Open Studios @ Second Floor Studios & Arts
Open Studios @ Second Floor Studios & Arts this weekend, and I will be sharing a space with Jane Human. Come for the art, stay for the amazing Canteen cafe, stunning views of the Thames, and printmaking demonstrations!
Our location: Unit 4, Studio 11
Opening night: 5-9pm, 17 May 2012
Weekend hours: 11am-6pm, 19 & 20 May 2012
Second Floor Studio & Arts
Mellish Industrial Estate
Warspite Road
London SE18 5NR
By Tube: Jubilee Line to North Greenwich, and then the 161 or 472 Bus to Holborn College stop. This keeps you in Zone 2, for anyone on a Travelcard.
Lots of parking! Lots of wine! Some art as well.
HMS Ocean
Well, it’s not every day you see the largest amphibious assault ship in the Royal Navy* moored outside work:
*For the Navy techno-geeks (friends!), I am aware the she is the only amphibious assault command craft in her class, and therefore obviously the largest, but I mean to say that HMS Ocean is the largest ship in the Navy and an amphibious assault ship.
It is magnificent. And eery. And beautiful. And frightening.
Squash
A quickie from dinners last week:
Roasted butternut squash with cardamom, mint, fresh lime, and greek yogurt
Shop back online!
After a brief pause of laziness (ie the whole of last year), my Etsy shop is revived! I had originally used it as a way of quickly showing people work online, but after a couple of requests (thank you!), I’ve put a few prints on for now, and will load others soon. The three prints available right now are from a series produced for shows at the View Tube, Stratford Olympic Park.
Part of the Views from the Edge exhibitions, these limited edition prints capture some of the sights, foliage and general amazing hub of activity in the two years leading up to the London 2012 games. Buy yours now!
Elephants in Greenwich
A little bonus to working in Greenwich last week – they have begun shooting scenes for Les Miserables across the road from the National Maritime Museum! Star sightings aside, the set is absolutely amazing, and there are lots of extras dressed in 19th century French garb… and an elephant!
Surreal encounters of the elephant kind.
Lemn Sissay at The View Tube, Stratford Olympic Park
Yesterday I had the pleasure of running a family day workshop at the View Tube – an education space, cafe, and gallery at the Stratford Olympic Park. The sun was out, the wind was blustery, and despite the DLR not working between Stratford and Pudding Mill Lane, we quickly drew a crowd.
This workshop was developed in response to an exhibition in the View Tube gallery for poet Lemn Sissay. His poem, Spark Catchers, was commissioned for the London 2012 Olympics, and will be installed permanently on site. The View Tube exhibition explores the inspiration for his poem and ties to the local area. This exhibition is the third and last in the Sparked series, funded by the Legacy List, celebrating and raising awareness of the Olympic Park Art in the Park commissions.
The poem is inspired by the history of the Bryant and May match factory, which still exists in Bow. The factory was the site of the London matchgirls strike of 1888, which won working rights and safety improvements for the largely female work force. We introduced families to the site, poem and exhibition as they arrived throughout the day. The actual making activity was bunting (who doesn’t love bunting??), using block printing. We had polystyrene blocks for quick and easy marks, as well as sticky-back foam on acrylic blocks which could be used as repeat pattern stamps. Everyone printed on cartridge to take home, and left the bunting triangles hanging to dry, to be transformed into metres of celebratory decoration later.
We had more than 100 participants, from near and very far – visitors from as far away as Australia and Hong Kong contributed to the printing of bunting and engagement with the poem.
What transformed the day was the presence of the poet himself. Lemn made himself available for readings, discussions and interaction with all the families and visitors who came to the site. His energy, enthusiasm and generosity with his time made the experience complete, and allowed people to connect the abstract ideas of the poem, with not only the park and its legacy, but the maker – I always think poems are much more like paintings, sculptures and music than prose and therefore have a maker instead of a writer.
Big thanks to Rosie Murdoch for inviting me to deliver the workshop, Emma Crouch for coordinating the event and exhibition series, Nadia Chalabi for co-facilitating and helping me prep, and Ralph Overill for assisting on the day. A special thanks to Lemn Sissay for being there to bring his poem to life. And of course, a super shout out to The Husband who, on his day off, came to iron and heat set all the of the bunting. Super day! Check out the photo gallery below:
Air dry clay casts
Just a quick post of the air dry clay casts we made as part of Rosie’s studio visit. I think they worked rather well. We used a mix of found objects (feathers, leaves, fern), cut black card, and AGFA film, to produce the photopolymer plates from which these casts were taken. The clay is left to dry on a sheet of plastic for four days. Fun!
Caustic soda, ferns, biscuits and pears.
Over the past three weeks, I have been working in my studio with Rosie Burley, Assistant Curator, Tate. We have been exploring and sampling different methods of printmaking that might translate well into community and adult learning programmes within a museum context.
Specifically, we have looked at different ways to create printmaking matrices (plates, blocks, screens) without specialist equipment.
Traditional linocut block with caustic solution etch
One of the techniques we explored involved a caustic soda paste applied to blocks of traditional linoleum. The solution is a mixture of wallpaper paste (for robustness), water and caustic soda. Using a plastic palette knife, the solution is applied to the surface of a linoleum block and left for up to an hour. In that period more of the paste can be added, scraped away, or disturbed, to change the mark on the block.
Test strip - from 5 minutes to one hour
The block is then submerged in warm water and carefully washed. We had gloves and eye protection, plus lots of ventilation to avoid breathing in any fumes. We also used a large brush to gently dissolve and dilute any remaining caustic on the plate, and rinsed repeatedly until the water ran clear.
The resulting block prints beautiful and unexpected marks, completely different from what you might expect of a linocut.
The printed block
Unfortunately, I had left my camera at work, so these photographs were taken on my unreliable and outdated phone, but you get the idea. I first dabbled with this technique in secondary school – our art teachers were very progressive and print media oriented, but I have never used it in my own work. What made these sessions with Rosie so amazing, was that it felt like revisiting old friends and discovering new things all over again.
Screenprint on cotton tote
We also created photopolymer plates using found foliage, screenprinted bags with hand-painted designs, created air-dry clay casts, and worked with woodblock and drypoint plastic.
Photopolymer relief plate, with feathers and foliage
It was completely invigorating to remind myself all the different marks and possibilities available. It definitely relit a spark that had been missing for a while, and this coming week I have the luxury of four and a half days in the studio, just making, and I am totally looking forward to it!
I heart ugly fish
I don’t know how it happened – I was meant to be in my studio designing and drawing orchids, lilies, cherry blossoms and the like for a new correspondence card range, when I fell in love with some ugly fish. A single drawing became several drawings, and I chose one of them to transform into some prints. A lino block, a bit of drypoint plastic, and loads of positives to shoot onto screens. I printed the lino block and drypoint plastic this week, and will do the screens this week.
I admit I am somewhat enamored with my fish, so much so that I am already cutting a block for Ugly Fish II. A third Ugly Fish has even crept into drawings of a More Serious Artwork to come. (!)
I wonder if this is the result of my two worlds coming together at long last – everyone knows of my very very weak spot for all foods that come from the sea (I have three oyster shuckers… for different kinds of oysters), and printmaking. Stay tuned.
Discover Sundays at National Maritime Museum – all aboard!
On the fourth Sunday of every month, I work at the National Maritime Museum as a Stimulating Curiosity Facilitator in the Informal Learning and Families Programme. Each month, we explore a different theme connected to British Maritime history, and we use handling objects and drawing materials to help families engage with different areas of the gallery. It is one of the highlights of my month.
Having always worked at print and design studios, art galleries, art museums and artist centres, this is my first foray into a non-art setting, as an artist. My job is basically, amazing. Each month, I do a little research into the theme (ie Greenwich, Sea, Britain and the World), select handling objects, and create activities, trails, talks to suit the wide range of visitors we have to the National Maritime Museum.
The set up is pretty simple – there are trolleys, clipboards, baskets of drawing materials, and ‘treasure baskets’ of tactile items for under 5′s, as well as a selection of picture books.
The objects can be anything from a model of the Cutty Sark, to coconuts, telescopes, conch shells, teapots, oars, compasses, spices, silks, rope, or anything else that comes to mind. I always try to pick items that are connected to at least one object on display in a gallery nearby. Sometimes, this might be a sock (Admiral Nelson’s bloody stockings), water biscuits (a 200-year old ship’s biscuit), or a spoon (cutlery from the Titanic, or from an arctic exploration). When families come to the Ideas Trolley, we examine at the objects in depth, using looking, smelling, touching and listening senses (no tasting allowed!), to identify objects, make connections to the theme, and to the museum at large.
We also have a big world map that I will often tape to the floor and use as part of my session, or as an open area for families to answer questions on their own, placing objects, drawings and writing onto directly onto the map. I alternate between the political side of the map, and the topographic side, depending on what we’re exploring. Sometimes it is more helpful to look at land masses and big sections of ocean without thinking about countries and boundaries.
The workshops are very rewarding, as the visitors coming to Maritime often make the trip specially for it as Greenwich is not in central London. Sometimes I will see masses of under 5s and then we just play with marks and listen to the shell. Other times I have young visitors who know far more than I do, and the roles are reversed – I have been schooled more than once on King Henry VIII, and I have been corrected on more than one occasion about details surrounding the Battle of Trafalgar!
This month, I covered an additional session as a colleague of mine was ill, and I was amazed to see how many repeat visitors we had over two consecutive weekends. There are some families I see every month, but I always assumed they came in once a month, only.
Discover Sundays are only a small part of the NMM’s larger Informal Learning and Families Programme. I am fortunate enough to also work on school holiday sessions, which are more gallery-themed, and I get to attend study days at the museum to round out any missing bits of knowledge, and to practice share with other facilitators. In American-speak, it’s pretty darned awesome.
If you (little people and big people both!) are looking for something to do over the Easter holidays, and find yourself in London near the DLR, I suggest hopping on and alighting at Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich for a visit! I will be there delivering part of the Titanic Remembered programme on April 3, 5, 7, 10 and 12. Or, any fourth Sunday, come, pop a squat on a floor cushion, and explore.
