Wow these weeks are just whizzing by! Week 17 blimey!!
So here we are and it is rather rainy and bleak in the British sky with lots of rain and wind ... I like it. Somebody said to me this week about how long we've had rain, apparently every day for 2 weeks already!... I'm not sure about this... call me the eternal optimist, but I must admit I have been focussing on the beautiful glimses of sunshine I have had this week and therefore the weather is just fine by me. Anyway, I've got far to much to think about and do rather than focus on the weather my friends, and to be quite honest, I am very happy for the water to feed nature (peace and love man and all that).
This week I am going to tell my blog in pictures and only a few words ... mainly because so much is happening I can barely keep up with myself. This week has actually ben full of inspiration I am working on many projects at the moment that all link into each other so when it all comes together in about 4 weeks it will be amazing.
I guess the main artistic focus this week is writing the new poem for my upcoming exhibition, Adventures into The Monochronium, as well as preparations for the exhibition. Many themes and characters are emerging as the exhibition develops, it's a beautiful organic way of making an exhibition happen and also really exciting watching it grow.
Over the last week I have recruited several interesting characters as I have been voyaging into The Monochronium, one of the most exciting is the Glass Pig who I discovered as I journied from the Paper Forest and over the Ink Mountains. The dancing shadows of the mountains were also very beautiful and then I came across a science professor who was able to explain everything to me. The Clock, The Adventuress and The Bees are also all part of the journey.
I guess this all sounds pretty surreal, well I guess it is ... You can see how it all fits together in the exhibition. For now ... here is the story so far ...
Adventures
Into
THE
MONOCHRONIUM
Night
lit sky walking though a circled floor
The
lines lead to a half opened door,
Scribblings
curling sideways unfurling
And
singing songs are tweeties birding.
Check
the clock, the seconds of time,
That
chime and skip over the travelling line,
For
a ticket to the colourful monochrome
is
waiting inside the wardrobe home.
Before
you leave write a letter or two
and
don't forget to visit the pig and read the clue.
Passports
are for fast sorts, so keep it secure,
Stamp
it and don't show it to anyone obscure.
Stories
in the trees made of blotted letters
Are
feathering dots in all kinds of weathers,
As
the Paper Forest transports us far
To
places and faces from that door left ajar.
Inside
the minds of lines, dots and marks
Are
tickets to places with warming heart sparks.
All
you need is to foot, hot on the track,
Adventure
into The Monochronium, and never look back.
This poem is what ties the whole exhibition together and will inform and inspire other works of art an collaborations. One of the most exciting additions to the exhibition will be a soundtrack which I am working on in collaboration with Timo Peach from Momo Tempo (Also see Week 13. One Momo In Time). Here's a snap shot of what we are up to.
The poem is also the inspiration for a new headpiece for The Adventuress. In the evening I wore the piece to The Mayors Charity Ball in Bournemouth. A great table of fellow adventurers on our FAB table.
I attended a workshop with Simon Meanwell-Ralph from Marvellous Millinery at Walford Mill Crafts and this is what happened in picture, in reverse. (Click on the images to enlarge).
My inspiration this week has come from a sense of creating space. Space in the mind through rest, space in the body through yoga and space in the heart with new friends. Due to certain recent happenings I am finding myself in what feels like an exciting state of transition. I feel like I am in my little white boat rowing downstream and, for once, taking the time to breathe a few deep breaths and enjoy the scenery whilst basking in the light.
Be true to yourself
This weekend I was on the quest for building parts of my upcoming exhibition, Adventures into The Monochronium' and I came accross a piggy. It soon occurred to me that he was going to join me on my journey, but he was fragile and made of glass and was going to need looking after.
The glass pig has a long journey to make. He had come from the Paper Forset and his journey was not even half finished, ahead of him were The Black Ink Mountains. He did not know who he would meet along the way ...
Into the depths and far beyond
A place you never told me I could go on,
This path wove a treadmill beneath my feet,
And the words of the forest began to speak.
'Dance with us, we'll show you the way'.
Over the mountains and far away...
Find out more and experience the journey of the Glass Pig, The Paper Forest and The Black Ink Mountains in the new phase of my art work at my upcoming exhibition
Adventures into The Monochronium
26th May - 7th July
As part of Dorset Art Weeks 2012
In association with Lighthouse, centre for the arts, Poole.
This is what I started off by writng ... but between that moment and this ... it no longer seemed apropriate to continue a rambling ramble of words, so rather that deleate all those words that began this inspire I thought I would just paste them into a sub text. An unedited and unfinished beginning, that is now the end.
Well what a week I have had ... without being too personal and writing my entire life for the world to read ... I can say that this week has been quite a turn around for me. It started by being signed off by the doctor on Monday morning ... under strict orders for rest.
She ran down the hallway shouting "Rest! Rest!!! What is this!?! But I have art to make, festivals to programme and an exhibition to prepare! I have no time for rest doctor!!"
It didn't quite happen like that ... but I was wondering how on earth I would be able to rest as I like to think of myself as a 24/7 kind gal, but apparently this is not very good for the body! Hence, I guess, ending up with re-uccuring bronchitus! Yeah ... not great!! Anyhow, I am at the end of the week and I can safely say that this 'rest' melarky is actually pretty enjoyable!
Lovely new yogi friends of mine have inspired me into a better way of life in order to bring balance into everyday living ... I'm getting there, however I think these next 6 weeks are going to be pretty full on in order to launch all the projects that I have been working on for the last six months... so we'll see.
So what has all this go to do with this weeks Inpsire? and where do the Three Little Pigs come into it all? Well bare with me as it will all become clear very soon...
Hello everyone! USA, UK, Australia, Russia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil, Germany and South Korea ... (these being my top viewing countries so far), indeed welcome to the Inspire 52 Artist Blog, hope you are enjoying it so far.
So onto and into Week 15. I am really starting to get into the project and am indeed feeling inspired (thus being the very nature of Inspire 52 ... phew!!) Each week is really taking me somewhere, I don't quite know where yet, but the journey is great for me. It is giving me lots of insight into myself as an artist as well as me as a person in this world. It is also providing me with playfulness and the opportunity to continue focusing on my art practice every week, which in turn is making me a much happier person; last year I remember sometimes I would go a few weeks without art-ing and I would think 'ooh, somethings not quite right', and then I would remember that I hadn't done any art in a while! Hurrah for 52 projects!
I hope you enjoyed my rather long blog last week and did not give up half way through, because the end bit of it has carried forward my inspiration for this week. 'Ode to Art' really touched me last week. I read it back several times and there really is a lot going on between the lines for me, so I hope you enjoyed it too.
This week I have taken the poem and used it a source of inspiration to create a new collection of aluminium jewellery art. I have had these sheets of aluminium for a few weeks now and been too afraid to scribe any lines on them, as there is not room for error when drawing on aluminium.
The idea to create illustrations on aluminium first came from Caroline Parrot, an artist who works with aluminium and who did Make 52 last year, we worked together to create illustrations on aluminium for her 52 project in 2011 and incidentally, she launches her Make 52 solo exhibition next week at Walford Mill Crafts, Wimborne Dorset, very exciting. I wanted to see how our practices could fuse for my 52 project and so Caroline gave me some aluminium to work on. Caroline if very busy with the launch of her exhibition at the moment, but I am hoping that we will be able to collaborate for one of my Inspire weeks later this year.
So I finally got the courage and inspiration to use the aluminium this week and this is what happened. These are the two illustrations below. One is with a gloss finish and the other mat.
Ode to Art - Illustration 1 Gloss Ode to Art - Illustration 2 Mat
I created these pieces not only with Ode to Art in mind, but also in response to the wonderful contemporary classical sounds of Ludovico Einaudi, who guided my pen gestures and resonated sounds that I transformed into lines. I love working to his music, it is so inspiring to me. Here is one piece below ... 'Fairytale', the perfect piece to accompany me as I illustrate into my monochrome world.
Ludovico Einaudi, simply love him ... well his music anyway! Never met him personally!! Sometimes I put the music on and drift of to sleep, it is truly magical. I didn't fall asleep whilst drawing by the way, instead the music lead me into a fantasy musically illustrated landscape.
Here's a little picture of the work station, pens, rubber gloves to avoid greasy fingers on the metal which will stop the ink from absorbing into the metal, poem, notes and a few pictures for inspiration from some of my previous works ... not to mention Ludovico playing in the background!
The concept of this piece is to create an illustrated jewellery collection. These sheets of aluminium are going to be sliced up and made into bracelets, as the picture is divided up and be available for sale.
I like the idea that different people will each take a piece of one picture and as they wear the piece they will take it on their journey and hopefully the bracelets will also inspire the wearers to journey into their imagination too.
All of the bracelets will have a little signed piece of the poem on the inside too.
Here are some examples of how the designs may look once they are cut into bracelets. Each bracelet will come with a signed copy of the poem and an image of the complete picture from which it came.
The Ode to Art bracelet collection will be available to buy at my next exhibition.
Adventures Into The Monochronium 26th May - 7th July 2012 at Lighthouse Poole.
I am really looking forward to seeing how these turn out ... I think they will be really special and I am looking forward to wearing a little piece of 'Inspire' on my arm.
WARNING!!!
It's a long one this week, but there's plenty of adventure down a country road, out of a sinking canoe and into a little white boat, make sure you take your passport! I've got so much to say this week and with a little bit of reading between the lines, I hope you enjoy it.
So this week brings a new huge shift for me, in energy, emotion, and location. I have to relocate and I am hoping this new place will be a 'home' for me. Even though I'm really not physically moving very far, I will be moving to a new beginning for me and a new phase of my journey, so in this respect it is a fair size shift that I will be embarking upon... and I'm really looking forward to it.
I've just never been the 'settle down' or 'conventional' kinda gal I guess... which in turn has lead me on adventures and away from the sense of 'home'. I must say, I do long to find a home, but it's not really just about where you rest your head at the end of the day that makes a home a home. It's more complex than that. For me it's about feeling welcome and safe in a place that feeds my soul and enables me to be free to be me.
As I am getting older, I do feel that I am getting wiser about life! Don't get me wrong, I still have a lot to learn, but as I look back and reflect about places and spaces I have been, I can start to unravel and understand who I am today and how all of those experiences have made me who I am.
I have struggled for pretty much most of my adult life about understanding my 'purpose' in life. Despite having many great life experiences, I have spent many years feeling a disconnection between what is inside me and what is going on in my outside environment. Finding myself in situations that seem surreal and unconnected to what is true to me. I must admit that since coming back to England, about 6 years ago now, I have probably begun the most important journey of my life and yet ironically that journey has involved coming back to my home country.
"Life is old there, older than the trees,
younger than the mountains growing like a breeze ...
All my memories, gather round her Modest lady, stranger to blue water Dark and dusty, painted on the sky Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye ...
Driving down the road I get a feeling
That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday
Country roads take me home to the place I belong ..."
Exerts from Country Road - John Denver
Something clicked with me this winter, my purpose started to show light in the crack of an opening doorway. I travelled back into times of disconnection and began to identify what was missing back then, and the answer was always the same. It soon became very clear that this there was this 'thing' that is the most important 'thing' in my life, it always has and probably always will be. It feeds my soul, makes me happy and enables me to be me and is my purpose. Now I know this all sounds very dramatic, but I have realised that there is no point to my life without art!
You may wonder why I'm making such a big deal of this, well recognising and unconditionally embracing my creativity is something that I have spent many years supressing. I have been surrounded by many business people in my life, people into economics who count and calculate everything and continuously watch the news! Who make statements like, "artists are over sensitive", "artists are on a different planet", "artists aren't in touch with reality', so as a result I resorted to taming my art spirit in order to conform and make other people happy. I even tried watching the news everyday, reading a newspaper a few times and becoming friends with a calculator! (the only downfall to many years of a news-less life is the other week when I found myself without petrol, but even that was a bonus, because it enabled me to slow down and walk to places instead of taking the car - healthy bonus!)
This has ultimately lead to feeling lost and disconnected to the life I want to live, and in the quest to make others happy, I found myself paddling upstream in someone else's river.
Hazel - Hazel River - art + someone else's river + a stack of newspapers + a bucket of calculators + old canoe = capsize + abandon ship
(.... ooh ... I feel a story coming on!....)
So, I got out of my old calculator and newspaper filled canoe, abandoned it on the side of the dark river and walked toward the 'purpose door' that was seducing me on the river bank with it's attractive warm glowing light from within. I peeked through the key hole first and saw something very different from the place I had been trying to conquer. I had been on a quest against the current, that the shadow once told me was the right way to go.
I pushed the door slowly open and a warm breeze caressed my face. I found myself on the bank of another river, but this one was bright and crystal clear. How come it was so different from the other one? I turned back to look through the door and I could see the shadow standing on the side of his river, surrounding him was also brightness and clearwater, yet when I looked further upstream, I could see my canoe slowly sinking into the muddy river bank where I has left it. The newspapers and calculators floating up to the surface of the waters and being swept away in the current. 'That was a narrow escape', I thought to myself.
I stepped inside the door, and closed it behind me. My feet filled with the feeling of butterflies and I looked down. There was a suitcase, it had my name on it, and lots of stickers of places I had already visited and others where I have not been yet. I opened it and inside was a passport and a ticket for travelling plans with my name on them. There were also pens, brushes, lots of paper and a cuddly cat and owl fluffy toys and a load of keys, all sorts of shapes and sizes, some old and some new. 'Bizarre' I said to myself then closed the case, picked it up and walked over to the river side.
I looked upstream I could see a little house on a hill in the distance, I figured that's where I needed to go. Before I even contemplated how I was going to get there, given that I had left my canoe behind on the other river, a little white rowing boat came floating down the river. There was no one in it but it just parked itself up beside me. Just then, a flap opened up on the side of it and out sprung a rolling red carpet that unfurled itself right up to my toes. This made me jump and I looked around to see if there was anyone near or in the boat, but there was no-one. I walked down the soft beautiful red carpet and climbed into the boat, and just as fast as it unfurled, the red carpet rolled itself back up and snapped shut inside it's hatch. I secured my suitcase under the seat and sat down. I was about to take hold of the oars when I head a voice, 'Passport please', I turned around, 'Passport please', knock knock knock, 'Passport please'. There was a little box, it was locked. I scrambled to open my suitcase. There were loads of small keys, at least 20 small ones, I thought this could take some time. I randomly took a key and tried it in the lock. It turned.
'Good morning, we have been expecting you' said a little blue elf with a pair of glasses. 'We have been waiting a long time, but hey, no time like the present hey?' 'Yes, I suppose not', I replied, stunned and curious at the same time.
'Business is business, so business first please, can I see your passport?'. I handed it over. 'I see, very interesting' he turned a few pages, 'right, okey dokes .... uhuh, I see... great stuff...' he stamped the passport on several pages, 'lovely jubbly', shut the passport and gave it back to me. 'Please make sure you lock this box after me, thank you and see you again soon', he smiled then jumped off the tiny stool he was standing on and skipped down a tiny winding staircase that seemed to lead beyond the bottom of the boat. I peered inside the box, but he was gone, so I closed the lid and locked it shut, safely put my passport and the key back in my suitcase and sat back down.
I took in a deep breath and took hold of the oars ...
What is at the end of the line? ................ Home is where the art is ................
BACK TO BLOG!
Ooh got a bit carried away there ... loving it getting lost in the 'zone'... anyway, I hope you get gist of this weeks blog, insight and message.
I have just one more thing to say, I'm coming out of the closet! YES, I AM AN ARTIST AND I AM PROUD!!!
