Shouldn’t be writing – should be packing! I’m heading off to Stroud in a few minutes to catch the last weekend of the Stroud International Textile Festival.
http://www.stroudinternationaltextiles.org.uk/
The sun is shining, we’re camping at a lovely site and alls well with the world!
http://www.thistledown.org.uk/camping.html
Except I’ve just picked up the hire van and the small one I ordered has not been returned so they’ve given me a massive one! I don’t like driving anyway, but this is even worse. At least everyone seems to defer to me on the road. I feel like putting a big sign on it saying – ‘Give me plenty of room or risk your wing mirrors!’
So my advice to A-N readers is, avoid the M6 and M5 until about 6pm tonight.
i
After a day in bed with food poisoning, I am going to have to struggle into the studio today to make up for lost time. And I’ve also missed most of the FuturEverything events which are all over Manchester this weekend
http://www.futureeverything.org/
But on the positive side, I have clarified what I am doing for the Rogue Open Studio show. All I need now is to make the pieces! I am still pretty confident that I can get it all done, but I’ll have to spend every spare minute in the studio. An added complication is the time I’m going to lose when I go to Stroud on Friday to see the last weekend of the International Textile Festival, and to take down my installation.
On a positive note, I’ve solved the sheets storage issue. I’ve had the chance to take on another studio space which I can use for storage and as a space for doing bigger work, trying out installations etc. which there is no room for in our new studio – it is pretty full with the two of us. It is a big relief. I love my sheets but they are a logistical nightmare!
Ok, off to work.
Hotbed Press staff and members were wonderfully helpful last week,
http://www.hotbedpress.org
and I got my screen made and some prints done and started trying out some ideas. I think I am going to show a series of samples, rather than a resolved piece, and have been showing my work around and getting ideas and feedback.
This is my first non-textiles show, and ironically, the work is more textiley than anything else I’ve done. I feel nervous but also excited. There is so much to do to get it all ready and not only making – also sourcing materials and shopping – which feels such a waste of time. But deadlines do concentrate the mind and I’m being very efficient!
Mia and I moved studios at the weekend, to a smaller but warmer south-facing studio – which is more practical but I rather regret the smaller space. And am slightly worried about the signs of leaks in the roof. Not having had rain for weeks, it is hard to tell if they are old or current, so I made sure everything was out of the way of them before I left on Sunday. However we are next door to Hotbed who are having some work done on their part of the building, so I think the landlord might also sort out our roof, fingers crossed!
I’m not going to get to the studio today because I promised to help with some student assessments – really interesting to see what they have done. I met them at the beginning of the year and this is the outcome of their years work. They have all moved on so far.
It is also helping me to reflect on my own development over the past year. I’ve been really luck. I’ve had some great opportunities since I graduated – some that I have strived for, but reassuringly, some that have come out of the blue, or out of other work I’ve done, or from connections with other artists. I’m beginning to develop some new work and learning to work without the support of tutors. I’ve got a studio and getting down there regularly. It feels like I’ve made a good start.
Well, that’s interesting – last time I wrote I was complaining that I was not being committed to my practice. Well that phase doesn’t seem to have lasted! I haven’t been able to write my blog because the lovely Bob has been on the computer, finishing his dissertation and revising for his finals. But I have been working.
I spent last week installing a piece in Stroud in the International Textile Festival. I was very stressed about having to drive a tonne of bedsheets down there. And also worried about whether I would have any help. But it all went smoothly and I had a lovely volunteer. I was even promised some money to cover my travel!
The installation looks good, it is in the window of Millets, as part of the Shop Window project. It was tricky to build it because of the limited space, and I had to climb out of the window space, and go through the shop and out into the street to see what I was doing! It attracted a lot of attention – including the photographer from the local paper who saw it as he was passing by and took some photos.
I was pleased that they chose one of my images for the leaflet, because there isn’t much about the project in the main brochure. The director of the festival really liked it and has asked me to talk to her about doing more work with the festival. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
My current project is getting some work ready for a group show that Jackie Wylie is putting on in her studio at the Rogue Open Studio at the beginning of June. I want to make new work based on this idea about the Victorian women’s refuge which I have been playing with since my residency. I’ve done my research and have patterns for victorian underwear. But so far my samples have not really been what I wanted. I’ve decided to make parts of garments and use the map images that I’ve been collecting since I moved into the Cow Lane studio.
Is it foolish to think that I can get something new done for the show? I might be naive, but I’m thinking of it like a university project – we would only have about 6 weeks to produce a piece of work. Well I had 6 weeks notice of this show, so am going to try. If it absolutely doesn’t work, I can put in a sheet installation.
In the meantime – I’m going to Hotbed press on Thursday to learn how to do a photo screenprint from the map images, and will print up some fabric and see what it looks like. I spent yesterday doing pin tucks, and have this idea about breaking up the images by the part construction of the garments. It’s still a bit vague but I’m just going to go for it.
