rockpool candy

Elementals Birds

A while back, MyTarpit and I had an idea that has since been gently brewing. 

I am often struck by how much grief and turmoil is poured into artwork by artists. I understand that this is all part of life - I've had my fair share of suffering. But I'm beginning to get worn down, when walking into a gallery, by being confronted by 'tortured souls, relationship breakdowns and grief heaped upon grief'. If I want to see this, I can watch the news or read the press. I'm not saying it shouldn't exist, just that all to often in life, we seem to forget to harness the deep joy and happiness that can pour forth from us so easily if we just let it. We are not sure if this is the first show of its kind, but already, it's beginning to expand into a big ball of hope and joy for everyone involved.

The Elementals Birds show launches on 23rd October.I'd like to share the idea with you in advance.

 

ELEMENTALS’: Is a very special experiment to see if artists, printmakers and craftspeople can physically embody feelings of peace, harmony and goodwill in their artwork and tangibly affect the environment in which it’s shown.

Definition: ‘Elementals’ - thoughts that once created, become attached to their creator and are fed by further thoughts and actions. Often referred to as an air of positivity or negativity; confidence or its lack; peace or disharmony.

Only professional artists with artistic integrity known and trusted by the creators of the project have been invited to participate, sending artwork from all over the world.

THE EXPERIMENT

Before they begin working on each piece, each and every time, our artists are asked sit quietly for 5 minutes, contemplating the peace, harmony and goodwill that they want to be embodied. Then they imagine those feelings coming down their arms and out of their fingers into the piece as they design and make it, releasing it to reside in the finished article.

DATES AND VENUES

PYRAMID ATLANTIC, Silver Spring, MD. USA. 26th September - 3rd October 2011

‘Elementals’ will kick off with a pre-show printmaking week. Andy (MyTarPit) and Inga (Rockpool Candy) will be artists in residence to work alongside some of the US printmakers taking part in the experiment. 

RICHARD F. BRUSH GALLERY, Canton, NY. USA 23rd October – 9th December 2011

Over 200 constructed Elemental birds will be installed in the gallery for the show. Andy and Inga will also each build a giant, scaled-up version of their own ‘Elementals’ sculptures in situ. Students in all areas of study will be invited to create ‘Elementals’ with paper, salt etch, ceramics, and textiles to be left around campus and the local towns. The aim is to creating a sculptural virus of well being around St Lawrence University.

R-SPACE GALLERY, Lisburn, Northern Ireland. UK dates tbc 2012

Currently, restoration work is taking place on this very exciting building. And we are proud to say that ‘Elementals’ will travel to this newly-refurbished, state of the art, 4-storey centre for excellence in crafts and art in 2012. 

WHAREPUKE PRINT STUDIO, New Zealand End 2012/Early 2013

Excitedly, it can also be announced that the show will go to NZ. This centre for excellence in nontoxic printing, owned by printmaker Mark Graver has a lovely gallery surrounded by extensive sub-tropical gardens for any pieces that might like to sit outside. 

   Visit our facebook page  to see the wealth of artists taking part.

USA tour - month three

It seems like a lifetime ago now, the warmth and romance of Florida. It's taken an age to settle back into Northern Irish life, but our adventures there inspire us ever on.

(Yep, MyTarPit did paint the sign.)

There was Weaving Day: A day I spent encouraging already accomplished weavers to weave differently.

The clay loom weights we'd made had fired well, so we decided to build a loom in the ancient oak trees.

We dragged some dead wood to an appropriate spot.

Did some light pruning to make uprights and a cross beam which we lashed to a horizontal limb.

And tied a warp with crochet cotton to match the weights.

Separating out a shed.

And weighting the warps.

I wasn't sure how these women - all of whom have way more weaving experience than myself - would react to my shennanigans.

 

I needn't have worried. They began weaving grasses, peacock feathers, spanish moss, ribbons - in fact everything that I'd provided.

The results were rather pleasing. A mixture of rustic charm and summer colour on both sides.

 

We left a few weights on to balance the piece visually. Everyone seemed pretty pleased with the freedom of weaving outdoors and with the spontaneous nature of working together under the trees. It was incredibly liberating. Weaving is usually so precise.

Spanish Moss Sculpture Prototype: 

I've also been wanting to try out weaving a stupa from willow and moss. It'll be large enough to sit beneath, so that the moss deadens all sound and you're enclosed in a rich, earthy silence of green.

 

The spanish moss growing in abundance at Oak Hammock Farm gave me the opportunity.

 

It was the wrong season for bendy willow whips, but I was able to find some slightly pliable dog fennel to try a prototype.

 

I wanted to suspend the structure down amongst the ancient oaks.

It took a good bit of effort to haul it up.

But only a 5th of the way into weaving, I hadn't counted on the fact that spanish moss drives mules WILD with desire. Shiloh helped himself and well, it was never finished.... but I plan to weave a full one now I've learned from my mistakes. (Namely letting a mule into the paddock!)

Weaving on a Triangular Loom:

 

I'd never tried this before, but it was great. You create warp and weft at the same time.

I wove with my hand-dyed handspun. It's so quick. There's no tying off or threading heddles.

 

I'm really pleased with the final piece, which is a lot less open-weave now washed.

Alfalfa Graffiti: - Artwork That Will Grow.

Ever wondered what'll happen if you mix up a paper pulp with sprouting alfalfa seeds to a sticky paste and then spray it at high pressure through a stencil? Nope? Well we did. Watch this space because we plan to create more living, growing artworks. (Unfortunately the Washington DC snow killed it off before it got started. But come spring time... we're gonna go freaky.)

MyTarpit Release: Floating down to Cuba.

Key West - home of sea-worn wood and salty seadogs.

 

Our surroundings inspired the hub to paint up a wakeboard he'd picked up floating in Lake Tahoe, on the other side of the USA.

As it had come to us as flotsam, it seemed only right to release it in the same way. Will it ever make it to Cuba? Who'll find it?

And Finally: Well it wouldn't be me if I didn't add a few carousel images. Enjoy....

New York, January. -22 degreesC.

An empty carousel spinning.

A beckoning menagerie hare.

 

And good friends to ride the carousel with.

Perfection.

USA tour - month two

So I've been slacking in my posting. You know what? There are several reasons why.

Here's one. Life's just peachy.

We've been hanging out with my friend, Debi, and friends, on her 'dirt farm' as she calls it. 'Damn near perfect' I call it. This was taken about 2 hours' from her, just at sundown on a western Floridian beach.

There have been parties with fire dancing - you know the way it is....

And then there's checking that the pool water is the right temperature.....

But more importantly, there's been fibre fiddling. Meet Marvin Morgenstern. What he doesn't know about Overshot weaving, ain't worth knowing. The man is a genius. 

And luckily for the weaving world, he's documented every overshot pattern that he's ever woven. The library is extensive. I just hope that someone out there with the necessary archiving skills approaches Marvin and gets this stuff down officially. If there was a website with this stuff on, it would go into meltdown.

For our own projects, we've started sculpting loom weights from clay. Fir cones took our fancy. We've got 40 ready to fire. We'll build a neolithic-style loom to hang in the cathedral of trees on Debi's farm.

And then we've been acquiring new skills, like warp thread painting.

And there are three looms to explore no less.

And then there's the dyeing, the spinning, the rug hooking.

And I want to share it with you all, but, you know, it's hard to sit in front of a laptop when the sun is shining, the Thanksgiving cassoulet is bubbling on the firepit, and there are balls to throw for Lil' Bit.

 

And right now, we're busy in Washington D.C.

We're visiting artists at Pyramid Atlantic paper and print making studios.

Creative Director, and buddy, Gretchen Schermerhorn, gave us a crash course in papermaking.

 

Including bashing the heck out of gompi bark that we boiled. It makes THE MOST beautiful paper.

And we went to town on the process, adding in my wool, pieces of embroidery, peacock feathers from Debi's farm and anything else that didn't move quick enough to escape our clutches.

But you know me, I wanted to go 3D.

And to the onlook and thumbs-up of workmen working in the street outside, I created a few coral forms.

 

And then a few more....

It was SO exciting to watch as the paper dried in the hot box.

And the result of my labours?

I'm pleased to announce that I have fallen in love with papermaking.

It is a fibre after all.

 

And a HUGE installation is now in the pipeline. I'll need a space to exhibit, but I'm hoping that opportunity will present itself...

here's hoping.