FrostArt

Last weekend

2011-10-28T10:16:00.003+01:00

There were a lot of people for the last weekend of Fair Trade Material Matters, either they were just happened to be in Ely that day or they came before take down.

Good conversations and images, good memories to take away. One of the most interesting experiences has been of providing private space in a public place.

A change of scene

2011-10-21T14:21:00.001+01:00

At the coast again tomorrow. It is a really good place to be for a change of scene after being in the gallery most of this month.
A kite making workshop 10a.m. - 4p.m. at The Parish Hall The Londs Overstrand The online booking form is here, and link to the events diary is here

Flying our kites at 12 noon and 3.30p.m.

Half Term workshop

2011-10-21T14:07:00.001+01:00

Hat Making workshop Thursday 27th October at Babylon Gallery, Waterside, Ely
This is a family workshop, the online booking is here, all welcome, with children or not!

Moving on - Slowly

2011-10-21T09:18:00.001+01:00

The last week of the installation at Babylon Gallery. I had begun to feel settled in the space after five weeks, enjoyed hearing the feedback and conversations. Now I have been looking at the installation for future reference and it's bit like moving house. The studio will change again, how to bring all that furniture to bring back and fit it in the space.

The catch up process of stitching more portraits has got further, but now of course there are fifty plus from this show. Archiving system in place and easier to maintain now, this should mean the online quilt will be easier to add to as well.

In conversation with one visitor I did wonder if I would have to edit some drawings out, I haven't done that before and had previously said I would not. The audience at Babylon Gallery is slightly different from other galleries and events the work has been shown at, some of the drawings are not as intentional. One blanket may have children's faces and become a stand alone 'canvas'.

Comments this week have been very varied and the days visitors really disperate. I found my energy changed, I had a period last week not relating so well and let people 'receive' the work as they were inclined. With hindsight and from a comment Jane Wilson made I would make a sign that encouraged visitors to talk to me and ask questions, then I would not have to initiate those conversations.
A school visit was interesting, having to teach 13 year olds about the conventions of visiting a gallery and respect a shared public space. A conversation with them about how few marks can portray a face, how we recognise someone by those marks was interesting; also about what 'piece work' is and who does that kind of thing. The concept that art could include those considerations was obviously a new idea to the children if not the teachers.
There have been many people comment on how original the idea is and how skillful the work is, perhaps I should believe it. In addition comments about the use of space have been good to hear.
Sunday 23rd tea and cakes 2-4p.m. then take down and move on. I feel a bit like a traveller.

Continuing the process

2011-10-13T17:43:00.002+01:00

This week I have found it harder to relate to visitors and have been more involved with my work process. Something changes in my approach while I do this work, in my mind stitching and drawing feel more similar. Sometimes it is the same hand action.

I have related with those who come in and want to get involved with the work, drawing themselves and each other and understanding the relationship between a personal and communal action.

Donations of blankets from some, offers of paper and carbon paper from others all help sustain the project.

Five weeks have gone very fast, only one more left before this version of Fair Trade: Material Matters is taken down and takes on another form. Many new portraits to scan and stitch, new relationships and networks to develop.

Encouraging comments

2011-10-05T19:09:00.002+01:00

I wrote something yesterday, then lost it in the ether so tomorrow will have to try and remember what it was. I had started to think about the way this project is like piece work, like so many other jobs and how it might give me more to write about Slow Making.
Today was quiet but because of that productive. While stitching faces I was able to think more about the nature of the process, the relationship with other people doing boring repetitive jobs.

It seems to me that many artists are doing that, tho' the work may not seem boring if there is a good relationship with the materials used or the end product, but the process has a lot in common with many repetitive factory jobs.

Two Portuguese sisters came and spent a long time making their portraits, more than one each. I found their response to the project refreshing - one had even started to pin her portrait onto blanket, assuming she would be involved with the stitching. Perhaps that is another stage for some venues. They really enjoyed perfecting the use of carbon paper and have promised to bring some back from Portugal, where it is both available and cheaper than in UK!
I have enjoyed the interaction in the gallery this week.

Slow Making: planning, use of space and archiving

2011-09-30T13:33:00.000+01:00

Is there something about Slow Making that is also about sustainable and efficient use of space?

While working in the Babylon Gallery I have a chance to refresh my studio. I have a chance to look at the space and try to store tools, materials and finished work in a different way.

Almost everything came out over the weekend, a shock to my system and the rest of the house. Too much stuff in too small a space perhaps, but seeing it clearer should help. The plan is to put things back slowly, throw away or give away everything that I will not use in the foreseeable future. Time will tell if this means new and better work.
Today the archiving of Fair Trade: Material Matters finished work was completed, now to start stitching again, this time archiving as I go which means keeping good records of people, places and events.

Exhibition response and conversations

2011-09-27T17:47:00.001+01:00

Feedback so far has been good from people ready to engage with the finished and interactive work. A few overheard conversations have proved that the term Fair Trade is powerful and has possibly confused a few. I heard one visitor say 'It wasn't what I was expecting - not sure what is Fair Trade about that". I think they were anticipating work made in the third world by artisan craftspeople, not artists from East Anglia needing their work to be valued on a par with other professionals.

On the other hand some Polish agricultural workers spent a considerable time looking at the work and did very good self portraits. They wanted to know much more than any other visitor so far about the process and people involved. They were surprised when shown the website that there was no fee to take part and gave generously into the donations box.

Visitors from West Yorkshire were intrigued with the use of blankets they had been involved in weaving in the 1950's. The conversations were about an area that used to be fully employed, with two or three generations of families well occupied in the textile industry. Like the Polish workers, they had a depth of understanding about the value and type of work involved.
I get a sense that Slow Making is being added to, while I have conversations and work on archiving the finished work I am beginning to plan a new phase of Slow.

Walking Matters and changes things.

2011-09-24T19:26:00.002+01:00

I have spent the last few days developing a way to record the events and exhibition that Fair Trade: Material Matters has been shown at and the people involved. Archiving has now become the focus for the work already made, so that the next stage will be easier to make. There at least fifty more faces to stitch and scan to include in the online work, so having a system in place is now crucial.

Response to the exhibition this week has been interesting, mixed and somewhat different to other venues, probably because it is not used solely for contemporary visual arts. Meeting with other artist and makers have been good.

Tomorrow a walk is planned, with Liz McGowan and myself. We will respond and play with the place and people we find using all our senses to experience the riverside walk.

images from previous walk in Bergapton, Norfolk.

Material Matters

2011-09-19T11:52:00.000+01:00

I have been thinking about writing more on the blog for months but not had time. My time has been completely taken up with working on a Story Quilt project and preparing work for exhibition, and of course in the summer the allotment and garden take up any time that is left. Being involved with the slow physical processes of making has been good.

The Story Quilt was with Eastfield Infant School and Rheola Care Home, in St Ives Cambridgeshire. The best so far I think, and the largest. It took a long time to put together, many more hours than I had estimated. It was completed at the end of last term it spent the summer in the freezer, to make sure no moth larvae were hiding anywhere in the wool. This one is so special because one grandma is a felt-maker, and provided some beautiful hand made felts. Now I have to write it up and add to FrostArt projects page. Meantime a few images.

Exhibition preparation is always admin, sorting out diaries and materials, making sure people are able to help, because of lack of funds it is always a question of help and favours, finding out how generous people are! Fair Trade: Material Matters opened at the Babylon Gallery this weekend and will be there until 23rd October, with a range of events planned.

I am booked to work there as artist in residence three days a week. It feels a bit strange to have a routine in place, but it is good because on the other days I intend to give the studio a really good clean out. What will I find?
An addiion to this post, seems appropriate to have a link to DACS petition about artists rights.

Slow progression, willow, work and gardening

2011-03-06T13:48:00.040Z

Another slow progression, overlapping work and home life. I was asked to write an article for my local village magazine, Littleport Life, because I advertise workshops there, and now it is also online so the link to that is here.

For workshop calendar go here. and for online bookings go here

I wonder where this will lead, and am intrigued to find myself exploring how my garden has developed and changed over the years. This year the garden has changed more dramatically; with greenhouse and new pathways it takes on a different feel. The slightly wild and unkempt areas are less, these are now on the allotment where there is more space to be wildlife friendly.

For the first time in years I have cut the hedgerow drastically, almost laying it in places. The birds are a bit phased, trying to find places to hide and start making nests, but it will not take long to produce cover again.

The willow fedge is now six years old, and has produced a good crop of poles for garden structures and plant supports. The effect of willow and yew is intriguing every year, and I still wish we had more space for a pathway between.

I am now a facilitator for Learning Through Landscapes, and find myself looking at outdoor spaces in a different way all the time. The use of materials and techniques, largely self taught, is now relevant to more of the work I am able to offer. Weaving is building and community, weaving my walk is also weaving my life with and for others.

New points of reference

2010-10-10T15:54:00.011+01:00

A whole new direction. This summer it felt like I was made to look at a map or compass to find out exactly where I am in relation the the world and people in my life. I am now carrying a compass, almost subconsciously referring to it more often and thinking about place, community, and time.
How to value a person's life, whether young or old. Somehow the end of a life lived to the full, for several decades, it does not seem so hard to comprehend. But one cut short that has potential, with promises of a future full of action and positive contribution to the community. I have found almost impossible to take in that it is gone.
Learning about 'Slow Making' and all it implies, the energy and value of a life and how resources are used in living still takes me by surprise.
Working on Wind Mapping on West Runton beach with Liz McGowan was akin to steering an unknown course in a well known boat. Exhilarating and reassuring at the same time.

Summer and willow acitivities

2010-08-16T11:55:00.010+01:00

I have been doing more making, being in the physical and not using my blog to record or comment on work. The result is a gap to be acknowledged or filled. In the time since May I have become more aware of the multiple activities that FrostArt is involved with, they overlap and often take too much time, which does not fit into the Slow Making approach. How to resolve this is always an issue. The glut of fruit and vegetables at this time of year is a bit similar, they take time and energy to tender and maintain during the dry spring and summer, then they are all at once demanding attention!
Images are of willow activities over the last few months, in schools and for the The National Trust's Angelsey Abbey story telling space.
For willow workshops this season go to this link for the Google calendar and online bookings

Drawing with willow

2010-07-30T17:33:00.002+01:00

Aiming for local projects, I had not expected a commission 50 yards from home. The logo of the local school is a heron, and they have new buildings and grounds to renovate. After spending a few weeks making the large heron, I worked with the whole school over two days, drawing birds using one piece of willow. So at the end there were about 400 birds stitched onto a background and displayed on the boundary fence. This proved to be a surprising demonstration of Slow Making, combining fast learning and experience. Using a material both local and traditional for centuries, it is a new experience to these children.

Waterways: Walking: Stitching and conversations

2010-07-12T11:41:00.002+01:00

At High Tide Mersey the Waterways Work was really examined and extended by being placed alongside other work addressing climate change, the social and environmental challenges that places on areas like the Mersey Basin. 'Weaving a Walk' Mersey produced responses and opened doors to more events, in June the work went on show in North Yorkshire as part of Chrysalis Arts 'Slow Art' project
There are more images on Flickr.

A more colourful spring

2010-03-31T14:06:00.005+01:00

In this really cold and belated spring, the daffodils are only just coming out and the wind is freezing today. Helpfully I am starting on a project with RISC and have been dyeing recycled blankets a whole range of colours. Colour always cheers me up and seems to provide an energy that nothing else can.
After what seems like months of planning this is the first practical phase of a Generations Together project.
More to follow very soon I hope.

Tide and time

2010-02-28T18:10:00.008Z

Thinking and working in preparation for High Tide:Mersey began a new phase of Waterways:Walking:Stitching

I have now printed the first of what should be a series of postcards of sites that are significant to individuals or communities, or have environmental importance for research or historic reasons. They are laid out like the most ubiquitous holiday postcards, except the reference is in longitude and latitude, not the name of the place. The first is where the site of 'Sea Henge' was excavated on the North Norfolk coast.

As always I am never sure that what I make and what people really see have anything in common, so the opening at Liverpool John Moore's provided lots of good conversations and feedback.
The selection process to make a clearer and more coherent show is all part of the slow making. Interesting to realise that what is shown is not really what, how or why it is made.

Travelling less, making more

2010-02-28T16:40:00.016Z

This year seemed to start slower, the marmalade made, the process, colours, smells and resulting rows of filled jars on the shelf very satisfying. The same feeling is produced by completing a good piece of work.
An order for 12 willow plant supports was similarly seasonal, repetitive work on the allotment.
I am possibly growing into the pace that I have thought about for the last few years, at least when I make work. This includes the multiples, the aim for craft skills in each piece. The pace of making multiples is both slow and fast at the same time.
Learning to make exact same forms takes time, the making of each pieces has to be fast, or the work is neither elegant nor cost effective!
However, the pace of working on multiple tasks and commitments still seems to be other than slow and although that is my aim, time does not seem to stretch to fit them all.

Last entry of the year

2009-12-17T18:44:00.008Z

The last entry of the year. A strange combination of slow and overactive, that happens sometimes. Not a sign of miss-spent time or of nothing done, just not yet evident in practice.
The image of our seasonal garden decorations, made by spiders and we had to do nothing except provide the environment for them! In the nature of Slow Making they are transient and seasonal and use sustainable materials. Contrast to the neighbours' bright lights, fashionable, brilliant and energy thirsty, I thought somehow Christmas decorations should be in harmony with the Creator they promote and celebrate, especially as we are currently trying to promote the Copenhagen agreements and cut down on carbon dioxide emissions.
I have started a Flickr site to collect images of Slow Making with others, the first images are of these spiders' webs.
The New Year promises many things which offer new places and challenges. Looking forward to them always conscious of seasons and timings not of my planning!

Drawing with willow

2009-11-05T21:04:00.007Z

Planning for a workshop at WWT Welney Swan festival, I planned to set the task of drawing a swan with one piece of willow. Surely a result of the workshop last week, I found myself drawing with willow and these are the first results.

They are almost balletic in form, the beginning of something new perhaps. Just realising the diverse variety of entries there are in this blog, the materials and processes; but the thoughts go along together in very similar ways all the time. The pace of growth, drawing and stitching have so much in common.

Weaving conversation and baskets

2009-11-04T11:03:00.007Z

Mary Butcher lead a master class at NUCA, a chance to play and reflect; 11 of us were invited. to take part. The opportunity to have conversations about the nature of making, the processes involved and the character of materials; it was both refreshing and hard work. Good to see the variety of work approaches.
I found myself taking more and more and more apart! Learning how to leave stuff out was good. Leaving space for imagination and thoughts, always a good idea. Space to breathe. Again it showed me how vital it is to STOP and work slowly. Slow Making includes the spaces, the time to look, not constructing, just feeling materials and tools. There are images on a Flickr page, so just a taste here.

footprints and impressions of 350 Day of actions

2009-10-23T17:00:00.010+01:00

Making simple actions in public, the theme was of footprints and walking in conversation. Sun and rain, together with hot cups of chocolate and generosity of spirit were overwhelmingly the feel of the day.
Most people are aware of the need to do something and want to change their dependence on oil products, I found a real concern but at the same time lack of knowledge about how to do that change. Now is the time to be informed and make a difference!

350 International Day of Action

2009-10-12T09:22:00.004+01:00

'Coat to cover the Earth'

This work I made 10 years ago. It has a list of endangered species, many of which are now extinct I fear.
I have brought this out again because the 350 International Day of Cilmate Action is coming up on 24th October and I am going to walk next to the river in Ely, inviting 350 people to join me to take part in an action and making transient work. See the facebook group page to see when and where.
Not easy to photograph, the fragility of fine cotton and copper wire crochet does not show itself well. I made it as a model of a much larger piece, where the space between the two layers would be big enough to walk between. Not yet commissioned but I do have a place in mind, so let me know if you are interested.
Again walking and conversation are the priority.

Stitching and expression in Reading

2009-10-09T17:00:00.015+01:00

Stitching and expression of community, cups of tea and cake shared by participants in the workshop and opening event for Fair Trade Material Matters at RISC. the Global Cafe is a hub for all sorts of activities where the work will become part of people's everyday lives for the month.

I found leaving the work in place hard this time, almost as if it had taken on a personality. The more relationships and faces collected, the more powerful the work becomes. I had not anticipated this effect. I need to reflect on Slow Making again, what it signifies and how the power of accumulative, collecting, repetitive work expresses Slow.
More details of the work are on The RISC website.

A month with no rain

2009-09-29T18:11:00.016+01:00

This month was so dry, the whole of September with no rain. I don't know the records for previous years, but sure I don't remember any September without rain and so warm. I have been outside most days working on the allotment, cycling has been easy in this weather.

Why so preocupied? Because I presented work at CRASSH seminar 'Vegetable Love' about being an artist who grows edible plants.

The action, my allotment drawn and stitched onto a tablecloth, together with some of the vegetables grown there. Conversation about the process of growing, relationship with human and non-human neighbours, I found myself performing in a way that became poetic, lyrical and characteristic of the place.
Again the pattern is
Allotment
Stitching
Walking
Performing.

Slow to keep up

2009-08-04T16:19:00.005+01:00

I have been pre-occupied with trying to keep up with all the different aspects of making work. In the nature of Slow Making this is not always bad and as Salt Trails at Salthouse 09 has been the main reason it has been productive and enjoyable.

The pace of work is not always to do with the making, the spaces in between when no work is physically made is equally important. Finding space and time when no-one interrupts and nothing else has priority on my time is hard. Not easy to explain that sitting, being, listening and watching is part of the work that is not yet apparent.
I need the time to absorb what has happened, what will change and enable the work to form.

From Salt Trails in summer to stitching in winter

2009-06-25T20:20:00.010+01:00

Walking at Salthouse with a group from Contemplative Fire was a journey in a different direction, or at least one that took a new path. A progression maybe, crossing pathways and carrying baggage from other events and communities. Do we share the baggage or help each other to let go? Which ever it is I learned that it helps to have the right pack, walking aids and companions, and to know how to carry the load. I enjoyed the fact that this was seasonal work and intend to demonstrate more of this in my work. Seasonal fits with Slow Making.

Making space, clearing surfaces is like making a pathway to walk and work in, so that is what I am doing until September, when not keeping the allotment clear of weeds and picking fruit and vegetables. A similar activity I suppose.
Preparing the studio to do concentrated work includes removing all traces of other activities, they are like background noise, or muddy water!
For me story sharing and stitching go together, indoor activities, so stitching work for Fair Trade Material Matters will start again as the summer disappears, it seems to have taken on the character of autumn and winter activity. This autumn it will go to RISC in Reading and make new relationships and connections.

definitions, words and physical actions

2009-06-25T20:16:00.008+01:00

Allotment
Stitching
Walking
Performing.

All coming closer together, having relationship, beginning to form a pattern of making and being.

People and places, exhibitions and walks, allotment sheds, studio and garden, computors and drawings, thinking about the relationship between growing, stitching and weaving patterns, making marks in land, fabric and lives.

Origins of the word stitch come from Old Saxon: stiki Old English: stice Old High German: stih Gothic: stiks
Definitions of the word stitch:(noun) A prick, puncture or stab inflicted by a pointed implement. (verb)Fasten together or join pieces of fabric
Phrases: A good stitch - a considerable distance to walk. A ridge or baulk of land, especially a strip of ploughed land between two water furrows. A narrow ridge in which potatoes grow. To stitch: Set up sheaves of grain in stitches, stooks or shocks.

Field Theatre

2009-06-14T18:57:00.008+01:00

Littleport Field Theatre walk is planned for June 27th, a Mid-summer event and an opportunity to make more Green Corridors work and invite others to take part.
Physical textiles are taking second place or are the metaphor for field trips and walks. Interlacing people and places, weaving walks between communities. Salt Trails, Landline Arts and The Field Theatre - here is a strong theme that I hadn't planned.
Well that was the plan, but things change and the walk is not taking place. Summer is hot and apart from keeping the allotment free of weeds and with a succession of crops going, I have been spending time doing more stitching for Fair Trade Material matters. The online quilt is growing and currently has about 160 portraits.

Sheds and working places

2009-05-14T12:35:00.008+01:00

Fair Trade Material Matters is installed at Shed and a Half Gallery, in London. The web site is relaunched, a really significant step for the work it is able to grow without me, an entity in it's own right. Being involved with developing the site I have considered it more as an exhibition space, more than just an information hub. This has made the process seem visual and physical. The sheds at Shed and a Half have taken on the character of the work as a whole, comments already about the atmosphere being calm and spacious, while still full of work
I like the way people respond to the invitation to draw their self portrait, there have been some very strong, unexpected reactions to the process.
There will be a mid show event, so if you are looking at this before June 5th 2009 get in touch to find out more!

Walks and conversations

2009-05-09T12:58:00.008+01:00

Developing a work pattern and walks with Liz.
Salt Trails website published conversations about land and places. We chose Hapisburgh - pronounced Haze-br-e as our first practice walk with participants. Dramatic and unsettling, difficult to comprehend what it might be like to live there.

Again links with people and places, the ones that amaze me are the ones who are already so busy and knowledgeable and have given the ideas and work so much respect. It is very special to share walks and conversations with them.
Littleport Field Theatre and Landline Arts are also exploring ways to express the significant and meaningful sense of places which make them special to communities. Values of property and people are so different on the coast, especially a moving and unstable one. like the East Anglian one. Coming across a Ringed Plover's nest on the beach was also very moving. How delicate and 'on the edge' is that existence!

Spring 2009

2009-04-25T19:43:00.009+01:00

I am aware that I have been too pre-occupied with cultivating and maintaining the garden and allotment, as always I get far too over focused. This may be because there has been no rain for three weeks, but before that it was because I want to re-establish my relationship with growing food as well as providing a better environment for the cultivated plants to grow in.
I saw the willow structure made earlier in the year in Ely today, it is developing happily, with only a few straggling parts not showing new shoots. It was good to see it in use by small children

I feel as though the crossing paths are making links and bridges between people and places which I have not been relaxed enough to do previously, working more locally is sometimes harder. But now is the right time for me.
I have also had time at Welney Wildfowl Centre one of the first places I used willow and made a large structure, so this year I have been restoring the shape of the Swan Shelter, now eight years old. The sound of bees all over the willow flowers was quite overwhelming, especially as there is such bad news internationally about bees dying of mysterious disease.

FACT

2009-03-26T12:34:00.011Z

Being visiting artist at Fact, Foundation for Arts and Creative Technologies, Liverpool for a few days, was busy, inspiring, thought provoking and provided me with a place to see responses to Waterways maps as they happened.

I always had the idea that they would extend my walking relationships. Conversations with audience, visitors and participants in workshop sessions revealed the power maps have to aid conversation and relationships between people and places. I will now be able to develop the work further and more effectively.
For more images see GaiiaL@tE project

Haddenham

2009-02-05T12:31:00.007Z

Installing exhibition with Landline Arts, at Haddenham Gallery
Gave me the chance to hang Waterway maps in a different way and response from other artists was very affirming. From general visitors it seemed to be they were somewhat mystified. The venue is not one for 'Slow' art perhaps and as always I am learning that the relationship between the work and the host is crucial.
It was a good place to move the shelter from Holt, especially as it snowed and gave it new character. Inland it is a different being.

Crossing pathways: materials, people and places

2009-01-27T16:45:00.010Z

A new phase in Slow Making, a new relationship to work with. Accepted for Salthouse 09, I am working with Liz McGowan on Salt Trails. A joy to be thinking about this work with the knowledge that I will not be building or creating a structure, no materials to be manipulated. Quite strange to be in a place time where I feel that this is a good way to work. Salt Trails will be a series of conversations and walks along the North Norfolk coast. A piece I have been weaving in the studio will also come to conclusion this year. Originally made to help my thought processes when I started to think about Slow Making, it is also used in an animation by Tim Drake.
I think the nature of this year will be reflective and Slow, but who knows what people and places my path will cross and what will be made from them.

New Year, a slow start

2009-01-23T17:02:00.011Z

Creatively this year has started slowly, each step taken with a bit more time and consideration. Is it age, or is it just that I don't want to be rushed into making decisions?

Marmalade has been a real marker for the start of this year, even more this time because I was away when the Seville Oranges were available last year. One of the few seasonal fruits remaining it serves as a marker, like a punctuation, or breath in the over abundance of food.

While taking time preparing the fruit I became aware of the relationship between this activity and Slow Making, So here are some images of the process. Unfortunately you can't smell the wonderful overpowering citrus fumes or hear the family conversations, which seem to be integral to making enough marmalade to stack on the shelves and supply friends and family for the year. Not quite the same conversations, but similar each year, drawing people and places together. The colours, the reflections, the tactile elements. Sticky, hot and sweet. So much a part of childhood and yet so much my decision to continue the activity. Making this seasonal produce helped clarify thoughts about planned Slow Making conversations and how they might develop this year.
It really is a sign of the new year, the reminder that the sun and warm seasons will bring colour, fruit and food once more.

Working with trees

2008-12-20T17:07:00.003Z

A two day workshop in Ely, with the guys from East Cambridgeshire District Council who maintain the trees to make a living willow structure in the form of a giant eel trap. It was a delight to do this, they had an understanding of the land, the plants and their surroundings. Including the people who come and chat or just watch the work being done.

There are three varieties of willow used for the structure, traditional osier willow, Goat willow which is a hedgerow native and Salix Gracilistyla Melanostachys, a beautiful pussy willow.
I look forward to seeing it used by all ages in the Cherry Hill Park for several years.

Moving

2008-12-06T11:53:00.006Z

The beacon structure will move from Holt Country Park soon, to go to Haddenham Gallery, Cambridgeshire. But this does not mean it will lose relationship with the North Norfolk coast, in fact I have only just received this from Jerry Seaborn. Thank you to all who are still sending messages, for generosity in sharing your pictures and memories of Light-Lines.
The long gap since my last posting has been because I have been involved in conversations, going back to growing and using willow and vegetables, back to the physical and reviewing my use of online research and making.
I always feel as though the year closes now and for most living things in the UK climate it is a time of death or sleep; waiting to renew, so it is good to know that we will enjoy long days and sunshine again next year! Look out for dates when I will be leading workshops and walks next year under the title of 'Weaving a Walk'

A new place for Light-Lines

2008-09-11T12:35:00.014+01:00

My last visit to Light-Lines last week was to move it to a new site. It was a strange experience and I found the disruption surrisingly disturbing; visitors have continued to add elements and decorations. It really did become a local landmark, I met visitors who have been regularly during the two months and those who were coming across it for the first time. All asked why it should be removed, although having some reservations I am sure that it is not a good thing to leave it. Part of the message of Light-Lines is that nothing is permanent in the landscape, especially on this moving coast.

The work is now installed at Holt Country Park, thanks to help from site Ranger Rob Goodfiffe. This is a very different venue, the scale and atmosphere of it's surroundings change the feel of the work. I am not sure how long it will stay for, probably until it has a new coastal site somewhere on the Wash, this site has different environmental issues to highlight. The management and species grown here have changed over generations, as always none are permanent. Areas that have been woodland, growing trees for commercial practices, are now being planned for open meadow land.

In addition I found this on You-Tube, it is from someone who visited Light Lines at Salthouse Beach. Great to hear how it was used by so many people. If you have five minutes to see and hear two short stories go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b89sNv127RU

A break

2008-08-22T18:12:00.003+01:00

I took a break, a holiday sailing on the north coast of Spain. Brilliant sunshine and good winds, some rain but not enough to spoil the sailing. All the towns had some public art, mostly related to fishing or sea travel. I think the one I liked most was this strange little relief. It reminded me of the graffiti in Salthouse church.

Un-Making

2008-08-04T13:33:00.011+01:00

The final day of Salthouse 08. Un-making is part of the Slow process, understanding what I have made and seeing the effect on people and environment. Salthouse has been a good example.

It turned out to be much easier to start the take down than I had anticipated. For the first time it was cold and wet so not many people were there. All the work from the churchyard has been taken down, and all the lanterns along the beach path. It was an unraveling, the un-making was a real process as much as the making. I found myself going through memories of conversations and making the initial work. there was a pattern and rhythm to it all.

Still meeting people who are visiting for the first time as well as bringing friends and relatives to see the installation. All with very personal experiences of the work and place, keen to share their comments. In the same way interventions are still happening in the beach structure, demonstrations of people having relationship with it. On this visit I heard someone refer to it as a beacon for the first time.
Met up with Viv Allen, also in the process of un-making see who has kindly sent this comment. 'I thought your work was really the strongest in the show. I thought you successfully met that challenge of working within the landscape. I thought you achieved just the perfect balance of your work being clear and well rooted with the landscape while at no point being dwarfed or lost within it. The forms were both beautiful and natural and I felt showed a strong sense of belonging.'

Additions

2008-07-29T13:04:00.005+01:00

Additions to the beach shelter change; they are obviously placed with care, lavendar and samphire this time, must have been carried here and given as tokens of someone's visit.

Acknowledgements

2008-07-28T17:54:00.006+01:00

I would like to acknowledge all those who have helped in the support and making of Light-lines, whatever happens to it after the official take down date 3rd August it has been a really exceptional place to have worked.
To Matt Bradbury, of Norfolk Wildlife Trust for getting all the appropriate permissions sorted out. The list was quite long.
To Stiffkey Lamp shop for support and encouragement
To Ian and Jenny Stevens for leather ties, advice and encouragement
Suckuk for solar lights
Les Beckett for logs
And as always for all sorts of support, Tim Frost.
To all the visitors who have made comments and sent me images or messages, it is really special to have this kind of feedback so immediately. I will be using it in future public art and consultancy processes.
The image is 'English tourists by an American abroad' by Fran Bussard. Fantastic!

More visits to Light-lines

2008-07-27T16:46:00.020+01:00

More visits - or rather repeated visitors. Many thanks to Merlin for his wonderful selection of morning light on Light-lines, and to Fran for some of the refuge in the old chapel. I think the answer to the missing lights in the beacon is that either the wave that came through last week knocked all the lights out, or someone has taken them. All part of the story of this place and this work I guess.

Back to - or Continuing 'Slow Making'

2008-07-26T17:47:00.012+01:00

Going on with, or going back to Slow Making. All the elements of Light-lines are made with Slow in mind, if the working process of each on is not necessarily slow to produce.

After working in the public space of Salthouse I go back to the studio, contemplate all the activities and start a new map. The stitching helps me to remember, the pace of walking and the flow of water. The conversations and meeting along the way. I have sent myself post-cards of significant sites, where I will re-visit and work again.

Linked by me working or by the journeys other people have made, the maps are Ordnance Survey 1:50,00 showing only the waterways, stitched with woad dyed yarn.

Shown first at Norwich School of Art and Design in 2006 this work has become more significant with time, shown in conjunction with 'Fair Trade Material Matters' at the Sainsbury Centre for Contemporary Art and linked to exhibition Cloth and Culture Now. The combintation of exploration and personal identity seems to engender very instinctive responses.
This is work I am going beck to - and will build on over the next year, more walking, more traveling by coracle...that is another story but here is a link to a picture

Refuge

2008-07-23T16:11:00.025+01:00

The shelter and boat form of the installation is hard to photograph well, if anyone has good images put them on the blog and record your feelings about the space.

Each time I visit I rake and clear leaves from the pathway. The rhythmic movement and sound, as well as the lines made in dry earth is a bit of a ritual and helps to clear my head of rushing and busy-ness

The coracle is now a significant conversation point - perhaps because there is no mention of it in the signage.

Re-visiting in stormy weather

2008-07-23T12:35:00.012+01:00

see Facebook | Michael Davis-Bater's Photos - A visit to Salthouse

The beach with Mike and Kathie and children on Sunday evening, July 20th the waves were within four paces of the shelter. The weather was very stormy, a strong North wind and I was nervous about the shelter. When I heard that the sea had come through at about 8.30 on Monday morning and the spray went right over, I wished I could have been there to photograph. Next evening the waves were less, but the affects were obvious and the structure was still sound, with the log seats spread round the entrance.

I took a walk with a visitor - whose name I do not know...if you read this and want to please add your comment and pictures to this page.

Visiting the shelter is a different experience now. I found myself reluctant to leave this time. I was looking at the many tokens left by other people, like gifts left for me to experience. This place is showing a wonderful generosity of spirit in people, and a desire to link with others maybe.

A strong relationship between the beach, the materials, people and the shelter has developed very quickly; what was alien to the place has become part of it.

I had time to sit and take in the qualities of the pieces left, they are carefully placed and really considered. There is a quality of Slow Making in the pieces.

Some messages to Light-Line

2008-07-23T11:07:00.022+01:00

Another visitor to Salthouse has sent a whole selection of images - view them on this link. Thank you Susan for such a personal record.

Hello Jane,
I was walking along the beach today with my husband (or trudging I should say, shingle makes tired legs!) when we came across Salthouse 08. We really loved it and spent a very enjoyable few minutes inside and around it, having a quick apple and retying shoelaces. I thought you might like to see my favourite photograph from this afternoon.

Best wishes,
Abby

Hello
I am the man in Ash Soan's picture.
Please find the attached that I took later - I hope you like them (better than Ash's anyway). I have better versions if you should need them
Yours
Merlin

Hi jane

Some photos from our visit..when we saw the installation and its decorations we all wanted to add to it..Ian as always had his penknife so we used that and some rusty wire as tools.Ian and Jack both decided independently of one another to make boats from found objects. Jack made a starfish boat and Ian one with the cross in a square..like the graffitti in the church. Meghan and I made a hanging piece using stones with holes and bindings. We all liked the links to the church to the sea and to the light guiding. fab visit was very meditative sitting quietly making on the shoreline!

Jenny

Dear Jane,
On the Sunday evening after the Salthouse 08 opening, Joachim and I returned from Southwold via yet another difficult journey and then had all sorts of bureaucatic palaver in the church getting in the way of the beauty of the show for this curator. Rain got in the way in the churchyard. But then the clouds shifted a bit and we took our picnic to the beach as planned. We'd already lunched in the chapel shelter twice during the hanging with the resulting effect of a power nap or a massage. Anyway, we took the lantern walk to the beacon on the shingle bank. I swam in cool, clear water, during which time my butler laid out our supper in the willow hut. No one else about in an elemental infinity. Again all the aggro vanished. Bare feet on shingle oddly pleasant, amazing light show overhead. When we walked back I saw an avocet through the latticing of one of the lanterns. When I looked closer that feeder in the margins of a pool was being followed by two chicks. The very best moment of Salthouse 08 for me.
Best to you, Ian

Artists make the invisible visible and tangible

2008-07-11T18:19:00.006+01:00

I went to a seminar last night about artists working with transient, new or developing communities. At one point there was conversation about artists as 'double agents - or maybe they are even angels who see the invisible and help make it possible!' There is a reference somewhere to this, which I want to explore further in relation to the Education Annexe work.

Certainly working on the beach I felt as though I was making the invisible tangible, I knew it should be there, just that it hadn't arrived.

I have been taking my bike to Salthouse every time I visit, and coracle. They just needed to be there, and make ideas easier to express. It all made sense to the coast guards who were patrolling the area!
Photograph by Tim Frost

Light direction

2008-07-08T13:36:00.009+01:00

In placing the work and focusing on the problems and issues of construction and making I lost sight of my original aim of this piece.
The placing of this work on Salthouse beach is about relationships between the human and non-human, the natural and the spiritual.

The beach at Salthouse is a quasi-natural shingle bank. The profile is changing and will become very different as the sea is allowed to come inland. The pathway where the work is placed will be underwater, the lantern would have to be a lit buoy. Which relates to what some have suggested the chapel, or charnal house, and church were used for in the past. If you line up two or more lights they can guide sailors safely in to a difficult harbour, the metaphor for lost souls and Christianity or church.

The transient nature of this land is disturbing human and non-human. Some will not have places to move to, some will have no warning of the changes. This is Slow Making in practice.
If your community is affected, if you are interested in opportunity to express experiences of the changes you have seen or heard or have solutions and ideas to share please get in touch. You may be able to provide a guiding light.
For link back to other parts of the web-site go here

Light-lines shining

2008-07-03T12:07:00.025+01:00

The first time I have seen the lights working all together, the effect is what I hoped for and far more. The colour of the sky at sun-set after a sunny day is such a deep blue, infinitely so, it seems almost tangible.

If you are in the Salthouse area during July go along the A149 as the sun is setting, you will see the lights gradually come on. They take a while to all come on, depending on their position in relation to the sun. As the sun-light goes the path becomes defined by yellow lights from the sun-jars, the white lights in the shelter show up on the horizon.

Review of Salthouse 08 can be seen here

Photographs by Tim Frost

Light-Lines

2008-07-02T23:02:00.016+01:00

Light-Lines is installed on Salthouse Beach, thanks to all who helped!

On the lanterns and shelters the wording attached is as follows
'The start of a journey or a place to return to, Light-lines may be used as a guide for the traveller or platform for storyteller. Important for explaining and understanding relationships between spiritual and physical, between human and non-human, stories are places of refuge and adventure. Share stories, follow Light-lines.'
To share your stories and pictures of Salthouse 08 shelter and beacons

Email Light-lines@FrostArt.co.uk

With thanks to Ash Soan and his iphone for the attached image.

And to the family whose name I didn't get, sorry. The three year old had the right idea, she knew it was a place to tell stories and demanded one straight away!

Sky lines

2008-06-28T18:15:00.006+01:00

Installing the lanterns along the pathway higlights the lines that these forms make. the spirals are open and imply ongoing, allowing the follower of 'Light-Lines' a freedom of movement. The more traditional trap like forms may make the walker to pause and reflect, my intention is not to prevent or block their path. I was conscious of the existing use of one fence post when fixing lanterns, a willow warbler came several times.

The pathway does line up - and is visible from the churchyard, although I intended it I was still surprised. The binoculars may be essential to show some visitors.

beach shelter

2008-06-28T17:17:00.011+01:00

Today was spent making the large lantern on the beach, with help from Tim and helpers from the Salthouse 08 'crew'. Thank you to all involved.

Hard work in difficult conditions, the wind was very strong so it tested my design and Tim's ingenuity.
The elements came together, the materials fit in the site and as I completed the beach appeared to 'own' the shelter.

WIll people feel the same

Change of workplace and pace

2008-06-27T15:49:00.004+01:00

I have spent so long working on the allotment, surrounded by both vegetables and my work, that I feel a bit uncertain now I am working in the graveyard of Salthouse church. I had not thought about this element for a long time, probably since March, but it is equally important to the whole installation. I found Juliet Arnott's work still in tact at the chapel and started by removing all the debris that has collected over the last two years.

As I worked on the installation I found I was drawing with the white willow poles, this should have been obvious had I put any thought into it As always I was focusing on the physical, not on analytical at this stage. The similarity of the physical to my original drawing, in form and character still amazes me when it works. The lines have close relationship to those in the graffiti boats inside the church - which I had wanted but not looked at for several months.

The prow of my 'boat' is visible from the steps up to the churchyard - perfect for most visitors to see when they arrive. But I doubt if they will recognise the shape. I am introducing pebbles into the form, as a reference to the myth about Christian Saints arriving in Britanny in stone boats. That was all that was left on the beach after the boats had rotted away.

The lines drawn are white willow, the ties are made by 'cranking' the willow along the length. I find this the hardest thing to get really right, but when it works the knots look elegant.

Transporting work

2008-06-25T15:44:00.003+01:00

Taking work to Salthouse has meant taking it in stages, some in my van and some in a hired van.
I rather liked this installation, taken just before leaving with the second load.

Lantern form

2008-06-10T11:18:00.006+01:00

Today I was completing the lantern top, and the sun was shining, with almost no clouds in the sky above. The blue is so infinite I had to take pictures. The colour and skeletal form remind me of the church windows.
When making work it is so difficult to visualise the real physical effect in three dimensions, the form and materiality which were not there before.

Shelter taking form

2008-06-07T15:33:00.008+01:00

The shelter is taking form, constructing on the allotment is a great feeling, the space changes again and more interest is developed. The other allotment holders seem to be more and more interested, if somewhat bemused by what I do. Their comments are encouraging, when I make 'real' baskets to learn the skills they seem to be able to relate more to the unusual forms.

Making a prototype always takes so much longer, if I ever have the chance to make another it will be so much quicker. I have worked out how to make the elements and be able to transport them, setting the base and top ring in advance.

Finding the Line

2008-06-03T12:40:00.005+01:00

I spent some time today finding the line for lanterns along the path and on Salthouse beach, some of it meant walking backwards with a cone of string.
A strange activity, it reminded me of Tim Ingold's book 'Lines - a brief history' and the links between places and people that are invisible most of the time.

It is difficult to visualise the real effect, but the more times I visit Salthouse the more I am sure of the 'rightness' of placing this work here and now.

Materiality and making

2008-05-20T15:02:00.006+01:00

Working on the elements of Salthouse structures I am becoming entranced by the materials and techniques, colour and form of the willow as it takes shape.
The smells and humidity, the almost industrial repetitious aspect of making multiples has the feel of cloth weaving. The other allotment holders are making comments and showing interest in what I am doing.
The alloment shed is getting crowded, the space feels very small now.

Relatively Slow

2008-04-02T22:27:00.019+01:00

Since coming back from Cape Verde time has gone so fast, I now want to return.

Slow Making is always at the back of my mind, even though I am not good at doing it in practice.

A Slow Making conversation took place linked to Lyndell Phelps exhibition 'Coded Ornithology' at The Babylon Gallery

Participants were Dave Pritchard, Steve Bramble, John Fanshawe, Lyndell Phelps, Tim Frost, Jane Frost, Andy O'Hanlon.

It has taken a long time to put work together for Salthouse, including the years since 1968, journeys and experiences, spiritual and physical. I am beginning to make the elements for Light-Lines, learning more all the time.
The making prcesses are the same as those for baskets, and through trying to make a traditional basket I have designed the structures more consistently.

New Year, new people and places

2007-12-21T16:33:00.004Z

As I get ready to go on holiday I am hoping it will provide me with time to step back, relax and be completely refreshed. The Cape Verde Islands should be somewhere so different from my every day experience that I can come back with energy and insight to create significant work

Look out for dates when 'Slow Making' conversations are going to happen and please get in touch if you are reading this blog, I would like to have feedback

Wishing you a Happy and Creative 2008

A new project

2007-12-21T16:26:00.001Z

Selected for Salthouse 08 'SEAhouse, LIGHThouse, SPIRIThouse' means that I have the opportunity to work on a series of structures, to go on the beach, across the marshes to the churchyard. This means being outside, balancing work again, willow and wetland stuff. Direct interaction with people will happen after this, in a series of workshops and conversations.

This opportunity, going back to Salthouse to do this work seems another occasion of good timing. The combination of adventure, physical and spiritual as well the contemplative aspect of this work is what I hope to show in the final pieces.

I want to invite a diverse group of participants, church groups, artists, environmentalists to take part in the workshops and conversations. So please contact me if you are interested. I am also looking for commissioners and funders for this work. If you think you would be interested in owning the finished work and want to be informed of progress, look out for more postings - or get in touch for further information.

Sketches and plans

2007-12-21T16:20:00.003Z

I have been sketching a series of forms related to lanterns, 'Weaving a Walk' linked to beacon churches and lighthouses. Trying out various willow forms - which means I have used it much more than in the previous three or four years. I find there are shocks about the lack of control and skill, as well as finding I have memories of making and adapting previous structures. The greatest challenge is going to be making a structure in willow as large as it needs to be, while still being an elegant form.
I will be modelling the form many times before I am satisfied with it.

The largest lantern forms will be places to hold about six people at one time to share stories and experiences of their physical and spiritual adventures. To discuss awareness of the environment and the non-human inhabitants who share it, their influence or otherwise over the lives and decisions

Staging at Late Shift

2007-10-27T17:27:00.000+01:00

Staging at the Late Shift was more interactive this time, and more successful.
Surrounded by works collected by the Sainsbury family together with exchanges and conversations, the work made much more sense.
The online quilt has been updated and currently has more then a hundred contributions, there are still more to add and it gains strength as it grows.

Slow Making is always in the back of my mind while I am working on Fair Trade - Material Matters, does this make a difference to the end result? I am not sure, but it does mean I am not in a rush to declare it finished

Fair Trade - Material Matters for Black History month

2007-10-23T12:28:00.001+01:00

This month's Late Night Shift at the Sainsbury Centre is linked to Black History Month, which gave the opportunity for Fair Trade - Material Matters to consider sense of identity and belonging, as well as the issues of nomadic, travelling and displaced people.

There will be opportunity for people to contribute their self portraits. I look forward to having this occasion to interact with artists again, will it affect the way they choose to depict themselves in this situation?

MA Show

2007-08-31T20:53:00.000+01:00

Exhibition preparation at Norwich, it seems a strange place to be. I have selected some things to show but as always they may not express what I had intended. Showing Fair Trade - Material Matters as a static exhibition and without the interactive process gives the work a significance I am not sure I can relate to. Stitching the new drawings has taught me so much more - I even find the rhythm and technique of the artists comes into the way I stitch each time - so each one has a real charecter. The hanging process lends a status and separation which it has not had before.

Bringing work from the allotment to a public space, together with chairs and tools which are very personal, makes me feel vulnerable and very uncertain. It has an attraction to viewers I can see that, it is very elemental and maybe non-gallery.

Tim Drakes animations are currently the most successful part for me - I had intended to show only those, with earth and charcoal on the floor....maybe another time!
Images to follow...

My 'Slow Making' article is available for audience to read, a few take advantage of this and find it interesting to read. It has been published this week in No 42 of Landscape and Arts Network Journal

Dancing forward again

2007-08-06T13:02:00.000+01:00

The positive outcomes of going to Moscow are starting to happen (see entry for 29th March) I have been invited to go and draw in rehearsals, classes and performances of the Bolshoi ballet while they are in London. I will do this for one of the three weeks they perfom at the Colisseum, starting 12th August.
As the MA show at Norwich goes up two weeks later this may not be ideal - but this opportunity is not to be missed.
Having made work about 'Dancing with your shadow for the last 10 years, this feels right to do in conjunction with writing about Slow Making.
The unplanned and unimaginable happens when you allow time and space.

My work was brought back from Moscow by Joseph Backstein, I collected it from his house in London to find that I have about 65 fantastic new self portraits to stitch into the blankets. A lot of work, it will take time...

This will now be part of my MA show at Norwich.

Slow Making expressions

2007-07-06T14:13:00.000+01:00

Thinking about slow making I have spent more time looking, feeling, sitting and finding ways of expressing the relationship I have with materials, not trying to make any 'thing' in particular

Writing about 'Slow making' has been hard, it really doesn't come naturally to express my thoughts in words but to both define and share a philisophy of making effectively and seems to help the physical making process.

Speaking to others about the idea has been encouraging, 'Slow Making' is obviously an approach to life and being ready to happen, complementary to the speed of emails and blogs. It is a conversation to have, a live, slow event including a meal and possibly making in community.

Using the charcoal made there on old brown wrapping paper, I have this hanging in the allotment studio.

Allotment Studio Space

2007-06-22T15:56:00.001+01:00

Every time I think about Slow Making now I breath differently, listen to my breathing and heartbeat. The allotment studio provides space to do that away from all the mechanical and technology, how much does the individual's body rhythm affect what they make and do in life? I expect more than we are aware of.

Using the Allotment studio for a workshop was challenging, both for me and participants. It is a space I use for isolation, quiet work and as often as I can without power tools. The contrast of having five or six others, making noise alien to the site was sometimes very disturbing.

I lay down very few guidelines, to see whether the sense of place manifests in the behaviour of visitors to the place/site.
I am not sure this worked, but it did give me information to work with and for the next one. What I observed was that it is easier to demonstrate displacement visually than express the sense of place or belonging. This was shown by setting up photo-shoots and wearing of clothes never seen here before!

The conversation about Slow Making will be published as part of my MA, I am currently drafting a definition, this is what has emerged so far.

'Slow Making is done with reflection, care and consideration of the
environmental effects of the source, process and use of materials. Slow Making is always a collaborative process, either environmentally or socially.'

There is a Blog with a manifesto for Slow Making

Slow Making - Sense of Place

2007-05-30T16:29:00.000+01:00

Working more on Slow Making I have been spending time in the allotment 'shed' which is more studio now than ever. I am really enjoying the new atmosphere there, using it early in the morning and late in the evening when the light is more dramatic.
What is Sense of Place and how to convey it visually? Not by a landscape painting or a sculpture, or by film, there are not enough senses involved in receiving those.

Poppies have self seeded in Fred's disused allotment - all I have done is take away the other 'weeds' as they have grown, this has produced a riot of rich colour. The sight of them has brought out stories about older allotment holders growing poppies to treat ague and make a solution that was put on the babies dummy to help everyone sleep. One or two people have been invited to the allotment to see the sight, I like that - a piece of work made instinctively and exhibited without any planning or advertising! I feel like this is a real expression of both Slow Making and Sense of Place.

The next phase of my exploration into Slow Making is inviting artists and writers to express Sense of Place with Slow making in mind, I think I know what I mean but will they? Are the two separable, I think they are two parts of the same thing.

Setting up new threads

2007-03-29T09:45:00.000+01:00

Setting up new work projects and starting new projects has the same feel as setting up a loom, the threads are laid in place to construct what any weaver intends will be their perfect piece of cloth - of course that is always impossible but you would not start if the aim and hope was not there!
In my case the threads are made of phone calls, meetings and emails. Planning the times and places, preparing materials for work to be facilitated and constructed.

While setting up the new work relationships, I am very aware of the phrase that Cary Outis gave me years ago - that as a weaver I should be careful of loose threads in my life, it is always better to tie them in or cut them off as you go into new ground. He was relating it to relationships and whole life actions, not just textile activities. I feel at the moment as if I am still tied to Matter and Memory and all that happened relating to Moscow. It has been an isolating experience to be part of, at once included and excluded from both the Art School group and the exchange group. maybe a useful experience but not a positive one right now.
Difficult to see the possibilities becoming positive.

New Pace: reflection and review

2007-03-22T09:24:00.000Z

Being forced to stop work through illness always makes me review my work habits. I have not walked or done any restorative work in garden or allotment for a long time. I have been indoors for most of the winter and almost missed the early spring - either through too much indoor work or being away.

I could not smell or taste anything for more than a week - it affects my experience of life and I had not quite realised the power of smell before. It seems to be an almost subconscious sense. I know now that among other things I smell materials such as yarn, cloth, hair, paper and clothes when handling and selecting to work with; the experience is so intertwined with texture that I have found it difficult to relate in exactly the same way to work I am currently making.

I am now waiting for the work to be returned from Moscow - the realities of Russia seem more unreal than a good fictional film script. I just hope it resolves fairly soon.

Next step on the path

2007-03-08T09:20:00.000Z

In putting together a presentation at Norwich School of Art and Design I found it was a way of reviewing the whole event. I could step away for a while and work out the direction both for ' Fair Trade - Material Matters' and the focus for a new piece of work, or at least planning the next phase for linked work. I do not make unrelated work - it is always with the theme of linking places and people, always drawing the threads together.

The presentation for Education Annex - Matter and Memory will be available to view here soon

The exhibition - Matter and Memory

2007-03-05T09:23:00.000Z

Moscow, a combination of the slightly familiar and fantastically new seems to be the character of this place. The situation of setting up the exhibition 'Matter and Memory' brought new and extraordinary ways of finding possibilities in what appear to be impossible situations.

The conditions we worked for Matter and Memory in were unbelievable - a cellar with severe quantities of cement dust, without electricity and with water leaking through the walls - any really sane person would have walked away from this! We did decide that we must have jointly escaped from the White Cube asylum, and found ourselves in something even more bizarre. The practical experiences also somehow highlighted the happenstance.

Where else would I have been lent the ornate wall mirror from Kabakov's studio and had a dancer from the Bolshoi Ballet draw her self portrait. In the context of improbabilities, the fact that the German students exhibiting came from Staedeschule in Frankfurt and Kabakov's book was based on a series of lectures given there just seemed to be pre-planning for this event.

The installation was in dimmed lighting, difficult to photograph so lent itself to the black and white interpretation, and linked to an early 1980's image of students in the Kabakov studio.

I was comforted when I read this from an interview with both Ilya and Emilia Kabakov in 2004, I think I am beginning to understand Moscow a little. 'The Hermitage exhibition simulates a retrospective. In the first telephone call, they told us: you can't touch the floors, you can't touch the walls, and you can't put lights on the ceiling. And you can't close the windows and you can't open the door [laughter]. They said, there is nothing behind the door. I said, what do you mean, nothing? Is there a mountain or a street behind this door, I asked. Nothing means they didn't do the floors.'

We were of course promised catalogues from the Biennial organisers, but of course these were never found, the rumour was that they were sold to someone else...

'Fair Trade - Material matters' took on so much meaning that I could never have planned

Practical arrangements

2007-02-28T18:34:00.000Z

Do you really need to know stuff about travel preparation and practical arrangements for the Moscow Biennale?

Visas, tickets, money, phone calls, emails, messages - time delays in getting messages. Maybe it puts the work in context with reality, or at least the realities of Russia.

What is the work and what is the preparation? How to separate administration from work? When does a painting start to be a painting and not a selection of canvas, board, frame, oil paint and pint brushes. Would that be considered administration or relevant skill?

There are times when I question why I get involved in collaborative projects - or even with exhibition where there are three or more time zones! But then the next one is offered and it seems such a good idea!
You can tell I have tried not to allow the admin to affect it too much, or to get annoyed about the misunderstandings, but it must affect the work in some ways. Every time I am amazed at the proportion of time spent on practicalities and housework, I guess I should be used to it by now.

The process of packing up the work became a real combination of financial and aesthetic judgement, which I guess is fairly universal. Trying to keep the weight down to pay less excess baggage meant I took less, providing opportunity to select only the necessary and edit out the dross.
It did give me the task of finding an art shop in Moscow selling sketch books and drawing equipment - simple in most cases, but this being Moscow it took me 4 days to get to!

I think it was probably a good thing I didn't know what was going to happen when we got there, it really would have put me off going this time. But then I would have missed experiences like waiting for keys outside the gallery space to find Goran had discovered a kitchen which sold wonderful bread. Locals did not seem know about it, only the builders who shared a Persian language with Goran!

Catching the thread

2007-02-10T15:34:00.000Z

Trialling 'Fair Trade - Material matters at the Sainsbury Centre and Norwich School of Art and Design, as well as in my studio. Mainly in preparation for 'Matter and Memory' in Moscow - while still not having the money or paperwork to go. These occasions have allowed me to adapt ideas about what was necessary to have included in the exhibition and what would be distracting. Although people like to know how their drawing is going to be on-line it is too complicated to do the whole process while relating properly with contributors at an event.

An important element of this work is developing relationships and interconnections between the people involved, so the fewer barriers the better - and technology can be a big one if used badly. I am beginning to learn the techniques of making it less threatening for both me and contributors, perhaps because I am not allowing the technology to threaten me!

The Sainsbury Centre allowed the work to be seen in a new light, it seemed to gain credibility. I didn't need to see that, as I was already sure of the work's strength, even if I found it difficult to express in words sometimes, but perhaps it did change other peoples perception of it. Sitting next to Henry Moore, Degas and Matisse drawings it did feel right, the work belonged.

Following several sessions collecting drawings I then had to stitch the physical quilt and update the online version, currently there are 3 blanket panels, I am aiming for 4 before I go to Moscow, the image shows part of one. For the updated version online see FrostArt

Web Quilt; developing community

2007-01-05T17:12:00.001Z

Developing the on-line quilt with Josh's help, he is such a good teacher and I am learning to be creative with the web-site.

The unexpected bonus of making this has been the web-sites and interest of other artists who have done their self portraits, I am creating an artificial community which will have links and relationships. It will be fascinating to see what happens as a result.

The extension of physical to virtual community, and reading Tim Ingolds work about lines and links at the same time seems to have strengthened each part of the work, both in my mind and when I share it with others.

Distraction and interest

2007-01-04T09:46:00.002Z

Putting together complex work, I have enjoyed looking at references, reading and collecting a wider variety of material to find context of my work in a broader field.

The freedom and obvious involvement in development of ideas through drawing by Kounellis encouraged me to use my sketch book both more personally and moe infomatively. The whole book, material used and tactile qualities became integral to thinking process, much more satisfactory and so more infomative to both me and others.

Organisation of collaborative projects has to be the most frustrating way of working when they are in the early stages, and the most rewarding in the later stages. Working in sketchbook has to be the absolute opposite, instantly ideas can be realised and discarded if they seem non-viable

Focussing and maintaining energy to finish work, I had to spend time out side whenever the weather allowed to get the light, working on all the elements of Fair Trade Art has meant too many hours inside. I took the sketch book with me a lot of the time, and when coming in form the allotment one day saw this image - which also reminded me of William Nicholson's painting of Gertrude Jekyll's boots. I liked the physicalltiy of the leather and the potential of both boots and sketch book.

These images have some of the feeling and pre-occupation about lines, links and traces, thinking while walking and working and on the allotment. Drawing lines by planting and harvesting, patterns in the soil in relation to working on the loom.

Old and new year: people, materials and methods

2007-01-02T15:55:00.001Z

The New year started as usual with our Open House party. A wide variety of people and ages come, this year included an old school friend Clare Anderson, from Woldingham who I had not seen since 1978 at our wedding until one cold early morning on the train from Littleport to London at the end of last year, 2006. I was on my way to the Royal Society's Art and Ecology conference 'No Way Back'. She was on her way to work, having lived in Cambridge since 1990 it seemed strange that our paths had not overlapped ever before., but it is great to renew a friendship.

The willow growth has not been consistent over the last few months, it has been in new bud and branching and now it is cold, really cold for the first time in more than 12 months. First there was ice on the trees and bright sunshine, then icy fog where plants started to look like they really were dormant. It felt healthy to have the cold and a chance for new growth to happen without being infected by old diseases.

Looking again at the long term, for when I am not writing so much and start being outside and making more - not just because of the seasons but because I will have to to be in the air and sun light for health reasons. I have been installing work into the allotment space - making it more of a studio for reference and archive; a record of decay visually not scientifically. Using old seats as containers for leaf mould and recording the changes makes them more than just bits of discarded weaving and old seats and turns them into potential pieces of work.

Looking at other websites and blogs, I am even more certain that my idea of having a combination of blog and web site is right. Susan Bowman's combination of open access site and passworded journal is really efficient and looks good, though it is a bit prone to lists. I will be developing FrostArt to include this, using all the new toys - Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks. Sounds too strange at the moment - for those who all understand and use them already you will know how long it takes. Have I taken on more than I can cope with for 2007?

To many words not enough images - this will be remedied in the next posting

Fair Trade decisions

2006-12-20T15:48:00.000Z

I have decided on Fair Trade Art as a title for my exchange in Moscow, with the agreement of the Fair Trade Foundation This has provided a good starting point, drawn self portraits are the rate of exchange.
The image shows one of the students at UEA's Bangers and Mash Fair Trade Fair doing her self portrait for Fair Trade Art. Plans for both Moscow 'kiosk' are still developing. I am modelling the idea in a variety of places and it was encouraging and exciting to hear and feel poeples reactions at this event.

The climate in Moscow during February will not allow for holding a market event outside at the Biennale, or rather I will not be able to cope with temperatures less than -20c In a way this will prove more challenging; to get the Art world really involved with an
I had a rubber stamp made to 'validate' portraits for the project, this has proved to be a really effective way of making a community of artists. Seen on the left with ink pad, the ink colour is exactly the same as Woad; to some extent chance. In addition I have started a collection of labels from the blankets used, which also seem to be generally the same blue. ANy significance of all these facts may come to light at a later date.

I had not seen them but I am told Jake & Dinos Chapman were selling drawings of people at Freize Art, made on the spot portraits at £3000 or £4000 each; this is strange as I had the idea about fair trade art confirmed by Freize, without seeing them.

The next image is of me stitching on recycled blankets with woad dyed yarn, I use carbon copies to work from, the originals are retained by the artist/participants and Traditionally a quilt has three layers; the layers of this quilt will be online for all to access information about the artists and, within reason, any web-sites they are involved with. Making and feeling, manipulating materials are what I need to do, slow making helps the thinking process, helps me to understand the world. It is like the Hare Brain Tortoise Mind book by Guy Claxton, 'when you come away from a problem it becomes clearer'.

I am planning to model Fair Trade Art at galleries and coffee shops in the New Year - dates and venues will be put online as soon as I have them confirmed.

Pace, balance and rhythm

2006-11-22T18:00:00.000Z

Working with trees, maintaining fedges, hedges and hedgerows -and yes there is a difference - makes me conscious of how I always work in the long term. Short term projects don't really have any attraction and have no relation to the natural world. The original fedge on the allotment is now 10 years old, the hedgerow is I think 16 years old and has so much wildlife in residence and the Goat willow fedge is now in its fourth winter. Images here of first summer, 2003 and just taken this week, this years growth is about 5 metres long and I have had to take more off so that the base is not stressed in the strong winds.

Sustainable practice has so many meanings and implications, as with most things it is whatever presents itself as urgent that human individuals consider the most important. This varies so widely - depending on life circumstance and cultural position.

In conversations with other artists over the last year - how to find a balance between energies, needs of family and time allowed to make work.

I have found myself watching and remembering my own struggle to find the balance, desperately wanting to 'be an artist' but torn by the emotional need to be a mother(never mind the social expectations) and the lack of financial and physical resources which affected my ability to make considered choices. It was more a question of how to deal with what presented itself, how to adapt it to some sort of advantage!

In the short term it seemed impossible, but now, in hindsight all those skills I gained have enabled me to work with so many people with different world views and experiences.

I have also realised that I am almost incabable of working or thinking in the short term, doing anything that is in isolation whether it is writing, planting, weaving, or 'just' making a pair of shoes for a new baby Thomas I always think in the context of past and future. The shoes were made from leather and wool that I was given from Frances Frosts' house clearance, Thomas would have been her third great grandson. The 'pattern' was the same one that I used over and over for our children, shoes are design to be first shoes - with a leather sole strong enough to learn to walk in but soft enough to be like walking in bare feet.

Reading a blog reviewing and commenting on Nicolas Bouuriaud 'Realtional Aesthetics'in terms of Theological and Christian world view, this has to bee seen as a subjective position, I have no knowledge of the contribution to the Blog in question but have found it an interesting develpment of Community and relationship, extending the relational activity, art and family charechteristics.

creative involvement

2006-11-15T14:02:00.000Z

Making work that is public and includes the actions of others, like the Field Theatre Group in Littleport, where I led the initiative for a community walk to define green spaces, is a trading of skills and inclusion of others creativity. This is ongoing work and will be built on when funding is available, about the 'spaces in between' and green corridors' which are essential to sustianable and healthy communities.

In making an application to the British Council I have become much more objective about the process. I may or may not receive support but it has made me able to do more of the process independently, and efficiently. Plans for creating a place or time in Moscow will be transfered to Fair Trade events in Norwich and Liverpool if funds are not available, work with people is transferable so long as they are not taken advantage of or manipulated.

Drawing together people and places is very much like the action of drawing together yarn for a warp, there are places where it tangles and is difficult to work with, and places where it runs smoothly unexpectedly. Planning does not always allow for chance opportunities - make mistakes into a positive part of the design process

Trading

2006-11-10T21:07:00.000Z

I went to Freize Art in Regents Park, London, a strange experience - so much expectation and money it felt more like a fashion event. The exchange of ideas and concepts into hard cash - a strange market and one that the artists do not seem to benefit greatly from, other than gaining their reputation trhough association with gallery owners and dealers.
With ideas of Fair Trade and planning for next years events during Fair Trade fortnight this yet again strengethened my aim to make and promote the action of making that is not resource wasteful, either for maker or buyer.
There is no image for this entry, which is indicative of the amount of reading I am doing. Beginning to get itchy fingers, wanting to make for the sake of making is not a good reason to create anything!

trading places tracing lines

2006-10-18T16:36:00.001+01:00

This Image is of Conni Blom in a studio space in moscow - a very strange experience - one of many and one that I still don't really inderstand the significance of. I took the photo and didn't see him in it until I had enlarged the image two weeks later, in the computer.

I think this is where my idea about an exchange of self portraits started, but perhaps this was so subconscious that I am trying to do something artists wont want to.

The exchange of images and ideas that has been going on as part of the Passion for the Real started me thinking about Fair Trade in Art, we have been very trusting and generous to each other. Is this is because of the innate desire artists seem to have to share their work and want approval, response and affrimation that their ideas convey something more than just self interest?

I have been going into galleries, studios and cafes in UK to both exchange and collect work, self protraits mainly, to be included in the Fair Trade Art Project. This has produced intersting responses form all contributors and thos who don't want to contribute. I have had to both justify and think through the idea in detail, which should mean it is refined and more relevant to more people.

Until I had selected this portion of the image I had not seen the link to the icon shapes already there as well - how much subconscious is at work all the time.

New Language

2006-10-18T11:07:00.000+01:00

The previous entry had a strange combination of fonts - somehow I couldn't resolve this or ran out of energy, I apologise if this affected your reading of the blog.

This is another image of the workshop I ran at the Dascha, with Conni Blom moving the whole 'page'.

I have been reading work by Nicolas Bourriaud, 'Relational Aesthetics' and 'Post Production' which is explaining the actions that I do and which Janette is doing with communities in LIverpool. The work is 'to consider interhuman exchange an aesthetic object in and of iteslf' except that our work is not purely about human exchange but about the living world, the non-human inhabitants as well the human.
I read Bourriaud in French to start with - simply because that is how I came across it first of all. I found it very strange to read it in English, there were some discrepancies between the original and the translation so I tried to do my own, but some phrases just could not be put into English. Somehow that is an expression of what I am doing in my work. There are gaps in both in the expression and the understanding, but this is not negative - just a different way to see and understand the world.

Russia, language and perception

2006-09-25T11:23:00.000+01:00

Working in Russia, at Academicka Dascha with students and researchers from Germany, Sweden, Russia, America, Canada; including people who had been refugees from Kurdistan and Rumania; provided more insights into working with visual art. The isolation from familiar signs, alphabet, words and sounds made this so evident, as though I had been given this opportunity to try out my ideas.When I say 'given' it was not free!

As a research project into the learning process and use of facilities by visual artists outside an academic institute, there was an overemphasis on words and discussion, not enough use or value put on the visual. Even among a group of practicing artists, many left handed, dyslexic and able to use 3Dimensions really effectively the accepted practice seems to be that discussion and writing is more valuable and effective for the working world.

We had spent several days discussing, listening and reading complex work and ideas; as a visual artist using tactile materials I really felt the need to make a work, to feel and see the physical actions of others. I made the action to help my own understanding of the work requires, to see and fell the actions and understanding of others involved in expressing the physical world.
The central stone signifies our goal to make a joint exhbition, as a newly formed group with no real link; the small pile of stones surrounding it signifies the artists, writers and curators involved. I asked them to place a stone at a distance to show how close they felt to resolving ideas and understainding of the goal. I encouraged them to make theplavccing of the stone a personal experience, and to take a stone away with them to remind them of the people involved and the task.

I was touched by how alll participants took this action very seriously. One in particular moved the whole blanket/page. I understood this to mean that he thoguht our focus was off centre, it also showed a respect for the aim of the work.
Using simple materials, recycled blanket as the 'page' to draw on and pebbles collected from the gardens all participants could express themselves without prior knowledge and skills.
I feel as though this is a significant piece of work - it happened after so many days of walking, thinking and watching the environment - including people and their interactions. I know I will use it again, with all kinds of people and places.
I asked some of the academics in the group what they thought they had seen - even asking it seemed a bit strange, they each took their time and came back to me with really considered replies. I had responses like - 'it seemed a significant statement, participants wanted to make their sdtatements. The process is amazingly inclusive' another said 'I think it is significant that you have made a piece of work withthe group, allowing an opportunity for the group to work together visually'

I have deliberately not put names to the statements, if they are published somwhere else I will ask for more formal responses and include all acknowledgements there.

New focus

2006-09-25T11:16:00.000+01:00

A long gap in posting for the blog has been either beacuase of writing other work, or because of travelling and making away from access to computer and internet. This proved to be a release in some ways, my thinking and I guess others, is that it is essential to life!

For MA exhibition at NSAD I made maps of waterways. The action of stitching, the repetitive, monotonous process was a relief, and again I experienced the overlap in thinking and making. The making seemed to clarify my thinking, to resolve ideas and enable me to express for a questioning audience.
The physical manipulation from conventional OS maps into a combination of textile craft and and art installation highlighted the overlap in my thinking, which previously I have not found easy to express.
While making I was also thinking about travelling to Russia and of meeting and working with a whole group of new people. The combination of familiar and unkown, was that why I had chosen such a repetitive process?

standing back

2006-07-24T12:06:00.000+01:00

I have had time away, attending the RANE conference and working with Janette Porter at Boscastle.
The work was in response to the floods in 2004, Janette's hard work meant that we made new work and updated Lateexchange
I am continuing to spin and walk, spin and walk, confirming the links between sites in my mind as well as physically.
Recently heard that I have been given a place to go Russia in September through Norwich School of Art and Design, this is a somwhat unexpected extension of my MA and will extend the scope of my work and L@tE even more.
I realise that I spend much of my time reading and thinking - standing back from the physical action of making. I am beginning to have some withdrawl symptoms - picking up grasses and fibres to reconnect with material and manipulation. I am aware that I do not want to make things for the sake of it - more things are just distracting to an understanding of sustainable practices and use of resources.
Being away has meant that my allotment is neglected and not productive - how to make it sustainable without being there is going to an ongoing problem this year and may mean re-thinking how I use it.

words and understanding

2006-07-03T18:03:00.000+01:00

Re-covering, re-forming, sustaining, im-plying, sampling - how words and thoughts change depending on context. As I wrote I realised that these words have so many layers of implication - depending on where you say them. Context is everything. A discussion with Tim Drake, illustrator and beat box artist, emphasised this. We talked for some time using the same words while completely mis-understanding each other's meaning!
Sustainable acitivities are the same - so easily misunderstood, or used to mean different things depending on personal needs and situation.If I have enough money to live, then I can consider world resources in a different light.

It is only possible to work in one space at a time, either mentally ar physically, but should always be possible to imagine other places and empathise with different situations. Through the use of textile materials and skills I am able to relate to places and people who never share the same world view and experiences.

2006-07-03T15:55:00.000+01:00

Planning for winter, again out of season thoughts. Probably because the weather is currently dry and about 32 degrees - 90 something in farenhiet.
So far this year the allotment has been neglected and we won't have much produce, but is being transformed to be easier to manage; fruit cage and wires for training beans and sweet peas up in the future. Lots of woodchips as ground cover for the willows and fruit trees, alongside this the willows can be pruned to encourage more attractive and weaving varieties to survive. Taking out an old and neglected hedgerow - which is now mostly ivy and has killed off at least three elder trees - we have found rubbish from previous allotment holders including dustbins and parts of old bikes. I am using some of the ivy to make hedgerow containers, combined with white willlow it's a great contrast of colour and texture.
The allotment is an important area of work - not only for food but as studio and thinking space. I am sure this will become more obvious over the next few years. Relating to community and environment it has the potential for practicing Social Sculpture, as much a learning space as place for exhibition, making and archiving of work;

extending practice

2006-06-28T18:18:00.001+01:00

I am beginning to realise that I find new work situations are a combination of stimulating and terrifying, the adrenalin is only useful of planning and structure is in place. This has brought me back to thinking about the structure of my overall practice - how everything is related to spinning, twisting, combining threads together. I could not express this in words until I had made a model of my thought pattern, in an atttempt to do this I made the model seen in this image as part of a piece of writing at Norwich School of Art and Design in 2005.
Next week I will be spending time working away at RANE Artful Ecologies Conference Falmouth, with Janette. Time to plan future projects for L@tE and for creating and reviewing. As always I will take my spindle - either a form of security or just continuity of practice - only time will tell.

Time out

2006-06-26T18:16:00.000+01:00

I needed time out to make and do physical work without doing the over analytical. There has to be a balance. Handling material and relating to people and place has to be a part of my work.
I go out walking to relate to the scale of the places & physical effect of environment on my body before sitting in the studio again. I listen to and relate to people to find out whether my ideas and images convey any sense.

There is a piece about footprints & traces currently on the loom that has been there too long - not sure it will work but it does need to be finished rather than discarded. I may leave it deliberately unfinished to be part of the series 'Dancing with your Shadow'
I still have the shadow element in my mind - making work to show just the shadow - how will that work? When displaying the sampler of sacking it worked best as the shadow - the implication being that the work is finished and audience can only see a trace. I have some work to do on this & will be playing with the ideas over the next few months, so images to follow.

If you have read this far, please comment - it's what this blog is meant to be for. I would like to hear reactions.

Exposing surface and depth

2006-06-26T18:02:00.000+01:00

After all that wrapping and binding I felt a bit restricted, the same way as people say they are about all the legislations relating to land ownership and agriculture. Maybe that is why I started to uncover and unwrap the branches I did not want to use for exhbition, the bark is being used for other projects, currently sitting in a tin bath and going dark blue-black with the iron dye tho so nothing is wasted. The cut branches will be used as well, nothing is left unused.

I found myself expressing a thought that I had not heard before, about the unfinished expressing something of the sustainable, the living and continuing. Is this really a cop-out for not finishing things or did it happen because that is my instinctive approach. How do you do instinctive once you have verbalised and analysed it? More reading and considering other practitioners approaches to work does not always provide the information that supports or justifies ones own; not that I need justification - but being aware of others exploring similar fileds is reassuring.

Working outside, alongside the river and at the allotment I have again been looking at the earth. I am more and more tempted to use it, draw with it in some form. That is what 'exposing surface and depth' is all about, not sure where this thought is going, not doubt some images will follow when I am more certain of the ground!

Photos by Tim Frost

responses

2006-06-21T23:21:00.000+01:00

In presenting work this week I am aware that I have left out some crucial information, as I am sure happens when writing this. If there are ommissions such as acknowledgeing authors of work I apologise here, and will endeavour to include them in future.
These should have been included in the last posting. Shelley Sacks Greenmuseum and David Haley Greenmuseum
Thinking in terms of spinning and combining fibres, using it as a metaphor for almost everything, has reinforced my understanding of environmental/ecological/social networks and structures. I am sure it not just a coincidence, everything does appear to have relationship and affect on everything else if you have time to research it. Working in the physical environment this becomes more and more obvious; people who work the land are sensitive to these relationships. Artists who listen to their insticts have the same sensitivities.

Making into thinking into more making

2006-06-21T23:08:00.000+01:00

Manipulating, making and working through ideas always creates new thoughts and ideas. How do people who don't make find new ideas? I cannot imagine how this works without a physical process.
It is even more evident that children shold not be forced to do everything in 2 Dimensions - their learning should not be restricted to such a narrow thought processes.
The spiritual and instinctive elements of humans living with the world, with creation, with environment is far more creative than most adults have been conditioned to understand.

This quote 'A Personal statement of ecological arts practice' from David Haley

Ecology: the study of organisms in relation to one another and to their surroundings, derived from the Greek word, oikos, meaning house, or dwelling

Art: rt from an Indo-Aryan noun/adjective of the Rg Veda, meaning the dynamic process by which the whole cosmos continues to be created - virtuously

Eco-art ‘…the most moral act of all is the making of space for life to move onward’. – Robert Pirsig, Lila: an inquiry in to morals.

At the moment I cannot do better - but David's way of making lists and defining structures is a bit too male and clinical for me, I am more inclined to be in closer agreement with Shelley Sacks when she refers to 'soul-making' reather than David's 'moral' angle

Redefining the ‘aesthetic’ as ‘enlivened being’ reveals the aesthetic as an ecological life process, and ‘art’ to be an expanded practice that includes non-material processes and relates to all spheres of activity. Such works are, therefore, as much to do with consciousness work, soul-making and personal transformative work as they are to do with social process and natural environmental concerns.

Combining willow and words - spinning a yarn

2006-06-21T21:25:00.000+01:00

As always the plans and ideas I had for presenting work would take at least twice as long as the time I have allowed - how does that happen?
Wrapping my trees with the ribbon of words - which by the way is what I would like to have been able to make -I felt as if the trees were becoming an expression of the communities I have worked with. They are sensitive to and aware of environmental activity and know about the negative effects of agro-chemicalsand other pollutants, but always appear to be bound up in paperwork and 'the way it has to be done': the implication is that it is someone elses job to sort it out.

This action was very intense, in spite of doing it entirely alone - the photo was taken by Tim I could not have done this alone - but I had made and unmade the action several times before he arrived.
My ideas about joining comunities and relating the making to waterwways and river tributaries may not work in the physical, it will be intersting to see and hear readctions to this work, it will be going to several places over the summer.

I have not yet found the words I want to 'perform' but am looking out for some. I find these things arrive at the right time to be used.

growing thoughts

2006-06-20T18:22:00.000+01:00

Combining willow and words, thoughts bound inside and round the growing process.as I prepared the willow for cutting I began to think through all the time I have spent on the allotment working ropund the trees as they grow. I have been there in all weathers, watched birds and animals using them for shelter and found refuge myself when I needed to from intrusion or disturbance.

Climbing and manipulating the upper branches, finding out the flexible from the fragile - this is after all the salix fragilis - very appropriate to work with when thinking about my ecological footprint.

The smell of the willow hgas a calming effect on me, I know it contains salicitic acid - used in aspirin: but I have also been told it is used by homeopaths as a remedy for seperation anxiety and bereavement as well as resentments. I wonder how much I have absorbed while working with it, breathing in the atmosphere and through the skin it must have some effect.

The pace of work is different when working with natural and growing forms, I am sure it has a positive effect on me, it is impossible to force a tree to grow faster so what is the point of trying!
Perhaps I should be more conscious of the time frame of 'growing' ideas and producing words. The link between hand writing and thinking, as opposed to writing with a keyboard and being able to make infinite changes so fast that I cannot imagine must affect the way I am forced to think.
By the way I still like writing by hand, and do so in my 'sketch book' far more than drawing now. It feels like the same process at the moment, I never used to write anything!

Spinning, winding and drawing

2006-06-19T12:49:00.000+01:00

Today has been strange, working from very early morning on ideas and struggling a bit with making paper tape. It could still be a great idea that goes disastrously wrong!
I have now made the paper yarn...all sorts of double meanings to take from this! It looks ok, a bit uneven and if I had time would try and have it printed on ribbon. Winding it on to the cones was tedious & I began to doubt my sanity. In a similar way to hand spinning, it could be seen as completely unnecessary.
Now the task is to combine this with the tree - or part of the tree. I think I have been avoiding this, it feels like a very final decision. When the elements are put together it is commitment - but then I have no choice now, there is no time to make anything else. Perhaps that is why I use trees and sother slow processes, the final stage is delayed!

While putting the tape onto the cones I found myself reading the words in a different way - they seemed to take on different meaning because of how they were positioned. The juxtapositions with unconnected sentences was like positioning different fibres and colours.

FrostArt

Last weekend

A change of scene

Half Term workshop

Moving on - Slowly

Continuing the process

Encouraging comments

Slow Making: planning, use of space and archiving

Exhibition response and conversations

Walking Matters and changes things.

Material Matters

Slow progression, willow, work and gardening

New points of reference

More colourful stories

Summer and willow acitivities

Drawing with willow

Waterways: Walking: Stitching and conversations

A more colourful spring

Tide and time

Travelling less, making more

Last entry of the year

Drawing with willow

Weaving conversation and baskets

footprints and impressions of 350 Day of actions

350 International Day of Action

Stitching and expression in Reading

A month with no rain

Slow to keep up

From Salt Trails in summer to stitching in winter

definitions, words and physical actions

Field Theatre

Sheds and working places

Walks and conversations

Spring 2009

FACT

Haddenham

Crossing pathways: materials, people and places

New Year, a slow start

Working with trees

Moving

A new place for Light-Lines

A break

Un-Making

Additions

Acknowledgements

More visits to Light-lines

Back to - or Continuing 'Slow Making'

Refuge

Re-visiting in stormy weather

Some messages to Light-Line

Artists make the invisible visible and tangible

Light direction

Light-lines shining

Light-Lines

Sky lines

beach shelter

Change of workplace and pace

Transporting work

Lantern form

Shelter taking form

Finding the Line

Materiality and making

Relatively Slow

New Year, new people and places

A new project

Sketches and plans

Staging at Late Shift

Fair Trade - Material Matters for Black History month

MA Show

Dancing forward again

Slow Making expressions

Allotment Studio Space

Slow Making - Sense of Place

Setting up new threads

New Pace: reflection and review

Next step on the path

The exhibition - Matter and Memory

Practical arrangements

Catching the thread

Web Quilt; developing community