On a new journey

Experimenting with art and design - Life 2.0 (the best is yet to come)

[browndogcreative]

Connections and Growth June 2022

At the end of my first year of Art Foundation and my first part of Unit 2, whilst the full-timers have been doing their final major project I have been experimenting with ceramics and textiles towards my pathway work on Signs and Symbols and Scale.

I started my year full of fear of not being good enough and that led me to realise the scale of my fear. My person journey in this art course is to grow in confidence and ability.

As we went into the Autumn I found myself looking at the natural colours of the season - terracotta orange, copper and brown with fading green and thinking about my time of life being menopausal and in my own Autumn.

I wanted to think about personal growth, regeneration and change so I started working on a seed project, making seeds forms in ceramics and using the colours of autumn in textiles. Textile Artist Karin Lundström's work inspired me to look at how connection enables growth and so my three pieces in this picture are about growth and how the connection between mother and child / mother earth and seeds is nurturing allowing growth to take place. I have used spirals to symbolise fertility and the mother, with the circles representing the child/seed.

I have used copper wire as the connector - copper is highly connective, capable of conducting heat, electricity and enabling things to work. I have used natural materials that can be recycled and that come from the earth - the start and end of life.

[browndogcreative]

Playing with heat, Tyvek and Bondaweb March 2022

I picked up a book called Hot Textiles by Kim Thittichai, which inspired me to have a go at working with Bondaweb and Tyvek.

Tyvek is a breathable bonded protective fabric most commonly used for making PPE such as Hazmat suits. Artists use it for creating colour and texture in their work. I painted pieces of Tyvek and then used a hot iron hovered over the top of the Tyvek which instantly made it pucker up and create a bubbled surface like crocodile skin.

If you sew over the top of it before heating and then heat it up it can create holes, which give it a lacey texture.

I peeled one of the layers from a piece of Bondaweb and painted that too. When it was dry I ironed it onto the piece of white cotton fabric. Once the paper layer was removed the Bondaweb can be used like glue when heated again. I placed some Angelina fibres over the top of the Bondaweb and heated it again with an iron, which created a sparkly disc of flattened Angelina. I think machine embroidered over the top to make an abstract picture. Finally I used a heat tool to stick pink metal foil in place on top of the Bondaweb.

[browndogcreative]

Life Drawing December 2021

One of my favourite life drawings this year. Paul very generously posed for a rear view drawing in his Santa hat. I drew this on red sugar paper with charcoal and white chalk. Pretty effective I thought.

[browndogcreative]

A seed pod made with a jabara pattern.

Dipped in turmeric tea with turmeric powder, I added polka dots in the style of Yayoi Kusama and dipped the whole thing in wax. The wax gave it a leather feel which was pliable and made it gourd-like.

[browndogcreative]

Mother Earth looking rather forlorn at what we humans have done to her. March 2022

I made this bust from plaster of paris on top of newspaper and a wooden post, formed with scrim and plaster. Her eyes are made with marbles which look like the Earth from space.

I made tiles by imprinting flower and seed heads and pine cones into clay and then pouring plaster into them. When they were dry I broke them into pieces and stuck them onto the bust and then coated them with copper powder covered with ammonium choride to turn it green.

The whole head was then coated with iron powder and sprayed with water and covered with plastic to let it rust. During that process her hair, which was made from sticks went mouldy, creating a furry coating.

[browndogcreative]

Signs of life and growth - April / May 2022

A few pieces I have made for my seed project.

At the end of our workshop phase of the foundation course, I elected to do ceramics and textiles for my creative practice. I chose do explore seeds as part of my signs and symbols / scale pathway. I made a variety of seeds in ceramics, using symbolism (pagan mother earth symbol), spirals representing the mother and fertility and a baby inside a seed pod.

In textiles I started to use weaving in my work, inspired by Karin Lundström. I also attended two weaving workshops outside of college, and created a seed inside a circle. The rows of weaving are like the rings of a tree, showing the growth cycles.

[browndogcreative]

The Red Dress

Kirstie Macleod, a textile artist based in Somerset, brought her embroidered Red Dress into Strode for a study day. The original dress was made as a performance piece for Arts Dubai in 2009. Kirstie wore it whilst embroidering inside a glass cube. Afterwards she developed it as a celebratory platform for women’s voices to be heard using the universal language of embroidery, with no borders or prejudice. It is a symbol of unity and identity.

Made of burgundy silk dupion it consists of 73 panels, which were distributed to 29 countries around the globe to be embroidered by 137 commissioned and paid artisans. As it has been exhibited more embroidery has been added. One group of refugees in Syria used their money to buy things to help them get established in their new lives such as a goat and some fish. 50% of the profits from Red Dress Etsy shop go back to the artisans.

The colours and stitching is exquisite. Each embroidery tells the story and culture of the artisans who worked on it. There are representations from women who were the victims of war, such as the white doves from Kosovo, plus others from Syria and Rwanda. Colourful cultural works show images from Australia (Great Barrier Reef/Uluru), Colombia (Toucan), the UK, DR Congo, USA, India, stunning embroidered floral patterns from Mexico, Japan and tribeswomen of Kenya. There are 7 bees in the dress, plus many more images of nature to find.

Asked why it is a red dress, she replied: “You can’t ignore red – it’s strong, angry, passionate and emotional” – everything we felt as we studied it.

[browndogcreative]

Sketchbook fear

It’s been a long time since I was at school and I have spent the past decades working in an office or bringing up kids.  So on induction day, when we were given our summer project to work on, the idea of creating any art, let alone a sketchbook, filled me with fear. 

It’s a few weeks since pre-induction day and I’ve been having loads of ideas for progressing my project, but I’m used to writing them down - with words, not pictures or drawings and we never used sketchbooks at school (did I mention it was a long time ago?)  And everyone is going to see my finished book, as a reference of signs and symbols.  Argh!  Imposter syndrome is creeping in, but guess what?  That’s why I’m starting a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design. I don’t want to feel ‘not good enough’ any more.  

This article by Grayson Perry has really inspired me.  My sketchbooks don’t need to be perfect. Eventually they will just be for my eyes to see, but the pressure to provide something which will be judged in assessment for my diploma does fill me with fear.  I’ve scoured the internet for advice on starting a sketchbook.  The best advice I have taken so far is to make a mark on a random page inside my sketchbook - it’s been marked then and I can move on and start filling it. So, here goes, this is the start of my art journey.  Wish me luck!

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/feb/19/inside-grayson-perrys-sketchbook