Elsewhere: Messages

Messages
2020
Elsewhere, The Stove Network, Dumfries
Photo credit: Kirsten McEwan

As we all know 2020 has been a bit of a bonkers year. There have been huge challenges for us all but there have also been opportunities. One of the challenges for me (not actually covid related) has been finding the time/reason to write about my work. It's something I've really missed the past couple of years but there is, of course, a way to fix this; i.e. to do some writing. 

Messages
2020
Elsewhere, The Stove Network, Dumfries
Photo credit: Kirsten McEwan

One of the most exciting things I've been involved with this year is The Stove Network's Elsewhere project. This grew from their Homegrown project (which I was also part of with my Feathers of Hope) and is also part of their Atlas Pandemica project. 

Messages
2020
Elsewhere, The Stove Network, Dumfries
Photo credit: Kirsten McEwan

It's exciting for a number of reasons; firstly it's a really interesting project, secondly it's been a great opportunity to get involved in my local arts community and thirdly it involved actual real life happenings! In previous years that might not have been quite such a big deal but this year having the opportunity to show physical work in a physical space and to be involved in an actual event with actual people attending has been something quite extraordinary. 

Messages
2020
Elsewhere, The Stove Network, Dumfries
Photo credit: Kirsten McEwan

For my part in the Elsewhere project I was commissioned to create a piece of work that could be displayed in Dumfries town centre. I wanted to develop some of the ideas I'd started playing with during my Feathers of Hope micro commission and I wanted to look at ways of sharing our thoughts and feelings about the unprecedented times we were living in. One of the options for display was to use an empty shop window and I was really keen to explore this offer. During lock down our town centres became very different places; at once familiar yet changed and strange, an echo of so many elements of our lives this year. 

Making envelopes!

At the time I was also developing an online sketchbook making course (which is now available if you fancy making your own books) and I was making a lot of envelopes. This inspired me to come up with the idea of an installation of envelopes, combined with my drawn feathers. 

Drawing on my envelopes

I wanted to use envelopes and feathers for both practical and conceptual reasons. Envelopes are used to carry messages, to communicate ideas, thoughts, dreams, secrets and feelings. Envelope can also mean to wrap and protect and I like this dual meaning. I wanted to explore how we felt, our hopes and dreams at this strange time but I was also very aware how fragile these thoughts and dreams can be, how in need they are of protection. Similarly; the feathers represent us and our hopes and dreams, they are both delicate and strong. 

Some of my envelopes

To emphasise this duality of strength and delicacy, familiar and strange, I chose to work with tracing paper to make my envelopes. The transparent material allows us to see inside the envelopes, to see what secrets they might contain. The envelopes both protect and reveal their contents. Some of the envelopes were empty, some had feathers drawn inside them, some contained drawings of feathers and a couple contained actual feathers. 

Installation day

I love working with transparent materials, I love the delicacy and the ethereality of transparent materials. I wanted my installation to have a feeling of almost not being there, being something intangible, as our hopes and dreams often are. As much as I love them, the big downside to working with transparent materials is that being see through they're difficult to see and really difficult to photograph! Luckily for me Kirstin McEwan took some excellent phots and has kindly allowed me to use some of them.

Installing

My work was installed in an empty shop window in Dumfries town centre. I don't think I've ever enjoyed installing a piece of work so much! After months of cancellations and uncertainty it felt so exciting to be working in a space that wasn't in my house and I loved seeing people stop and watch what we were doing as the envelopes went up. It was also nerve wracking as I had an idea in my head of what it would look like but until the work goes up you never know if it's actually going to work! I was lucky to have lots of help and encouragement from Katie Anderson at The Stove and again, being able to work alongside another person was such a good feeling. The piece even made it into the local press!

My installation was just one part of the Elsewhere project and in mid November The Stove held an 'Elsewhere' event where work from the project was displayed in vennels and other spaces in Dumfries town centre over two consecutive evenings. My envelopes were hung in The Stove Cafe and I loved the way they became more and more difficult to see as the cafe windows steamed up on those cold nights. 

'Messages' installed in The Stove Cafe

Mr. Stitches and I really enjoyed exploring the town and discovering the other artworks on that cold November evening, being relatively new to the area it felt like an adventure going into tiny vennels we'd have missed otherwise. We felt that we got to know the town and it's artists a bit better and it helped us feel more a part of that community. 

Work by Simon Lidwell

This sense of community and involvement is one of the things I've enjoyed most about being part of this project. It's helped me feel connected and a part of the artistic community. Throughout the ethos has been supportive and encouraging and I hope that I will continue to be involved and part of this community. 

Inventive Sketchbooks at Cloud 9

Set up ready for the workshop

If you've read this blog before you'll know that I love running workshops, I love that each time I run a workshop it's different and I learn something new, even when I've run the session many times before. Yesterday I ran my 'Inventive Books' workshop at the lovely Cloud 9 Studio Gallery in the centre of Dumfries. I had three great participants and we all had a productive, creative and enjoyable time. The gallery is a lovely place to visit, there are lots of lovely things to look at (and buy!) and Julie, the owner is really friendly.

Making pages for our folded books

Making pages for our folded books

Making pages for our folded books

It's unusual for me to have such a small group, hosting workshops can be expensive so generally places need a higher number of participants to make it work financially. It's a very different dynamic working with a small group and it was a nice change. The participants were all very creative people as well so that also changed the dynamic, throughout the day I had to remind myself that I was working as it was such a relaxed atmosphere it was more like a creative conversation than teaching.

Folding our books

Folding our books

Folding our books

I shared my processes for making my favourite folded sketchbook and envelope sketchbook and everyone had a chance to make one of each using a selection of papers that they felt inspired by or drawn to. One of the reasons I love making my own sketchbooks is that I can select the papers I use and make it personal to me. I like to draw on a range of different papers so making my own books means that I can pick out the papers I like and use them to create a sketchbook I know I'll want to work in.

Making covers

Making covers

Beautifully finished folding book

We also discussed ways of working in sketchbooks. Like many things, I think that for most people getting started is often the hardest part. As a starting exercise I gave everyone a word or phrase to get them going, I kept these deliberately vague so that lots of different ideas could be generated, it doesn't matter if these ideas don't lead to a final piece the important thing is to get going and start the creative process both in terms of thinking and making. Over the years I've backed myself into a corner (creatively speaking) so many times by getting overly focused on finding the 'right' idea to work on. Over time I've learnt that it's better just to do something, anything as the thoughts and ideas will flow much more easily.

Starting to work in our sketchbooks

Starting to work in our sketchbooks

Starting to work in our sketchbooks

Sketchbooks are very personal things and I love that each one made on this workshop is so different and reflects the personality of its maker. I finished the workshop feeling inspired by the conversations we'd had and happy that I was able to share some of my favourite techniques and hopefully inspire my participants to carry on their creative journey.

Finished books

Finished book

Finished book

Even more Sketchbook making shennanigans

Assorted books made by members of Myriad Studio group

One of the things I enjoy about running workshops is the challenge of adapting what I'm teaching to suit my audience. Back in November I got to run my Inventive Sketchbooks workshop twice in one week but for two quite different audiences. The first one was for Myriad Studio art group, led by artist Katarina Prior and based at Eden Arts in Penrith and the second was at Carlisle Youth Zone for the Junior club (ages 7-12.) Two quite different audiences...

Looking at samples

Choosing papers

Choosing papers

The Myriad Studio session was a lot of fun but also really quite relaxed. Everyone was an adult and had come not just to learn something but for the social and therapeutic benefits of art making too. There were also a few people I knew who'd been on some of my other workshops which was lovely. It was a very friendly group and I was able to run the session in a very laid back, informal way, taking people through the process step by step and helping when needed but mostly just chatting! It's lovely working with groups like this, it hardly feels like work at all and I often get to have a bit of a play myself.

Creative chaos!

Creative chaos!

Creative chaos!

In contrast the session at the Youth Zone was what you might call action packed! I really enjoyed it, it was a lot of fun and I was lucky to have some fantastic staff supporting me but I was also very tired at the end of the session. We were busy all evening, the workshop was run on a drop in basis and we had so many children come and join in which was really good. There's often an interesting dynamic with workshops with energy going back and forth between leaders and participants; for this session it was high energy the whole evening and so by the end of the night I was ready to drop.

Finished books...

Finished books...

Finished books...

It's very different working with adults and children and I get a lot out of working with both groups, I like the differences and adapting what I'm doing and how I approach things for each different groups. One of the things that I love about working with people in general is being able to light that creative spark; whether it's showing someone who's already very competent a new way of doing something and sending them on new creative path or seeing a child genuinely proud of what they've been able to create with me. Sometimes I look at my schedule and think I must be insane but other times I look at what I actually do in that crazy schedule and realisle how much I love it how lucky I am to be able to do this.

Tullie House Workshop: Mixed Media books inspired by Anselm Kiefer

Experimenting with different papers

I've been a bit behind on my blogging recently so over the past couple of weeks I have been catching up. I usually like to write up what I've been doing straight afterwards so that it is fresh in my mind but sometimes I just don't feel like it! Sometimes it's good to blog afterwards as it gives you a bit of time to think things over and reflect on things. I started blogging as I was doing so many different things and I wanted somewhere to record and share what I'd been up to and I find it really useful, it's also good to be able to look back through my posts and see all the different things I've done and how I felt about them at the time.

Tea and cutting and sticking. Happiness!

Some of our prepared papers

Anyway, on with the post! I did a workshop for Tullie House in November that I haven't written about yet. It was a bit odd as there was only one participant and not only that but the workshop was part of a much bigger project so the project co-ordinator was there too meaning two of us to one participant. Despite this it was actually a really good day, lots of exciting ideas came out of it and we experimented a lot. I'd worked with the project co-ordinator before on a community arts project a few years ago so it was good to catch up and work together again.

Seagulls...

...and envelopes were recurring themes

In February Tullie House have got a big Anselm Kiefer exhibition coming up in partnership with Artist Rooms. I' really excited about this exhibition as Kiefer's work and his approach to art making are really interesting and inspiring. It's especially exciting as I've been asked to get involved in several of the engagement projects running alongside the exhibition. This workshop was for a project working with disadvantaged young people and I was asked to give them a brief introduction to his work and then run a practical workshop. The idea was that this introductory workshop would help us gather a group of participants to work on a bigger piece in the New Year which could be shown with the Kiefer exhibition.

Experimenting with sculpture ideas

Experimenting with sculpture ideas

Throughout his career Kiefer has made books and he is famous for the range of unusual materials he uses in his work so I decided to do the workshop on mixed media book making. As we only had the one participant the workshop ended up being more of a creative experimentation day, we played around with different materials, talked through lots of different ideas and generally just had a good creative time. We focused on making different surfaces that we would then be able to work into and make into books. At the end of the session we had an interesting array of surfaces and papers to work on in future workshops and a whole load of ideas for larger pieces. We also made envelope books to use as little sketchbooks to keep with us and record our ideas. I really hope that more people can be recruited as this a project with a lot of potential.

Envelopes made of different papers ready to make a sketchbook

George Howard Envelope Workshops #2

Mixed media collage

Last week I ran the second of my envelope workshops at William Howard School in Brampton. It was quite a different group to last time but once again they came up with some excellent ideas and made some lovely work. I'm really looking forward to seeing the work up in Tullie House for the George Howard exhibition in a couple of weeks.

Design inspired by Olympic stamp

Collage and pencil envelope

The workshop was inspired by George Howard's imaginative envelope designs that he created when writing to his children. It was interesting that to start of with this group chose to do their own variations on the designs I had done rather than coming up with their own ideas. However, as the day progressed and they became more confident they became more willing to try out different ideas.

Trying out 3D ideas

Experimenting with materials

There was a very large quantity of sequins used in this workshop, one group in particular were very keen on shiny things and it was amazing quite how much glue and quite how many sequins they could get onto one envelope! I like seeing how some of the students really respond to the different materials where as others are much happier with something they know, like colouring pencils. I think workshops like this are a great opportunity for students to try something different and experiment in a relaxed environment without fear of it being 'wrong.'

Imaginative fire design

Landscape Collage

Olympic inspired envelope progressing

Design inspired by 'lion' stamps