Inspire 52 - Week 40. In The Frame

As autumn settles in and a new routine (ish) is also on the verge of settling in, I see myself content that I am (just about managing to keep) up to date with my Inspire 52s and also feeling a bit more space in the week to think about new creations.

This summer has been a blast of happenings, activities, projects, performances and new places and faces - which has been fantastic. Still not been on holiday, but having been knocked off my feet with injuries was in itself a gift to change the flow of things and give new perspective and insight, which I guess a holiday also does sometimes too - though I would have obviously preferred a holiday rather than getting injured!!

This week has brought a little bit of space for continuing inspiration to my Monochronium world. I have been developing characters, scenes and plots as, yes thats right, the story did not end at the end of the exhibition in July, indeed there are plans for the next phase!

Here is a new illustration for this week, this is part of the exploration for the next stages of 'Adventures Into The Monochronium'. Of course I am not going to be giving too much away, but futher to the great audience response from my work this summer with the exhibition, show and spoken word performances, the project naturally requires me to take it to the next stages now ... which is very exciting.

Here's some lines dots and marks for ya!

In The Frame
by Hazel Evans

Riding the the frame can be a tricky game
When someone you don't know, calls your name
'Have I been here before? Am I coming here again?
As I step right out of this tall walling game,
The hands on the walls are of my own but simply have their own mind,
Drawing the marks of past moment laughs as bubbles tick tocking chime.
This cart takes me far on a travelling star and over the night sea,
As I look through the glass, someones's looking at this way - is it really me?

 

Inspire 52 - Week 35. A Black and White Colourfest

Well the summer continues and from one 'first' show to another, this week I performed the first stage version of the album Adventures Into The Monochronium, with Timo Peach form Momo:tempo.

It seems like a 'Golden Age' away since the creation of One Momo In Time and the beginning of our collaboration, Inspire 52 - Week 13. One Momo In Time , but Timo and Momo:tempo have become a core part of The Monochronium adventure. So I we did it ... our first 'Mono' show at a festival,
COLOURFEST

It was great doing the black and white work at Colourfest - I almost felt like starting a children's revelation 'Down with colour!' maybe next time! I was indeed a quirky and surreal injection into the festival and it was great to see so many smiley faces.

I find working with Timo, such an inspiration, we have a lot of synergy in our crazy imaginative and energetic approach to our work. Rehearsals have been a complete laugh, and we often find ourselves on the edge of insanity in fits of laughter - they best way to work right?!  Click on the images to enlarge

Adventures Into The Monochronium

A performance of poetry, spoken word and song

with Hazel Evans and Timo Peach

We invite you to step over the travelling line into The Kingdom of The Monochronium to experience a beautiful black and white world made up of inky lines, dots and marks. Get a ticket to your own imagination and hear poetic tales of the Paper Forest, Ink Mountains and take a trip down the river … where will it lead you?

Quirky poetry for all the family, tunes of busy bees for the children and morals to the stories for adults.

 

 

Kids and adults alike loved the show and we had an audience of about 70 people, of all ages. Parents bought the album for their children, but I think it was also secretly for them!

 

The wardrobe was a bit tricky in this festival environment ... I think I will only take her to galleries from now on!

Photographs, by Sean Gardiner, Jo Coole, Duncan Stewart

Inspire 52 - Week 31. Pop Up Paper

This week, after a lot of cancelling, I finally managed to make it to Portland. These injuries I have had for the last 5 weeks have been making it difficult for me to get around, but I am gradually mending, so I hope there will be no more set backs along the way.

So the Olympics has rocked off to a great start ... apparently as I don't watch tele!! But Weymouth and Portland have been very quiet as there was so much hype about the roads being bad ... so now is in fact the quietest and best time to go to assure yourself a spot on the beach and also great entertainment all for your self!!

Anyway, enough of that and onto this ...

... Pop Up Dorset invited me to install a mini Paper Forest in their Historic Church exhibition, of course I said yes, as I was delighted about taking the forest out of the gallery environment and creating it in new environments, and this was a great place to start.

http://www.popupdorset.com/

St Georges Church on the Isle of Portland near Weymouth. This historic church here is some information cunningly pinched of Wikipedia ... thanks Wiki!

St George's Church is a Church of England church on the Isle of Portland, built between 1754 and 1766^[2] to replace St. Andrew's which had fallen into disuse and was no longer suitable as a place of worship.^[3] The church was closed in 1914 for many reasons, and fell into further disrepair ever since that time. In the 1960s however, the church fell under the protection of a newly formed group, the 'Friends of St George's Church', who were able to restore the church. Now no longer needed for regular worship, the church is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.^[4] It was declared redundant on 16 April 1970, and was vested in the Trust on 27 October 1971.^[5]

St George's Church is regarded as one of, if not the, most impressive 18th century church in Dorset.^[1] It is a large church built of Portland stone and has a tower, a nave, transepts, an apse, and a kind of abortive dome over the crossing.^[1] The design is reminiscent of Christopher Wren (particularly the tower, with regards to the clock towers of St Paul's Cathedral).^[1] The windows are arranged in two tiers, all with simple, broad raised frames that lack moulding. Architect John Vanbrugh called the result a "a masculine show".^[1] It is a Grade II listed building.^[6]

Well I think that's pretty interesting stuff!!

This venue has an amazing vibe about it. It is soa beautiful and grey on the cliff top in Portland ... Stunning ...

And here's how the Paper Forest worked in the space...

                                          ... For more on The Paper Forest you can see Inspire 52 - Week 23

http://hazelevans-inspire52.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/inspire-52-week-23-paper-forest-and.html 

The Paper Forest soundtrack echos through the church ...

Click on the images to enlarge

See you next week ... I don't have a clue what I'm going to do next week!!

Maybe something Olympic inspired?

P.S. Hazel Evans artwork, Adventures Album and other signed collectible merchandise are on sale at the exhibition.

Inspire 52 - Week 26. The Memory Keeper

... Well, here we are half way through. Half a year I have counted in week by week. Half a moon and a silver spoon as we dance here cheek by cheek. Another day another way to say, Hey did you do it your way? Cos today is the day I stand up and say, Yes baby, I did it my way! From a piece of paper to a twiddle of thumbs and a blot of ink in the sink, washed away down the drain, that time has gone in a recorded blink. Oh, 'tis the day to celebrate half a year in and half a year out, Slap bang in the middle, sitting on the fence without a doubt. Yeah baby, I did it my way! I wrote the words that passed unheard. As I tapped the keys on long dark nights in the fight to write ... something meaningful ... But what can I say, today's another day, another week, another year ... Soon another cheer to you my dear, as we toast to memories -  hell yeah! ...

The Memory Keeper

Illustration - Hazel Evans 2012

As one day ends another begins ... And so the adventure continues

Nourishment ... temptation ... dance through time

 

This time is for reflection, as I am here in the middle of the year. Half way into the Inspire 52 project I have picked the apple and am feasting on the sweetness and nourishment it is bringing to me.

 

Looking back at the archive of the journey so far, this project has taken me to places within myself that I didn't even know were there, assisted me in getting into my little white boat and keeping it floating down my stream in the beautiful crystal clear waters - sometimes riding through the rapids - but always coming out the other side, invigorated and having learnt something new.

By the way, I am longing to write more as this is something that has dwindled over the last month or so what with the installation and working into the Adventures Into The Monochronium exhibition ... but there are still lots of words and stories inside me, just waiting to come out ... so stay with me and you will have some new stories and poems as well as new art works in no time at all ...

 

The Memory Keeper 

Installation - Hazel Evans June 2012 

An new installation in The Paper Forest. Using a book, The Memory Keeper's daughter by Kim Edwards, that was headed for pulping, I saved it and am currently using it to make art with. This is the first piece using pages form the book listed into the trees of The Paper Forest using ink and an illustrated butterfly. This was a piece I created in 'work through play' ... not much thinking involved... just going with the flow. upon reflection this piece is quite haunting when looking at the story content of the book ... I didn't read it by the way... just dove straight in and made the art ... maybe I will read it ...  http://www.memorykeepersdaughter.com/

And before I go I am delighted that I have been accepted to do an MA in Illustration, with cross pathways into Contemporary Performance, at The Arts University College Bournemouth starting in October 2012 ... How will this impact my Inspire 52 journey I wonder ...something to look forward to for then....

Until next week have a happy half year and enjoy the sunshine!

Inspire 52 - Week 9. A-Z of Pen and Mind

The pages were absent of markings as she opened the book. Pure whiteness was waiting for a burst of energy as she remained caged only by her will to make the first mark. As she began the scribblings, she recalled how the journey this week had taken her to revisit a drowned soul who told her to go back to where she came from because everyone was waiting for her to arrive. 'Don't let fear wobble you', said her friend, as she was reminded of the grains of seed she had planted. Pen in hand, she continued to scribe her way to the highest mountain and from the top she could trace her inky footsteps that illustrated the path to the top.

Just then, from behind swooped overhead the Junky Funky Flying Monkey. He grasped her with his furry hands and flew her over land and sea. They flew for two days and five nights, she no longer knew where she was or even if she could ever return to where she had come from, but she knew she was safe with his kind heart. 

They were weary when they finally landed but loaded with places and faces they had seen. As she fell asleep in the warm embrace of Junky Funky she drifted into her dreams. She was dancing at a grand ball, all eyes were on her but no-one knew who she was behind the mask. She danced the night away, turning and twisting and gliding into the music. As the clock struck nought in a bolt of light she was transported out into the rain. There was a door that she could not open. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't open it, 'If only I had they key' she thought to herself, as she resigned herself to being drenched and cold. It was now half past too long and in the midst of the quiet silence came a moment of rest. There were no thoughts and no more dreaming. But it only lasted for a moment as she was stirred from her sleep by the sound of tearing paper. 'What are you doing Monkey!!' she shouted. 'I'm clearing up' said Junky Funky, 'All this stuff needs to go'. Whilst she had been sleeping Junky Funky had been tearing paper all night, so much so that they were taken on a tidal wave of torn paper that swept them away in a gush of howling wind. 'Oh Junky, look what you've done! Why did you need to tear it all up?!!', But it was no good, the flood got bigger and the waves of paper grew higher and stronger, they were floating downstream in an upside down umbrella, rocking, twisting and twirling into a very big whirlpool.

'Paper floods are so much worse than water floods' she thought to herself as she wondered however would she find the X that marked the spot. Had the flood taken her on a new journey? or just down the same path faster, or down the wrong path slower? She just didn't know where she was. As the flood subsided and the umbrella stopped turning quite so fast, she found herself floating alone in the umbrelly boat. Funky Junky was long gone, he had dived into the depths of the paper ocean, she knew she would never see him again. Everything was still again as she twirled in the umbrelly boat under a starry sky, 'Yes!' she said to herself, something was becoming clearer as she looked over the side and saw her zheal reflection looking back. They both smiled.

Inspire 52 - Week 7. The Art Of Waiting

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination.  Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth. Napoleon Hill (1)

I've been waiting for inspiration to arrive all week and all of a sudden it has manifested itself in the act of 'waiting', so this is what has inspired me to create this week's 52.

This week being Valentines week, I thought perhaps I would do a piece on love, but it just hasn't inspired me, too 'expected' and 'obvious' maybe, and I'm just not that kinda girl! So you're not getting a piece about love this week, but you are going to get something that is equally intangible.

Waiting ... a space for imagination, dreams, desires, aspirations, inspirations ... The space that occurs before the jump, the voyage or the seeds to grow.

The Art Of Waiting

Hazel Evans

Whilst exploring my 'waiting', I started looking for a few quotes that inspired me and it seemed that there were two types of waiting that people wrote about:

1. waiting = time wasting 
2. waiting = patience

... oooh this has just got complicated, I guess the key is not to wait for too long! But how long is too long?

Time waits for no man

So you may ask, 'Hazel what are you waiting for?' Well, mes chers amis, I have been cultivating, planting seeds and now I am waiting for them to grow. Surely this is not time wasting, but indeed, patience?

Oh busy busy bees,

Keep flying for me

Into the pages I write.

I've written the words

Set them free like birds

Now can I sleep tonight?

Oh busy busy bees

Keep making honey for me

Nectar for my seeds to grow.

I'm ready on the block

Singing with the clock

I'm ready for the voyage you know!

Hazel Evans

I guess another consideration is the kind of waiting one does, what one waits for, and what one chooses to do with ones waiting time!

This week's top 3 waiting activities:

1. Listening to music
2. Sketching
3. Dreaming

All of the above activities are highly recommended and conducive to enlivening creativity whist in a waiting scenario, however, be careful of No.3 as too much of this could induce time wasting!

This week I knew I wanted to create an illustrative piece again, after all the Odeful words of last week, my pen was hungry for some linear scribbling. Where to begin? ... I saw a picture posted on Facebook of a woman dancing in the street and it looked like it had been drawn over a photograph, this lit up a lightbulb for me. I took one of my portrait shots for The Monochronium by Danika Westwood and used this as the departure for the new illustration.

It was a strange experience as I sat there poised with my pen looking at myself there sitting poised with a pen! It was like we were going to draw each other ... I took a deep breath ... stop thinking and just be with the pen ... Just follow the lines ... let the lines guide you into the blank paper.

And so the drawing began...

... The waves rumbled from my hair and created a sea on which my strong sailed ship voyaged upon the oceans wide. My shoulders bubbled me into a mixture of lines, dots and crosshatchings as I held on tightly to my pen I was determind to not let these waves disolve me into a blurred scribbling mess. 'Just keep following the lines', I kept repeating to myself. I knew that if I just kept following the lines everything would become clearer soon.

As I followed the lines I thought about home, 'Where was my home?' I was unsure at this point, but although this uncertainty questioned my mind, I realised that behind the front door, was a whole world of places and opportunities for a home to be, so I walked up the steps and took hold of the door handle. I felt safe opening the door as a warm breeze whispered in my ear, 'Home is where the heart is my friend'. I walked into the hall way and up the spiral staircase. There was a rounded window, but I couldn't quite see out of it, so I pushed up an old chest of draws, climbed on top, and from there I was able to see out.

Wow, what a view! From here I could see all kinds of flowers and trees that filled the garden below. There were glimpses of bright fresh budding stems and branches. Everything looked beautifully still and silent, but I knew inside it was growing, ready for the spring blossom. I looked out beyond the garden, acres upon acres of fields surrounding my entire house. There was a figure in the distance ploughing the fields, I called out, 'Hello!... Hello!' and waved. They waved back at me, and I smiled as I realised they were planting new seeds that would grow and make the garden bigger.

... 'Ouch!', I felt a prick on my leg and then a bee flew out of the window. 'That bee just stung me!' I exclaimed to myself. 'Bee, oh busy bee, do come back!', I jumped off the chest of draws and ran down the stairs, burst open the door and stopped. It was dark! What happened, where did the light go? I stood there stunned. 'I hope I haven't missed anything', I thought to myself. It was so silent and dark, I was afraid as I stood there alone. As the dark got darker, the light of the moon grew stronger and I began to hear a voice singing. I looked up into the sky and saw the crescent moon, she was singing to me. 'Oh busy busy bee, listen to me, keep your eyes shining bright, you've followed the lines and waited for times, and now you can sleep tonight.'

I smiled back at the moon, went inside my home and up to bed. I had a busy day ahead of me tomorrow. There was a ship waiting to take me on my voyage and I had to make sure I was up bright and early to get my ticket.


(1) www.brainyquote.com

Inspire 52 - Week 6. Off With Her Ode!

So what has inspired me this week? It's difficult to tell really, given that I have been feeling pretty uninspired all week! This is mainly due to the fact that I have been suffering from the third cold of the winter (once a month for the last three months ... it's getting a bit of a drag!) So the challenge is to make this an inspiration for Inspire 52 week 6 - here goes!

On Friday night I posted on Facebook "That's it I'm done with winter ... Can't do it anymore!" I've just logged and it seems to have generated a mini debate between friends.

"Winter is soft and white and fluffy and cold...merely a transition from old to new...hibernation and bug killing time"

And the reply to this was ...

"Nothing fluffy about winter... it's harsh... like a seasonal blade of ice particles, forever slicing the soul of sunshine dreamers. It's brittle, and freezing. The whole season should be damned... if it were not for the fact it reminds us how cool spring is."

Great, love it! Two completely contrasting views. There are way too many things I could comment on in the list of responses, but this one seems to be the most apt for what I am writing now.

" It is the void of uninspiration which inspires me"

Well I suppose I would have to agree at this point, as I am here trying to be inspired for my Inspire 52, something somewhere is in fact inspiring me through all this uninspiration ... does that make any sense? So lets focus on the uninspiration and see where it leads ...

 "off with her head!" The Queen of Hearts - Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1951

If I recall back to Monday for a moment, I did have a glimpse of inspiration. I was at work looking rough and ill and thought a head transplant would have been a good idea! 1, because my throat was hurting so much that the blade probably would not have made the slightest bit of difference! And 2, because the onset of winter blues had begun nibbling away at my psyche and this seemed like a good solution, albeit radical! For a moment I was transported, down the rabbit hole and playing croquet with the Queen of Hearts, having tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter. I thought perhaps I could be the Queen of Spades, a new addition to the story that way I could wear black and white of course! That is where my inspiration ended on Monday, day one of Week 6, what a great start!
(By the way, I hope that you are picking up on my sarcasm here!)

So here we are on Saturday, day 6, only one day to go until the self inflicted deadline. It's like having to hand homework in once a week, only to myself! I was chatting with my friend and colleague earlier, Caroline Parrott, she was the one who started Make 52 last year and who I am carrying on from with the creative '52' legacy. Aware that this week would be a bit of a rant about how crap winter was making me feel and that this would be reflected in my work she agreed and said that it had happened to her on occasions too, and that doing the 52 project was a bit like "a weekly dose of analysing yourself". So I guess there are going to be a whole host of emotions themes inspirations and uninspirations that get revealed as I am giving a piece of my life to you, this is a window of truth. Thank you Caroline, that did indeed help me to come to terms with what I have written, am writing and indeed will write in the future.

(By the way, I always much prefer having pictures to look at ... but there are no pictures so far ... lol ... I hope you're staying with me on this one :-)

Ok, where were we? Yes ... I am feeling particularly uninspired to create something visual so I thought I would do a written piece this week. So I have begun thinking about what it could be, a piece of prose, a poem or just a word! Hey that would be too easy ...

Having decided that I fancied writing a piece and thought back to Keats whom I studied as part of my A'levels. I thought his work was just great, especially the 50 line poem he wrote about a Greek pot! I remember studying this and being in fits of laughter with my friends, why would anyone write such an epic poem about a pot! Ode on a Grecian Urn is in fact one of his most acclaimed poems, hmmm.... - thanks Keats! Not the most chirpy of poets, but indeed a great man of words from the early 1800s. So in homage to Keats I have decided to write an ode.

What is this Ode going to teach me? Well, it will be a new poetic formula that I have never used before in my written work. Having looked at a few of his poems, I have decided I am going to attempt to follow Keats' example from Ode to Autumn; 3 stanza's each of 11 lines. Before I get onto my Ode, (which I haven't written yet 20.22 Saturday evening) I thought I'd find my inspiration from Ode To Autumn as it has a seasonal aptness that is speaking to me, and given that Keats did not write an Ode To Winter, I have now bestowed myself with this task ... bonding with a dead poet! The full Ode To Autumn, is at the bottom of the blog just in case you fancy a read.

Ode to Autumn is described to be a poem about the progression through the seasons, the harvest and the onset of winter. 'The work has also been interpreted as a meditation on death; as an allegory of artistic creation' (1) Interesting!! And apparently it is considered to be one of the 'most perfect short poems of the English Language'(2)  ... Okay, so I have not set myself a difficult task then! My attempt is going to be totally improvised and hopefully will be written before midnight tonight! I have three hours and thirteen minutes to go! ... no pressure then ...

Okay here goes, get into the zone .... think early 1800s, miserable poet! ...


Ode To Winter - Hazel Evans

Season of white and frozen-filled air
A companion of the darken'd night
Hatching bleak plans without a care
It will be a long time until warm light;
Taken at the throat and lining the lung,
The whitening cracks of splitting ice
Make their way through each pumping vein
Feeding the weakness, clamping the vice;
Tweeting bitter sliced tunes only half sung
Transitional operations are only half begun
As the wounds are cut open by frozen rain.

Who hath not caught a cold this winter?
Lucky bugger, abroad hath your time be spent?
Shackled here with my throat'd splinter
You lucky fellow, may your luck be lent!
For here this story gets icier than icy,
As the Queen of Hearts has ordered my head
But winter has frozen my coronary beat
And banished me, eucalyptus-fumed to bed.
Steady thy chili hand, go easy on the spicy
A hot water bottle will do me quite nicely
Thou watchest the socks dressing thy feet.

Where the songs of Spring? Where the hell are they!
Think not this state of time be forever in freeze
That one day soon we'll sing a warm play,
That our layers of layers remove with ease.
Recovered from the bitter poison injection,
Will the heart grow warmer and fonder?
Again the desire lives, sweet passion not dies
In the bleakness of this day, 'tis thy wonder,
The yearning and waiting upon your reflection,
The inspiration, creation in hibernation,
From whence the frozen bird again once flies!

Voila! Check in time 22.11
I quite enjoyed that, I hope you do too. I am sure Keats spent longer than two hours on his masterpiece, and I'm sure his sentences are much better composed than mine, but hey.

Now it's Keats' turn - Critical comparison anyone!

Ode to Autumn - John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

John Keats is considered as a Romantic Poet perhaphs this is a good lead into Valentine's next week.
Until then, I hope you have enjoyed my uninspired rant of truthful insight and masterful poem for Inspire 52 Week 6!

Now here's some pictures!

Wow, I've done it homework in!

Quotes
- (1) (2) Wikipedia