Being Human Community Art Workshops

Discovering the inner child

 

This exercise allowed us to explore the natural sense of composition we all have and begin to respond to the creative skill in us all.

 

 

 



Being Human Community Art Workshops - Water

WATER: a clear colourless, tasteless odourless liquid that is essential for all life.

These small white sculptures form an essential purpose, they help lead us visually around the main piece, they have been made collectively as a group and when placed together represent unity and yet each one is significantly different and individually crafted by hand, carrying a personal and purposeful meaning just below the surface.

Making of the Plaster moulds.

 

Each week the participants worked to produce the Plaster of Paris moulds that you can see at the base of the sculpture. (150 in total )

These small white sculptures take their form and were all moulded from empty water bottles, on their own they stand alone, small and insignificant, but put together on mass and they form a relationship with each other taking on a whole new form and structure.

 

 

 

The moulds themselves are all very similar in shape and size with little indication of individuality. In many ways this can represent are human-selves, however scratch the surface and we reveal are infinite personalities and diverse cultures.

 

In order to highlight this the participants have scratched into the surface at the bottom of each moulded sculpture.

Being Human Community Art Workshops - Collaborative Sculpture.

Each week the Participants responded to the meditations and the materials available, to produce a large scale collaborative instillation/sculpture. Here are some of the processes they went through.

Being Human Art Workshops- Mark Making

Without thinking or planning, make a line, a squigle, a doodle - capture your first impulse. It does not matter what you do, but rather how you do it. Generate this initial element from your body. Feel it, enjoy it!

 

This exercise highlights the ability of marks to express things that are internal. What gives a mark its meaning is that it is made by an individual hand. 

Being Human Community Workshops at the Saint Francis Center.

This has not only been a journey for the participants but also for those who had the privilege of taking a leading role. My thanks goes to those who worked with me, Michele Crookes, Rob Marvin and Rosemary Spiers, (what a team!) its been an honour to work with you.

Jan x

Being Human Community Art Workshops - Exhibition

I have recently been working on a Community Art Project, which explores the theme of what it is to be Human.

The 12 week course gave the participants an art/sculpture experience designed to explore what it means to be human within 3 points of contact, humanity in contact with our environment, humanity in contact with each other and our inner world and humanity in contact with the spiritual/unknown. Using the four elements of fire; water; earth and air as starting points for inspiration and discussion.



Group discussion and word mind map developed from one of the meditations.

The work produced cumulates in an exhibition at the Atkins Building in Hinckley. From Monday 23rd September to Saturday 5th October. Those that visit the exhibition are asked to carry on the journey by making their own mark and by coming to experience the sculpture in sound, vision and touch and then to contribute to it themselves, so the sculpture keeps growing and represents the voice and experience of our culture

The grand opening is on Monday 23rd September at

 

12.30pm. and is open during Atkins opening hours 8.30-

 

5.30pm Monday to Friday.

The Splendour of Stitch Exhibition 2013

                    Lutterworth Embroiderers Guild brings you ....
                                              The Splendour of Stitch 2013
                            An exhibition of Creative Textiles.

13th - 17th August 2013

Open 10am - 4pm daily

Late Night Friday 6pm - 9pm

Wycliffe Memorial Church

Bitteswell Road, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, LE17 4EZ

(oppersite Morrisons Supermarket)

Demonstrations,

Sales tables & Refreshments

  For more information please contact:

 Marilyn Hemsley on 01455 554 564

                                           marilyn.hemsley@btinternet.com

This exhibition will have the three pieces I produced for the Kickstart Programme, along with a range of cushions I have designed based on the same theme.



Cushions based on Archive Project.( Lily, Sunflower and Poppy.)

 

I have also been working on some more landscape work, based on my trip to Calasparra, Spain. These will also be on display. Hope you enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Embroiderers Guild Exhibition

 

Saturday 24th May 2013 - Friday 28th June 2013 at Snibson Discovery Park

 

Kickstart offers its members a theme and a series of workshops to help them extend their skills in the design and execution of Textile Art. Its aim, for those taking part, is to achieve a piece of embroidered work from the annually selected theme and then for it to be exhibited. This year the topic selected was Archive and included visits to County Record Offices and Archivists, followed by Artist-led workshops. 

 

Here is some of the work I produced for this years Kickstart programme.

 

 

 

I began this project in quite an unexpected place, I found myself fasinated by the act of documenting and a visit to Ryton Gardens Heritage Seed Library, became the inspiration for my work.

Seed banks form a collection of historical records and are in themselves living libraries.