Morning gossip

Heritage performance -?

I heard yesterday that folks in Argentina and Uruguay are trying to have the tango granted world heritage status by the UN. A heritage performance perhaps? And having recently had our haggis and neeps (mashed turnips) I wondered if the Scots should make a bid for the Burns Supper similarly. That is just as much, if not more performance as good meal!

The image at the top is another little piece I've just finished - just under 5 x 5" in size. It is astonishing being able to complete so many pieces in so short a time! This could become addictive.

chitter, chatter

a felicitous conjunction

Several years ago when visiting a garden open to the public I did a quick drawing of a couple on a bench, and was pleased with it. I wanted to use it for a piece of work, and tried it in different compositions - without success. I just did not like what I was making of it. So out came the drawing from time to time, and then back it went into the limbo file.

More recently, when at the exhibition A continuous line of Ben Nicholson's work, one aspect I was attracted by was in his drawings which combined outlines of gravestones and electrical pylons in beautiful simplicity as one. I cannot find images online, and someone else has my catalogue at present, (they can be seen at the exhibition here when it opens at Tate St Ives) so I include this drawing as not a perfect example of what I mean:It is that capture of the essence of now, including the past and the present which attracted me. In this case the ancient buildings seen with the electricity / telephone wires. In the drawings I saw, the relationship between graves and pylons was more equal.

This year I want to focus on placing the figure into a landscape - and somehow to manage to achieve this in a natural and contemporary way rather than an abstract one. I had not got very far with my thinking, except that I wanted to take inspiration from Nicholson's juxtaposing apparently jarring elements in such an elegant way.

At a friend's house I was looking out of the window, watching birds eating from feeders when my attention was drawn to the wisteria. I do enjoy seeing the shapes of the nude trees and shrubs in winter. Looking up, it seemed that the television aerial was growing out of the plant, and I knew in a flash that it was that Nicholson subject.
I did a drawing using the outlines of the house and one next door as a loose frame. I knew that I would use the greys and pale sun yellows of another piece I'd done: Fish grey,and then out of the blue the couple on the bench presented themselves. At last the composition they were waiting for. I do not have that facility with simplicity which I aspire to - not least when I realise that this is ostensibly a design for a textile to be stitched. And here lies the next challenge.

Repetition, a preliminary exploration

One aspect of work which I want to focus on this year is repetition. I have reused ideas and images of mine already. I have taken previous doodles or sketches and developed them into a work with content, but I don't count that as repetition. Sometimes I have taken the developed image and put that in an entirely different work such as with the conversing couple in the small stitched Conversation by the sea, still chatting in the quilt Every pebble an adventure. The pair chatting are indeed a repetition of content, representing my duodidactic friend and myself deep in discussion of some aspect of art. I have sometimes wondered if this is a laziness on my part, not developing a fresh representation for each work. I did, as an experiment, take an image which for me had content in its original form in Measured response, and repeated it in a piece which I deliberately made as content-free decoration: Frieze (no comment of worth is involved here). I respond differently to the two pieces, liking them both, but always deriving more satisfaction from the original. Others prefer the latter because they find it more positive.

Some years ago I saw an excellent thought-provoking exhibition of the work of Nancy Spero. She uses her favourite figures again and again. She has said that she thinks of them as film stars which she casts in different works. I like that concept, and it let me off the hook as far as any self-accusation of laziness was concerned. When an image holds so much meaning it can be used in different contexts. After all it is an element of a visual language, which is made more potent and communicative by its recognisable elements.

Recent much enjoyed exhibitions of prints have started me thinking about other aspects of repetition. And this in turn has been feeding into a train of thought I'd had after making Frieze: the possibility of starting with an initially content-free (from my point of view) decorative repeated image, and adding content. This chimed with a third thought or desire, which was to look at using my prints as more of a basis for further work - rather than being so far towards the completion of the work. (Why I should feel the need to make my process even longer, don't ask me!)Anyway, to that experimental end I have had two pieces printed. One block of three figures which I had printed as one image, having scanned three pastel drawings I made years ago playing around with black paper and a stencil. (Here we have a repetition at the very beginning.) I have nearly finished stitching this (and here is a little aside about the dangers of using up existing materials - I am using thread left over from my childhood cross stitch years, and there is not quite enough!!! so I have had to buy more, which will be left over again!), and have come up with an idea for adding content to my satisfaction. I shall not say anything about that just now, except to say that it was the means to cover a mistake which provided me with the solution to both problems. Lateral thinking rules!

The other experiment consists of three printings of the image at the top of this post, which I intend to piece together to make a kind of chorus line. I don't know why I drew this, and what I will do with it after that. It's an adventure!

A perfect day out

delights just outside the back door: the garden toolshed

We have found of late that small galleries have given us more pleasant outings than increasingly hassle-encumbered visits to large institutions. Lucky to have two adjacent, linked, galleries not far from us in Farnham, we set out on a fresh frosty morning to enjoy the day.

Both exhibitions presented objects of great beauty. First we went to the Crafts Study Centre to see Matthew Burt's furniture. I was lucky enough to make his acquaintance some years ago, and included his work in a show I curated, called Arts in Context. For this I turned the gallery into an artist's home, with all the exhibits fitting in as if in a real house. His furniture was of course ideal for my purpose. It is such a delight to see such craftsmanship allied to an imagination which reaches out to experiment, and yet does not laugh in the face of the practical. His pieces are objects of beauty which I quickly added to my lottery wishlist as I can very easily imagine living with them.

Warmed by the experience of viewing the furniture, we walked into the unknown. I had been attracted by the photos of Claire Morgan's work in the exhibition publicity, but as ever with conceptual art I approach chewing the flavours of scepticism. How wrong I was.

Periphery is a sculpture exhibition of controlled scattering, precise lines, animal beauty, woven air, light, claustrophobia, broad thinking, death, life, humour, sadness, and compulsion, ... and so much more. Visually I found it even more stunning than the photographs which drew my attention. Physically I found the work compelling, and meditative - I could well imagine having an annexe to my home where I would keep the piece to visit for contemplation. This contemplation would be of an active rather than a passive kind.

There were four pieces, and we had difficulty pulling ourselves from them. How glorious that we were alone in the gallery - this is such a joy in smaller venues (although, of course not such a joy for the venues!). There is an interesting exhibition guide which includes an illuminating conversation with the artist. The outing provided me with so much more than the sum of its parts.

the reward for not tidying away my plant supports

Resolution

It is really a case of resolve, rather than resolution. I have decided to throw out New Year Resolutions as part of my 'retirement' (now that I am well over 60!). I like the act of looking back and then looking forward at the change of year; but I know that alterations will be developments rather than sea changes now. I very much like Karoda's great grandmother's saying "if you don't change, life will", and I do believe in continuous self-assessment - but there comes a time when acceptance plays a larger part.

This year I hope to complete a trilogy of pieces which have come out of a difficult relationship with my mother. I can see them clearly now as that, and although they started life as The Red Room, The Yellow Room, and The Grey Room, I know that their private titles are Recognition, Resignation, and Resolution. The design for the last is at the top of this post, is printed on cotton, and I shall start stitching it next month probably.

In technique I am resolved to explore aspects of repetition - which I have started already, but hope to spend more time now. I also want to pursue deliberately ways to use paper and wax - materials which attract me, and which I have toyed with occasionally. I have already signed up for a weekend workshop to see where that takes me.

I am also resolved to diminish my attic stash even further.

There are no big exhibitions that I know of yet which attract me. This time last year I already had a list in my diary. But that is ok. I so often enjoy smaller delights more, which also can prove more thought-provoking - and definitely have no crowds! The first input I am looking forward to is the dvd of John Adams. Having seen the first episode on terrestrial tv, we know that we want to see the series, and we definitely do not want the commercial interruptions.

As always, it will be fascinating to see what comes along!