Invitation Accepted

Socially Engaged Artists Katie Smith and Kate Genever are on a mission to find out what it means to "Power-Up" and invited me to make a postcard exploring the theme. I got a bit carried away and made six. I guess you could say my own practice is in a drought phase so this has been a good opportunity to experiment and to use some digital doodles, odds and ends and a few thoughts. I seem quite preoccupied with dreaming, I think I am longing for escape.

If you would like to send a Power-Up postcard to Katie and Kate you can find the brief here

If you would like to see the gallery of Power-Ups so far please follow this link

The International Postcard Show 2016

Surface Gallery welcomed back the International Postcard Show. A vibrant, long-running exhibition including hundreds of original artworks from established and aspiring artists from all over the world. All submissions were included, from painting and print through to textiles and illustration, creating a wonderfully eclectic mix of artwork. All artworks were priced at £15, if the work doesn't sell it can be swapped randomly with other work in the exhibition.

I sent these

looking forward to receiving my swaps!

You can view the show here

SURFACE GALLERY INTERNATIONAL POSTCARD SHOW 2015

My entries are variations on a theme, more apples falling, more running whippets more, ripening bellies. I decided to use the templates left over from printing my Print Swap edition and stitched them onto watercolour paper and added a few pen or pencil marks. You can find out more about the exhibition and get an invitation to the Private View here. It promises to be a wonderful show with many delights!

INTERNATIONAL POSTCARD SHOW 2015

• Fri, Jan 16, 2015  18:00 
  Sat, Feb 14, 2015 17:00

• Surface Gallery16 Southwell RoadNottingham
• NG1 1DL 

This year during the exhibition, postcards will be for sale, all priced at £15, presenting a fantastic opportunity to snap up an original work of art at an affordable price.

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https://twitter.com/surfacegallery/

The Visible Mending Tour - Kettering Leg

Visible Mending on Tour at The Green Patch

Lucy Darby from Ground Works and The Green Patch says

"Well worth a wander up to our summerhouse at the minute.. 

An inspiring array of art to enjoy!"

Bedford Happy Postcard

Bedford Happy is a town-wide artwork by Dan Thompson, in Bedford, December 2013-March 2014

I had the pleasure of meeting Dan briefly in the Transported Art Pop-up Shop in Boston and as I have been Artist in Residence at Priory Lower School, Bedford for about 8 years now, love mail art and postcard projects I thought this would be another mini project I could contribute to! It made me happy!

The postcards will be on display in the Bedford Happy research lab during Coffee With Art at Bedford Creative Arts on Saturday 29th March.

Here are some other events you can participate in via Bedford happy

"There is a chance to nab some Free fudge! Will you find a yellow ticket, hidden around Bedford town centre on Saturday 29th March?

Bring a book, take a book, stop for a coffee. The Bedford Happy pop up library is at Coffee With Art for one day, Saturday 29th March.

Music makes people happy. Dancing makes people happy. Eating makes people happy. So to end Bedford Happy, we're borrowing the West Indian Social & Cultural Society. Bring down your favourite record, and we'll play it on the club's sound system. We'll provide traditional West Indian fried chicken and dumplings too. See you there, with your 7"s."

You can find out all the things that makes Bedford Happy on their Facebook Page - looks like it's going to be a fabulous day!

Visible Mending

Artist Carol Parker last year during the Transported Art ACE Creative People and Place Engagement Phase. 

I later spent a happy morning with Carol and Amy Lee at their self funded Pop-Up Shop Art on the High Street in Spalding which had no connection with Transported Art. 

Carol also has a shed (more than one I believe!) on an allotment and put out a call for artists / craftivists to visibly mend a postcard to be included in an exhibition in one of the sheds. With all those intersections I couldn't resist!

There is still time to add your work to the mix! Find out more here and there is a fab Pinterest board with all the postcards on display for your delight! This was another great project which was a joy to take part in - inclusive and embracing! It also got me back into my garden workspace which feels so good! Roll on Spring!

Enamelled Bronze Dog

Photograph by Andrew Rushton

Some words in progress worked on since workshop 1 - inspired by Martin's postcard trying to fuse ancient artefact, ancient hunters and present memories. 

Enamelled Bronze Dog Brooch, 2nd Century AD click to see similar brooch

On such an emerald day

your speckled flanks 

cut across the landscape 

leanness set against the wind.

Circling through wild grasses

face fixed in joy of speed

you have your head and

I think there can be

no grace to match this.

Through winter 

we lie nose to tail,  

curve of belly 

echoing arc of rib.

A soft peace after 

days of hunting.

Your warm breath 

sputtering dreams

against my frozen feet.

Compass

During October Beacon Arts presented an exhibition of four new commissions at three heritage sites in rural Lincolnshire: Woolsthorpe Manor; Grimsthorpe Castle and Ayscoughfee Hall. International artists Jordan Baseman, Amanda Coogan, Jem Finer and Bethan Huws drew on the particularities of Lincolnshire to create new artworks. Amanda Coogan worked with seven emerging artists selected from a national open call to create a performance piece at Ayscoughfee Hall that took place as part of the guided excursion only.  Amelia Beavis-Harrison, Joana Cifre-Cerda, Robert Foster, Laura Mahony, Julieann O'Malley, Hestia Peppe, Sally Anne Roberts. 

Hestia Peppe - Ayscoughfee Hall

I went on the coach trip during Saturday October 20th and was reminded of Ceila Fiennes book Through England on a Side Saddle. With this in mind I decided to use the camera in my phone and variety of editing apps as a means of sending myself a set of postcards made during the day.  By using the apps I felt I was embracing some of the spirit of the Marcel Duchamps 'Ready Mades', as the technology was ready made and the images formulaic. The colours and style have a deliberately pseudo vintage look and my cue for this was largely taken from Jem Finer's space travelling mini-caravan. On my return I wrote the words to accompany the postcards. The journey, the properties, the art / artists and the incredible ticket price (£7.50) made it a hugely enjoyable day which posed many questions and delivered on many levels. 

The last tours take place 27/28 October Details and to Book

You can read the postcards in the posts below.
Postcards - WoolsthorpeManor
Postcards - Grimsthorpe Castle
Postcards - Ayscoughfee Hall