Well indeed it is incredible how things can change in not even a year ... This year has been incredible and indeed this project is taking unexpected turns too.
Inspire 52 has been hard to keep up with in recent times, mainly because I am doing so much art, having given up my part time job just over 2 months ago, life is now all about the art, not that it wasn't before, but now I am in just oe river, paddling downstream in the flow without taking any detours. I am sure there will be some rapids along the way, maybe even a detour or two, but hey, that's all part of the exciting journey isn't it?!
So what the hell am I trying to get at? .... Well ... I started an MA in Illustration, (and I will also be crossing pathways into Contemporary Performance), 2 weeks ago and this involves documenting my processes and work ... this means another blog! - Now I'm not saying that I'm giving up on Inspire 52! Oh NO!! I am simply proposing a change of format for a while. I have decided that from now on (at least for a while) I will write seven lines, one for each day of the week. They may be inspirations of the day they may be a reflection of the whole week.
I kind of feel like I have generated sooooo much work in a rather prolific manner over the last year, that now it is time for change. A change of direction and a change in the way of doing. So as I no longer know what it is I am doing with Inspire 52, I have decided to give it a new approach. Shake things up a little for the welcoming of autumn ... it is indeed a time of change is it not!
However, you are lucky this week as you will get some images of what a great creative and inspiring weekend I have had ... next week only 7 lines! There may well be beauty and revelation in simplicity!
Friday : Cirque de Soliel in London, unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures, so you have a picture of the O2 Arena in London instead - incredible show - I sat there jaw dropped, moved yet frozen for practically the whole show until we got up and danced like nutters at the end and got complimented by the people sitting behind us for our dancing skills! LOL! :-)
Saturday : I performed as a Wolf in the pre and post show performances for Paper Cinema at The Pier Theatre in Bournemouth. A beautifully enchanting show of performative illustration - just my kind thing http://thepapercinema.com/
Sunday : My newly Illustrated circus tickets, commissioned by Lighthouse to perform as part of their Family Circu Day to celebrate their 10 year anniversary. I was delighted to be part of it and also performed a short show of The Monochronium story with my Wardrobe Studio Post Office
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?
And so the summer is coming to an end... what a ride - seriously!
As the autumn begins to show it's face and very gratefully indeed I welcome it in with our 'Indian Summer' it also marks a time for change. Two things I have done recently spell this out to me and they have both involved cutting things up, not to disolve them completely, but to make them into something different, like a metamorphosis to take us to the next stage of life.
The cutting up the Explosive Illustration collaboration with Hayley Potter.
The cutting down of The Paper Forest.
These two events co-incided with each other and indeed began to trace a new pathway forward for each body of work. I won't go into the deatils of wheat the plans are, as with every art project they need to be kept top secret for a while, however, here is a photo documentation of what happened... there are more pictures to come but we will be releasing a full documentation at a later date, this includes a full documentation of the collaboration with Hayley Potter and the making of the book we will are creating together. Click on images to enlarge
1. Cutting up
Inking it up
Planning the disection
The 3m x 4m illustration has now been cut into 52 individual A3 pictures that will form the next stage of the collaboration ... I'm very excitied about the next bit ... to be revealed at a later date. It's been really great working with Hayley this year. As we were cutting up we were talikng about what we have gained from each other in this collaboration, it has been a very insightful and growing experience.
2. Cutting Down
Cutting my way through the Paper Forest ... having lived with it for 2 months in my exhibition, it was now time to cut it down. But in honour of the art work and everything it has bought me as a new installation, story, song and journey of discovery, I had to do it correctly. I began cutting each piece of paper with my big shear like scizzors, cutting my way though the 'thin tall trees speaking tales in time'. I kept the words, poems and comments that the public had contributed and began carving a new path through the forest.
Wonder away, wonder away,
As the trees lead the way
Shadows emerged smiling bright
The act of cutting through the forest felt quite overwhelming yet exciting at the same time, it was releasing hidden spaces and creating new places - something new was happening and emerging.
It felt like I was performing inside a piece of poetry.
Illuminating shapes and scribing sounds
Murmuring roots from the undergrounds
The Paper Forest spoke softly to me
And asked me to write my story
Conclusion
Cutting up and down the art has been a learning experience, a journey of freedom, an expression letting go and finding new paths forward.
To see the Paper Forest installation in it's original form click here
This week has got off to an inspired start. So much so that Week 5's inspiration is completed today, Monday!
I was invited to attend a 'Long Lunch' by artists Simon Lee-Dicker and Rebecca Strain, which also co-incided with the end of their 'Show and Tell' exhibition held at the gallery and studio, Old School Room (OSR) near Yeovil.
The idea of the day was to connect and build networks with other working artists in the South West, with artists coming from Bristol, Taunton, Bournemouth and Yeovil, and share our experiences as artists who also partake in collaborative work as part of our practice. I was driving up to Yeovil in the snow this morning with local Avant-Garde artists Rebecca Strain and Jonathon Shelper, and it did cross my mind that getting stuck in the snow could certainly be a way of connecting if we all have to huddle under a blanket to keep warm and avoid certain death in the wintery depths of the Somerset countryside!
We got there safely.
The beautiful space of the Old School Room was a welcome shelter to the bitter outdoors and greeted us with coupled balancing old school desks and ballooned marigolds hanging from thorned stems reaching down from the ceiling. This was 'Show and Tell', an inspired collaborative exhibition responding to the venue and the history of the building.
After some chit-chatting we got to the formal part of the day. Each artist presented their work, many in the form of Pescha Kucha, 20 images@20seconds. There were also films and even a handstand on a chair as part of the presentation.
As part of the day and as an artistic contribution to the Long Lunch, were asked to bring a food contribution as a gesture to the traditonal festivities. The Long Lunch tradition had existed in the same space many years before us artists got there today, yet it was wonderful to be continuing the tradition with a contemporary twist.
My contribution, and this weeks Inspire is 'A Toast to Nourishment'. A Champagne glass filled with layered nuts and berries. You will see below the colour version of this photograph but in keeping with my current explorations, the final piece is indeed, black and white.
A Toast to Nourishment
Hazel Evans 2012
Black and white enables me to see beyond the colour. Notice the colour of the shapes and contours through shades and shadows without a diologue of actual colour to distract the eye. This, to me, makes for more colourful reading of the piece.
Notice the tomato - a red dot! (reference Inspire 52 -Week 4)
The shades of nourishment in the glass by the layering of the seeds, nuts and dried fruit have categorised themselves into three distinct grey scales through this transformation. Three stages of nourishment? Inspiration, Expression and Truth? - You decide what it is for you.
This glass could have stood alone, but today was about collaboration - creative nourishment. In this shot I now see that the cheese provides a potective wall around the glass, but the table also offers a cheese slice and knife for you to take your cut, share and break down the barriers. Wow - how deep can food go? lol!
I guess the nourishment I am giving to myself as an artist is to help myself continue on my creaive path. Part of that nourishment involves remaining 'true' to the journey I want to take and expression of artisic identity. At the moment, this involves my explorations into The Monochronium, this journey is not finished yet, and I feel that for the present time, I need to stay true to my black and white Yellow Brick Road. It is not to say that this is how it will be forever, but it is what I find most nourishing for now.
Below is the colour version - feel free to take a moment and compare the stories.
We did not just speak and eat, oh no ... we made art too! Here are some pictures of us in collaborative action, with the recreation of an Old School Room photograph. Thank you to everyone for such a great day.
Bonjour les amies! Je ne sais pas ou cette semaine vas m'amener, mais je me prepare petit a petit pour le grand vol.
Reflection on Week 3.
Following last week's piece, I feel changed. Like I've opened a door that I am willing to gently walk through with mindful steps over the threshold. Don't worry my work is not going to get all intense all of a sudden! For those that really know me you will know that being a free fun spirit is very much my philosophy of living so 'peace and love man!'.... What gave such an impact with Face It Pierrot! was that the story revealed itself immediately before me without me realising what I had created. Normally the delay is a lot longer ... when I look back at my work years later I realise what it was really all about and how it reflected my life at that time. I think this recent develpoment has been an imporatant part of the journey so far...
Week 4 Monday 21:08 GMT
So onto Week 4 and I thought I would do a kind of daily progress report this week. Regarding the inspiration, well I was just sitting here this evening thinking what the heck would inspire me this week ... and then it came to me ... Dragons! Today is the New Chinese Year, the year of the Dragon ... and I am a Dragon! Not the kind of old hag of a dragon that peers out from behind her net curtains or hits you with her handbag, but instead a Fire Dragon, and yes, somewhere inside me I am a magical dragon!
I have spent many years trying to hide my dragon, suppressing my creativity, my passion and my self. Believing that playing small would keep me safe and giving others permission to ride my Dragon.
'Hiccup: [Walking through the forest and crossing out his map] Oh, the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug, no not me! I manage to lose an entire dragon.'
How to Train Your Dragon - Movie
In actual fact this has lead me into much danger, confusion and down a path into a dense forest with no breadcrumbs, impossible to take flight because the trees above are so entwined they form a matted canopy of branches ... But now ... I feel like I am on a Yellow Brick Runway, preparing for flight, sitting firmly on top of my dragon! - (just got a bit dramatic there, was enjoying the story that was being conjured!)
So I guess what I am trying to say is that I am aiming to celebrate the Dragon this week, and over the next seven days try to illustrate my Dragon.
'Eragon: You can hear my thoughts! Saphira: I've waited a thousand years to hear your thoughts and now you can hear mine. I am Saphira, and you are my Rider.'Eragon - Movie
Tuesday 21:38
Incubation.
In no particular order, my top 5 Dragon films:
Eragon
How to Train Your Dragon
Spirited Away
Avatar
The Lord of the Rings
Wednesday 23:38
Blue, part of me is definitely blue. Tonight as I was meditating during my yoga class, it just came to me ... of course I am a blue Dragon, I couldn't be anything else but blue!
Not many people know, but this whole 'Monochrome' phenomena of my recent work , is indeed not new to my practice. In 2000 I embarked on a period of creativity and oil painting, discovered Pthalo and Prussian in depths I had never ventured into before and found myself indulging in a beautiful pool of blueness... aaahhh, those were the days! Come to think of it when I revealed these paintings people around me said 'yeah, I like them, but they are all blue, how about adding some colour!'. So I painted my final piece from this series with a red ball inserted into the landscape, it was then auctioned off in The Royal Academy of Arts for a charity event for Marie Curie Cancer Care in 2001. And that was the curtain call on my works in blue. That red dot ruined everything!
Thursday 21:58
I am in fact a Piscean Fire Dragon... Odd combination given that water usually extinguishes the fire ... did the fire actually evaporate my water?
... red dot? ... .
... I'm still waiting ...
Friday L:8 Fire Burns
Tonight I went to The Mayor of Bournemouth's Burn's Night evening. I was wondering how this would help me in the quest for my Dragon.
When I got home, before going to bed I popped into my studio and randomly opened an old book that was on the desk, it happened to be English Quotations published in 1937 and I opened it on Burns (seriously, what are the chances!) So here is the last verse from the poem 'A Red, Red Rose' that jumped off the page at me.
And fare thee weel, my only luve; And fare thee weel a while! And I will come again, my luve, Though it were ten thousand mile.
It seems that there are always journeys to be made and people going places.
Is my Dragon linked to love? Is my quest for the Dragon actually a quest of love? with whom? ... What is happening? hmmm
Saturday earl:y pm
I am exhausted today... (no not hungover! I was driving last night :-) ... just exhausted, need a bit of 'quiet time'.
I feel like I have not really achieved what I have wanted to achieve in finding my Dragon. The inspiration was there at the beginning of the week, maybe it is still there... still incubating ... Maybe it is not about the end result but about how you get there, and when you think you are there, being ready to explore further? I don't know ...
Anyway, today I thought I would throw some ink onto a bit of paper in the true spirit of furthering my black and white adventure. Even that turned out not as planned as the black was spewing shades of red, purple and blue at me. So I put the tunes on and decided to switch the brain off and just enjoy a simple moment ... just me and the ink.
Hiccup: Oh, for the love of... I was a coward! I was weak! I wouldn't kill a dragon! Astrid: You said "wouldn't" that time. Hiccup: Well, whatever! I wouldn't! 300 years, and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon. [pause] Astrid: First to ride one, though. So...? Hiccup: [sighs] I wouldn't kill him, because he looked as frightened as I was. I looked at him, and I saw myself.
How to Train Your Dragon - Movie
Sunday Just:Sunday
Sorry if this blog seems so disjointed, vague and have no point to it. I feel like I'm skirting around something, perhaps with a big frilly tutu ... If you have managed to read between the lines, perhaps you may have enjoyed this week's exploration?
I will refer back to Week 2 and The Rules Of The Game, Rule No. 1 - Keep it simple and No. 3 - Have fun at all times. I still seem to be trying to find my footing with this project ... what's it all about?
Eragon: I need to know, Saphira. Why me?
Saphira: You choose a leader for his heart.
Eragon: But I'm not without fear.
Saphira: Without fear there cannot be courage. But when we are together, it is our enemies who should be afraid.
Eragon: And are we together, Saphira?
[draws his sword]
Eragon: AS ONE?
Saphira: [Saphira breathes fire for the first time]
