Exhibition Opening for Desperate Artwives

Yesterday was spent travelling down to London to the private view of the Desperate Artwives exhibition which opened at The Vibe Gallery.

It was an exhausting 12 hour trip, we set off at 2pm, arriving at the gallery for 6, spending a few hours viewing the work and then returning, finally arriving home at 2am.  Needless to say, I am fairly exhausted today and tiredness is not a good state for me. 

The work at the Vibe Gallery was varied and curated beautifully.  The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, good wine and good food was available and later we were treated to some live music. 

I love how a group exhibition always has work that can be related to.  Speaking to one of the artists, I realised I had no connection at all with her piece of work, but could appreciate the power and symbolism that it involved.  I was totally drawn into the delicate drawings by Jasna Nikolic which were just beautiful, but reading her written word, I was left wanting more of an explanation.  But this is something I really enjoy as it leaves me the space to interpret the work how I wish to.

Lady and Ship, Mixed Media by Jasna Nikolic

Travellers, Mixed Media by Jasna Nikolic

Slavka Jovanovic's piece 'Broken' was a reconstucted dinner table and Jovanovic says, 'The piece encapsulates broken dreams and hopes dashed. An aggressive response to a hopeless situation, and yet a thing of beauty in its own right'  Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of this work which was exactly how the artists portrays in her words.

But personally, the piece of work that stood out wasn't one that I could actually stay with, I didn't listen to the whole soundpiece, it was too painful to listen too.  As you approached Chloe Bowles video and mixed media installation, it appears beautiful, a video of a baby lying under a sheet, happily playing and smiling but looking below the video was a darkly painted dolls house, with a single light shining on a miniature table & chairs, the house sat upon a small mat.  The immediacy of the scale comparison was powerful enough, but it only hinted at the full impact of the work, which was realised when you put the headphones on.  I have to admit I only stayed with the real recording of a domestic abuse event for a few minutes, but the impact of what the artist was conveying was immediate.  Every we do in our homes and our lives impacts elsewhere and these 'Ripples' can be long lasting.

'throw a stone into the middle of a lake and the resulting waves radiate outwards fromt he point of impact to the edges of the water, perhaps continuing beyond the shore, invisible and unspoken.' - Chloes Bowles

Ripples, Video and Mixed Media Installation by Chloe Bowles

Any work that has an emotional impact so strong, has to be a success.

Even if I wasn't part of this exhibition, I would have hated to have missed it.  It is definately worth a visit.

Belper Art Trail Submission - Schadenfreude

Even though I am an organiser of the Belper Art Trail, this year, I got to submit some work.

When we set up the theme of Recontextualisation, I didn't think I had anything I could work with, however, after picking up a book that has sat on my shelf for quite a while, quietly waiting for me to pick it up and read it, Status Anxiety by Alain De Botton has given me a revived interest.  I had made a whole body of work based around the emotion of fear, using symbolisms that encompassed that visceral feeling of repulsion.  So my submission for the Art Trail will be around Jealousy and Envy. 

The working title is Schadenfreude - Schaden = Harm nad Freude = Joy meaning the satisfaction or pleasure of seeing someone else's misfortune.

This is actually turning out to be quite a tricky emotion, not many people will admit to feeling it and I have come to realise it is one of our most secret emotions.

I can't post any pictures of the work in progress, because I am waiting for my new camera to arrive! Oh the excitement... I'm so looking forward to catching up with taking photos of all the glass eyeballs I have watching every move I make around the studio.  Feel free to feel jealous of the fact that I have a new toy to play with... I'm just hoping it will be here in time for the trip down to the Vibe Gallery in London for the Desperate Artwives opening night.

Not my eyeballs, but someone elses...

Draycott Arts & Gardens Festival, Day 1

I had a really lovely day yesterday at the Draycott Festival.

It's a very relaxed atmosphere at Draycott, its the second time I've taken part and have enjoyed the experience each time.  It feels very friendly and open with no pretensions.  In the garden Stevie Davis has hung some beautiul glasswork on the blossoming tree, looking as though these forms have almost mutated out of the branches.

Fuschia Glasswwork by Stevie Davis

Venue 2, Draycott Arts & Gardens Festival

I was sharing the space with a couple of jewellery makers of very fine and very delicate silverware, I have to admire such patience when making such a delicate item.  Karen Victoria, a mixture of self confessed 50's housewife accompanied by a fear of facepaint.  We were treated to a session by the Guerilla Drummers who set up for a set in the garden and just as we were starting to wind Sophie Snell turned up and told us a beautiful welsh story about ancestry, love and fish. 

I also said goodbye to a painting yesterday and happily sent it off to its new home, where I hope it will be very happy.  My new range of cards are also being well recieved too, having decided I should put my doodling to a good use and produced some cards which I'm pleased with.

So as I sit and listen to yesterday's Desert Island Discs and wait for my coffee to brew, I'm anticipating another lovely relaxed day, with good conversations with visitors and today I shall have to visit the lady at the end of the road who sells CAKE!

Titles of Paintings

I've just read the first part of an article on how the titles of paintings influence how the painting is interpreted. Lately, I've been thinking about how I title my paintings and come to the conclusion that they lack the personal element that guides the viewer to the meaning behind the image and that made them feel rather dull.

When I made sculpures, I would spend hours thinking about the meaning and how to title the work, mainly because they were so abstract, I felt I needed to give the viewer a clue as to what my work was about whilst leaving them enough room to develop their own interpretation.

For example, the images below were part of a body of work with the long and convoluted title of 'People Often Talk About Being Scared of Change But for Me I'm More Afraid of Things Being the Same'  Its so long, I have to get the catalogue out to remind myself of the title... But this work was the result of a year long research & devlopement process so perhaps the title reflects those long hard months of painful thought processes.

I think my now 'neutral' titles, such as 'View towards Belper' while being factual, give the viewer very little clue to the thought process or the visceral feeling I have towards that place.  I have got lazy with my thinking and perhaps in opposition to the longer titles, I have gone to the other extreme, which feels rather dull.

So when I dropped 3 paintings off at Crich this morning, I had retitled them, 'View Over Belper' has been renamed 'Where I Walk My Dog' because this is an area where I walk my own Shaggy Muse, Maybe.

I'm hoping this retitling will convey some of the sentiment & feeling behind each image I produce and this may even spill over into the art, making the work more exciting.

Festival Preparations

I've spent most of the day mounting & cello wrapping some postcard size paintings, just little abstract pieces done from memory, of a lanscape, an area glimpsed from the car window or a mountain range.  I'm really pleased with how they look and they are now ready to take over to Draycott Arts & Gardens Festival on Sunday.  The festival opens on Sunday at noon and runs through til 5pm Monday.  I'll be showing my paintings this year.  I feel that I am finally finding my way of expressing myself creatively, by using paint.  I have tried sewing, sculpture, textiles, mosaic but keep coming back to painting, so for now, that's what I'm sticking with.

One Drawing a Day

I treated myself to a couple of new books this week.  One of them is One Drawing a Day by the members of Studio 1482.  The first day's drawing was a simple line drawing, which I really enjoyed doing. These drawings took about 5 minutes each.  The idea is to move the pen and the process of drawing, not the outcome.  I particularly liked the first drawing.

A lot of the exercises are not new to me, I did a lot of them while doing my art foundation course, but its a good reminder of them.  I planning to run some drawing workshops when I have taken myself through a few more exercises.  Its just a case of being more disciplined! I think drawing is a good practice to keep up, the ability to capture something you observe with a few lines is a skill well learnt.

Desperate Artwives Exhibition, Vibe Gallery, London

The Blue Tree by Christine Gray

I am very very happy to say that my work got selected for the Desperate Artwives Exhibition at teh Vibe Gallery, Bermondsy, London on the 19th May until the 29th May.

The Blue Tree has been selected to show, its a mixed media piece that I painted a while ago. I was looking at Franz Marc at the time and was inspired by his blue horses paintings which are a favorite of mine.

The Large Blue Horses by Franz Marc.

Blue Horse II by Franz Marc

Marc was part of the German Expressionist movement in the early 1900's and his paintings are just beautiful.   So I'm incredibly pleased that my painting which was directly inspired by him was selected.  It was an indulgent piece of work by me which I enjoyed doing.