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| Wild Carlisle by Carleton Day Centre Art Group, 2016 |
One of the big projects I was involved with for Prism Arts last year was the Seven Stories project. We hung the main exhibition in Carlisle Library in November last year and then at the beginning of this year we went back to the groups we'd worked with to create response work to the exhibition. I went back to the Carleton Art Group and had a great time working with them to create their response piece.
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| Design |
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| Felt making |
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| Felt making |
I've worked with this group for nearly five years now and we know each other well and this means that there is a lot of trust and understanding. My role has developed from more of a teaching role to more of a mentoring role. Through the work myself and other artists have done with the group they have developed in both confidence and skill and are able to lead their own projects much more. Seeing this development is really exciting and it's great to be part of. When I go in to work with this group I'm always excited to hear their ideas and see how far they've come.
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| Felt making |
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| Felt making |
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| Felt making |
Having created 'The Book of Carlisle' for the
Seven Stories project the group were keen to carry on exploring some
of the ideas they'd been looking at. Seeing the work alongside that
of the other participants at Carlisle Library helped the group
realise how important environment, place and nature is to them.
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| 3D Felt making |
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| 3D Felt making |
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| 3D Felt making |
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| 3D Felt making |
This led the group to decide to further explore
felt making, a technique we have worked with on several projects,
and to work with a theme of animals in the environment. The group created a collection of 3D felt animals
and a series of flat felt environments for the animals to live in.
These elements were then brought together in a form that echoed the
shape of the book they'd created. The new work has been added in to the exhibition in the library and will be on display until the end of April.
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| Making rabbits |
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| Making rabbits |
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| Making rabbits |
As a group they are becoming
skilled at creating individual elements that they then combine
together to create a unified single installation. I really like this way of working as it means each individual is able to develop their particular interests and skills but are also still part of something bigger. I love seeing all the different elements come together and seeing how they inspire and support each other. The group are at a really interesting stage because although I still feed in ideas and make suggestions the main drive comes from them and they have the confidence and experience now to say what they want to do and how.
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| Exhibition View |
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| Exhibition View |
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| Exhibition View |
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| Exhibition View |
One member of the group in particular has come on in leaps and bounds and being part of this is very rewarding. For this project she had a very clear idea of what she wanted to make (rabbits!) and with minimal guidance and help from me she worked really hard to create a beautiful and quirky set of characters that I would really like to kidnap. I'm working with the group again later in the year and am really excited about what they'll choose to explore.
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| Rabbits! |
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| Rabbits! |
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| Rabbits! |
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| Rabbits! |
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