New Project at Priory Primary School

Children from each Year were selected

to help design and paint a new school sign.

We used collage to create our ideas which

encompassed all the best attributes 

of the school and it's pupils.

Then used carbon paper to transfer the designs

We tried to express growth, learning, music, sport,

friendship, kindness, cooking, science, sport etc

 We had lovely weather so we able to paint outside

Here is the finished painting!

Priory Residency - Woodland Creatures - Autumn 2014

I have been Priory Lower School's Artist in Residence for about eight years, visiting the school on Friday mornings for a wide variety of art projects. My Autumn project with Year 2 was to create woodland creatures and a woodland frieze from found or recycled materials. Luckily the trees outside the school had been shedding gorgeous, large leaves and I came armed with cardboard boxes and twigs from my garden. 

The children made drawings of insects they thought they might find in a wood then cut and glued them out of felt. They also made drawing of leaves on green paper which were cut out used and printed with some handy insect stamps. Pupils painted the twigs a base colour and then later added stripes and spots.

Everyone printed a pair of colourful birds each using 

my portable printing press and water based inks.

When dry they were laminated and added to our frieze.

The wonderful display was put together 

by Mrs Youngman and her team

During my second morning on the project

the children created birds and beasts

from boxes, wool cones and leaves.

Artspace Micro Residency

In July I was invited to stage a Micro Residency at artist Susan Williams Artspace. The we had discussed the possibility of making a temporary installation in during the Sculpture Network New Year Brunch January. I was intrigued by a building that had been a Victorian brick gardeners building with attached pigsty. As it was due for imminent renovation time was of the essence.

The Residency took place over the course of two hours and you can see more of each piece by following the links to the Flickr Set after each title.

Artspace Artist in Residence - Baby Bunting Flickr Set

I had already made parts of the piece now known as Baby Bunting, initially for a temporary installation in a disused church.  The Gardeners  Building seemed a perfect space to test out the bunting.

Each pennant has either a screen printed bird or a free machine embroidery portrait of long gone members of an imagined community. They are rural folk, timeless yet touched by the impact of both World Wars. They are present yet missing, gone yet remembered.

Pottery shards in glass jars were placed on the shelves in the shed - preserved damage kept for inspection or protection. The bunting was loosely laced across the internal space and documented from various angles and viewpoints. 

Memory, tribute, layers, time, a celebration of life, a reference to our ability to endure, our connectedness and separateness as members of a community are the themes that inform this piece.

Artspace Residency July 2014 - Nursery Flickr Set

The second piece made was Nursery - utilising the small, rusted fire grate, a vintage child's tea set with original nursery rhyme decals, small bed structures, glass sweet jars, a glass cake cover & stand and pottery shards. During the making two of the tiny unbroken plates fell from their position and this damage in action added to the air of everyday menace. It was also a reminder of how quickly situations can alter and damage can occur.

Artspace Micro Residency July 2014 -Tea and Trade Winds Flickr Set

Tea and Trade Winds was a continuation of the travelling Shards Intervention featuring almost complete items of Spode's Trade Winds crockery which had been made specifically for the American export market. It features Tea Clippers and sailing ships and connects with ideas of hame and away, travel and adventure, meetings and departures. The Travelling Shard Intervention was originally intended to reflect compass points but it was relevant to the Artspace Residency as Carole had noticed references to both tall ships and the scallop shell inside the main house.

The time to install was short but the thinking behind it was long, happily all the necessary elements came together in this brief moment - space, inspiration, encouragement to create freely, light, weather and energy!

Many thanks to Susan Williams and Artspace making this installation possible. Artspace Residencies are by invitation only.

Thanks also to Carole's Right Hand woman - Maureen Walvin who had the arduous task of sewing binding round the 50 pieces of bunting!

Crumbs From The word Table Completed

Under our title The Eloquent Fold  Phiona Richards and I collaborated together during Transported Open Book strand and created three sculptural structures which are a play on a conventional bird table.

To make the word houses we salvaged old, distressed dolls houses to conjure up memories of childhood, to inspire, intrigue and remind  people that books are an invitation explore to many rooms, many worlds. Each word table has been collaged with book papers and maps, from old and unloved books, books which were heading for the landfill. I made a set of blue and mauve bird prints and Phiona transformed them into a collection of small, exquisite book sculptures to place in and on the word tables. Two of the word tables have small sets of shelves made from hand-sized classic hardback books. There are also tiny painted houses and the plates that made the prints are in pairs on wire ovals and hang from corners of each word table, casting a fluttering of bird shadows.

Spalding Library Word Table

Long Sutton LibraryWord Table

Crowland Library Word Table

You can see details of the finished Word Tables here

Now that our Transported Open Book adventure is at an end The Eloquent Fold would love to come and enliven, up-cycle, engage with your community, library, gallery, interesting space so please do not hesitate to contact us!

Transported is a strategic, community-focused programme which aims to get more people in Boston Borough and South Holland enjoying and participating in arts activities, funded by Creative People and Places from Arts Council England.  For more information visit www.transportedart.com.

Residency and Rent - Some Recent Work in Schools

 

During the winter term I worked with Year 3 at Priory Lower School in Bedford, our theme was outer space . The children imagined their own universe and each child created an A4 wet felted panel depicting planets and stars.

The following week we read Ted Hughes The Iron Giant and tried to imagine the planet the giant might have come from. We also used this as a means of exploring ink and wax resists and wax crayons on a heavy weight paper.

In the Spring Term we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and each child made a paper collage of the caterpillar and one of the things he might have eaten. The following week the children made a picture of the butterfly that the caterpillar later became. Very few of the children adopted the principle of symmetry when creating their butterflies!

During the Winter Term I also worked with Year 2 who were studying Patchwork and this gave us the opportunity to explore, pattern, design and repetition. As the children would be working on actual fabric with another facilitator we decided to work with paper. Each child was given a paper master of a traditional patchwork block and then had to follow the pattern and apply papers of different colours. 

  

Each child made a second paper patch using decoupage papers and paper punches, they also added 'stitches' using marker pens.

Year 2 also made woven paper patchwork blocks, using two different patterned wallpapers. After the individual squares were woven the children helped me to add a machine stitched pattern on top.

As part of the agreement I have with Beanfield Primary School, Corby (where I currently have a studio) I worked with children in different year groups on art projects that complimented their Science Week activities. Children from several years experimented with moving images, making thaumatropes, zoetropes and flip books.

Year 1 explored oil and water resists whilst marbling paper plates and cut out birds which were later used by older children to create wind sculptures.

The image above shows the plan for a mosaic at Oakley Vale Primary School in Corby. The design was a distillation of images and ideas from drawings made by children in each class.

I was artist in residence for six days and during that time every child in every class came and helped to apply the tiles. The image above gives an idea of the stages the work went through to reach the finished piece.

 The work has now been installed on the front of the building.

Here is the completed mosaic in more detail.

This mosiac designed and made by children at the Arran Way Community Centre