Editing the photographs of the work at Weirdigans Cafe at Knockengorrochtakes time, I am all smiles in reminiscing and heartbreak that it’s over for another year.
I am often lucky enough to work with great people; the following photographs are of me working in the run up to the festival installation, taken by Sandy Sigala.
Alongside the photo edit I’m working on the words, but the sun is out and sometimes there’s just no rushing these things.
Trying to look behind me and ahead of me, I’m suddenly caught between what has just happened and where I want to go next. The present might suffer a bit.
You make your own sun when you have a basement studio.
I will be showing the Earthworks series at a friends house for the Stockbridge Colonies open day this Sunday. Details here. Expect sun, Pimms and these new badges which accompany the series.
The final pieces for the Knockengorroch work are underway. The view from my studio is alternatively …messy.
...then organised.The weekend in Knoydart and time with the OM-1 gave me the last ideas to round out the colour palette.
exaggerated nature, taken from but not copying.Stencils are infinitely useful when budget dictates that you can’t expose as many screens as you can imagine artwork for. Above: a back to front printed stencil.
The photographs I took with my Olympus OM1 camera are better than I’d hoped for; given the light, the poundland film and my relative inexperience. You can have a look here.
Knoydart is one of my favourite places, I hope I can go back there with time and pencils.
Feeding white pebbles to my Granddad on a beach in Lismore, his Hebridean home, is one of my favourites. Though it is possible I am remembering the photographs.
But now it seems my Father’s profession has rubbed off on me, should I be surprised to find rocks have been an unintentional theme in my work, even when I consider the earlier years of my university career? Unlikely.
As my own understanding (rather than the pygmy borrowed snippets I’ve inherited from Dad) grows the visual patterns and their applications are developing alongside.
From four basic screen exposures made for the Forest Cafe Installation I began to expand my fabric sketchbook and from these explorations into screenprinted pigment patterns onto cotton I came out with a set of works for the Cockburn Museum’s World Book Day event. A few photos.
Aside from this I have been back to the Grant Institute at Edinburgh University to conduct my own first hand research into rock structures and patterns – this time based in the Southern Uplands from where my Knockengorroch work stems.
Here are some pictures from my research trip, the microscope is inexorably cool.
Magmatic Sulphide Ore from Talnotry, Kirkudbright
The aforementioned microscope, the Zeiss Ultrafot
A specially adapted DSLR
Reflected light Zeiss kit, the microscope includes a desk with beautifully designed drawers.Criffell Granite from the Southern Uplands, Thin Section
Finally, I stripped my screens. The shadow of the previous exposure still lurks on the mesh, not to be forgotten.
At the beginning of the year I sent out a proposal to Weirdigans Organic Cafe to make some site specific work to celebrate their longtime relationship with the music festival Knockengorroch on this the 10th anniversary of Weirdigans.
I was a Weirdigan for one glorious summer and this magical venue holds a special place in many peoples’ eyes and hearts.
I am currently working on the designs for the fabric and challenging myself technically with printing things which are far larger than the screens that I own. This is where I am glad I was so thorough with my technical journals at University.
Since November I’ve gone through all this binder; I feel proud and appalled.
and oh oh oh its cold, but everyone knows that. Besides, its a rather fetching blue overall. If you look closely there is a little hint of what I’ve been working on, the majority of which I finished today- hooray.
A present for a friend, Happy Birthday Sandy
sometimes I do things with the tests that I have printed, see herefor more.
Since watching Local Hero again last week I have been yearning for some Scottish summer. Even though its freezing and I could be dreaming of tropical beaches I’m full of the seaweed smell and seagull cries of the West Coast. Luck has it- Knoydart festival in just over 4 weeks.
I have a new home, albeit somewhere temporary. Tom and I live here:
The studio work is going well, though with this weather I struggle to do more than 4 hours at a time. Short bursts! Then, screen stripping. A blank to start on.
New artwork similarly comes in short bursts. But I’m home now, watch it.
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The weekend in Knoydart and time with the OM-1 gave me the last ideas to round out the colour palette.
e
C
