The Sketchbook Project Print Exchange 2013

500 hundred printmakers, including me, signed up to take part in The Sketchbook Project Print Exchange 2013. We were asked to make an edition of twelve 7 x 5 prints on the theme The Journey Home. Each printmaker will receive 10 prints from other artists taking part. Lovely!

My print was inspired by a dérive to Whatstandwell in Derbyshire, I walked with my Undiscovered Networks collaborator, artist Jo Dacombe. We explored an area flanked by the River Derwent, the road, the railway line and out of use canal. We got lost and found, fell in love with Cromford Mill and High Peak Junction, found everything always seemed to be three miles further on, got tangled, entranced, enticed and curious! You can read about it here. On the journey home our minds were full of what we had seen, what we would do next and would eventually lead to our return to stage two train interventions along the Robin Hood Line - The Ticket Exchange. It was an intriguing day and I wanted to make a print that revisited that memory. 

The print is a monochrome linocut printed on vintage Zoffany wallpaper in muted tones and sprigged with wildflowers. Parts of the pattern peep through the cut marks. The wallpaper was then stitched to 300gm Somerset paper and is called 'River, Road, Rail, Canal'. They are winging their way to Brooklyn now and I wonder what will come back to me as the exchange part of the project. There was a fee to take part but I love the spirit of generosity that informs this Print Exchange.

Pen Green Banners & Silks Completed

Here are the completed silks and banners in situ

All photographs by Kate Dyer and Lorraine Dziarkowska , Corby Community Arts

Brampton Valley Way Mosaic Way Markers

I am currently working on Marking a Fine Line creating a set of 12 mosaic Way Markers for Back To Books to be sited along the Brampton Valley Way, a cycle track on the site of a former railway line in Northamptonshire. The designs are inspired by photographs taken during walks through and around the Valley Way during B2B's Tracing the Tracks project last year. I have drawn up all the panels and am making six myself, working with groups on three panels, inviting B2B members to my studio / shed to spend a few hours laying on tiles. You can see the designs here

I am finding that working in my shed / studio is lovely, the layout needs further refinement but now the weather is improving and the light lasts longer I can stay out there working for long stretches. Charlie whippet, is also enjoying our new location!

The project has been funded by Northamptonshire Community Foundation and Midlands Cooperative Society. 

I will be doing a drop-in session at Brixworth Country Park on May 27th from 11 - 3 where we will be working on one of the panels. I hope some of the visitors will come and join me! This will be a drop in session, panel is 1m x 2m so 5 or 6 people at a time can work on it comfortably.

Opportunities for participation will be posted on the Back To Books Blog  

http://myrighthandwoman.blogspot.co.uk/

Routes To Roots

I spent one of the Easter holiday weeks working on a project called Routes to Roots with Corby Community Arts at Pen Green Research Base creating screen printed banners, silk paintings, drawings and flags to hang in the Centre and to be part of their 30th Anniversary celebrations. 

We decided that it would be a good idea to up-cycle the printed fabric tubes made during New Vistas, Wider Horizons Big Draw project as the existing prints of Corby as seen from the Cube would add an extra texture to the banners. I was also very inspired by this blog post :-

http://unstructuredmaterial.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/mendrs-symposium-work-event.html

and am trying to work with materials I have that could undergo a change of function, rather than just buy more. This is also particularly helpful when materials budgets for projects become tight.

The hall in the Research Base was an ideal space to work in as we were able to draw, print and paint with enough room to circulate between activities. We had space to hang the work to dry and were able to get an overhead view of our progress from the balcony above.

We asked participants to make a drawing or stencil of their house, to think about the journeys they take to and from Pen Green and to remember routes followed and roots put down, either old or new.

We used a wooden textile block to print on flags and create a base for embellishment with sequins and glitter glue.

It was a hectic, happy week with parents, children and staff all joining in to be creative together!

Grandfather and Grandson printing flags together

Grandfather and Grandson's hands

Press Record

Godmonkey Skyhook Alagamation member and musician of many bands Mark Brennan has been hard at work making the Deeds Not Words CD a reality. Here is a glimpse of our recording session, where Mark had infinite patience with us!

There will be two performances involved in the launch of the CD - one on the 31st of August at the White Ark Festival and one on the sat 29th of June at the Core .  Here is the List of some of the performers 

1. Naturally Speaking
2. Michael McIntyre
3. The Godmonkey Sky Hook Amalgamation
4. Craig Garden
5. George Reilly
6. Cretin 77
7. Family of noise
8. Lauren Herbert
9. Faye Georgia Brennan
10. Posh Fuk
11. Wild Grace
12. The B-Movie Britz

A Glimpse of Miles & Dacombe Back in Derbyshire

An excellent if chilly, grey day spent with Jo Dacombe in Derbyshire making temporary installations on the station platforms at  at Whatstandwell and Langwith Whaley Thorns.

The images are drawings on postcard sized acrylic sheet and were made from the images we took during The Ticket Exchange and in response to the replies we got in out Mailbox after the event.

A full account of the day will appear here soon!

Illuminate - The Community Mural

As part of Priory Lower School's Arts Council Funded Illuminate project we held a community day where parents and children could come and add their portrait to the mural for the Reception play area. Initially the plan was to paint straight onto the fence but the arrival of more snow on the Monday morning meant it would be impossible for the primer to dry. Illuminate's amazing Project Coordinator, Paula Wakeling managed to source and have delivered, 14 marine ply boards and the afternoon was spent cutting and priming them ready for the following morning.

Michael Miles cutting the boards to size

Ivor and Sheila Hind priming

The day started quite quietly, mid-morning MP Richard Fuller came and joined the children for a spot of painting. By the afternoon we were almost overwhelmed with the amount of visitors and after school all the members of staff came to add their portraits instead of having a staff meeting. There were many intense conversations about hair colour and lip shape, plus the complexity of getting the nose looking nose-like and many wails of "Carole, can you just....."! 

Having worked on community projects for many years now drop-in sessions are not my favourite, it's hard to meet, greet and inform all the waves of new arrivals and chaos can ensue, 

by the end of the day parts of the mural were looking a bit disorderly and it was clear we would need more than a day to get the project finished.

Thankfully we were given more time to bring all the panels together

by mid-morning the next day Mrs Youngman was overheard saying 

" I see Carole's been working her magic!"

By Thursday all the panels had been painted and many people had been involved, there was a lovely energy coming from staff, pupils and parents, the children were so proud of their work and the Reception teacher kept coming back to check on our progress "I love! I just love it!"

Can you spot me with my wonderful mural painting Ninja's aka Mr and Mrs Hind who most definitely earned their paint brush wings. So many people gave so much help and their spirit illuminated a very cold, grey week! We will be installing the panels, weather permitting, soon and there will be a celebration of the whole Illuminate project in May.