Contemporary Collage Week 5 : Decoupage

This week  in Contemporary Collage   we were looking at 'decoupage'  moving from making collage on flat surfaces to decorating an object. Artists we looked at included: Rauschenberg; Matthew Jackson; Peter Blake, Raschid Jackson: Grayson Perry; Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell 

We were asked to bring in something  that didn't mind collaging over, cutting up or adding to. I found this pink card suitcase in the childrens section of a charity shop and  having grand ideas  about  making a Shrine   for Lost Earrings , I also brought in a selection of the small  boxes I'd collected over the years when purchasing earrings. 

Apart from the usual losses/ breakages , I had a purse of  favourite earrings lost/stolen from my rucksack when left in the lobby of a hotel in Athens in 2002 . Some of them I had remade  but others were irreplacable  ( incuding some I'd bought in  Seraphos just days before) .  Since then I only take earrings on holiday that I wouldn't mind losing too much ( I mainly wear dichroic glass ones)

I   even made a  Journal Quilt   containing fabric I printed using scans of  earrings 

and have been meaning to make  an amulet against lost earrings for quite some years ( pictures below are from the excellent book on the subject by Sheila Paine. ) 

I'd gone through magazines cutting out anything to do with jewelry  or red and pink in colour  and had a fine time choosing strange images to stick on

I then found a picture of theatre boxes  from an old V&A members magazine  to  stuck  inside  and  decided to leave it as it was  ( with the addition of a Greek God ). Not so much shrine as suitcase theatre. A bit obvious  but working in 3D is still outside my comfort zone.  

 Unlike Judith  who  with her  architecture/ sculpture  background produced  this amazing structure  ( particularly like the internal space and reflections )

After lunch I turned my attentions to all the little boxes ( reminded by Simon of the boxes of Susan Hiller) 

I used scraps of fabric, sequin waste and foil; bits of braid and ribbon; old stamps :  quirky illustrations from magazines; fold out strips of paper.  As usual time passed too quickly and I'm just staring to explore the possibilities of combining them , stacking them , putting them together.  Some of them  might still end up as miniature pocket shrines.   

 I'll miss the 'bricollage' session next week as I'll  be  in Rydal   but Simon suggested I join in spirit  when I go on walks making  some assemblages  and taking photos of them.

Contemporary Collage week 4: Conceptual Wall Assemblage 'Head and Heart'

 Being a scientist  and generally making art  inspired  by landscape  or abstracted versions of things I've seen  and recorded, I find it difficult to work with concepts  and emotions  as themes.  But that was what we were  working with  last week. 

 The idea was to put up sheets of paper on the wall, pick a word based on 'states of being'  eg anger   and explore ways of expressing that in visual terms   eg what colour would it be , shape, size,  texture, quick/slow marks etc. We had an overview of   24 of these abstract terms and  examples of  how different artists had used them  eg Rachel Whiteread for 'volume'  casting the spaces under desks in resin ' and Luke Gottelier  for 'scale' making a studio for his hamster.

Working on the wall  ( or in my case a door) gave the opportunity to find links between different elements  and to expand to further sheets of paper.

We formed brain storming groups of 4 to discuss   our words and how they could be interpreted which was useful process, especially as I was way out of my comfort zone. 

As it's 3 years since I left Kew, this has been  on my mind a lot this week.  Initially my word was 'reflective'  but changed to 'regret'.  Working there for nearly 25 years, doing work I enjoyed and made a difference  both for conservation and in training people,  it was a large part of my identity. I used to squeeze art and stitching into any spare time. In the end I didn't need to find a job  but now while in theory I have all the time in the world to focus on art,  one of the main issues I've had to deal with  is deciding my own direction and motivation after being part of a team effort working towards long term goals.  I still miss my colleagues.   On the positive side , Faversham is proving a lovely place to live  and I've  already had  unexpected success in winning Fine Art Quilt Masters although now there are expectations of what I'll produce next! 

 So  lots of complex and conflicting  emotion there , how to express it visually?  I started off with a grid structure   of the growth room shelves and the  circles of Petri dishes , ideas about breaking out of the grid and  positive and negative  feelings.  

 I continue to have a bit of a thing about circles  and also the outlines remaining when you cut shapes out. This hasn't been part of my textiles so far but perhaps they should be .

At home , I finally got round to sticking in some more leftover bits in my 'scrap book' . 

Cwilt Cymru Exhibition 'Traces'

Not long now until Cwilt Cymru  exhibition 'Traces'  opens at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery. I'm honoured to have one of my  quilts feature on the flyer ( above) . 

I'll also be at the preview 'meet the artists' on Saturday 3 March 2-4pm 

Indigo Ripples 

Shorelines

Hidden Fractures

Fleet Mudflats

Contemporary Collage Week 3: Exquisite Corpse, Cut and Swap Hybrids

Week 3 and I brought in  secondhand books on Greek mythology and Australian Insects and Spiders. These along with   bits from magazines  provided the material for  playing ' consequences' ( or exquisite corpse) , swapping heads , bodies and legs or creating hybrids from unlikely subjects. We were shown examples from various artists, I  was particularly intrigued  by work of Hannah Hoch.  

Having gone down the more obvious route (examples  above) , as in previous weeks, I became intrigued by the negative shapes left when figures have been cut out    and spent the rest of the session exploring these 

 Here I  cut out a figure , cutting down through 3 pages and then swapped the figures around in  different backgrounds  including reverse of figures and pages.

Extending the red marks ( above), adding a Greek coin (below) 

I then repeated the process  cutting out 1 figure from 4 pages , flipping the figure over (above) , colouring in the space that was left ( below) 

Then using some of the negative shapes from the figures and  the reverse of a leftover Greek statue  I pieced the collage below , then did a rubbing (frottage )of it on tracing paper using graphite 

Drawing Tuesday at the Petrie Museum: small pots

 First Drawing Tuesday of the year for me - an afternoon at the Petrie Museum . As on a previous visit , I had lunch in the British Museum Members Room then visited the current exhibition' Living with the Gods'. Having listened to  all the episodes either on the radio or as downloads on my phone, it was good to see some of the objects discussed, a mixture of old items and contemporary pieces.

The final exhibit , shown above, featuring the Lampedusa Cross ;small boats made from bicycle mudguards and burnt matches ; and  plaster casts of  tshirts  commemorating  drowned refugees brought a lump to my throat.

 The Petrie Museum's cases are so jam-packed with items, it's overwhelming and difficult to choose what to draw.  Having found a reasonably  comfortable chair  with a table to spread out , my tactic this time was to  draw whatever was in front of me: small broken pots with faded markings and quirky double flasks. 

There was also the  bonus of  overhearing a curator explain to a couple of students about how to handle, measure and photograph objects and where to find further information about them - fascinating. 

I mainly used different sizes of sanguine PITT pens  and  pencil  but also experimented with some  khadi papers. I should do more of this ,it's so much easier to work on a toned background adding darks and lights ( white gel pen) and the texture of the paper adds another dimension.