I was initially making random marks in the slip but it developed into a brain like series of curved marks resembling the outer folds of the brain.

Treatment of the skull cast continued and after looking at the test piece I decided that pva would give a smoother finish, so applied 3 coats of diluted PVA (50% with water) and then 2 layers of white gesso and 2 layers of white acrylic paint all over. Decided that as this piece was not about death, but about being alive through creativity I made a mask template to cover the face and thought about how I wanted the eyes to look.

Thursday and Friday were completing the ceramics processes and attended an ' art for resilience' class with SEED Sedgemoor run by artist Ceri-Louise Thomas. We did mindful movement and mark making in response to sounds heard in the garden. Also did some cloud studies and reflected on creative spaces and our place in space.

On Friday I took some time out after college to join a health walk and explore the Glastonbury Way.

Saturday was spent planning and editing audio files. Very excited about final result

On Sunday I painted the box to be used for the tree installation and had a rest!

[anniesartthings]

FMP progress week 9

On catchup as haven't posted for a couple of weeks (although my Instagram has daily updates here).

Monday was spent at college, reviewing progress, planning work for the week and thinking about layout of #EOYS and working out solutions for displaying the wordcloud survey results asking particiapants questions on what Creativity means to them.

I researched LED and UV lights and called a company for advice on what would work best in a small space in terms of light output, heat and other safety features. Looked up suppliers of LED lighting and thought about ordering some for show installation.

Tuesday was spent on other paid work but I was thinking about how to glaze ceramic pieces when they come out of bisc firing.

Wednesday morning was spent happliy in ceramics tidying up the fired lids and bowls (all intact!). It is good practice to file down sharp edges so they are not going to hurt anyone picking them up (and also to improve the fit of the lid on the bowl). I was thinking of functionality of the pieces so also filed the holes that rose stems would go into.

I painted velvet underglazes onto lids and applied a second coat with finer details onto bowls. I noted where I had been untidy in previous coat and made a creative decision to resolve and neaten them up.

I had an opportunity to talk through design options with ceramics tutor Denise, and looked at paint-on glazes and coloured dip glazes to think about how I want final pieces to look. Felt a little under time pressure as we only had 3 hours in studio before the next group that weren't our bubble were using it. Finished underglazes and left to dry overnight before final glaze.

Afternoon was spent spent writing, reflecting and planning remaining work within time restraints of access to facilities and balancing work commitments.

On Thursday I was back in ceramics glazing with green and clear glazes and adding recycled glass to bowls to incorporate recycling into the pieces.

I also had a chat to my tutor about final piece of sculpture and mirror writing idea. Testing ideas and discussing how audience might interpret it. The skull cast may speak about death, but I want to communicate how we live with what's inside our heads and what other people can and can't see.

By writing people's reflections on what creativity mean's to them in mirror writing on the skull, the viewer will only be able to read it whilst looking at their own reflection in the mirror with the skull looking at them. I intend to cover the face to remove the 'skull' look.

[anniesartthings]

FMP Progress week #8

Still on Easter break and took a few days out this week for some rest, family time and to apply for a job that will help me combine my #creativepractice and #wellbeing work promoting #socialprescribing activities. Great to do some wider research on this area as it was also useful for my #fmp topic too!

Had a good sort out of my #homestudio after the collage workshop last week and finished the collage for the #seedsedgmoor community art project as well as completing a few more with repurposing some older pieces of work and proof prints of postcards I have on sale just for fun! Continuing to repurpose packaging and recycle materials as well as try to communicate environmental and social justice themes with the work. Also noticed i had developed the linoprint piece I did last year further by incorporating it into the collage designs in differnt ways.

I stitched the bunting pennants cut from old aprons and trimmed the paper pennants made from loo roll wrappings ready to string up in my EOYS installation. These may well be devloped further with stitching, paint and collage to tie in with the #creatingrecovery theme. The collages were uploaded to the SEED Sedgmoor site and i had some lovely exchanges with the lead artist.

At the weekend I got to see a #privateview of a gallery exhibition by local artist Melanie Thompson entitled 'Where do we go from here?' I collaborated with her in a recent video performance art series and this was shown in the exhibition. I also took part in her workshop last year on installation art and she kindly agreed to do a video interview for my FMP project, so I have video and audio material to include in my show. I learned a lot about how to set up a show and describe each installation and got to chat to the other core artists at the gallery and learn more about hteir work and upcoming shows. There were some really interesting layouts in the exhibition- with chairs hanging from ceilings ('Gravity Falls' see below), video installation of the Empathetic shoes work, and traditional hanging pieces too.

One of the ehibits 'Sheersburg girls' was a rather poignant series of prints of former students that the artist taught in 1995 in Germany and she had carried their photos with her meaning to do follow up work at a later date with more up to date photos. When she contacted the training venue to trace the students again they had deleted all records, so the artist made marks on the images of these 'lost' women and displays them in this exhibition.

For relaxation I played with watercolours this week as I realised I hadn't painted for a while. Did some #shadowdrawing of a glass of water on the table, then I added random circles to create an abstract piece, and also did a quick study of a honey jar that was sat on the breakfast table. This was pure playtime and relaxation in the morning sun after breakfast, and it was good to get over the fear of watercolours which I develop from time to time if I havent made time for practice.

I ended the week updating my sketchbook, reflecting in this blog and planning work for next week back at college-- only 2 weeks left before have to set up show and I have a lot of work to do to finish ceramics pieces and plan layout of show space.

[anniesartthings]

FMP Week #7 Collage workshop

During the Easter holiday I did some #collageart for relaxation as I listened to a wonderful #materialmatters #podcast episode by @grant_on_design featuring @celiapym who we studied last year in our textile workshops at @strodecollegeart . Hearing about another Artist's journey and challenges as well as the "why" behind her thought provoking #mendandrepair work was truly inspiring and helped me channel this little creation made from #repurposing old packaging, magazines, art supply catalogues and a watercolor experiment using prints from filters used in #homebrew walnut wine. It felt rather 'moonlike' and fungi are symbolic of #symbiosis, #growth and survival from decay and waste, it is all very relevant to my #creatingrecovery theme for my #fmp.

This was great preparation for a wonderful #creativeplay time last making this #abstractcollage in a workshop with @fionacampbellartist for the #allthecolours project by @seedsedgemoor to create some #communityart to display on the buses travelling across the region. It started as a replica of a photograph I took of #glastonburytor a few years ago, but evolved into this #sunflower escapism piece with a #hotairballoon drifting away into the blue skies.

I have spent a lot of time in the past year of lockdown looking wistfully out of the windows across the beautiful #somersetlevels dreaming of escaping and whenever I see a balloon gliding by I wonder what it would feel like to glide freely across this stunning landscape. Continuing my practice of #reducereuserecycle this piece contains repurposed magazines, cards and #plasticpackaging from fruit collected throughout lockdown. Fiona kindly allowed me to ask the participants to help me with my #fmp survey on #creatingrecovery and they contributed their experiences of participating in a shared creative experience to my #wordcloud. I

nterestingly I had met one of the participants who was from Texas on another #abstractcollageart course run by @postart_uk earlier this year, so it was lovely to connect again. This is the power of online #collaborativeart classes - this lady had attended classes in Australia already that morning, and was making art with us from across the UK a few hours later. We can connect on a global scale with a shared Creative language- isn't that amazing!

#glastonburyartist, #strodefad, #artistherapy, #creativelifehappylife, #creatinghealth, #creatingwellbeing, #reflectivepractice

[anniesartthings]

FMP Week #7- Easter break update

We're not at college this week so have a chance to catch up on project work and also take a break! I am still running my wellbeing consultancy, so am blogging there and of course combining it with my creative practice. The latest blog is here , reflecting on some really wonderful talks I listened to yesterday whilst sorting collage materials out in my studio and updating my sketchbook for #strodefad.

They were by the Healing Arts London group and the first session had experts from the WHO, science, health, and Arts professions all talking passionately about the role that creativity has in wellbeing.

The – ‘Frame of Mind’  discussion included emotional testimony from Sir Anthony Gormley and Gillian Anderson about the healing power of Art, and in ‘Patterns in the Fog’ a discussion hosted by University College London’s (UCL) school of pharmacy, caregivers, patients, pharmacists and neurologists share how art can be used as a therapy to help patients and their families live with Dementia.

I learnt that the UK has set up a  National Centre for Creative health in response to recommendations made in a 2017 report 'Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing' made by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health & Wellbeing (APPG) .

The report presented the research findings , evidence-gathering and discussions with patients, service-users, health and social care professionals, artists and arts administrators, academics, people in local government, ministers, other policy-makers and parliamentarians from both Houses of Parliament over of two years and made 10 recommendations. This Infographic is part of a 'toolkit for creative health champions' that is free to download from their website to use in developing policies and strategies for partnership working across the arts, culture, health and wellbeing sectors to help deliver improved health and wellbeing in our communities.

There is also has a social prescribing network, of practitioners that I made contact with after the talks where NHS healthcare providers and commissioning bodies are linking with networks of creative practitioners to deliver some amazing socially engaged therapeutic programmes to deal with a whole range of physical and mental health challenges, and also to promote wellbeing instead of just treating symptoms.

This primary research has helped me refocus my project and really feel validated in what I am doing. The evidence base is so strong and the quantitative and qualitative methods of evaluaiton shared in the talks gave me ideas for how to present the surveys and subjective interviews I have been collecting for the project. It has also given me some focus on where I would like to develop after the foundation course as a creative wellbeing practitioner working to deliver socially prescribed creative activities- just imagine how much better we might feel if we were prescribed creativity instead of pills next time we felt under the weather?

[anniesartthings]

FMP Progress Week #6

Here is an update of how week 6 of my FMP project progressed. Monday- We were in college after conducting a negative lateral flow test- it has become a family ritual now, with my girls and i testing at the same time on a Sunday evening. Had a lovely creative day at @strodefad resolving the #rosebowls made last week and getting them ready for first firing. Didn't really have a fixed design plan but just went with a creative flow as the clay took shape after trimming. Used my #lasercut stencil to mark letters and a variety of sculpting tools to create different shapes holes and handles for functionality.

To put thses designs into context- my first steps into selling art prints and cards were under the guise of 'nitten rose', after the local name of my home when I took up art again as an adult ( Newtongrange) . Roses are symbolic of love and compassion, and I won a beautiful rosebowl in a school leadership competition back in 1987 and filled it with paper roses made in school art theatre design classes as props for our production of 'Oliver' the musical where I played, yes you guessed it, the Rose seller :) My Stepdad was also a keen rose grower and we had many varieties in our garden when I was growing up. It seems so fitting to be making Rosebowls as a response to the "creating recovery" project theme as they have been with me since my childhood , and as one of the community art projects I am linking with this summer is the Glastonbury Rose Festival . When making these designs I felt so relaxed and calm, chatting to other students, sharing a wonderful creative space and smelling the sweet scent of the beautiful dried #rosebuds that I bought on a #twinningexchange in Germany from a street market in #Isny

On Tuesday we had an online Art History lecture and updated my @anniesarthistoryblog on Ethics and Morality. I also recorded some audio pieces outside in the garden and listened to this 'Therapist Uncensored' podcast talking about the findings of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study which had lots of resources to look up.

On Wednesday- I was back in college again working on resolving my ceramics pieces. Ihad chat with our tutor Denise about my project as I hadn't seen her all term. We both shared experiences of how it feels when using the pottery wheel, and agreed that one uses the senses of touch and hearing more than sight to centre the clay.

A good sense of touch requires focus and a relaxed state of mind. I mentioned a comment i heard in the trauma podcast about a 'makers mark' , noting the marks left by creators on the items they make, and anohter article I had shared in a blog about ceramicists being skilled at embracing failure at every stage of the process due to the complexities and unpredictability of clay and processes used in making ceramic art.

I planned work for what would be our last session before the Easter break and made acreative decision whether to try throwing more pots using a wheel set up for left handers, or complete processing the ones already made and dried.

I was really happy that all my bowls survived the bisc firing without damage. I trimmed what were the ' failure' rose bowls to refine their shape and remove excess clay before smoothin with a damp sponge. I then painted velvet underglazes ready for bisc firing. Used Rose, black & green in various combinations.

In the afternoon session I worked on painting underglazes on the fired pieces after sketching some designs first. I changed the design whilst painting as I did not feel it was working well. I also learned from Dave the technician that combining yellow and black underglazes makes dark green- so I used in combination with the green glaze- let's see how it works out after firing!

Later that day I planned the workshop framework by researching community art projects i was supporting and preparing Instructions for the activities i was demonstrating, and collected my co- created art piece from E block. Posted reflection on Instagram.

Thursday was workshop day. I sent a reminder message to participants with suggested materials and got ready for the session. that will be a new blog as this one is far too long already!

[anniesartthings]

FMP Prgress week#5

Week 5 and half way through already! Was quite a challenging week as I have been quite poorly with an ear infection. I didnt go into college on Monday, but spent the day putting together my Artist CV and applying for a Durham creatives project to run a postart community engaged art project. I also found ancardboard box to use as test for the 'headspace' #EOYS installation and did some more sketchbook development.

Doing my artist CV made me reflect on all the exhibtions and collaborations I have taken part in over past 12 months and the new networks i have connected with. It also helped with organising key pieces of work for future submissions.

In the evening I watched a programme on Franz Marc (Tower of blue horses) and Andre Rieiu concert who reflected on the benefits of watching and singing music together on wellbeing and sense of belonging- many friendships had been made at his concerts and the joy and connection on the audinece's face was evident, it made me realise how much I had missed live music this year.

On Tuesday- I did some more work on the wood sculpture piece started last week. I sanded with a finer grade (240) sandpaper using an orbital sander this time instead of doing it by hand and thought about what type of treatment I wanted to finish the piece.

I also joined the Artists union and looked up more references from the social practice surgery 'prescription' I attended last month with Dan Russell and Artist Lady Kitt. I set up the Eventbrite event for the creative workshop i planned last week to share with community and other groups. I made it a public event and shared with my social media contacts and fellow students. I also made contact with Artist Lady Kitt through her site and shared my art workshop and survey.

On Wednesday I got to learn Pottery throwing. After watching the great British pottery throwdown it was something I have been wnating to do and was so happy to have the opportunity to have a go. Because of COVID we have been unable to use the studio for months and this ws my opportuinity to make th emost of being able to access the facilities. I intended to make a rose-bowl , but my main outcome in my plan was to learn how to throw so I wasn't too concerned about what emerged. Discussed shapes and plans with David the ceramics technician and noted that i was left-handed using a wheel set up for right-handers. Thought it woudl be a good exercise for my brain and can always go back and try throwing with the other orientation after Easter. Noted the meditative aspects of throwing, having to completely focus on centring the clay, tune into touch and sound of the clay on the wheel and make coordinated movements to achive the changes in shapes. Also a good lesson in accepting failures and not getting too stressed about it as there were a few collapses along the way!

Pretty pleased with what I achieved in a morning session and have another week next week to finalise pieces before the Easter break. I kept the 'failures' as they looked so much like Roses!

During the sesssion some students were called away as someone in their bubble had returned a positive COVID test- they had to stop work and leave college for testing and isolating. this relaly made me focus on having a flexible FMP plan and appreciate being able to accesss the space.

On Thursday I was back in the sculpture studio and spent the day trimming the bowls and lids thrown and adding decotations/carvings tothe lids ready for bisc firing. i also did some artist research on Sir Anthony Gormley and some sketchbook work and promoted my survey and wordcloud interactive space with fellow students.

On Friday I watched Graysons Art Club, and the guest was Jane Symour who created a wonderful wave painting and described how healing art was. this programme is such a wonderful example of the healing power of Art as so many of the participants have stories of how their creative practice has helped them overcome life challenges or deal with loss, and perry and his wife Phillippa talk openly about the emotional connections that their creations have for them.

The weekend was spent catching up with sketchbook work and doing more audio interviews using the voice recorder borrowed from college. Only one more week left until Easter break so really want to make the most of my time in college next week and get as much practical work done as I can.

[anniesartthings]

FMP progress week #4

Well it is almost half way through and feel like I made real progess this week, here is a summary of what i've been up to.

Monday- Not in college as still in phased return so worked from home and planned work for the week to fit around family and paid work commitments.

Tueday- In College, so good to be back! I was really keen to make the most of the workshop facilities so I brought in a piece of Poplar wood I have been meaning to make something of for ages since rescuing it from the burning pile. With help from the lovely sculpture studio technician Martin I made great progress with smoothing down the cut surfaces with different grades of sandpaper then marked and imprinted holes for drilling after testing drill bit sizes and depths on a spare bit of wood. My plan is to 'repair' the wood with used guitar strings as a representation of music helping to heal us.

Loved having uninterrupted making and thinking time, planning the #eoys concepts, and made a test piece in paper for an acetate stencil on the laser cutter using three phrases that represent my project :

#notbroken

#creating recovery

#playmore

After College I caught up with TV shows 'Drawers Off' because my friend is featuring this week, and the Great British Pottery throwdown final. This inspired me to research rosebowl ideas and do ceramics artist research on YouTube in prepration for college Ceramics workshop time next week.

Wednesday was a work day but I managed to contact reminiscence learning and the 'Buntiful Wells' project coordinator to talk about interviews and how I could contribute to the projects.

Thursday was all about contact and collaboration! I had a lovely Zoom meeting with the Buntiful Wells group, discussed progress on their project, how it is organised and the H&S aspects of setting up the project including tips for reinforcing the bunting spanning long street stretches with fishing line. I had a wonderful conversation with the U3A coordinator about how taking part in the project has helped her make new friends and led to a spin-off U3A craft group. She agreed to share my FMP survey and take part in interviews for my audio.

I also completed the survey ready for sharing and capturing people's experiences of taking part in creative activities, sketched roses for the ceramics rosebowl project, and talked to Kirstie Harris, Director of the Project Factory in Wells about future community art projects and collaborations.

We had a tutorial explaining timetables for next week and the college covid testing procedures.

Later I tested bunting templates folllowing the instrucitons issued by the Bunting project, and attended an online webinar on dissassociation after trauma and learnt how the brain recovers. Creativity was mentioned as the brain adapts to survive and keep us safe.

On Friday I cut bunting from three old Aprons that were worn and torn, even salvaging binding from the apron edges.

On Saturday I spent all day on Zoom attending an scientific symposium on EFT - learning about neuroscience and how EFT works on the brain. I cut more bunting pieces whilst listening to the talks.

On Sunday- I had a chat with a friend who commisions social prescribing projects in Bristol about the reminiscence learning Dementia art project and she agreed to help me co-facilitate the creative workshop event I have planned for my FMP. We talked through how to run and promote a creative session making butterflies for RL Dementia awareness and I also want to include the bunting project into the session. I also used the brilliant resources from the social practice surgery as a checklist for planning the event.

To relax at the end of a busy week, I sorted out the pile of collage materials in my studio and completed an abstract collage for a SEED Sedgemoor public art project to display community created art on the buses of Sedgemoor. I shared progress on Instagram and the lead artist (Fiona Campbell) shared it as an example in her story to encourage other artists and members of the public to enter.

So all in all I am happy that progress has been made including artist research, contextualising my work with current neuroscience and cultural issues, and lots of collaboration and outreach work to take me into week 5 on a good footing.

[anniesartthings]

Aaaand we’re back!

So yesterday we were allowed to go back into college for the first time since the third lockdown began here in the UK in December and it was such a relief to be sharing a space to do some #creativeplay with others and have a day free of the constant zoom calls! I tried to resist using my laptop all day so that I could make the most of the precious 6 hours at college but it was hard to break the habit and I did check in with my emails and Social media a few times.

But progress was made on my #FMP and I recovered a couple of #plastercast sculptures of my hand that were created back in November (my birthday treat- getting to cover my hand in latex and make a cast :),  and finished mounting them on a plaster block. Getting hacksaws and drills out and sanding back a piece of wood I have been planning to do something with since I rescued it from the burning pile a few years ago felt so good!

I am interested in the healing and mental health benefits of being creative and this was a real gift. It was evident in the comments and conversations throughout the day that the shared creative experience was a positive one. Just observing what other people were doing , or being able to offer support or ideas to each other triggers our mirror neurones and boosts our own creativity and wellbeing, and is all part of our basic human need for connection and being part of a ‘tribe’.

To progress the project in week 3 I followed my plan and made enquiries about voice recorder loan to capture interviews about the experiential aspect of creativity and followed up on podcast leads and connections. I also created this test stencil to use on artwork I will be developing over the next few weeks and posted it to my social media accounts to start some conversations about #creatingrecovery.

In the evening I had a wonderful call with local artist Halima St Clair who is one of the organisers of the Glastonbury Rose Festival which will be raising funds for the #childrensworldcharity by showing artwork on the theme of the Rose, but that will be the subject of another blog post!

[anniesartthings]

New Album Design-’YinYang’- There will be better times ahead.

Creativity is a practice I am blessed to share with my Husband, and it has been a real comfort to us both through the lockdown as we are in a band together and he has been busy writitng and producing songs in the time we haven’t been able to get out and play live music. i have been designing the album covers for most of the releases and it is a great way to apply the work I am doing into a more commercial angle.

Last year I created a linoprint to his design ideas and this was turned into cards and t-shirts and hoodies in my Etsy and Love from the Artist stores.

The latest #EPcover is full of songs relating to COVID and lockdown experiences so John wanted a design to reflect that and the health message. I used Canva to create the design to his specifications and had to resolve some challenges in getting a graphic representation of a coronavirus in the #yin-yang  theme that he wanted. I had a few mishaps with trying to fulfil his original brief of having a collaged background of images of heroes and villains in the past year, spending a couple of hours finding creative-commons licensed pictures that I could use then using the background remover tool and monochrome filter to make them black and white for the collage. He then wanted the yin-yang symbol overlaid onto this with the band logo and covid ‘spikes’.

I had a ‘mishap’ with the collage background and overwrote it with a different design (fatal flaw with autosaving!), but learned how to restore previous versions and had a frank discussion about the design and layout (the joys of working with loved ones!) and we reviewed and simplified the design to have a bright yellow background in the brand colours of the logo which made the B&W elements of the design stand out better.

Design challenge #2 was to create the spike proteins- easy when you have Canva! Just get a #lineart #golftee and modify slightly and voila!  Makes my 2 science degrees and years of working as a biological scientist and safety officer all worth it, when I am moving graphic golf tees to create a yin-yang virus particle representation for an album cover where I am rapping on a track telling people how to wash their hands!

Anyway- here is the finished design- pretty pleased with it and the music is pretty catchy too- you can listen and download it here :) I love playing washboard and percussion and can’t wait to get out playing live again, but combining my art and the music is a dream come true.

https://johndrevelator.bandcamp.com/album/yin-yang

[anniesartthings]

FMP progress week 1

Really pleased with progress this week, excited to get stuck in to my #creatingrecovery project. Here is a summary of what I've been up to. We are still not in college face to face so all work was done from home.

-Monday- Started with a group meeting and 1:1 to drill down into my project focus and plans for implementing and researching it. My focus for this week was survey research and design.

I updated the Tumblr blog with the outputs from our drawing week, and with progress on making submissions for a collaborative exhibition on the theme of 'restriction' for Clayhill Arts curated by artist Amanda Lynch. All artworks for this have to fit into a compartment of a letterpress drawer and 4 sections are randomly allocated to the 200 artists taking part. I collaborated with Amanda on a number of post-art projects during lockdown and am really excited to be part of this project.

I also started designing CD cover for a music project EP that we have been recording at home on the theme of COVID-more on this to follow.....

-Tuesday - Our Art History lecture was looking at unit descriptors and criteria for grading- analysing previous projects and how they were graded. This was a good opportunity to have collaborative critical discussions with fellow students in breakout rooms on the zoom call.

I updated my sketchbook and started researching artists on my list in the project plan and Investigated survey tools to use .

1. Mentimeter- can give numbers to log in and answer questions- creates wordclouds and more!

2. Google forms- easy to use and accessible.

3. Survey Monkey- more specialised survey software.

I also completed a survey for a Wellcome photography prize I entered last month on the theme of Mental Health.

We had a zoom tutorial with Duncan looking at unit descriptors , followed by drawing session which I shared on instagram then moved onto designing an album cover in Canva for the band #JohnDRevelator using covid imagery to their project brief .

In the evening I attended a Pinterest design class and learnt to create my own pins- then created and uploaded pins from my canva account to a new Pinterest board linking to my #worksafeandwell wellbeing consultancy website that I blog weekly and create canva and other graphics for.

-Wednesday: I attended a CEDA networking event with guest speaker Cathy Mager- I took notes in my sketchbook and sketched the artist whilst she spoke. This was so inspirational, not only learning about her wide-ranging creative practice, but also how she works with her deafness and plans creative projects with accessibility and inclusivity at their core, fully costed into project not as an add-on or special measure. She also gave some valuable advice about Health and Safety when planning public art installations

I also created a linocut stamp of yin-yang inspired by the album cover design I have been working on.

Thursday- was spent researching Cathy Mager and writing a tumblr post about her lecture. Writing up process notes and tutorial discussing project progression and sharing ideas with tutors via zoom.

For relaxation (and research) I attended a Rainbowfish Poetry workhop- which is a #TakeArt funded wellbeing project to support mental health through wordplay. We spent 2 hours enjoying creative play, good company and writing group and individual prose and poetry. After this workshop I wrote a 'Creating Recovery' poem for my project.

Friday- I scheduled an interview with artist Melanie Thompson to ask her about her experiences performing in her recent 'Empathetic shoes' performance/installation video series at the #heartofthetribegallery. I collaborated on this project as a contributor of some shoes and text for her to perform with during the installation. The video is available to view here

I ended the week investigating the 'Chaos TV' group- a Cornish activist group using creativity to support communities and help reduce barriers to work.

Pleased with progress this week, next week I am hoping to plan out survey questions and start interviewing for the audio component of the installation.

[anniesartthings]

FMP Artist Research- Cathy Mager

As I embark onmy #FMP at @strodefad​ I am loking at how we can #createrecovery using creative arts. Last year during lockdown I submitted a collage and audio composition for a #soundsfromhome project with Arts and Disability charity CEDA and curated by artist Amanda Lynch. The online exhibition was shown on Instagram and I connected with the network to leanr more about making art more accessible. This week I attended a networking event organised by CEDA south West with guest speaker Cathy Mager.

Cathy is the winner of the BBC Arts Culture in Quarantine 2020 commission with The Space Arts supported by Unlimited , and is an artist, curator, social activist and cultural programmer, she also happens to be deaf. Her talk described her many projects and roles in the community art space, as well as the discrimination she faced in education, such as Universities offering conditional places not based on her grades, but on her waiving legal requirements for reasonable adjustments! As a former Equality and Diversity rep I found this shocking, but as Cathy described, the challenges and barriers she faced led her to completing a degree in socially engaged art and taking her creative practice out to challenge so many social issues with a real understanding of what it feels like to be marginalised and excluded by society.

She shared her experiences of commissioning and managing public art projects (and she has worked on some pretty big ones!) , including the risk assessment considerations and the impact of the environment and compliance issues on the work. Examples included creating a building scale sculpture on an island that floods regularly so the piece had to be raised on stilts (Occupation, by Rich White), and the public opposition to a mural on a canal lock wall (We Open the Floodgates, by Lucy McLauchlan), a project that had the artist painting from a barg on the water on a restored canal lock area on the Birmingham-Worcester canal.

The film ‘Sign Night’ has won numerous international awards, and is described on Cathy’s website as a ‘ poetic conversation in sign language between two star crossed lovers, projected onto buildings in central Bristol. The deaf performers share their dreams for the future from building to building, across the night sky ‘

(Image taken from BBC webpage- https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08njv6z/culture-in-quarantine-filmed-in-lockdown-sign-night)

Cathy talked about her challenges in making this film including the weather for the projection and the cultural norms of having music and subtitles that detracted from the intention of the film as focussing on a silent, visual conversation between two deaf lovers. the compromise was to have optional subtitles, so that non-signers could understand but those that did sign had the choice of watching without subtitles. This made me think about how inclusive my creative practice is and how to plan my project with risk assessment and inclusivity in mind.

The project that I resonated most with, however was ‘My Life Illuminated’ which was a project she did with the Children’s charity  Kids Company. the artist describes the project as:

‘ My Life Illuminated was an exhibition of light sculptures, projection, poetry and soundscapes made by 320 children attending Kids Company centres. Their creations illuminated how their minds, damaged by trauma and neglect, make them see and respond to the everyday world.

(image from http://www.cathymager.com/portfolio/life-illuminated-5/)

This inspirational talk helped me focus on where I would like my project to go, and I have lots of new ideas to connect with local creative projects and capture the beneficial effects of engaging in creativity to promote recovery of not only the individual, but our communities and whole society .

[anniesartthings]

Drawing Week- Having fun with unusual materials and tools

We had a break from the ususal workshops and project work before half term at @strodefad​ and were encouraged to play with different materials we had at home or found in our environment. Workshops were run by each lecturer including @strodetextiles​ and @brokensharkcage​ and we got to do some #creativeplay making our own #markmaking tools and media. These images were made with crushed #charcoal and ash from the fireplace, coffee, tea, beetroot, turmeric and using sticks and lining paper left over from decorating and paper bags as canvases. A cinnamon stick makes a good pencil, as does a sharpened feather. This experience has widened my horizons and enabled me to think about using materials differently in my #creativepractice and as I love to #repurpose items in my work it inspired a series of three paintings each using different materials which I will share in another blog post.

[anniesartthings]

February Reflection and Planning

It has been a busy half term getting my statement of intent written for the final major project unit of @strodefad​ but I have managed to fit in some creative time painting on #reclaimed boards from our house renovation project reflecting on the long term impact that #ACE has on survivors, and making pieces for an exhibition submission I am doing for a #correspondencecollective with #clayhillarts on the theme of #restriction.

Also been doing lots of research on #trauma and #craftivism for my #FMP and trying to record and organise my notes as per UAL unit descriptor 5. Here are a few images of the restriction pieces- focussing on our mental barriers, #repurposing facemasks to make a #worrydoll inspired by my daughter’s beautiful handcrafted set, and embroidering and stamping words using a found bottle of #endorsingink to represent emotions and thoughts that block us. How easily the word ‘Can’t’ can be changed to ‘Can’ !

Final  sculptural piece was created from #recycled plastic novelty markers and plastic packaging to represent the #glassceiling that women face in a patriarchal society- been listening to a great book called #burnout by @EmilyNagoski and @EmiliaNagoski which explains why so many women burnout trying to achieve goals made impossible by the barriers that a patriarchal society places on them.