Creative nourishment - May

I treated myself to two days in London so I could find nourishment for the ideas in my head. As spring has advanced, the murmurings of my winter mind are starting to find a voice. At the forefront of these ideas are a wish to embrace colour. With that is a return to a love of folk art and a symbolic expression of the soul. My soul.

I have found my way back in to nature, planting my garden and meandering in the woods. My work has often included trees and it is to trees I am returning for inspiration. At the weekend I was fortunate to visit the Weleda gardens. It was a beautiful fresh spring day and I could feel the sap rising in the trees there, and in myself. It is that connection between us and the trees, the 'tree of life' that is a symbol of many cultures, that I am exploring in my new work.

So, with those ideas in my mind I headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum to explore their collection. I've been visiting the museum since childhood and there is magic in those rooms of beautifully crafted artefacts.

I spent hours drawing from the collections, recording decorative details and symbols of trees and growth and shared a connection with those makers who had drawn from our shared symbolic language. 

Whilst there I had the opportunity to attend the Alexander McQueen retrospective. Not usually drawn to fashion couture, this exhibition blew me away. The creation of the exquisite and the totality of McQueens creative vision was hugely inspiring. It was beautifully curated, sensory exhibition. What I take from the exhibition is to honour the urge to create and to nurture my creativity and creative voice.

So back in the studio this week, I'm working on vision boards and bringing together the threads of ideas so I can start some new work.

If you would like to share a day with me creating with symbols to represent the universal themes of growth and life, I'm running a 'Grow your own art' workshop on Saturday 27th June in Long Eaton near Nottingham. It will be about finding ways to move forward on your creative journey and you will create your own work of art that symbolises growth. I'm taking bookings now. 

Studio

All the planning I did and talking to myself about realistic expectations has paid off!  I've met the targets I set myself and have new work finished and framed ready for the Wirksworth Festival Arts Trail this coming weekend and Melbourne Festival on 15th/16th September.  I have new prints available, cards, ceramics and new notelets and Christmas cards.  I've even had time to take some photos in the studio.  And I've also had time to make some things to keep my creative soul happy.  If you'd like to join me for a workshop this Autumn, places are filling up but there are some slots on the Landscape weekend and Memory Book workshop.

Naive

Public Domain Wilco - Poster 2006/07

Strawberryluna Spoon-Poster 2007

Tad Carpenter Decemberists - Poster 2007

Jenn Ski Diverse - Art Print 2007

I've been well and truly hibernating and I'm really looking forward to some warmer days and some trips out into the Metropolis for some heavy doses of inspiration.  Meanwhile, in the uber-creative world of cyberspace and blogs, the book, "Naive: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphics" came to my attention.  It's been lovely to get my fingers on it, it's a book that feels nice.  Consisting entirely of images, I've been feasting on it.  The cover of "Naive: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design" celebrates the zeitgeist for graphic design that integrates hand-lettering, woodcutting and folk art.  The book is an inspiring collection of illustrations, textile designs and graphics.  I love the work of Helen Dardik and Jenn Ski.  I think the reason I like it is the strong graphic shapes and symbols, but there's texture in there which I've been missing in the stronger, cleaner graphics of recent print design.  I love the seventies colourings....especially the palletes in Helen Dardik's work.  The images of birds dominate, and I'm hoping to introduce some into my work.  I've a passion for robins that might find expression.  For some time, lyrics and poems and writings about birds have been finding their way into my notebooks and I think would be a fine start for a project for Spring.

"Early December, and brown as a sparrow, frost creeping over the pond.  I shoot a thought into the future, and it flies like an arrow, through my lifetime and beyond."

Paul Simon "Everything about it is a love song."