Exhibition and other Irons (in the fire).

I have been busy with a number of things over the last month, hence no activity on the blog front.  I have a new studio, the garage is now converted and I have light! I’ll post some photos at the moment I’m still cleaning up after the builders.  The second is a coop and compound for 3 saved battery hens who will be coming to live with us on Saturday. Lastly, I was invited by Ray Collins to join him and 2 fellow grads. of SMU to exhibit at Aberdulais Falls. This is the poster. I’m going to be making some new work for this, partly based on the waterfall and some I think based on Welsh Quilts, but we will see, I’ll post as I produce the work.

Wedding panels

I promised some friends 2 panels for a wedding present. This was sometime ago but I have become bogged down in the designs, the biggest problem has been the text. They want people to really have to look to be able to read the text and I’m not getting this right. 

 

This is Valeria’s panel its based on a Monarch butterfly wing, Valeria is Mexican. The poem will be etched onto a second sheet of glass in front of the fused panel or if I decide to encapsulate the frit I will etch onto the front, I’ll have to use a dremel for this, I wish I still had access to acid. The verse is taken from ‘Te Quiro’ by Mario Benedetti.

si te quiero es porque sos

mi amor mi cómplice y todo

y en la calle codo a codo

somos mucho más que dos

 (translation)

If I love you, it’s because you are

my love my accomplice and all

and in the street elbow to elbow [arm in arm]

we are much more than two

 

Derek’s panel is based on a heat map of the city of York, Valeria & Derek live there, they were married there and Derek studied at York university so it seems fitting.

His text is taken from a Philip Larkin poem, I can’t make up my mind which verse to use.

Side by side, their faces blurred,

The earl and countess lie in stone,

Their proper habits vaguely shown

As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,

And that faint hint of the absurd–

The little dogs under their feet.

 or

Time has transfigured them into

Untruth. The stone finality

They hardly meant has come to be

Their final blazon, and to prove

Our almost-instinct almost true:

What will survive of us is love.

 

Both poems were read at the wedding and are very beautiful. I hope to finish them by the end of April so will show the final panels here. I have also decided the text will follow the black & cobalt lines.

 

 

 

Women Centre Stage Exhibition

The Women Centre Stage exhibition starts this week, they accepted Landfill despite it being too big. The exhbition is on 4th- 30th March at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea. 

Information re. Landfill  ‘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. Why recycled glass?  Glass is one of the best materials for recycling; it can be recycled repeatedly, saving energy and raw materials. 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 (womens) recycling has made the materials more appealing than their original incarnation. So hopefully ‘Landfill’ continues in this tradition.   Landfill becomes another part of the landscape and part of our geology, so this is what the final work looks like (a landscape). 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.