Thank you to everyone who’s bought a collage from the last set. I am working on a new series for the exhibition in Alnmouth at the end of the year. It’ll be at The Old School Gallery, follow them on Instagram, they do some great stuff and you can go and stay in their special huts - which I will do for exhibition set up, so that’s exciting.
Some new friends are appearing in the studio and there are three of them that I particularly like.
Three older women.
My favourite kind of human being is the difficult, stubborn old woman kind.
I hope to be one one day,
I’m working on it.
I’ve realised a running theme in my work, and something that’s very important to me, is MUCK and GRIME. Things that are old and worn. Ragged. Faded. broken. Mended. Stained. Used. Wonky. Threadbare.
It irks me to read a magazine (or frankly just to interact with the world at all sometimes) and see so many people wearing clothes that look like they’re fresh from the box, it feels unhealthy - for the planet especially but also my microbiome flinches just a touch.
I’ve decided I really need to lean in to this mucky, grimy filth for my work, which is how I found myself just last week…
…prepping my sheets by treading paint water in to them. What did you think I was doing?! I’m not that filthy.
And leaving my patterned papers in front of the sink for my studio mates to walk around on.
I started off trying to create a mucky look with paint and (even though I like it mainly) it just didn’t hit the spot. real muck is the way forward. I look forward to showing you the results.