Inspire 52 - Week 24. The Ink Mountains and Reflections

2 weeks to go until I'm half way though Inspire 52!! OMG can I believe it? Indeed I cannot! How to make half a year go by really quickly ... embark on a crazy art project which makes you count down the weeks ... oh, there is method in the madness somewhere ... I promise!
So what's going on this week?

Well I be damned ... it's still black and white guys!

Last week I gave a little insight into The Paper Forest and this week I am going to reveal more about The Ink Mountains ... of course I am not going to give away all the secrets of these places, as it is up to you to discover and make of it what you will.

After the exhaustion of last week where I couldn't even decide if I was going to have green or jasmin tea - I have come out of the ink pot ready to splatter lines, dots and marks on lovely white paper once again, all in the name of art - Love it ...

I went back into the exhibition on Wednesday this week and started to immerse myself in the exploration of The Ink Mountains. It's an unusual feeling when you put only the beginning of a work of art on show at the private view, knowing it's only the beginning of a piece and in time it will evolve with time spent working live on it in the exhibition ... a little risky you may think ... but risk is all part of the adventure... And so I began ...

The Ink Mountains were born ... before the ink ... in their purest form...

glass - water

fragility - flow

paper - ink

landscape - voyage

shadows - reflections

self - truth

The Ink Mountains

 

Just one drop falling

falling

falling

Frozen in time on the top of the mountain

One drop

One drop of time to take the path

One drop of a moment to make it last

Cast in glass

A fragile course

To find the way deep into the source.

Search for the answer and follow the clue

Just one drop falling will follow you.

Search for the answer it wont look for you

Follow the inked path in black inky blue.

 

Just one drop

Falling

Calling the clues

Into the Ink Mountains,

The figures defuse

Just one drop

recalling the words

Of eagling birds

falling and soaring

above in the sky

Over the Ink Mountains

Frozen in time

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...

                                                                             Hazel Evans 2012

The Ink Mountains - track no.7

from the CD soundtrack Adventures Into The Monochronium

What does it really mean to me?

First of all I love The Ink Mountains, they are so photogenic, magical, serene and dreamy. The are so naturally black and white it's amazing. No photoshop needed! I love the way this piece has evolved organically through the time of devising my exhibition.

Originally I wanted to do a performance piece with jars of water and ink and didn't really know more than that; creating performative illustration as the ink suspends in the water in slowly moving illustrations as it falls to the bottom of the glass. I then came accross these jars and a glass pig from about 5 different stands on one day a t a car boot sale. When I got home I placed them all in a line on the mantlepiece and thus the mountains were born. The glass pig is a new character in the scenario whose voyage I am illustrating and writing, and this will be defined as the piece still continues to grow. By the end of the exhibition, I am hoping to have the story complete.

The Ink Mountains for me are another representation of my journey. A journey of discovery through fragility and strength, coming out of the valleys to conquer the peaks and learning to face the weather. I used to live in the Alps in France - I think somewhere in this piece is an acknowledgement of my journey to find a way out of being lost in the mountains as well as an understanding of where I have come from and who I am today. Following my truth, dancing into my shadow and following the path that feels right.

The more I work into this piece the more the story reveals itself to me ... The story is not over yet ...

 

Adventures Into The Monochronium

26th May - 28th July 2012

The Gallery Lighthouse Poole

 

Exhibition soundtrack available

Poems and songs performed by Hazel Evans with music by Momo:tempo

www.hazelevans.co.uk - online shop coming soon

www.momotempo.co.uk

 

Inspire 52 - Week 23. The Paper Forest and The Meaning of Life

I must be honest with you ... This week I have been completely exhausted. It is like a the big come down after the final curtain call, only weirder because it's actually only just begun! But I think achieving the conception and delivery of Adventures Into The Monochronium exhibition was a pretty big thing for me ... My friend said it was like giving birth! I guess in some kind of way it was; I have given every spare ounce of energy to this piece of work and put glimpses of my soul out there to the world, so yes, I can say... I do feel proud of what I have achieved in this exhibition.

 

 

This is a journey that I thought would mainly be an artistic demonstration for the viewer, but is actually absorbing me... I am on this journey ... this is me ... my life. Along the way I am revealing new layers to myself and I guess this is what part of The Paper Forest is about... journey, discovery and finding meaning in one's life ... a purpose.

 

 

Trees thin and tall reaching into the sky

 

 

For many years I have struggled with my sense of purpose, trying to conform to the guidelines society has set out for us all, but never really quite 'getting it'...

 

 

Blackness transcribbling words on trees

 

 

...My sister had a child just over 2 years ago, just after my niece was born and I was holding her in my arms, my sister asked if I now felt that I wanted a baby. I didn't. Her question helped me turn a page in my 'purpose book'. Her purpose was to be a mother physically to her own child ... this is the most important thing for her to achieve in her life, what makes her get up in the morning and give meaning to her being ... for me ... the most important thing I can nurture is my art - It is my purpose.

 

 

The Paper Forest spoke softly to me

And asked me to write my story

 

 

And now is the time for me to write my story, the places I have been and the places I will go. The journey, the discoveries the sense of direction and the being lost on a path ... finding the path ... Untold stories in the folds and curls of white paper ... pictures speaking words and words making images ... The Paper Forest is my story, but it is also yours.

 

The Paper Forest

By Hazel Evans

I stumbled on the crumples that drew me in

taken by the forest and absorbed within

Trees thin and tall reaching into the sky

Thin tall trees speaking tales in time

Enveloping twisting and churning out

Spouting secret stories were all about

Illuminating shapes and scribing sounds

Murmuring roots from the undergrounds

Wonder away, wonder away

Wonder away, drift away,

Deep into the Paper Forest

And play

Whiteness dancing the whispering breeze

Blackness transcribbling words on trees

The Paper Forest spoke softly to me

And asked me to write my story

So I walked the path kissed by leaves

Drawings sang and caressed my sleeves

Dancing into the pictures and the light

Shadows emerged smiling bright

Wonder away, wonder away,

As the trees lead the way

Deep into the Paper Forest

To play

Adventures Into The Monochronium

26th May - 28th July 2012

The Gallery Lighthouse Poole

Exhibition soundtrack available

Poems and songs performed by Hazel Evans with music by Momo:tempo

www.hazelevans.co.uk - online shop coming soon

www.momotempo.co.uk

----------------------------------------------------------

The Paper Forest is sponsored by CCM till rolls. The Wardrobe Post Office is sponsored by Dorset Reclaim.

Inspire 52 - Week 21. Making of 'Adventures Into The Monochronium'

Hello everyone ... what a week!

This blog has a different angle on it this week as something rather big happened. Adventures Into The Monochronium happened! A very intense week where a whole forest and mountain range were created!

This is my biggest solo exhibition to date and also features extracts from some of the collaborations that I have been working on since the beginning of this year. The exhibition will be growing and changing over the next 2 months as it gets worked into with illustrations, writing and performance emerging from the space - I'm really looking forward to this.

Adventures Into The Monochroniumm is a development from the first Monochronium exhibition which was a more studio style exhibition with comments saying it had a 'Warhol Factory' feel about it. This one is a real space to journey into and discover what my Monochronium is and also to discover what is is for you.

Two new installation pieces include The Paper Forest and The Ink Mountains. Both of these pieces blur illustration with performance and installation ... I will introduce these pieces later in Inspire 52 as they become worked into and documented in the exhibition.

The collaborations I have introduced act as accents to the exhibition theme and help describe the journey of my practice as well as that of The Monochronium.

My collaborations are with:

Hayley Potter, RCA MA, Illustrator Writer - Illustrative and explosive inking. Exploring how our styles merge as illustrators and writers, creating narratives from working on location in rural environments and the impact of water within our landscapes. Originals from £30

Debby Kirby, Silk Weaver - Merging the craft of silk weaving with illustration and story. The creation of an artist book 'The River Story'. The creation of a series of silk weaving pictures with collage, poetry and ink. The River Story book £12.50 art work from £95

Momo:tempo, Timo Peach Musician - I first approached Timo in order to lay down some of my poetry and stories with some background music ... before we knew it we had created a whole CD that takes you on a journey and back. I am very proud of this, it is my first CD and gives people who have been asking me to record my voice the opportunity to have a listen and enjoy the ride. The soundtrack accompanies the entire landscape of the 'Adventures' and features poetry made into songs and spoken word tracks that will make you feel the magic. CDs £10 accompanying Passport £5

Leoni Bullcock, Interior Architecture and Design 3rd year student at the Arts University College Bournemouth - The wardrobe studio/post office was embaced as the final big project with Leoni as I put a call out to collaborate in making a portable studio space that will give me a 'home' in Lighthouse in order to create work from. This is a piece that is a work of art in itself. It is a fully functional studio, post office and performance space.

Michele O'Brien, Theatre practitioner and storyteller - We have created a new fairytale that will be perfomed later in the year in the form of 2 shows, one for children 'The Girl and The Shoes' and one for adults 'Killer Heels'. We have started workshops with the public to create a collection of shoes that will form part of the set and exhibition to accompany the show - the shoes are indeed all black and white!!

Artwork available for sale from myself and Lighthouse ... I will also be launching an online shop soon, so I'll let you know about that too.

I will give more details of the collaborations over the next few weeks of Inspire 52 as the exhibition develops and grows

... In the meantime, here is the video diary from the set up week of the exhibition.

Adventures Into THE MONOCHRONIUM
26th May - 28th July 2012 (new extended date)
The Gallery, Lighthouse, Poole's Centre for The Arts.

Inspire 52 - Week 20. Passport To Your Imagination

I have not been sleeping very much these last couple of nights due to getting stuff done, and yes, stuff is indeed getting done! One more sleep to go until I start working on putting up the exhibition tomorrow in Lighthouse, Poole. Yippie! I suppose the official phrase would be 'I'm going to hang my exhibition tomorrow', but given that some of the main features of my exhibition involve things like a wardrobe installation, an album and United Kingdom of The Monochronium passports, not much 'hanging' is going to be going on - and as for The Paper Forest, well I like to think of it more as 'growing my exhibition'! The only hanging I will be doing, is hanging around having a cup of green tea whilst waiting for the paint to dry, as we partake in step one tomorrow of preparing the gallery walls and plinths.

So given that I need to get some sleep and there are only 45 minutes left of week 20, I need to get a groove on and tell you what happened this week.

Well, as with last week, this week has been pretty full on and so much art I don't know where to begin so I will choose just one thing ... soemthing very exciting ... the passports arrived this week! Yes, now it's becoming more real than ever and I now can welcome the public to get a passport to adventure into The Monochronium exhibition, as well as discovering it as a pathway to their imagination.

I also took the opportunity to be inspired by a new piece that I have created for the exhibition - The Ink Mountains.

There is indeed a beautiful song, poem, story, performance and installation that are part of this piece of work, but this wasn't enough for me! So I illustrated it too, and not just one picture, oh no - 2! And in order to share the love I cut it up and packaged it up into 12 unique passport packages for the first 12 lucky purchasers to get theri hands on at the private view of the exhibition on the 30th May. This whole adventure is becoming rather epic! But loving it ... sorry if I am blabbering on, I am feeling rather delerious, but trying to hold it together ... I have a feeling that as soon as I have finiched this I will shut my eyes and conk out right away ...where was I, oh yes ... Here's what happened ...

The Ink Mountains

Just one drop falling

falling

falling

Frozen in time on the top of the mountain

One drop

One drop of time to take the path

One drop of a moment to make it last

Cast in glass

A fragile course

To find the way deep into the source.

Search for the answer and follow the clue

Just one drop falling will follow you.

Search for the answer it wont look for you

Follow the inked path in black inky blue.

Just one drop

Falling

Calling the clues

Into the Ink Mountains,

The figures defuse

Just one drop

recalling the words

Of eagling birds

falling and soaring

above in the sky

Over the Ink Mountains

Frozen in time

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... 

11.52pm - Only just made it ... right I'm off to bed, another busy week ahead ... over and out. 

Inspire 52 - Week 16. Three Little Pigs

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...

Inspire 52 - Week 12. Adventures Into The Passport

Week 12 of year 2012, and it's the year for a new passport for me... Yes indeed it has been a whole 10 years since my last one, and I am now preparing to get a new one, but before I do lets make some art about it!

The whole notion of getting a new passport has inspired me this week and it seems to be perfect timing numbers-wise, the perfect dozen! And what better time to think about the adventures ahead as we break out of the grip of winter into glorious summertime.... I AM ALIVE!!!

It has got me thinking about the journey of the last 10 years. Where has this passport taken me? Who is that girl in that picture in 2002 and what has happened to her? And what is the next part of the journey?

I remember which Post Office photo booth I went into to get this picture taken. It was the summer in 2002 and I had come back to England  from my first year living in Grenoble and teaching English. I was in love and living with my French boyfriend at the time. I was also working in a surf jewellery company and in the picture I am wearing one of the shell necklaces.

The journey of the last ten years has taken me far from one camera flashing moment in that photo booth. Looking though my passport I have stamps for France, Morocco, Slovakia, Egypt, Tanzania, HongKong, The Philippines, Borocay Island, and Namibia. These journeys have taken me not only physically to other destinations but have formed part of who I am today. Some of the journeys were in love, others in adventure or escapism.

Passport Memories

Road trip from Grenoble to the Tatras Mountains in Slovakia. Three days journey through Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Slovakia over Christmas. It was a beautiful trip to visit my best friend at her family home for Christmas. Christmas day was in Saltzberg, Weiss bier and sauerkraut in the central square. A nice moment. Driving home in the driving snow. Life would get more complicated after this.

I remember walking down the street in Metro Manila alone, the colour of my skin and my height clearly distinguishing me as a stranger. My mobile phone rang. I knew the number. I didn't answer as I didn't fancy being subject to exactly what I was escaping from... if only he knew where I was, I am sure it would have made him even angrier! It was probably one of the most surreal moments of my life so far.

Hong Kong. A flighting visit. I was on my way back from the Phillippines and I had a six hour stop over. Any normal single white female would have stayed safely in the airport and read a book, but I fancied a challenge with my new found sense of freedom. I sat in the airport for 10 minutes and weighed up the pros and cons and then decided to go for it. I checked out, got on the navette train, then got a taxi, walked a bit and then got a boat over to central Hong Kong. It was about 6pm and all the town was illuminated. Nobody knew where I was in the world. It was great. I walked around for a bit took some photos and then got the boat, taxi and train back to get my flight home. This moment changed me.

So what now?
I long to travel again. I love travelling on my own, or meeting up with someone somewhere then going onto somewhere different. I love journeys. My next big soulful journey I want to be India. But the USA has been calling me to go back there too ... I don't know... one thing is sure, I've got a lot to get done here before I can go anywhere else.

What about this week?

So as you can see from the image at the beginning of the blog I have created a new passport. My next exhibition is going to be 'Adventures into The Monochronium' and I figured I needed a passport for this as the journey is quite an official one! I have made sure I have gained all relevant and official stamps and visas necessary and am now preparing to embark on the next creative journey.

You are of course welcome too. You can come to 'Adventures into The Monochronium' without a passport if you are just visiting for the day, from 26th May onwards. I will however be there until 7th July hence official document requirements! Now I know this seems like quite a way away, but like all great voyages it's all in the preparation to make a safe and enjoyable trip!
Who is the woman in the new passport?

Well that is a good question. I think she is someone who knows more about what she wants from her next journey.