I'm floating on a sea of love!
I have hit a high point. I am over half way through my orders!!!!
I feel totally exhausted and immensely proud that i have even survived the past few months.
I can now relax a bit and plan the year, apply for projects, exhibitions and start thinking about new work. Derek my mentor has just made a film about our Make it at Market BBC! journey. It shows my time filming with presenter Dom Chinea and the beginnings of my plannings of the Lido Collection. It is a lovely reminder of how far I have come in such a short amount of time.
Having more time has meant more head space. It also means I have had mental time to devote to my kids. It has been hard for them, one doing GCSEs and the other applying for Unis. I have often felt like I have neglected them at the time they need me most. We recently had a very lovely few days in London. We fed our creative minds with exhibitions and ate glorious food.
I went to see The Glass Heart exhibition, which I loved. Seeing work up close and in person is such a treat an a feast for the senses. I was blown away by Pinkie Maclure's Compost Window. I spent ages trying to figure out what techniques and reactions she had used and the textures and mark making in John Pipers and Patrick Reyntiens work was incredible. I also visited the immense instalation's "Behind the Red Moon" in the Tate Turbine hall by El Anatsui. The wall itself is mind blowing. A huge curtain of crumpled, crushed bottle tops and found fragments all delicately and sympathetically pieced together portraying the importation of goods and people during the slave trade. It was a very powerful and dense structure wafting and floating in such a huge space.
The next place I visited was The Hunterian Musuem at The Royal College of Surgeons. An extraordinary array of anatomical specimens and surgical implements. The Gallery has over 3,500 specimens including plant animal and human anatomy. Cabinets full of glass jars all beautifully displayed with in depth explanations, its not for the faint hearted! I spent a few hours there and hardly touched on it, and I will definitely have to return.
I returned from the trip full charged, but also boiling over with new ideas! It's been quite frustrating not having time to work on my own ideas recently. I've very much had a head down approach and wanted to get peoples work to them as soon as was physically possible. I still feel a duty to do this, but its also important to find time to explore your own ideas and play. Last week I did just that. Two days over the weekend of designing and painting. I have an idea to make large vintage micropscope slides. I have always loved the collaged aspect of them, from the circular specimen itself, to the ornate pattern and the mix of typeface on them. I still have a large selection of pressed botanicals so it seemed like the perfect match. I have made 4 pieces so far and I love them. I aim to make more and then display them in an exhibition somewhere.
I am also planning a very large window. I have begun collecting various pressings of seaweed and will incorporate them in an underwater scene with painted elements. I think it will also have encased elements of plastic, but I need to do some test panels before I commit to it. Lastly The spring release of The Lido Collection is coming. I have about 30 pieces so far, but need to add a few more colours and poses. I aiming to have 50, but I need to get a wriggle on!
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