I just can’t wait to get into the studio! I pick up the keys on Friday and my palms are itching. Since I finished my residency in January, i have been frustrated by my lack of production. I am not disciplined unless I can get out out the house. I’m definitely not one of those people who can work anywhere. I need a bit of physical distance between me and the distractions of the rest of my life.
I will be sharing the studio with Mia, who I met on Foundation and who also did the Embroidery degree. We know each others work and working style very well, and I am really pleased that we can carry on this connection and mutual support. We are showing work together a couple of times this year, including the Stroud International Textile Festival in May. Mia has been working on huge stitched portraits, and will be back at the sewing machine as soon as we move in getting new work ready for an exhibition of Scandinavian artists later in the year (she’s from Finland).
Cow Lane Studio www.cowlanestudios.com is part of the Casket Works, which includes Hotbed Press www.hotbedpress.org , a truly fantastic resource, so I expect to be doing more experimenting with print. I’m also looking forward to starting on a new body of work that came out of the residency.
But before any of that, next week Christine Evans and I start working on a collaborative installation for the reopening of Platt Hall Costume Museum on 13th March. It is my most important commission so far, and I’m nervous, but I have a lot of faith in Christine, and we are both working with very interesting material, so I’m confident it will be ok, or even good!
www.manchestergalleries.org/our-other-venues/platt…
I want my blog to be part of my reflective process, a way of recording my development, and also a way to make links with other artists. In writing this first post it already strikes me how much collaboration features. Here’s to much more!
