September 2021: Holiday influences…..

The second holiday month, September, was filled with time for family and other things, so that practical  work for ‘Mud and Thread’ was less of a focus. Of course this did not mean that nothing happened -  for both artists having this ‘slow’ time offered space for different sorts of inspirational connections to emerge.     

Joy:

Going away and having a couple of weeks on Lefkada in Greece was such a welcome time to be able to reflect from a different perspective whilst being immersed in a different environment and culture.  

Visiting the Archaeological Museum in Lefkas, my attention was drawn to the water bottles, amphora and perfume bottles that had been found in the harbours and sites around the island.  Their shapes resonated with the work we have been doing together, elegant forms, balance. I was drawn once again to the elements of fire, water, earth and air and these two amphoras, having been under sea for many years, carried the signs of life in the sea as well as fire and earth.

Some of these dated back to 3c BC.

Other vessels caught my eye, the simple, beautiful forms that held the mark of the maker and were considered in their ergonomics and functionality and decorated with painted figures or raised patterns.

Revisiting our collaborative work I was reminded how important it is to acknowledge cultural influences on your own work and recognise how we absorb what we see and hear every day and the impact this has on our design thought processes.  I also noted that the influences come from all sources and not necessarily from your own discipline even though I was looking for traditional embroidery.

And so, time to refocus and absorb the changing seasons, impressions and look to the next stage of the collaboration. I have struggled to get back in the creative saddle and realise I have given myself too many choices.  

Seeing the simplicity of form and material has made me realise I need to limit my options and work within a tight self imposed brief, concentrating on perfecting my techniques, use of the material and how to integrate harmoniously and seamlessly with Gill’s ceramics.  

This way I can develop a body of work that fits closely to our initial brief and uses found and foraged materials. Most of our work so far has been explorative, spontaneous and small in scale. Sometimes materials and technique don’t always translate to a larger scale but this will be my challenge. So, back to teabags and foraged fleece and local finds for the next stage in this collaborative journey.

Gill: 

Involved with two different sorts of ‘showing’ this month: an open studio event with my personal work and the ‘Community’ exhibition at the Brewhouse  with the ‘Mud and Thread’ work, I was faced with questions about what was necessary for effective communication with the viewing public.  Were written explanations helpful?  Did viewers understand the difference between experimental work and finished outcomes and find these differences interesting? Did knowing about me/us and our intentions add anything to the viewing of work?  

I think the only answer I can come up with is that there are no definitive answers to these questions.  Perhaps the only thing to do is, to do the best you can and present opportunities for different levels of connection and enjoyment.  In ‘The Creative Habit’[1], Twyla Tharp says it is the artist’s job to make art and put it out there - the artist should leave others to critique the work. We are told these days that for effective marketing we must put over ‘our story’ for people to engage with.  Sometimes the balance between administrative tasks and practical making seems to be out of alignment.  

Setting up a stand for SAW Open Studios - I printed out different forms of information about the processing of clay and  my own bio 

This month an article by Andrew Nixon for the RWA blog[2] particularly started me on a train of reading and thinking that I feel will influence practical making.  Nixon talks about an abstract expressionist painting being ‘a part of the world in its own right’.  Not because it is about something or represents something but it is being ‘the thing in itself’.  This brings up thoughts for me that I have long wrestled with about how much the work of making in the studio can reflect what one experiences of nature outside the studio.  Is it necessary to consciously put imagery into the work to suggest natural forms, or take a specific natural forms as a starting point in order that there is a recognisable sense of biophilia present in the work.  Or is it possible that, just by using the materials and processes with care and skill, a maker can imbue an object with deep felt thoughts about relationships to nature. Is it possible to make things that contain an abstract essence of nature just because the maker feels there is a correlation between  emotional responses produced when being in nature and the sense of flow experienced during making with familiar materials and processes? 

I have more reading to do following lines about emotional engagement with materials; material agency; craft and mindfulness; craft and phenomenology. I think there is potential here that Joy and I might explore together in our practical work.

[1] Tharp, T. (2003) The Creative Habit, Learn It and Use It for Life.  Simon and Schuster, USA. 

[2] Nixon, A (2021) RWA Blog,  Albert Irvin and the RWA or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Abstract Expressionism.    https://www.rwa.org.uk/blogs/blog/albert-irvin-at-the-rwa