I want to use this blog to draw and write as I would in my sketchbook. I am fascinated by the “In/Out” nature of blogging: my internal thoughts and activities as an artist, usually confined to my notebooks, can be made public and shared with others.
Returning to Drawing.
I have recently been attending a drawing class, run by Sarah Saunders called Returning to Drawing. This is every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month from 7-9pm at Blank Space, Manchester.
For more details go to:
http://www.returningtodrawing.blogspot.com/
Sarah’s approach is really refreshing, and has invigorated my sketchbook work, which was one of my intentions in starting this blog in the first place. We have been rediscovering how to hold the pencil and make marks, trying out the movements and emphasis needed before we start on our ‘killer drawings’; a form of warming up and thinking physically about how we will achieve a drawing before we begin one. As an artist I have come to rely on taking photographs and doing quick pen sketches and lots writing in my sketchbooks. This brings me right back to looking and selecting objects, creating the illusion of depth, mark making and generally having some good clean FUN.
In recent weeks we have begun to discuss how we might use drawing to explore narratives and personal journeys and this really appeals to me. It fits into my current preoccupations with personal journeys in the contemporary urban landscape that I live and work in; how I make sense of the passage of time; and the repetitive cyclical patterns of life that have begun to emerge in my recent work such as River Text.
This current concentration on sketchbook work has prompted a reconsideration of my earlier sketch book work, from when I did my A levels (in the dark ages) through my foundation art course and degree. Interesting.
The view from a bridge. RiverText: I have been here before.
It’s really interesting to see how people respond to RiverText and what meanings they read into it. Most are amused, they sense the fun I had making it, I think. I like simple ideas, they are often the most effective, even if they are not as simple to realise as they initially appear.
My starting point to interpret the work is that I have made this, or a very similar, work before (2006) so it is a return for me, an attempt to make someting more ambitious but I have been here before. The bricks are recycled and the water is in a continual cycle of renewal, it has been here before. This particular spot on Chorlton Ees is a crossing point, a bridge across Chorlton Brook, where dog walkers meet and chat, they have been here before. I like work that is layered, it is very satisfying to make and revisit. Each time I see it I get something else from it. I hope you do too.
I have already been asked how I got the text to float in the water, the photographs are deceptive. These are very different bricks from the ones I used previously. These seem more modern, are brighter and lighter in colour and stand out from the water while the previous bricks were old and darker and seemed to melt into the brook more. I like both effects for different reasons. I wonder if the brook will re arrange them like they did the last time.
The Big Art Walk, Chorlton Festival 2011
Ivy Green Nature Reserve
THU 19 MAY – MON 30 MAY
facebook: http://chorltonartsfestival.com/the-big-art-walk/
There is a map you can download from the website
I finally got my RiverText installed on Wednesday for the Chorlton Arts Festival Big Art Walk. We have had monsoon rains this week and I was really worried that the Brook would have flooded and I wouldn’t be able to get in safely. Also I woke up on Tuesday with a swollen, painful throat, making it difficult to swallow or speak. Looking out into the gloom from the bus window as I headed into my studio I though, am I mad?
Emily Pitts arrived promptly at 10.30am to help me move 3 suitcases of bricks, they were very heavy! On site Jude and Mickela came along and we discussed the best way of getting them down the steep bank. We considered throwing them in but didn’t want to get them damaged. Someone came up with the bright idea of using plastic bags and gaffer tape to lower them down to me two by two. It worked, jobs a good un, bish bash bosh etc!
I had some great fun splashing around in the river trying not to fall in while bemused dog walkers looked on.
Wordy Women – Women, Art and Text Chorlton Art Festival 2011
Monday May 23rd 7.30 – 9.00pm
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=656008209#!/event.php?eid=191551177557406
Emily Pitts, Caroline Coates and myself met up yesterday in the Cornerhouse cafe to finalise the running order for our talk next Monday. Beginning to get excited/nervous now.
Emily is hosting proceedings and will start with a history of the use of text in art. I will give some examples of my own use of text in my art work, particularly the RiverText piece for the Big Art Trail, and look at some of the feminist artists who have influenced me. Caroline will be giving examples of contemporary artists using text and focusing on those who are also dyslexic – interesting!
We aim to be as brief as possible and open up for comments and discussion with the audience. Tea and coffee will be provided and then off to the nearby Nip and Tipple afterwards to continue the conversation. So if you are in the area why not come along?
I have had a good two days of painting and the bricks are beginning to look good. Another few coats and they will be finished.
I use a variety of materials: wool, digital photography, text and video to paint and draw with, preferring to use simple readily available materials and processes.  My knitted paintings refer explicitly to painting practice, but use wool instead of paint, to blur the boundaries between fine art and craft, and consider how value and worth are assigned to materials and processes.  By deliberately positioning banal, undervalued processes and materials within an art context, I direct the viewer's attention onto the question of how we assign value to art or craft. 
