Feathers of Hope: Homegrown Commission

Day 1 Hope for Clean Air
Pen on handmade paper

In the ongoing roller-coaster of emotions and experiences that is the 2020 Covid-19 crisis there are lots of glimmers of hope and positivity. Over the 10 years I've been writing this blog one of the recurring themes has been "and I would like more time for my own practice." Be careful what you wish for! In truth though the past few weeks have offered me the chance to really focus on my practice and I'm very grateful for that. I've also been finding new ways for me and my work to 'get out there,' mostly in a digital rather than a physical sense of course! In this post I'm going to share one of the ways I've been sharing my work.

Day 2. Hope for Kindness
Pen on tracing paper

The Stove Network is an artist-led organisation based in Dumfries and they believe that the creative community can and should play a key role in the development of the region. One of the ways they have been supporting their members during the pandemic is to offer micro commissions as part of their 'Homegrown' project. The key tenets of this project are open-heartedness, solidarity, perseverance and insight. The micro commissions are for small week long projects that embrace one or more of these ideas.

Day 3. Hope for Inventiveness
Coloured pencil on inside of an old envelope

I was really excited to be selected for one of these commissions for my 'Feathers of Hope' project. It was a simple idea; each day for a week I would draw a feather and share it along with one of my hopes for the future that will come after this pandemic. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about how we have the opportunity to create a fairer, happier society and so this project was a good way to focus some of those thoughts. The feathers and hopes were then shared on The Stove Network's Facebook and Instagram pages each day.

Day 4. Hope for Art Education

I was also excited about the opportunity to share work with people in my local area. As we're relatively new to the region I'm still finding my way around and it's great having organisations such as The Stove Network to help get to know what's going on. Even though we didn't move far last year we did move to a new region and indeed a new country and so it takes time to get to know what's going on and the people involved. Everyone I've come across has been so friendly and helpful and the positive arts scene in Dumfries and Galloway was one of the factors in deciding to move.

Day 5. Hope for Food Origin Awareness
Free motion embroidery on rust dyed silk organza

Taking part in this project has been such a positive experience for me. As well as being a good confidence boost it's introduced me to lots of other wonderful creatives and helped me feel more a part of my local arts community. It's also given me a good 'daily focus' and I found I very much looked forward to creating the drawings each day. Having a reason to give myself that time to be creative each day was very beneficial and led to lots of other work in the studio too, more about that another time maybe!

Day 6. Hope for Nature
Ballpoint pen on reverse of gold paper

As part of the commission I was also asked to create a short video about my practice. I'm not really that technically minded and have a fairly limited idea of what I'm doing when it comes to making videos and so on but one of the good (if also rather stressful) things about the current crisis is that it has forced me to learn how to do things. I now have a slightly less shaky grasp of video making and sound recording. These are really useful skills and as I'd been thinking about creating some online courses before the pandemic anyway I hope they're going to stand me in good stead! Making the video was also a good opportunity to think about my practice and what the really important bits are that I want to share with people.

Day 7. Hope for Positive Changes
Pen, chalk and pastel on coloured paper

As usual I've not written the post I intended; I was going to write about the actual work and the hopes for the future but writing this post has been a good opportunity to reflect on the experience as a whole so I'm going to hope (see what I did there) that the work speaks for itself and I also hope that you've enjoyed it!

The January Challenge

Weird Auto-Collage of The January Challenge images

In my 'end of year' blog post I wrote about the Instagram challenges I'd taken on and how I'd found it a good way of keeping up with a regular creative practice. With this in mind I decided that I'd do 64 Million Artists 'The January Challenge' to kick off 2018. The basic premise is that everybody is creative (something I believe very strongly) and the challenge gives you a prompt/small task everyday to get you thinking and creating. I'm also trying to keep up my daily drawing (so far, so good) so I was hoping that the two might tie in together quite nicely. 

Day 25: Potion
Solar Dye Jar

Day 28: No Place like Home

The challenges were not at all like I expected, I had been expecting more of an artistic challenge but many of the challenges were much more along the creative/try something new line. This is not a bad thing, it just wasn't quite what I expected. Some of the challenges I really didn't enjoy; mainly the ones to do with dancing and noise but what I did like is that all of them made me think. I've enjoyed having a 'focus' each day as often it's been something I wouldn't have come up with myself. I didn't share all of the challenges but I did do them all, even the ones I didn't like. Doing the challenge is definitely good for mindfulness and I think there are a lot of things I've seen and learnt from this challenge that I'll continue to think about and maybe develop going forward. 

Day 10: Paper

Day 14: Sink or Swim
Boat made from baking parchment and yarn

Day 24: Quote

Not surprisingly the challenges I enjoyed most were the drawing and making challenges. I particularly enjoyed Day 19: Over my Shoulder challenge which was to draw with your non-dominant hand what you could see over your right shoulder. I really liked this as it made me draw things I wouldn't normally and pushed my drawing practice. I also really liked Day 10 which was to create something from a sheet of paper. I twisted and wrapped a piece of A4 paper to make a little bird, something I've been meaning to experiment with for a while but not got around to so it was nice to have that incentive.

Day 19: Over my Shoulder

Day 2: Five faces in five minutes
Five 'blind' self portraits

Day 20: Advert

I also surprised myself by really enjoying the writing challenges. I like writing and spend quite a lot of time doing it but I rarely do any 'creative' writing. I often write things in my head but I never get them onto paper so I enjoyed the challenges as it gave me a chance to do this. I really enjoyed the challenges involving poetry, as I created 'accidental' poetry and I really love the random, unpredictable nature of the process. For instance, for Day 12 I created a poem using lines from the books by my bed. I chose a line from page 64 (for 64 million artists) and then pages 12,1,20 and 18 to make up the date. The resulting poem was mostly nonsensical but I enjoyed it! 

Day 12: Our Poem

Abominable is described,
Wearing a pretty painful glove
And over every living thing
Dare to suggest
The most important rule

Day 23: Blackout Poetry
Page from a gardening magazine

One of the things that I have enjoyed most about the challenge is seeing how other people have approached things. Part of the aim of the challenge is to share what you do and I've been really inspired by seeing how differently people approach things and I've enjoyed being part of the community, sharing ideas and inspiration and quite a lot of humour. I've enjoyed taking part in this challenge but I must admit that I'm pleased it's finished! I'm looking forward to keeping up with making a little creative time for myself each day but I'm also looking forward to focusing more on my drawing again.

Day 26: Spirit Animal

Day 16: Story

The light fades fast, the sunset unseen behind dense banks of cloud drifting at speed across the wide sky. Still she sits, waiting patiently, a solid still point in a spinning world.

Darkness gathers but street lights and headlamps keep it at bay. Waiting still, the world slows a little as curtains close and doors shut.

Then the turn of the key in the lock, the sound she has been waiting for. Slowly, carefully, she gets up and stretches out, ready to greet him. They have stories to share and the world keeps turning.

Reviews and Resolutions

Mull of Galloway, my birthday weekend away this year

It's that time again to reflect and think about the year that's been and the one that's to come. I've just re-read my post from last year and it's interesting reading how I felt then compared to now and also what I remembered writing compared to what I did write. It was a positive post and after looking back on it I think that overall I've carried that positivity through 2017 and more or less stuck to my aims/resolutions.

Drawings from Inktober 2017

Drawings from Inktober 2017

Drawings from Inktober 2017

One of my aims was to prioritise my personal creativity and I think I've done that pretty well this year. I've taken part in several creative challenges over on Instagram including a 100 Days challenge (do a creative thing each day for 100 days), Inktober (an ink drawing everyday in October, following a series of prompts) and Make it Christmas (a different creative textile challenge each day in November.) These challenges help keep the focus on creativity, offer new perspectives (sometimes I hated the prompts but they made me think!) and give a good reason to do something everyday. I also found they encouraged me to try new things and helped me not to get stuck in a creative rut. Although I found it hard to keep going through the challenges I also found I missed them when I'd finished and it's very satisfying looking back and seeing the project as a whole. Yet another benefit is that it brings you into contact with other creative people and can spark some really interesting exchanges. I'm going to start off 2018 with another challenge, the 64 Million Artists creative challenge for January. Why not join me?

Felted vessel, made as a birthday present for a friend

Feathers collected on holiday

Beautiful big skies on Westray

I also had a good creative year with my personal practice, showing my work in an exhibition with Daniel Cooper entitled 'Sky High' at Farfiled Mill this autumn and being selected for the 'Draw the Line' exhibition at Surface Gallery, Nottigham in April. I've been experimenting with different media and developing ideas and techniques, including natural dyeing and paper making (inspired by running some paper making workshops for Prism Arts.) My exhibition 'As the Crow Flies' at RSPB Geltsdale which ended in the early part of this year was an important 'kickstarter' for me and helped give me the confidence I needed to move my work forward. I've also been writing about my work more here on my blog as I've got more confident and I've found that very satisfying and useful for reflection. I'm going to be exhibiting at RSPB Geltsdale again in 2018, this time with my partner Nick Robinson who'll be sharing some of his poems. I'm really looking forward to our show 'Wingspan' which will open on 25th February. I've started a newsletter too this year so if you want to keep up to date with my news and exhibitions the subscription link is just under my profile.

Natural Dyeing: Solar Dye jars

Exhibition poster

Work in progress

Like all years 2017 has had it's highs and lows; the last three months have been quite stressful and even more busy than usual. I've taken on a new role as Lead Visual Artist at Prism Arts which is really exciting and I'm enjoying it but it is also quite challenging and different, it's taking me a while to adjust! It also means that I'm 'properly' employed 4 days a week now, squeezing my already limited personal practice time even further. However, as with all things it's a question of balance and I'm confident that in 2018 I'll manage to tweak the balance a bit more effectively. I've run lots of interesting workshops this year including sessions at RSPB Geltsdale and the lovely Eden Workshop in Plumpton. I really love running workshops so part of my balancing act is ensuring I have time to run them and enjoy them.

Bird portraits workshop at RSPB Geltsdale

Machine Embroidery workshop at The Eden Workshop

Paper making workshop for Prism Arts Studio Theatre West Coast group

In last years post I wrote about the increasing importance of the natural world to my personal and professional life. This is something I've continued to recognise, embrace and enjoy. We had a great week up in the Orkney Isles in May which resulted in several pieces of work and which is still inspiring me, along with our other holidays and days out in the wilds. My garden has been a riot of colour this year and using the plants I've grown to dye with has been a very rewarding experience and something I want to continue to work with.

The river Caldew, near our house

Tufted ducks at Talkin Tarn

Beautiful moss at the Wood of Cree

My second aim for 2017 was to live a more local, kinder life. After the madness of 2016 politics I felt I had to withdraw from that world as it made me feel so useless, ineffective and upset. I decided to focus my energies on the things that I could change and on making sure my actions were positive. I haven't done anything especially amazing but I've tried to support local businesses, be conscious about what I'm buying and where/how it was produced and to above all be kind and considerate to everyone I've dealt with (I've definitely not managed that every time but I'm trying!) This is something I believe in very strongly and will continue to pursue; if we all make an effort to be thoughtful, considerate and kind we can create truly caring and inspiring communities. With that thought, I'd like to wish you all a very happy, peaceful, kind and productive New Year!

Time to Play

My Stitched Collage Box from a workshop with Anne Brooke

As usual I've been busy with all sorts of different projects including workshops, an exhibition and a new and expanded role at Prism Arts. All this activity has left me feeling stretched a little thin and in need of a bit of a pick me up. Like many creative people it can be difficult to find the balance between your personal practice, the work you really want to do and the work that pays the bills (not to mention having time for a personal life.) I like the variety of my work and enjoy all the different aspects but inevitably there are times when the balance swings too far in one direction and this can be quite stressful.

Anne demonstrating and a selection of her boxes

Making the basic net for the box

Stitching the net together

Because I've had so many deadlines recently it's felt a bit stressful and like I didn't have much freedom in my work, I've had to work on particular projects in order to meet these deadlines even if it wasn't what I really wanted to be working on at that point. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I find a deadline helps focus the mind and can make me more productive but sometimes it can be a bit too much. Hopefully I'm now entering a slightly quieter period so can focus a bit more on what I want to do rather than what I have to do.

Cutting and sticking

Cutting and stitcking

Stitching

This also means a bit of time to play. Artists in particular often talk about play and it can seem like an unimportant, frivolous activity but actually play is really important. Children learn the skills they'll need in later life through playing; as adults we tend to neglect this side of our lives but it's important to keep playing as it helps you to keep learning. Of course the type of play changes, now play for me means trying different techniques and ideas in my art rather than hanging off the monkey bars (not that I was ever very good at that!)

Stitching

Main box and lining ready to be joined

A really good way to make sure you get your creative 'playtime' is to go on a workshop. One of the reasons I enjoy being part of my local branch of the Embroiderers Guild is that it gives me the opportunity to take part in lots of different workshops with lots of different tutors. I try to do as many of the workshops as I can because you never know what you'll learn and it's good to challenge yourself to try something different. It's also a good way to pick up teaching tips for when I'm running my own workshops! I've been programme secretary for the past two years at the branch which has given me a chance to book some really interesting and exciting workshops.

My box (front)

My box (top)

My box (side)

For our October workshop I'd booked Anne Brooke, a very talented textile artist based in West Yorkshire, to run her 'Stitched Collage Boxes' workshop for us. I was really looking forward to the workshop and it was even better than I expected. I thoroughly enjoyed the day, a chance to try something a bit different without the pressure of making a piece for anything in particular; just for fun. I felt so relaxed making my box, Anne is a really good tutor and shared lots of hints and tips but also left plenty of room for us to do things our own way. Everyone's piece is different, reflecting our own tastes and interests.

My box (side)

My box (side)

My box (open)

One of my favourite things about this workshop was that involved several of my favourite activities; first one being cutting and sticking. I love collage and really enjoyed playing around with different materials and layouts before moving on to another of my favourite activities; stitching. I also enjoyed the challenge of thinking about how a flat piece would look when it was made up into a 3D piece. I'm really pleased with my finished box and it's given me some new ideas of things to try as well as being a very enjoyable activity in itself. After my playtime I feel enthused and excited about getting back into my studio and creating new work.

All the boxes made on the workshop, ready to be finished