Welcome to my new website - it’s had a major makeover, thanks to Dave Meehan!
After an amazing Christmas holiday in Kenya visiting family and canoodling with baby orphaned elephants, I feel refreshed. This January has, naturally, been a month of beginnings. Having pulled together my reserves I’ve begun to take on the wealth of opportunities that have come my way. I managed to sell a few pieces of work and almost finished a sculpture commission for Carymoor Environmental Trust. It represents a great crested newt using recycled components - deadline end of the month.
In between, I’ve attended the first inspiring weekend session of an Outdoor Arts Development Course, delivered by Arts by the Sea, Activate Performing Arts, B-side and Outdoor Arts UK. It was great to meet other art practitioners working in different disciplines. Most exciting is the fact that I was selected for a Gilbert Bayes Award by the Royal Society of Sculptors, and have been to the first session in London to meet the other selected artists and learn about photographing sculpture from Anne Purkiss. I am so impressed by the strength of work in the group and look forward to exhibiting with them at the end of the year.
In February I am taking part in a multi-site, multi-disciplinary group exhibition ‘Incendiary’, curated by Patricia Brien. It spans one week, and is packed with all sorts of exciting happenings. My work ‘Glut’, concerning waste, will feature in the show at Stroud Valley Artspace (SVA), Stroud, 6th - 10th Feb. Lou Baker and I will be inviting the public to ‘Join in the Conversation’ at SVA - a performative discussion about our work on Saturday 9 February, 11-12. Come and join in!
In my new role as part of the education team at the Holburne Museum, I ran a workshop with a mixed age group of schoolchildren. They created Double Portrait drawings linked to Hockney’s Mr & Mrs Clark and Percy, on show at the time. I’m scheduled to run some masterclasses at the Holburne later this year.
Next big project to focus on is a Cells Residency and forthcoming Solo at Town Hall Arts, Trowbridge (April/May). I have some ideas to explore more fully in the studio, inspired by Berlinde de Bruyckere’s recent exhibitions at Hauser & Wirth Somerset and Palermo. I’m collecting various recycled materials; if you have any copper wire, wax or red wool, they would be much appreciated! This work will hopefully lead on to a collaborative art project I’m organising with Luminara Star in Shepton Prison later this year. We are about to start funding applications…
Things come in waves and I think I’m on a big one… Ready Steady… Go!