Think I have some “interim” titles for my latest pieces. My titles tend to be a combination of the feelings at the time of making the work and how the work makes me feel afterwards. Ideas often come while walking the dog. I did toy with walking the dog #1, walking the dog #2 but I think that would get tedious.
Had a wonderful couple of hours in the studio today after a trip to the tip, homebase, park and the garden centre. All this despite only emerging from bed at 9am.
I think the work lies somewhere between painting and drawing.
Yesterday I was involved in the Dover Big Local conversation event, leading on a mapping project. The map worked really well as a way to start a conversation and encouraging people to write their comments on the acetate sheets I had layered over the top. I want to work on it a bit more now – add in some images for example. At the next event, I’ll put a fresh layer of acetate over the map and gradually build up the layers.
Why paint?
I typed that into my browser and came across this http://www.ktauches.com/WHY_PAINT_NOW.html
Some of the reasons put forward really strike a chord:
As I explore the reaches of technology for economic reasons, I have become more interested in how analog and “outdated” technologies can be a punk stance against corporate typography and graphics. A jpeg can travel social networks, but the painting can maintain a stubborn resistance to both Benjamin and the market. –Mark Leibert
In a world that is increasingly disembodied through technology, paint remains a way of embodying. –John Otte
I could also ask why I even try to paint, when the very thought of painting’s history should be enough to make me stop. That said, I am interested in what I can do with it, for now.
Deep breath – think my G4A application is ready to submit.
I am trying to think how best to present my work on paper. I like it just pinned to the wall but when it comes to submitting the work for shows it is so fragile like that – which is of course the whole point – but I just wonder if there is a way I could make it easier to handle. I was thinking of pinning it to foamboard, and maybe sticking the foamboard to wooden batons to stop it bending. A bit like a stretcher for canvas.
I am busy writing an G4A application for a personal project. Fingers crossed and more here if I am successful.
I am leading on a mapping project for Dover inspired by Mapping Manhattan, which I stumbled across the other day http://mapyourmemories.tumblr.com/tagged/Manhattan
The Dover project will be about mapping one’s dreams for Dover as part of the Dover Big Local initiative. Will be interesting to see what people come up with. The hard bit will be persuading people it is worth it – so many initiatives have been and gone in the town leaving very little trace of their existence that many people are cynical and fed up; they just don’t believe their voice will be heard. The arts are good at engaging people, but engagement has to lead somewhere or make some kind of a difference, or else it will just feel like a pointless exercise.
Oh, and I made it to the studio this afternoon. When it was time to leave, I found a police car blocking the gates. Fortunately I surmised that the silhouette in a window of one of the nearby houses was the driver …. apparently attending an emergency!
Clare Smith's mixed English/Chinese heritage informs her perspective on issues of identity and categorisation. Her nomadic childhood and early adulthood have meant a somewhat ambivalent relationship to place, reinforced by the sense of ambiguity that comes from her mixed identity. Smith works with drawing, print media, collage and moving image to investigate this ambivalence, with references to craft, the importance of labour and the handmade. Through her choice of materials and approaches, she creates work which attempts to create a sense of unity, an interpretation of Homi Bhabha's "Third Space" - seen as a space in which different parts can come together to challenge dominant ideas of wholeness. Collaboration is part of Smith’s practice and she is also co-founder of Dover Arts Development (DAD) together with painter, Joanna Jones. This involves working with many different artists, curation, organisation, event management, creating networks across East Kent and influencing the public realm in Dover. Clare works from a studio in Dover. She has an MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins and has exhibited nationally and internationally.
