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!

Reflections, Resolutions and Revolutions

Winter blossom in my garden

I started this blog as a way to record all the different projects and things I'm involved in and all the different things I make and do. Over time it has changed and developed, as I have, and has been used for different purposes. Purposes such as recording, documenting, sharing and venting. I've hardly blogged at all over the last few months, not so much because I've been too busy (I'm always busy!) but because I'd lost sight a little of the point of this blog. Whilst sharing is one of it's purposes it's not the main reason I keep it going, it's main point is to give me a place to write openly about my work and therefore myself.

Spinning: I've now been spinning just over a year

Spinning

Hand spun

I've worked on some challenging projects this year and there are a lot of projects I haven't written up for various reasons, including that some of them have been very difficult and I've struggled to take the positives from them. This has led to me having a backlog of draft posts and the feeling that I shouldn't write anything new until I'd written up the older stuff. However, as it's the time of year for reassessment and new beginnings I took some time to think about my blog. Why did I need to write up those projects? What would happen if I did? What would happen if I didn't? Of course the answer is that my blog posts are only really important to me, it's great if other people read them and take something from them but ultimately the contents of this blog are mine and so it's up to me to decide what I want to put out there. Posting or not posting about a project or piece of work does not make it any more or less valid or important.

Walking and collecting natural materials has been a key inspiration this year

Wintry Gelt Woods

There's always green somewhere

This train of thought led to me deciding to delete all my draft posts, write this post and start afresh. If anyone is interested; almost all my projects are documented in visual form over on my Flickr account so you could head over there if you really want to know what I've been up to!

Knitting my hand spun yarn

2016 has been a tumultuous year in many ways for many people, I think we've all been forced to sit up and take note and maybe reassess some quite important beliefs. On a personal and professional level I've had a good year and I've learnt a lot. I've had some great opportunities this year and I feel that I've really taken a step forward.

I'm lucky to live in such a beautiful place

One of my biggest highlights is having my exhibition at RSPB Geltsdale, this has been so positive for me on many levels and I'm hoping to build on this in the coming year. It's given me an opportunity to focus on my personal practice and build a body of work and seeing it all up and on display has been a huge confidence boost. I've also received some really lovely feedback which has helped inspire me to push forward.

Exhibition Poster

I have two main aims for 2017, they are sort of resolutions but more a shift in thinking and acting. Firstly I aim to prioritise creativity; it is, I believe, an essential thing for all of us to express our creativity but too often it gets put to the bottom of the to do list. My whole life is built around my creativity yet still I get sucked into bad habits and neglect to make time to experiment and explore.

Jay, 2016

Secondly I am aiming to live a more 'local' life and be a positive part of my community. Political events this year have led to me wanting to withdraw and back away and I have lost a lot of what faith I did have in 'the system.' My answer is to do what I can in my life; I can't change the world on my own and I'm not big enough or brave enough to tackle the system but what I can do is be kind, considerate and careful of the people and the environment I live in.

Thank you for reading and I wish you all a very happy and peaceful New Year!

Reflections and Resolutions (sort of)

Blackbird Singing. Lino cut. 2015

As Christmas and the New Year rapidly approaches I find myself, like most people I imagine, reflecting on the year and making plans and resolutions for the next one. Overall I've had a really good year, I think the fact that it seems to have gone so quickly reflects how busy it's been! I'm starting to feel really comfortable with myself and feel like I'm doing a pretty good job of getting the balance right, not always of course but overall this year has been a lot less stressful than previous years and so I've enjoyed it more! I've worked on lots of interesting projects, met some lovely people, been to some lovely places, made some good art and craft work and generally just had a nice time.

Bird workshop with Key Stage 1

Needle felting at Tullie Textiles

Lino printing with my Prism Arts group

For next year I would like to carry on having a nice time and largely doing what I want but the main area I would like to develop (as in most years!) is having more time for my own work. I am fortunate that I spend the majority of my time working on creative projects and I love what I do and it pays the bills. Sometimes though I find my own practice slips which can be quite frustrating. As always balance is the key so I will keep trying and sometimes I'll get it right!

Embroidered Goose

Embroidered Goose: Detail

Embroidered Goose: Detail

Over the last couple of months I've been blogging less regularly, largely because although I have been busy with work it's mostly been bits and pieces and planning for things. I wanted to get a post in before Christmas so I thought I would just do a little round up and reflection of some of the things I've been up to as this seemed to fit in with the idea of reflections and resolutions.

Embroidered Bird

Embroidered Bird: Detail

Embroidered Bird: Detail

I have lots of exciting workshops lined up for next year so one of the things I've been working on is making samples and example pieces for these workshops. In February I am running a workshop at Tullie House based around embellishing printed fabrics, this has given me an excellent reason to work on some more of my stitched birds. This in turn has led onto some ideas for how to develop my own artwork, I have been drawing birds directly onto plain fabric and painting them and the next step is to start embroidering them. I'm excited about this and looking forward to seeing how it all works out...

Drawing on Fabric

Painted and ready to stitch

I have also been experimenting with my drawing a bit more. I almost always work in pen on paper with continuous line so I am trying to be a bit more experimental. This week I have been playing with ink, early days but I think this could lead to some interesting drawings.

Inky feathers

Inky feathers

Inky feathers

For my birthday this year we travelled up to Dumfries and as well as generally enjoying ourselves and having a nice break we visited the Gracefield Arts Centre. I was really impressed, I thought the spaces were beautiful and the exhibitions really interesting. I particularly enjoyed the Frost and Fire exhibition by Circle Arts and felt really inspired and enthused about getting into my studio and making my own work.

Birthday treat: Weekend away

Sunny winter walks

So, a good year has been had and I'm hopeful for another good year to come with lots of making, exploring and visiting. I hope you all have a peaceful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!