I had intended to continue my blog over the last year with updates on how my degree course has been progressing. But after a long year of 9-5, 5 days a week, working on creative projects, writing essays, and keeping sketchbooks and log books I found I just did not have the time!
Anyway, I really enjoyed it despite all the hard work and I'm very pleased to report that I have now achieved a BA in Creativity & Design, with Distinction, from Gray's School of Art/Robert Gordon University. I won't try and catch you up with everything I've been doing, I'll just share some photos of my final portfolio of work and the end of year exhibition which was in June 2015.
Anyway, I really enjoyed it despite all the hard work and I'm very pleased to report that I have now achieved a BA in Creativity & Design, with Distinction, from Gray's School of Art/Robert Gordon University. I won't try and catch you up with everything I've been doing, I'll just share some photos of my final portfolio of work and the end of year exhibition which was in June 2015.
The concept I chose as an overall theme for the final body of work was 'Fragments Reconceived' and I interpreted this through using recycled textiles and found objects. 'Make do and mend', playing with haberdashery items and darning patterns, and creating something new out of something discarded and abandoned. The bric-a-brac of life made into new artworks.
My corner at the exhibition was designed as a room environment, complete with an old manual sewing machine, and a writing bureau to display the BookArt work. Professionally printed fabrics are from my own digitally manipulated photographs of elderberry and beetroot dyeing experiments.
My corner at the exhibition was designed as a room environment, complete with an old manual sewing machine, and a writing bureau to display the BookArt work. Professionally printed fabrics are from my own digitally manipulated photographs of elderberry and beetroot dyeing experiments.
The pages are made from an old shirt that I bundle dyed with beetroot and found objects. It is stitched and embroidered with tiny machinery parts and the small pages are made from printed organza. I designed the supports in the shape of an old treadle sewing machine and they are laser cut from thick card.
Artists' Book 'Beetroot and Rust'.
I loved the shadow play I achieved in staging the photos. I have a high quality hardback photo book for sale which contains 2 single page photos and 16 double spread pages - it's a beautiful coffee table book or a fabulous gift. Please email me for more details.
Artists' Book 'Gifts from the Gutter'
Found objects are captured within a cut out folded book and the design is inspired by drain cover patterns. It's constructed from a single sheet of paper folded into a 16 page book. The objects in it were all found in the street by me and are typical of what makes me curious about the stories behind these fragments of people's lives. It's surprising what can be found when you look!
'From Cradle to Kalashnikov'
The old duffle coat fasteners reminded me of bullets. The toggles go up in size from baby, through childhood, to teenager. I have placed spent bullets at the top. The piece is symbolic of how some children barely reach their teens before a gun is put into their hands to fight a war they never asked for.
