Paper Art II
I’m in a book! My origami installation work has been featured in Paper Art II (find it here), a book showcasing international artwork, installations and designs created from paper.
I’m fairly pleased as the last book I was in was my dissertation (which I wasn’t technically in – I just had my name on the spine!).
The book features ‘Together We Are Greater‘ and ‘The Space Between Revisited‘. ‘Shoals of Prosperity‘ just missed out on the publishing date – maybe next time…
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House – Big Draw Workshop
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Manchester has just reopened after a £2.5 million refurbishment programme. Elizabeth Gaskell, famous for writing Cranford, Mary Barton, North & South, Ruth and Wives & Daughters amongst others lived in this house in Plymouth Grove from 1850 until her death in 1865.
As part of their half-term activities and for the 2014 Big Draw, the Elizabeth Gaskell House Team asked me to run a printmaking workshop based on the beautiful patterns and objects found around the restored rooms. In preparation I had great fun and felt very privileged to spend an afternoon photographing the House to create an exciting exploration game for the workshop.
I’ll post some pictures of the workshop when I get them – we had a professional photographer there and everything!
Cast stone artwork installed
Richard Dawson of Arbarus and myself have finally got the Bromley Farm cast stone artwork installed! Consisting of three ‘totems’, the artwork was designed by young people from Bromley Farm in Congleton and features their artwork and cast hand shapes. The artwork spells out ‘Bromley Farm Community Centre’, with each letter created by taking a subject or item relevant to the area and incorporating this within it’s design. For example, the ‘B’ features a bear’s paw, which comes from a local story regarding a dancing bear.
The young people came up with the idea and created the original lettering in a series of creative workshops over the summer. Molds were then taken from their artwork to turn it into cast-stone panels to fit within the three pillars.
Um…hello
If I had a pound for every time someone told me I should start a blog…
So – here it is. Weird. Apparently this is going to up my profile, make my website top of Google and bring me everlasting fame. Or something. Maybe I’ll need to tweet as well to achieve the fame bit…
Next step – choose what I’m going to write about. Hmmm – how about me? Though I find the subject endlessly fascinating I’m not sure others will so I’ve made a compromise. I’m going to write about…yes, you guessed it…’Being a Freelance Artist’ (that’s in the loosest possible sense, of course).
This gives me carte blanche to write about any aspect of my life but I’m also going to (hopefully) include lots of helpful stuff about different parts of being a freelance artist including doing community and public art, working with clients, inspiring art and design, money, what makes a successful project, managing your time and how to survive winter working from home without efficient heating (it’s a finely balanced method but involves two hot water bottles, elasticated trousers and tartan granny slippers).
(And tea, lots of tea)
Being A Freelance Artist 