Bad Day

I was supposed to go to a meeting re ‘Womencentrestage’ but have a hacking cough so thought I would keep my germs to myself. Looking back at the submission information I found that I had misread the maximum size of the exhibits. My panel is way to big, I’ve sent an email to the curator but not heard anything. This will teach me to read all the details twice.  I have the builder in at the moment extending the kitchen, this has involved demolishing a chimney and a wall so the house is in chaos and filthy. I’m not getting any work done and can’t use the kiln because the power has to be turned off regularly.  I can’t even take photos of the work as I have sealed my cubby hole/study for the duration so my things aren’t covered in brick dust. Where is the camera? on my desk!

On the bright side I have booked flights to the U.S. in June. I’m staying for 3 weeks landing in New York so that I can spend some time at the Corning Museum of glass, and then look at some architecture on the way to Chicago by a roundabout route.  So I have a new kitchen and a holiday to look forward to, what am I complaining about!

Appliqued glass

‘Landfill’ measures approx 410mmX 820mm                 Materials; Recycled Industrial fridge door made with safety glass donated by the Old Swan, Llantwit Major. The coloured glass is kiln worked bottle glass appliquéd using silicon.

 This is a panel I made last summer for an exhibition called ‘Reworked’ held at the Washington Gallery , Penarth. I’m also hoping that it will be shown in March at the ‘Womencentrestage” exhibition being held at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea.  The biggest problem is that it weights 9kg’ alot of weight for a wall but we shall see.

Why recycled glass?  Glass is one of the best materials for recycling; it can be recycled repeatedly, saving energy and raw materials.  On average, every family in the UK consumes around 330 glass bottles and jars a year.  It is not known how long glass takes to breakdown, but glass made 3,000 years ago in the Middle East can still be found today.  Recycling 2 bottles saves enough energy to boil water for 5 cups of tea.  We are great tea drinkers. The other side to this is that women have historically been the recyclers in the family (mainly to do with family economics) using jars for jam making and storage, colored glass for mosaics and textiles for patchwork, rag rugs etc.  Much of our recycling has made the materials more appealing than their original incarnation. So hopefully ‘Landfill’ continues in this tradition.  Also I wanted to show that landfill whilst a problem for us now is also where archaeologists find information about the past, I’ve used wooden textile printing blocks to create texture in some of the appliqued glass to imply rotting clothes. I’ve also included metal filings to create a feeling of contamination. Landfill becomes another part of the landscape and part of our geology, so this is what the final work looks like. I hope it reflects all these ideas.  

 

The Fish

This is a close up of the fish as requested by Joan. They are quite crude, which I intended. I wanted something like cave paintings, they are quite shy swimming in and out of the letters. I cut the shapes from kiln paper and did nothing else so they are only a ‘suggestion’.

Door Plaque

 

door plaque

This is an 8X8inch (20X20cm) house plaque, the person I made it for is a Rector, he retires in a couple of years and has bought his first home.  ‘Croesawdy’ means welcome house in Welsh.  The purchase of his home and the naming of it has great importance for him and I wanted the work to reflect that.   

 

I read a book (Ernest  Zobole, a life in art by Ceri Thomas) about Ernest Zobole recently, he was a Welsh artist (of Italian extraction) from the Rhondda. Two quotes from this book expressed some of what I think ‘John our Rector’ feels about the changes taking place in is life.  

‘They tell us about Wales, about the disturbing dream quality of a Cardiff dock, about the strange pressure of the sky mixing its colour with the colour of the streets, the amazing vision of Llwynypia, and about miners walking under the destiny laden evening clouds’.   Peter Lord

and ‘The notion of ending one life and the continuation or beginning of another’s is perhaps implicit in these sky and sea encapsulating nocturnes’ Ceri Tomas.

I have tried to get some of this feeling into the work, I also included some fish which you can just see in the photograph. These are supposed to be a subtle sign post to Johns Christianity. But its only a door plaque I can hear you all bleating. But its my work and I find it difficult to make anything without trying to say or express something thru it.

I’ve used oxides to create the colours and also for their ability to create the bubbles, which gives a feeling of celebration I think.

In the beginning.

Well this is a start, starting is always difficult.

Why Claritas? because I like it, it means clear in Latin and one of the blogs I read (http://ornamental.typepad.com , I like her use of text) suggested focusing on one word for the coming year and as I need some clarity I decided on ‘Claritas’.  Also the ‘medieval concept of claritas: the reverence for light, using reflection to draw attention’,  this concept which related to stained glass also has personal relevance for me.  

I’ll be using this blog to talk about my work, the techniques I use and its inspiration. I may also talk about other peoples work that I find inspirational. I’ll try not to let it turn into a stream of consciousness!  And I will sort out the header eventually.  D