Spent today morning looking at my dad’s old slides. He was quite the intrepid traveler before he retired and dabbled in amateur photography so I have some great source material. Plenty of images of African animals: gorillas, hyenas, elephants, flamingos, rhinos and even the odd leopard.
Experimenting with carbon paper, thinking maybe I can do something with it plus I really love the blue color. Carbon is fundamental to all living things and gets used in carbon dating so there’s a forensic connection. May try out the black carbon paper too. What I have so far, visually looks a bit like fossil impressions. If this works could turn into an accessible adult workshop, who knows, the possibilities are so exciting!!
As my project EcologyNOW approaches its completion, I have been doing some reflecting.
Given the experimental nature of the artwork I will in future extend my time contingency for production. I have learned a number of new techniques and worked with totally new materials. I have proved to myself that I can achieve what I honestly wasn’t even sure I could and I am proud of the work I have made.
I am happy that the workshops went as well as they did and was relieved that I could adapt a previous kids workshop to cater for the extra demand. I will focus on doing kids and adult workshops since recruiting teenagers has proven difficult.
Artist tours will be something I take forward as well as artist talks, although I must ensure that I chase host venues much earlier.
My collaboration with the University of Birmingham and the Lapworth Museum of Geology has been extremely fruitful and I only wish it could continue!
I did an Artist Tour at the Lapworth, I was really nervous having never done one before but it went so well. I discovered it suits me much better than the formal set up of a PowerPoint presentation in front of a dauntingly silent seated audience. I kept it chatty as if I was talking to friends, answering questions along the way. I guided them around using the Art Trail that the Lapworth had developed, another format which I intend to replicate and adapt in the future.
Feedback on the project was positive, I even had someone surprised that I wasn’t a glass artist. It was great to have creatives in the audience who were able to discuss and appreciate production processes. I hadn’t quite grasped just how many different materials and methods I had used until one artist exclaimed “you must have loads of tools, how do you store them all and find them”! Admittedly I struggle with the finding part but as a result of this project I feel more confident in my ability to master new materials and techniques.
Busy, busy busy prepping adult and children’s workshops. I have to confess to being more excited about the children’s workshops. I’ve already delivered one ‘Animal Magic’ workshop at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery last month. That was a success with glowing feedback from the children and it has boosted me for my next one ‘Wriggly Caterpillars’. I have saved close to a hundred Bon Maman containers for this and green milk tops I plan to dye cotton buds for antennas and maybe use eco pipe cleaners for legs. A lot to do but I’m getting there.
My adult workshop will be on experimental drawing focusing on carbon paper as the principal medium and taking specimens from the museum collections as inspiration.
Who would have thought that doughnuts, hair doughnuts would make the perfect mink! I found one that belonged to my sister and that’s how it started. I actually had no idea what these were called until I visited Superdrug, not a regular haunt of mine I prefer DIY stores. So obviously I have decided to use my own hair and create a mink tippet (not a stole as I have been reliably informed I will never have enough hair for that).
This is not the first time, I have used my hair to make art but it may well be the last! After numerous YouTube videos (honestly I don’t know how I’d get by without) I have finally come up with a system although it’s still agonizingly slow. My studio has been transformed into a hair factory and I just hope I have enough hair and that I’ll make it in time for the exhibition at the Lapworth,
I am in good company as this weekend there are a whole host of family activities from, performances, storytelling, games, workshops and exhibitions all with an environmental theme.
Yesterday saw the launch of an exciting new exhibition ‘Wake Me Up Before You Dodo’ at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery featuring work by Sculptor Val Hunt and Britain’s Got Talent finalist Aneeshwar Kunchala.
A trail of my animal drawings will lead to the Cabinet of Curiosities Gallery where families will get to see my forensic sculptures for EcologyNOW.
