Summer Work Feedback

Today we had our feedback sessions for our summer sketchbooks. I found it very interesting looking at other people’s work and found other people’s comments quite helpful. 

Main improvements I feel I could make is finding a style of drawing I’m most comfortable and sticking with it. This would make my sketchbook feel more like a “Collection” of “My” drawings. Having observed other people’s sketchbooks I feel when drawing, I should be more selective about what I draw for example make a decision about whether I’m more interested about line and colour or shapes and pattern. I feel like this selection of my drawings reflects this:

Having said that, having used a variety of different techniques drawing I feel will enable me to consider more techniques when translating into embroidery. 

Summer blog part 2

Over the second half of summer I enjoyed a trip to Brighton, Galtres Festival, and volunteering in the Quilt Museum in York. 

My trip to Brighton, although we did not visit any galleries, inspired me artistically. The city has an excellent boutique-y feel to it, with a shopping quarter known as ‘The Lanes’ being home to many Designer/Makers. We were also lucky to be staying close to the pier, which in itself is an interesting structure, but also the structure of the original pier that was burnt down still sticks out of the sea. I really enjoyed the view from the end of the pier looking back on Brighton, making it look like a tine model town. 

Much like Glastonbury, I enjoyed Galtres festival as an artistic experience. It's a much more local festival, and I found it interesting talking to designer/makers who had stalls about what it's like to work as a textile artist in a much more rural and sparsely populated region such as Yorkshire (as opposed to London or Manchester). Many told me they lived on the farms where they raised the sheep for wool and grew natural dyes. They also spun their own yarn and handmade the products, I absolutely loved this idea of a "self sustained artist" and how affective sourcing supplies could be if you lived in a less linked in area of the country. 

What I also liked about Galtres was the interesting decor of some of the cozier acoustic tents and their interesting use of interiors outdoors:

Finally I loved working at the quilting gallery. I mainly helped out with basic embroidery classes for people of all abilities. The thing I loved was that not only was I being creative but I was enabling others to be creative which gave me great satisfaction. I feel I would really like to work on community arts projects in the future!

Summer Blog

So far this summer I have enjoyed Glastonbury, helping the third years with their degree show and exploring the National Railway Museum. 

I’m really glad I volunteered to help the third years with their large installation pieces. It was interesting to see their creative solutions to working on a large scale and even just talking with them about what experiences they’ve had on the course and what they were hoping to do once they graduated. 

For me, Glastonbury is an artistic experience in itself. The amount of design and creativity put into the amazing sets and costumes for the shows, as well as a bombardment of sculptural pieces and creative eco architecture, effectively makes it one of the biggest and most impressive gallery spaces in the country. Best of all is being immersed in a sea of tents which appears as an impressive composition all of its own. 

Glastonbury is also quite a good experience for me as a Textile artist because it has given me an opportunity to see a range of Designer/Makers selling their products, ask them about their experiences and how they got to where they are now. I also saw how artists used Glastonbury as a place to network and advertise themselves to a much broader audience. It also helped me consider the variety of textile careers that helped create all the textiles at the festival. The ribbon tower is my favorite example of an unusual use of textiles: 

Finally me and some family friends visited the National Railway Museum. This museum was quite prominent throughout my childhood, being the closest museum to my Primary School and there for a “go to” for school trips. On returning as an adult, I started to really notice the incredible detail and patterns on old carriages and station benches. I was also drawn to the old sign advertisements that came together to form a patchwork in my mind.