states of mind

States of Mind was an engulfing and disorienting experience. The day I visited one of the invigilators commented, 'We have a good mist today'. I was one of the first three people in the installation that morning and was glad we had seen each other before entering, it helped me feel safe. When other people entered I felt intruded upon, and when one of the disembodied voices loudly announced how the mist was formed and that there was infrared lighting to locate bodies the magic and mystery was altered for me.

The space asked that I focused upon myself, my perceptions, my consciousness, orienting by pacing the rooms edge with an outstretched hand. Breathing to keep relaxed, noticing the effect different colour light had on my thoughts, my emotions, my body. When brave I walked through the centre of the space, submitting to the mist that appeared thick enough to bite. I paused for a while, leaning against a wall, looking down to where my feet should be. Grey specks floated in my eyes, are they always there? Was it my eyelashes? I was reminded of being high in the hills as mist descends, (the word haar came to mind - a sea fog), and how in these outside spaces it is possible to feel simultaneously comfortable and so alone. It was my first experience of such limited visibility and I couldn't stay long.

  

autumn term - years 1 & 3 at drew primary

Cardboard shenanigans with teeny tiny y1 pupils and weave and illustration using silhouette with not so tiny y3 pupils at Drew Primary School. The books that inspired us were On Sudden Hill and Tales of Wisdom and Wonder. In the spring term I'll work and learn alongside the y2 and y4 classes taking inspiration from another two fantastic books. I love mixing art and literacy and the children love it too.

 Design for an incredible monster creature box thing!

 Cardboard self portraits

 Warp and weft (and proud hands)

 Box monsters with rattling tummies (secret ingredient - buttons!)

 Cardboard crowns for kings and queens

Lion silhouette, background inspired by West African Kente cloth

words

Just rediscovered the words written by the students in Norway following my lecture on my art practice. I asked them not to think too deeply or self-censor, simply to write the first thing that came into their heads. These words sparked their own making in the studio.

• Nostalgia        
• Walking         
• Mysterious      
• Wonder         
• Silence        
• Afraid          
• Pink 
• Winter forest
• Air
• Vintage 
• Animals & nature
• Family
• Soft
• Bird

epping forest

Thank you to Sebastian Richter who traveled to Loughton in Essex to capture a large format photograph of my work. You can see where we trampled down leaves positioning the arms, using the photograph created in June as a guide. Throughout the seasons I'm creating four images of this piece.   

year 1

Working with the youngest children in school is a powerful reminder of the wonder available in everyday life. Witnessing the children's joy and willingness to get stuck in, have a go, to become absorbed in the feel, texture, colour of something. Noticing the way they repeat an action, becoming so focused and in a flash, unfocused. Whatever needed to be expressed/learnt has been processed and its time to move on. There is an ebb and flow in each child, quiet contained intent and then a desire to share and show. I adore their lack of self criticism, their lack of judgement around good or bad, their sparkly delighted eyes because they successfully glued a red shape to a piece of cardboard.

c2c lecture

Images from my lecture at the Agder Folkehøgskole in Norway last week. Showing one of the maps that I navigated across the country with and dipping my boots in the North Sea at the start of my journey. 

folk school

This week I lectured and taught my first art class outside the UK working with young adults at the Agder Folkehøgskole near Kristiansand, the most southern city in Norway. I'll post details soon, but for now wanted to share the students response to my lecture on walking and art. To spark their own making I asked them to write down two words that somehow encapsulated what I'd shared with them. These words were folded and placed in a bowl, pick and mix style, and each participant selected one to use during our two days together. Below are a selection of the unpicked words.