Apart from writing various funding bits and doing other stuff that has kept me at the computer, I am pleased to have work in two shows.
Outside the Lines in Folkestone runs until 28 January at a very nice space called Brew, which happens to be a coffee shop in a beautiful white Modernist building just near Folkestone Central station. Once you know where it is, it is easy to find! Unusually for coffee shop venues, it has a real white cube space feel once you are inside – and the coffee is good too! The exhibition includes four of my recent collage pieces.
I also have some work in the Christmas edition of the Art Market in Maidstone – my Chinese Zodiac inspired pieces, which include two Roosters, as next year is the year of the Rooster, starting 28 January. They look rather good all hung together like this, which is spurring me on to do a set of twelve, once I get out from behind the computer.
First a big thank you to a-n for making me a featured blogger on instagram last week https://www.instagram.com/anartistsinfo or @anartistsinfo. It was fun to see the posts appear and check out all the likes, follow some new people and gather some new followers of my own. Find me on instagram @clare_smith. These are the images that were featured.
My studio collective is preparing for a winter open studio at the end of the week. There are six of us who share a studio space in the downstairs industrial space and then there is a beautiful, bookable exhibition/project space upstairs. We have invited guest artists to join us and the Winter Show will have a light in the darkness theme, with two performances and also artworks, ceramics and cards etc. for sale downstairs in a museum style art shop.
Exhibiting artists: Kate Beaugié, Chris Burke, Louisa Love, Dave Robinson, Clare Smith and Mike Tedder, joined by Sam Capell, Frazer Doyle, Joanna Jones and Holly Skinner .
I have been back in the studio a couple of times now and am continuing with the postcard/monoprint collages. I know my work can be a bit inconsistent as I am always on the move, exploring processes in a restless kind of way. One constant though, I think, is an attempt to tie in my present state of mind with personal history in a way that is not too obvious. This is another small piece. I feel I need to go bigger – perhaps a sculptural collage at some stage soon…
I have now finished the antiviral tablets and hope that I will soon have my pre-shingles energy back. I’ve started going out – gentle dog walking – and feel the cold a little less! I have been developing the small Chinese Zodiac pieces – they are unashamedly decorative, fun to do and really all I’ve been feeling up to. This looks huge but is only 18x13cms.
My family always celebrates Chinese New Year and next year is the year of the rooster starting on 28 January.
I am now recovering from a relatively mild bout of shingles – thankfully! I think I got to the doctor’s just in time to get the anti-virals. The advice I got was to rest, which I have done my best to do, emerging from 4 days at home, which felt more like 4 weeks, to turn up at the Landscape:Islands event hosted by Dover Arts Development. I wasn’t quite myself but was very glad to be there to experience the wonderful sound piece by Joseph Young. I also enjoyed the ceramics by Kay Aplin and the documentary brought back memories of slip casting when I did ceramics many many years ago now.
I am not very good at resting so have been keeping myself busy making some small craft-like pieces based on the Chinese Zodiac signs
and preparing some new hand-made Christmas cards. The glue is still wet on this one and it isn’t quite finished.
