Exhibitions

On Now  …… At Vicky Norman  Studio/Gallery in Bridgnorth Shropshire until January (http://www.vickinormanstudio.com) …  Vicky is showing a selection of my collagraphs and etchings as part of a mixed exhibition with other local artists and crafts people.

Open Studios Artists Winter Exhibition in the VAN Gallery in Shrewsbury Market Hall. There I have a drawing and two etchings of dancers on show. For more about all the Open Studios Artists see http://www.issuu.com/shrewsburyopenstudios.

20:20 Print Exchange at Hot Bed Press in Manchester   …  (http://www.hotbedpress.org/news-events/)  Friday 23rd Nov. 6 – 9 and Saturday 11 – 5  at the Cow Lane Gallery  next to Hot Bed Press. Each artist has one 20cm x 20cm  print (mine is ‘Pilgrim’ shown here) in the 20:20 exhibition which features 392 prints from 30 print studios from all across the British Isles and Ireland. The exhibition is in Manchester  only fleetingly for a week as it then goes on national tour starting at Neo:Artists Gallery in Bolton on 6th January.

Exhibitions … Coming soon

‘Dunaire’   opens in Dublin in December and there I have a large print included in the exhibition which is organised by Leinster Print Studio.

Encyclopaedia  Britannica   My allocated volume (one of 23) has recently been  turned into an ‘altered book’  in a joint collaboration with  artist Angela Martin and will join all the other altered Encyclopaedia  Britannica volumes in an exhibition in 2013. … more details and pictures about this project and Dunaire will follow when I have all the details.

 

Suddenly autumn is really here  and ‘Time’ as subject  is central to my life. The current print exhibition at Oriel Wrexham, Rhosddu Road, Wrexham, LL11 1AU,  Past Present Future has ‘Time’  embedded in the title. The exhibition celebrates 10 years of The Regional Print Centre and runs from October 6th until 1st December.

These are the 3 (of the total 27) plates I have made so far that are in the exhibition. Most of the prints haven’t progressed much beyond proof stage yet …  Soon, I promise myself, soon I really will find and / or make the time to begin printing some editions.  I have however  made up some more of the four digital  ‘Advice for Artists’ concertina books from the Artists proofs. These I’m taking to Manchester Artists Book Fair in the Holden Gallery this Friday 12th, tomorrow,  from 2 – 7pm  and Saturday 13th October 10 – 5pm.  I will have a table there alongside Marches Book Arts Group.

I have also returned to a butterfly image to signify time. It is a motif I often use.  A symbol for beauty, transformation, the soul and/or the transience of life.  My most recent  book … Allegro references the way time seems to speed up. Each book is unique and contains an original  relief print of a stylised butterfly printed on hand dyed paper together with manipulated digital prints from my photos.

” The Mouse Jubilee” Book is now complete. To get this far the total of mice caught by my grey tabby cat has reached eight and I have completed thirty five  drawings. So far I have made six completed copies but will need to make more before they make their first appearance at Llanfair Waterdine Art & Gardens Festival on June 23rd & 24th.

The first mouse book made an appearance in 2011 as a result of the note to participating artists about “… the increased mouse patrols to protect exhibits in the church …..” This year the church mice are multiplying and celebrating in this beautiful area close to Knighton and Offa’s Dyke.

I don’t normally make work with a political comment but this book ‘Cuts’ was created out of my anger with the coalition government, the recent massive changes to the NHS and the current austerity measures. Public Service budgets continue to be pared down while creeping privatisation is encouraged. Grrrrrrrr!
There will (eventually) be an edition of 10 books. The content & format has evolved from a single book I made last year called CropCutPain. The work involved in aligning, folding, painting & gluing is demanding and I forsee frustration & anxiety ahead if I attempt more than 10. Also I will have a new idea demanding my energies by the time I have made half that number.

The finished flag book  is currently  in the post on the way to be part of a 3-way Book Arts project that  has been co-ordinated by Jan Melville of Warringah Studios, Sydney, Australia, Sarah Bodman of the University of the West of England, Bristol, and Lin Charlston for the Sidney Nolan Trust.
Each partner organisation will contribute 15 small artists’ books by 15 artists to this travelling exhibition of 45 works.  Dates and venues for the exhibition so far confirmed are:
UWE Bristol – 2 July-31 August 2012
SNT, The Rodd – 7-16 Sept 2012 (PV 6 Sept) as part of  h.Art exhibition
Cardiff School of Art & Design – Sept / October 2012
Manly Library, Australia – November 2012
Milk Factory Gallery Bowral, Australia – January 2013

The text (hard to see in the photos)  is as follows … Benefit Cuts  affect health. Health Cuts infect everyone. Social Care Cuts affect the most vulnerable. Education Cuts don’t heal. Local Authority Cuts leave scars everywhere. Public Service Cuts  affect women more than men. Sport Cuts affect all ages. Culture Cuts  can lead to depression. Foreign Office Cuts can put you in isolation. Law& Order Cuts can be dangerous. Department of Transport, Economic, Food & Rural Affairs Cuts can lead to multiple organ failure. Energy & Climate Change Cuts will threaten future generations. Defence Cuts are potentially fatal. Bankers Cuts are almost invisible and currently there is no stringent treatment plan. For further information updates refer to http://www.robinhoodtax.org.uk

There is also included with each book a small sheet on first aid.

I discovered that I had resident mice happily living in my studio … right under the noses of the two cats who lie around asleep for most of the time. By the strangest co incidence I had just begun work on a second book about the Llanfair Waterdine mice for their arts festival in June
I quickly caught one mouse in a humane mouse trap and he/she spent the next two days in an empty fish tank while I was able to do some ‘ mouse drawing ‘. After seeing another scuttle past the cat food dish I reset the trap but twenty four hours later one cat had finally grasped the situation and managed to do what cats are supposed to do and caught it.
I have been told that you have to go 2 miles to let a mouse go or it will find the way back. However I let my ‘model ‘ go at the end of the garden to take a chance with predators. There was plenty of evidence behind the cupboards that s/he had been resident for some time so I have replaced the trap and will await developments.

 4 New Books

A project I began months ago which has stopped & started repeatedly suddenly accelerated and after some concentrated work finally  came together into  4 small books entitled  “Advice for Artists”. The first digital versions made it to Glasgow with the ink hardly dry. They proved popular and sales were very good. One print from the series is also currently in an Auction for Multiple Sclerosis.

The long term plan is to print a version with original etchings/drypoints and letterpress using the new traditional typography facilities  recently installed in the Regional Print Centre in Wrexham.

Wenlock Poetry Festival was inspirational. Marches Book Arts Group, which I currently help organise,  had a tent outside the  Priory Hall. Poets and poetry lovers came by to look, lots of them.  We shared the space with Deb Alma the  emergency poet who prescribed poems in her ambulance consulting room and Sally Crabtree who sang her poems as well as making edible verse. Poems recited, poems to eat and poems to “take 3 times a day with a cup of tea”

Lots of photos of the event now on  Wenlock Festival Site.

What came Next

While  involved in organising the Artists  books for Wenlock I was also gathering work ready for a trip to Glasgow International Book Arts fair  last weekend.  Glasgow was good in many ways, the central  location in the concert hall at the end of Sauchiehall  street,  the atmosphere, the helpful volunteers & organisers dressed in yellow and  especially the workshops which took place in the same space as the fair and generated lots of interest.

I came home surrounded by my own personal creative hum generated by viewing the diversity of work on show and through the many conversations generously  sharing skills, knowledge of materials & methods. There was wonderful thought provoking work from Julie Johnson of Essence Press,  Jane Hyslop  and Pat Hodson to name only a few personal highlights.

I have seen a lot of excellent exhibitions recently including Lost in Lace in Birmingham, David Hockney’s paintings  at the Royal Academy, Grayson Perry’s ceramics and tapestries at the British Museum and Illuminated Manuscripts at The British Library.  It has been a while since I have had such a concentrated exhibition experience, witnessed creativity manifest on such a grand scale and been so inspired and uplifted. Memories of what I looked at keep coming to consciousness bringing a positive emotional hit and I hope that as a result my awareness is sharper and I am a little more observant, focused and reflective. I have also thought a lot about my own practice.

I have continued to produce the usual pile of scribbles and notes while constantly shuffling ideas around but I have also undertaken some ruthless therapeutic recycling of failed work & abandoned projects, tidied up the studio and focused on making ….

Creativity has been much in my thoughts. What drives it? Why does it dry up?  How to rekindle it? My answer to myself is to stop procrastinating, stop doing other things, focus and just start to make some work …. This is where the Art Allotments project helps and instead of just looking at an envelope full of collage scraps  that arrived in my post some days ago  I finally tip it all out and begin to make some collages.  I work fast,  too fast to think… It works. Next I dig out an on going print project that ground to a halt some months back …. The  images are intended eventually for a small artists book … I tidy the etching plates up and print them again in colour. I make some modifications, talk to others and new ideas begin to start emerging from the fog. Hurrah