You're invited of course

So, it is official. We have put on an End of Residency show.
For me it is an achievement.  That I managed to complete my month's residency and have something that I wished to show - as a stimulus to the 2010 intake at the Fibre Department (if nothing else, I can hope for that).

Why are the receptions for art shows around here scheduled for the end of the exhibitions?
Surely that is not good for business?
See you there???

Work up and exhibition open

It took a lot longer than expected to put up 3 pieces of art and a shelf!
The walls are "drywall" (thank goodness - wet walls in a gallery space would be a nightmare) and it took ages to find the right fixings.  JAM was brilliant (no, I don't mean I finally used sticky jam, I mean himself).
Finally the work was up and I will post more details when I have the official flier from Melinda. The official poster ought to be more imposing than the image below.

Itching to get going....

Just back from summer holidays and as if the plans I have for the near-future are not enough to get me fired up for August and September...
Then the latest blog entry at Nudibranchs central has just got to be a put up job... If this worm hasn't eaten a shibori scarf then I'm a jelly-fish.
(Great work Gary - I hope I am OK linking to your blog and copying the image here...., as usual I am indebted to you.)

Spent the day doing the washing (yeh yeh yeh) and going through the studio - attempting to reduce the stuff by at least a tenth.  I think it is a sign of moving on - a ritual I go through every time I move on to a new phase of work.
I have got together a few pieces to exhibit at The Marion Nicholl Gallery. installation day is the day after tomorrow.  More info. on this to follow.
So now I can build on these pieces and develop more barking art...
I did get the source material for "Documentation" the next exhibition with Contextural.  So I want to work on that through September.
Here is to a busy time ahead.

It seems to me that the residency is just getting going.  I suppose some of the students wanted a bit of time to themselves without pressures - after term finished.  So this week I have seen more faces in college than previously.  It is a shame that I cannot continue through July and August.

This week has been a bit interrupted for me + I am feeling the effects of end of residency, as it dawn that I have only a few hours left to be there.  So this week i managed to get in on Monday, briefly on Wednesday, Thurs and today.  I will pack up on Monday.

Whilst at home and at ACAD I have continued with the worms.  This is a sample which I have finished unwrapping now and worn as a scarf (of course) it is not indigo but acid dye and is a great prototype for the next worm I will make.
I hope to exhibit a few worms, what is the collective noun for worms..?  at the ACAD show.

I have used the time to get some colour onto my papers and give some thought to if/how I might participate in the end of residency show.  I flow from yes to no and back again.

I know this image is incredibly difficult to see but it jut gives an idea of how I might display some of my tree bark papers.  I have many - but they are not finished and this just shows my thought processes.

My last week at ACAD

Even though I have a view out of the studio window that is shown above for your pleasure. today I was despondent.  I wrote up my 'diary' and as I did so I worked things out.  The difficulty with being alone at ACAD in the mornings as compared to working at home on my own (which I am quite used to) is that in my home studio I don't expect to be with anyone else.  Whereas the college is supposed to be buzzing with people.  Yes, it is quite a lonely existence there on your own.. rattling around the studios.
When someone does arrive I find myself babbling on and harassing the poor unsuspecting... with my lonesome chatter.  It isn't quite as bad as I make it sound... I am not begging for attention... but it might seem that way.

Anyway just as I was feeling all down in the dumps today they started to arrive and by the end of the day we had a busy studio with Jen., Lindsay, Ashley, Charis and Me.... wow... that is 5 people all there at once, a record.

To cheer myself up I collated what I have produced whilst at ACAD so far and it amounts to 36 pieces.  Some are just sheets of handmade paper, others are interesting coloured surfaces but the exciting ones are the ones I have worked into both with thread and sculpture and I feel that this is where I aim to go with the sheets that I haven't done anything with yet.
The piece above is dyed, sculpted whilst iron-staining occurred on a metal bucket! and pressure jetted.  Now I have added more jet stream and am waiting for it to dry.

It was very nice that I had some feedback on the pieces I had put up on the wall last week.  Melinda gave good feedback directly to me on Friday.  Rosanne had been in at the weekend (yes, that is correct English my Canadian friends.... At the weekend... not On the weekend...., but, On Wednesday (and not just Wednesday, In March.... etc etc...), and then today Charis offered some insights and so did Josi.  Now I am well-informed as to which ways I might take the pieces.  Thanks everyone.  Invaluable.

Now I am home, after shopping - Safeway very close to ACAD luckily... made Tacos for tea, Dan cooked up the chicken good man! and I did refried beans, with plenty of raw veg... better known as salad,  and now I am off to yoga.  Should be a great brain break.
Oh, but tomorrow is Mugs Morning for Al's class's mums.  So a bit of a commitment break there for me. Made 2x choc fudge brownies, no nuts and Gluten free for the group tomorrow as well this evening...so it turned out to be not such a bad day.  Or rather, I feel better with myself now compared to 11am this morning.  Despondency Disappeared.

One handed security lock management.

How do I feel about ACAD residency now?
I am proud to say that after three weeks of the ACAD home studio security I can now open the lock with one-handed.  This might seem like a small development, but believe me it isn't and will probably keep me coming back for more next year.

What have I accomplished apart from this?
I now have many (hand-made) sheets of brown paper! :-  brown papers that are iron stained and brown papers that are iron stained and are beginning to be sculpted.  Hmm... is that a lot to show for 3 weeks work?
You might not think so but I know how labour intensive it is to hand-make paper without a Hollander and pulper.  I only burnt out one blender (and even that wasn't entirely my doing, as it has probably been used for many student-hours before I got a hold of it).
Iron staining takes about an hour to set up at least two days to process and although I was, initially very excited about having access to all the rusted metal in the studio, I now find that there isn't enough to do a huge batch of rusting.  Next week I will try to track some more down at ACAD and I have plans to request use of some that I drive past on the industrial estate (called Manchester!) near where I live.  This is a piece inspired by palm tree bark.

I need to  challenge myself over the stitching(where it is necessary) otherwise I will end up with surfaces that look like other surfaces I have created in the past.

Above is an image of one that is not sculpted and was really just an experiment for edges... () and to see if my sewing machine can cope with iron filings and paper pulp that drop down the hole as I sew.  Conclusions: yes I can burn the edges! - but I will finish that off at home, the thought of having the whole of ACAD evacuated because of my paper burnings was too much for me.... and as to the sewing machine... only time will tell....

So what of my final week at ACAD next week?  I plan to do as much iron staining as materials will allow and stitch, stitch, stitch. If possible also place some pieces to shibori (I think I can use that as a verb!)
I hope I make time to sort out some pieces for the show in August... I have to do it now as I have other commitments between now and then, I must get organised for August and it isn't even July!
August 21st - Sept ???7th.  At the Marion Nicoll Gallery in ACAD.  Be there.

Beginning stitching

Sorry this image is a bit blurry.
Began with a dyed and rusted paper, overlaid some rust dyed interfacing.  Then a little stitching and quick flash with super hairdryer and bingo.  It is just pinned up on a wall (with a KMnO4 dyed IKEA mini-frame) in a dark corner of the studio -  hence the blur.

Lucky to have, unexpectedly, an hour or so in the studio on Tues...