New VALA Art Center

This is the wonderful new VALA art center space in Redmond town center.  I'm there every Friday stewarding the gallery & creating work in the cosy studio nook...

 

 

I have some exciting plans to deliver community projects with VALA this year so long as we can find funding!  It's great to be affiliated with such a vibrant and forward thinking organisation which is fast becoming a linchpin in the local community. 

PAPER:work

It's been another week of paperwork.....I've spent most of the last two weeks applying for grants, responding to call outs & writing project proposals.  If even a couple of them materialise then I'll be a happy girl!  One good thing about all these applications is I've really had to think hard about my practise & define exactly what it is I do.  It's made me think honestly about my strengths & weaknesses and what my true aspirations are.  To help me I've been following an online course by creativity coach Mark McGuinness called Creative Pathfinder which I've found incredibly powerful and it's free!  Definitely recommend it.

 

I've finished a couple more stitched paper collages based on the collographs I did a couple of weeks ago....

 

 

....yes it's me fishing in my kayak!

 

 

 

I'm using alot of glitter and sparkle, not sure why, I've resisted it for years thinking it was too 'crafty' but I'm in a kind of 'just go for it girl' mood at the moment and anyway if it's good enough for Fiona Rae....!  I'd like to do some much larger pieces like this, I really enjoy stitching on paper, but I free machine on top of the collaged pieces so I'm restricted by the arm size of my domestic machine.  Oh well, small is good!

Reflect

I'm working on a small series based upon collographs made from 'found' items from the shores of the lakes.  The prints although really textural are a little subdued in colour and some are just too dark for my taste so I'm playing with added collage and stitch.  They remind me of what might be glimpsed under the surface of a lake, the hazy shape of a fish or rock, or perhaps what might be reflected on the water. 

 

 

 

What joy this week to see birds returning to the garden, this little fellow and friends were dancing on the garden fence this morning ....

 



 

...a welcome sign of Spring!

Community mapping

I'm busy writing a grant proposal this weekend for a community creative mapping event.  I've had a few meetings recently with members of the City Hall, the local historical society & VALA arts organisation, all of whom have been really excited by my community work and keen to work with me.

There is however the small problem of funding!  I always believe that money follows passion so hopefully the lovely, generous people at 4Culture  will see that I have passion a plenty for bringing people together through the arts & I'll be able to run the event.

 

If successful, the project will centre around participants creating a large map of their town using drawing & stitch.  I've been playing around with possible outcomes, using drawings made by children visiting the gallery, collaging them against my own backgrounds and adding stitch and a little applique.

 

 

 

The stitching doesn't show up very well on the photo but it adds texture on the original.  This is a paper collage & starts to become a little fragile when heavily stitched, plus it's difficult to manipulate under my sewing machine so if funded I'm planning to use cloth during the event.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

High Fiber Diet

In search of inspiration I recently visited the High Fiber Diet exhibition at Bellevue Craft Museum.  This is a great space & it was a delight to see such a variety of textile work on display, from traditional quilting and basketry to free-form crochet - this was a wonderful large crochet piece by artist Jo Hamilton.

 

Interestingly and somewhat unusually, the curator had decided to put the artist's explanation of the work alongside it.  I'm not sure if this added or subtracted from the experience; I like to make my own interpretations of work & I felt that I was constantly evaluating the art work to see if it lived up to the concept.  As a consequence, the most powerful pieces in the exhibition for me were those in which the strong initial concept was effectively conveyed to the viewer through  artistry and skill.  This piece by Patricia Resseguie stood out as being both incredibly beautiful, displaying such a mastery of stitch & really conveying the fragility of human nature as described in her concept.

 

 

New Beginnings?

New Year, New Beginnings! 

I was tempted to start a completely new blog for 2013 since it has been so long since I've written anything but I don't really believe in 'new starts', there is always a history, an accumulation of events, memories.  I'm hoping that 2013 is the year I start to find my way a little, especially when it comes to my work.  It has started well, I have been nominated as 'Featured Artist' for 2013 by a local gallery, VALA, and even better, I sold both pieces of work which were in their recent exhibition.

This was a quirky piece made to celebrate the Centennial of our local town, a little more frivolous than I normally work but America seems to enjoy a bit of British humour! 

 

 

 

The Way Home

I've been quite disorientated during the last couple of weeks.  After a wonderful trip back to the UK during which I had an enjoyable time exhibiting at the NEC, I was thrust back into American life with quite a jolt.  One minute I was sipping a cup of Earl Grey in the sunshine, the next it was a tall soya latte in Starbucks looking out at the misty rain of Seattle.  I don't normally create pictorial work but this little piece came from the heart, a mixture of nostalgia and memories of home....

And so I find myself packing again, this time a trip back to the UK for an exhibition at the RBSA Birmingham and then onward to visit my beautiful daughter in Turkey.  With family now scattered across the world, I find I'm contemplating more and more the notion of 'home'.  Is it a fixed location?  Where do I consider 'home' to be right now?  Can I make a new 'home'?  Is 'the way home' a physical path to be followed or a spiritual one? 

So many difficult questions!  And I thought I was just making art!  For now I'll concentrate on packing my bags & leave the philosophical thinking for the 9 hour flight home!