The past 2 fridays I’ve been attending a workshop at Salfor Uni on Stop Frame media. Led by the most helpful technicians Craig and Steve, I’ve been picking up tips on setting up, lighting, image sizes and this week have had my first foray into editing with Final Cut Pro and DVD studio pro.
I spent a couple of hours last week with limited materials and equipment producing and photographing the work, and here’s a rough edit of what I’ve produced
At the end of November I led a workshop for adults at the Brindley exploring graphite powder and animation. It was a successful day, with lots of interesting drawings produced which were made into animations on the day:
Participants experimented with hand cut stencils, graphite powder, mark making and using masking tape to create these drawings.
During November 2011 I’ve been working with 10 men and their tutors in the art class at HMP Wymott for the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston. The starting point for our work has been a painting of ‘Puck’ by the artist Richard Dadd.
“Puck”, a central character from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, sits on a toadstool while smaller fairy figures dance around him in moonlight. Dadd’s painting evokes the play in an abstract way featuring superb draughtsmanship, a powerful poetic imagination, an intense love of nature, and a mastery of dramatic lighting. For approximately 100 years the painting was in Preston, having been purchased during the early 1850s by Thomas Birchall of Ribbleton Hall, Preston and held by his descendents until the 1960s. In 2011 the painting was purchased for the Harris Museum & Art Gallery with the support of The Art Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Friends of the Harris Museum & Art Gallery and a bequest from Mrs Dorothy Wade, administered by Arts Council England.”
Like the men who took part in this project, Dadd was an incarcerated man, and it is this situation that has inspired the Portal. The men produced collages which were compiled into a book seen here. Inspired by Puck’s ability to change situations in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the collages consider what their creators would change in their own lives if they had the magical juice of the love-in-idleness flower that causes such confusion in Shakespeare’s play.
Themes of time passing and a desire for luxuries are to be expected from those who have too much of the former and not enough of the latter, but from those basic responses flourish fundamental desires for love, health, family, nature and change, resulting in this appealing collection of collages.
The collages were an important step along the way to completing drawings, which we animated using series of still photographs. The book and animation, plus a drawing on perspex were exhibited as part of the 2011 Harris Open. Together they form a narrative about time passing and transformation providing a window to the lives of the men who created the works.
Made by:Harris Museum & Art Gallery Access and Inclusion Officer: Kyra Milnes
Tutors:
Lindsey Hill, Paul Sanderson and Suzanne Snape
Education Department:
Sue Blackledge and Suzie Doyle
Project volunteer: Sue Seabridge
HMP Wymott
Manchester College
Harris Museum & Art Gallery
I’ve been working at Salford University as part of AA2A for the past 4 weeks, going in on regular Tuesdays to realise a piece of work that I’ve wanted to make on a larger scale. And it’s been useful. I’m not sure its entirely successful, but it has brought me to a new idea about how to use the process and a link to some of my more theoretical research. I’ve taken a break this week to reflect on the work done so far and to plan more work to come.
So here is the process I followed to create ‘Tearing Space Apart (Salford I)’
And some images.
And some video documentation:
The St Helens Open exhibition has come around again. I’ve submitted two works – one has been selected to be shown at the Godfrey Pilkington Gallery and the other is off to (what I term) the Salon des Refuses at MASH art cafe.
Private view takes place Tuesday 15th November 6-8pm and the exhibition continues until 17 December 2011.
St Helens Open
Godfrey Pilkington Gallery, 1st floor, Central Library, Victoria Square, St Helens
and
MASH art cafe, Haydock Street, St Helens.
Wednesday 16 November – Saturday 17 December 2011
My website has been updated with some recent works, including Motus:Immotus, Digi Dot-to-dot and Tearing Space Apart. New sections include a videos page, where I’ll be posting digital works, animation and films documenting process-based work and a books page where you will find a couple of my new forays into artist book making.
An exciting discovery has been Issuu, where i’ve been able to upload a pdf of my book and embed it into my website, giving a better feel than posting individual images. Thanks to artist Kate Smith who mentioned it on her blog for putting me on to it.
Halton-based artist collective Markmakers have been in 
residence at the Crmz, a new youth centre in Widnes as part of the borough’s Big Draw activities.
Carys Anne Hughes took her embroidery practice to the youth centre, creating a curtain with the young people that used continuous line drawing and pattern.
Jennifer Kenworthy, whose work features drawing, embroidery and landscapes, created images on a glass wall with the participants. Using sticky vinyl, they built up images in small pieces.
and repetition in her work, often using marker pen to draw directly onto metal etching plates. As part of this programme of work, Sharon exhibited one of her prints in a new exhibition facility at the Crmz, sharing real artworks with the young people in the centre. For this big draw activity, Sharon used her technique of marker pen doodles, this time making them onto paper lined pillars that form part of the architecture of the building.
Also working with the architecture of the newly refurbished building was Claire Weetman. In one of her works ‘Dicing with Drawing’ participants were asked to generate random numbers by rolling dice. They were then able to connect two numbers on the glazed wall of the building using black tape. Young people also created versions of this on paper, using a variety of drawing materials, the results of which were exhibited in the new exhibition frames for their peers to see.
Drawings by young people using chance, dice, and a variety of drawing media
Claire also likes to use Graphite powder to create drawings and has started working with animation in her practice. Working with a small group of young people she helped them to create a short animation called ‘Blink’. Using stop motion animation techniques, graphite powder and erasing, they created the following film:
The idea to make drawings of eyes came from the work that Markmakers member Sue Archer had created with a local primary school. The work pictured here is a hanging made from felt that features eyes, noses and mouths, creating abstract faces as it is viewed.
Right: Felt hanging produced by Sue Archer with a local primary school.
Photographer: Luke.
Claire Weetman worked with Cheshire East Council, Congelton Leisure Centre and it’s visitors on Saturday 22 October 2011 to create a Big Draw sporting spectacular. Digi Dot-to-dot featured a numbered course, laid out like a dot-to-dot, with flags and fun.
Children, mums and dads all joined in to select a sporting way of navigating the course, which was laid out in the outline of the London 2012 logo for Track Cycling. Space hoppers abounded, hula hoops rotated and families teamed up for wheelbarrow races around the circuit. Skipping dads, crawling mums and crabbing kids competed for top spot on the power lap board, where, unlike Top Gear, points were awarded for a creative method of travel rather than speed.
All of this exhausting activity was filmed from above where the cyclist image could be seen to greatest effect and edited into the following video where the traces of the people can be seen to trace the outline of the figure.Those who needed a breather from all this activity could release their creative juices on paper, completing dot-to-dots and making their own. Flowers, a combine harvester, sailing boats and a surfing cat were all drawn through the medium of dot-to-dot.
I’ve been selected for the AA2A (Artists Access to Art Colleges) residency at Salford University. The AA2A project provides placements for visual artists and designer makers in Higher and Further Education institutions across England. In 2011/2012, AA2A schemes will run in 32 institutions, providing 128 placements nationally. In the last 12 years, over 1,200 participants have had the opportunity to undertake a period of research or realise a project, using workshops and supporting facilities in participating fine art and design departments.
I’ve proposed to develop Motus:Immotus and Tearing Space apart – two works that have been initiated over the past 6 months, but now need public installation space to develop them further. Salford University has installation spaces at it’s studios but also exhibition and installation opportunities at the Lowry Outlet Mall and possibly also Media City.
More news about the residency will be posted here as things happen.
I’ve entered a drawing from 2008 into this competition by Saatchi Online. There are currently 2000 entries open for public vote in an art face-off. You pick your favourite from a choice of 2 drawings and they are all ranked according to how folks vote. The top 300 go through to a judges panel.
My entry is ‘One minute: Kyoto Station’ a drawing from 2008, but part of a series that i’m revisiting with plans for drawings from my recent travels in Portugal, Holland and Ireland. One minute of digital video is taken from a high balcony, or at the top of a flight of stairs. The video is then projected, and a drawing made that traces the movement of the people in the image.
The drawing is currently hovering between 140th and 220th place, so hopefully it will go through to round 2, but you can vote for the work here: http://www.saatchionline.com/showdown/match/showdown/8/artist/301963
You either need to register or connect with Facebook to vote – Thanks for taking the trouble.
