March ends - an update

It has been a hectic end to the month.  Lots of activity for Frack Free Kirby Misperton and Ryedale, I finished the piece for "Democracy Rocks" and helped to set up the exhibition, which opened yesterday. Plus a good experience at a local printers, where I took a series of paintings that work as one piece, to be printed in a short edition of each, with a view to selling some.  I am actually preparing ahead for North Yorkshire Open Studios!

My piece for "Democracy Rocks", The Mud and the Sheen*, is a first for me, because I have never made an installation of my own work before.  I am pleased with the results, although, against my better judgement I have  scattered too much preparatory work at its base, losing the cleanness of where the loops of paper almost touch the floor.  If I ever install it again, elsewhere, I will avoid that.  In the end, it was installed near a back corner of the gallery, simply because it was easier to suspend the work from there and it looks good; the added height of the gallery ceiling enabled me to increase the height of the work too, making it even more relevant to the meaning of the piece.  I have really enjoyed the challenge of creating a two dimensional print and presenting it in three dimensions.

*p194, Jackson Pollock's Abstraction, Timothy J Clark, in Reconstructing Modernism, Art in New York, Paris and Montreal, 1945-1964.  Ed: Serge Guilbaut, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England.

The private view was quite well attended, there has been a lot of media interest too.  I hate posing for photographs, why is it that newspaper photographers always seem to work to such awful, cliche ridden ideas of what makes a good photograph?  It makes me laugh and shudder at the awful banality of it!

I enjoyed being part of the team that set up this extraordinary exhibition that includes work by young people and professional artists.  I can thoroughly recommend a visit and when you do, don't forget to post a vote for your favourite pieces and write on a post it note about what democracy means to you, using the polling booth.  You might even like to have a go at drumming on one of the decorated ballot boxes!

Seasons

Artist Ian Mitchell http://www.ianmitchell-art.com/  recommended Norton Print and Frame http://www.fineart.co.uk/directory/fruit-art-ltd_100032.aspx?DirectorySearchPageId=5  to me as the best people to approach about having some prints made of a series of paintings I made a couple of years ago. I continue to be fascinated by ideas that explore the passage of time.  Called Seasons, the piece comprises 12 paintings, 30 x 40 cm, acrylic on paper. An experimental series, each piece started out exactly the same, or as near as I could get it, given that they are paintings.  

March

Each successive piece was added to in the same way until I reached the final, twelfth painting.  The paintings each represent one month of a year and are a result of careful observation of colour and light levels.  NP&F have produced some superb photographs of each painting and I am really looking forward to going back in a few days to look at the proofs before we go ahead and produce a short edition of ten of each painting.  I plan to have two full sets available, and the rest can be sold separately.  The point of this exercise, because I would not as a rule produce prints of my paintings, is that I cannot sell any individual paintings from the originals as they collectively comprise one piece of work.  

September

All rights reserved

Ballot box battle

I have been battling with finding time to complete this work.  I keep being distracted by the anti fracking campaign in this area where I live; we are on the front line of the fracking attack here and it is very, very worrying.  I am trying hard to keep positive by doing positive things to help the cause, but it is extremely draining on my mental strength, which is not conducive to my creative production!

However: I am excited!

I have no idea how long the piece actually is; several people have asked me, so I suppose I should attempt to measure it before it is completed because I expect more people will ask the same question.  It is not a piece of purist printmaking; rather the visual version of a room filled with talk, the talk all being about the nature and importance of democracy and voting. As I have progressed with the piece, I have found more and more information that relates to the subject, which there is not really room to include, but which I will include in some of the single pieces I am going to make, and the artists' books.  It would actually be quite nice to do some paintings too, to see how the ideas translate into richly surfaced pieces.

I worked on the piece again for a day last week; there were gaps that I wanted to address; some gaps are OK; causing "pauses" in the conversation but other areas were crying out for more coverage.  I am very pleased with the Thermofax screens; they are so easy to use and made reproducing my hand drawn tally blocks and the printed quotes very easy.

The mix of mono, collograph, lino and screen print within the piece works too; the balance between the hand drawn aspects of the mono printing and the rest is particularly interesting to me.  

This shot above shows the ballot box work and some experiments I have made on wider pieces of paper, I love the translucency of the Chinese paper and its strength.
At one stage, because the work is so long and I was trying to identify the areas that needed more work, I was printing with the work on my left in folds on the floor while on the right, it was held up and draped on my wooden clothes airer.  I had to be very careful not to trip up! See for yourself:

Thanks to all of you who take the time to read this and as always, I welcome your comments.

All rights reserved

Democracy Rocks!

I've been mulling over and working on ideas for the Democracy Rocks project since last year.  Most of the mulling began early last year, some sketches and notes added to this during December and in January I finally began work.

Background:
Our Creative Economies Officer Yvette Turnbull at Ryedale District council was quick to commandeer all the decommissioned ballot boxes, seeing the potential for an exhibition to promote the importance of voting and democracy.  The project involves individual artists of which I am one, as well as groups of young people working with artists.

My concept for the piece was always a very long piece of work emerging from the posting slot of the ballot box.  I initially thought the slit would be much wider than it actually is.  This meant that I had to have a very narrow strip of paper emerging from the box.  Not much wider than a standard loo roll in fact. . . . 

Rather than find this a disappointment, I began to enjoy the analogy of politics and shit!  The old dualist ideas that have gripped me in one way or another since college days began to resurface once again; we have our feet on the ground, in the mud and shit, but we aspire to the stars, to something better and more wondrous.  I think this applies to politicians; I am sure they start out with genuine plans to make things better from their starting point in the mud, aspiring to make things infinitely better but they all seem to flounder at one stage or another.  I don't think it is always their fault; there are bigger, more powerful and greedy forces at work to thwart their good intentions.

I believe in voting; women died and suffered extreme pain in prisons, emotional stress and personal hardship during and after their fight to secure me the right to vote.  There is still a long way to go; I find lots of men still find it difficult to accept that I have a brain and opinions, they accuse me of being aggressive, when all I am actually being is articulate and passionate.  I once challenged a man who told me not to be so aggressive, asking him if he would have said it to a man who voiced the exact same opinion as I had just done.  After a few seconds, to give him his due, he admitted that he probably would not!  HAH!

My piece is called The Mud and the Sheen; reference to a quote from a TJ Clark essay I studied years ago; I'll find the exact reference and post it when I do.  The title reflects all of what I have just said, it is about our human condition, about striving for better, failing and trying again.  Repetition, counting, lists, words, joy, engaging with life. . . . . and the importance of voting!

The piece incorporates, collagraph, lino and mono printing so far and I'll be adding silk screened quotes and definitions relating to democracy and tally marks soon.  Plus anything else I feel like!

Text, art work and photos, Sue Gough.  All rights reserved

Notes on a good start (I think) to the studio year:

Having agonised for about six months, I have resigned from the committee of Ryedale ArtWorks.  I have worked voluntarily for RAW since its inception and feel it is time for me to dedicate more time to my own studio work and that it is time for other members of RAW to step up and take some responsibility for their organisation.  I have happily worked alongside other committee members and aritsts to enable RAW to achieve some pretty good things. I've born the brunt of one quite outrageously rude and unwarranted public attack from a member and some pretty constant and thoughtless remarks along the lines of: it's alright for me because I don't have to earn a living from my work, which have made me feel very dejected for much of these six months, so I feel I've done my bit!  I shall continue my membership of course, because I believe in what RAW has achieved and can continue to achieve for all its members.

I made five versions so I could select the best three.

I've been in the studio for two days this week, making my postcards for The International Postcard Show 2015 and formalising my ideas for the ballot box piece.  I have never made it down to Nottingham's Surface Gallery to see the show, but I really like the idea of an international exchange of work, even if they are only postcard sized. Last year I did not exchange my pieces because I liked them too much to give them away.  They did not sell, and I gave one away to a special person and the others went to Clare Smith, who included them in her zine.  More of that later.  

This year's postcards are in colour!  Exclamation mark indeed, because I love black and white, but decided that maybe folks would prefer something more jolly in January.  I continue with my use of tally marks, layering up the paint and used the heart motif, which along with star motifs have featured in my most recent work along with asemic text.  I have called them Song #1, #2 and #3.  They are now in the post and should arrive in time for the Saturday deadline.

From top: Song #1, Song #2, Song #3

My notes about the ballot box piece are on my a-n blog:

https://www.a-n.co.uk/blogs/a-portrait-of-an-artist-as-a-very-late-starter

I have already hit a technical problem, which is how to cut my Chinese paper roll into a 12.5 cm wide strip. To unroll and cut it would prove problematic; I don't want to crease the paper too much by handling it during the cutting process.  I am wondering if a really good guillotine, such as the ones that printing companies use would be able so cut through the entire paper roll so that I end up with  a roll about the right width.  I shall visit a company I know of next week and ask them!

Meanwhile I am gathering some other information in preparation.  Once I have the paper cut and some screens made, (I will order some from Thermofax Screens http://www.thermofaxscreens.co.uk/ ), I shall be able to start and it is quite exciting!  I intend to use a mixture of printmaking techinques as well as drawing.

Back to the zine; 

Just before Christmas I received my copy of a zine that Clare Smith http://www.studio308ltd.co.uk/  produced as part of a really interesting project,

Stitched Time.  http://www.studio308ltd.co.uk/projects/stitched-time/

Front cover

Clare conceived, instigated and worked collaboratively with other women for several months on this project last year, despite falling ill and directing the hang for the final show from her hospital bed!   I feel privileged to be a small part of it by contributing to the zine and hope to get down to visit the wonderful space that she has been using in Dover some time.

From the foreword, by Clare Smith

The three pictures above show my contribution

Two pictures above show inside back cover

Back cover

Thank you, Clare Smith for this opportunity and good luck with all your other projects this year.

It is interesting to note that the artists I showed with in Wobudong all contributed, which strengthens my belief that blogging and sharing is worthwhile because it is through my blog on a-n, (see link earlier in this post)  that I became involved in that project and as a consequence, broadened my exhibiting experience and artist contacts. 

Link to Wobudong post:   https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7124941679212812075#editor/target=post;postID=3327270501718329137;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=27;src=postname 

Planning for 2015

I received an email on 22nd December welcoming me to NYOS 15 and I am very pleased to be accepted for the second year running.  It was a welcome bit of good news in the frantic run up to the festivities.

I am pleased that Jenny Pepper,  http://www.jennypepper.com  a felt maker who has a studio on the same farm out at Stonegrave has also been accepted.  It will be a doubly worth while visit for people on the studio trail in June.

For those wanting to put this popular event in their diaries, Open Studios is held on the weekends of:
June 6th and 7th, and June 13th and 14th

Meanwhile, I have some postcards to produce for the looming deadline for the International Postcard Show at Surface Gallery in Nottingham, I have never yet made it down to see the show, but I like the idea of an international exchange of art works.

I will be in the studio solidly for the next few weeks, working on my ballot box project for the Democracy Rocks upcoming show in March/April, (dates tbc).
I have lots of thoughts and ideas floating around in my head but it is time to get on with working with actual materials, to develop, refine and select the format and processes that will make these ideas real.  I am slightly worried that I need to get something ready for early February for photography purposes, but I seem to thrive when I put myself in a tight deadline position!

I am planning to actually get my aritsts' books underway this year too, as well as making the final two large paintings of the quartet I started for my solo show in 2013.  There will be lots more paintings based on sketches and doodles I made last year as well.

Oh, and I am going to finish the books I started reading last year and do lots of walking, starting with short ones to begin with. . . . 

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, please feel free to leave a comment.

Happy new year!

Write To Them

I am not apologising for posting more politics today: please write to your councillors and your MP and maybe even a Lord and your local press to voice your concerns about hydraulic fracturing.  The evidence that it is causing pollution in the air and in our water, as well as serious health issues is mounting, but still our government is doggedly pressing ahead. The link below makes it easy to do.

Ordinary people have no legal say in the matter, which is why we need to lobby those that do.  


https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.writetothem.com%2F&h=eAQGil3x_


Sadly, what we have in this country is not a democracy, because the people with the power are big corporations, not our politicians, who are in the pockets of the business people. These companies' fracking activities have been likened to a ponzy scheme, which is true, I think.

Kleptocracy. noun

1. A form of political and government

corruption where the government

exists to increase the personal wealth

and political power of its officials and 

the ruling class at the expense of the

wider population

This is much closer to what we have in this country now I think.

I am becoming increasingly alarmed at the silence of Ryedale District and North Yorkshire County councils regarding  this issue.  We have asked for open meetings but still nothing has been announced. We have been told that the planning department at the county council is in regular consultation with Third Energy, but they have not, as far as I am aware, sought the opinions of concerned residents, nor the expertise and knowledge of neutral engineers or scientists. I may be wrong on this matter, I hope I am, but the silence from these people, elected to represent us, is deafening.

Third Energy, the company that has applied for permission to frack at their site in Kirkbymisperton, North Yorkshire has held some meetings with local residents, but they have not been widely publicised and some of them have been secret.  I live a mile from the proposed well site and I have never received a brochure nor an invitiation to meet with them.  Yet, the well site will probably be more visible from my house than the houses of the residents of Kirkbymisperton.  We have been kept awake in the past by the lighting and noise from a conventional gas extraction rig on this site, so I can only dread the effects on our lives from a well that is using hydraulic fracture gas extraction.  Yet I have not been included in any of the so called "consultation with local people" that Third Energy so proudly talks about in their interviews and publications.  I should also be clear; even if this hydraulic fracturing well was not near where I live, I would still be fighting it as hard.

Great work being done to fight fracking

There are so many organisations working hard to spread the word about the dangers of fracking and helping to fight our government over this issue.  Green Peace and Friends of the Earth do so much to rally people, raise funds etc.

This link from FOE popped up on my facebook page this morning, it mentions Ryedale, and is well worth a read:
https://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/friends-earths-yorkshire-humber-update-november-2014-74775.pdf

Along with the work being done by these excellent organisations, ordinary people are gathering their strength and doing remarkable things.  Frack Free groups have been formed all over the country; web sites, twitter sites, facebook sites have all been set up to give people somewhere to gather information from, enable them to make contact and join the struggle against the devastation of our countryside.

I received this brilliant poster today, please feel free to copy it and print it off, spread it all over where you live!  

I will not be voting for anyone that condones or supports hydraulic fracturing in any way! Where is this subject even mentioned in the manifestos of our political parties?  I want to hear this being discussed as an election issue on the BBC too!