The family workshop today was busy – very busy. For over 2 hours children came & went & sometimes came back again. They drew all over the gallery windows and the windows in both entrances to the building with chalk pens. They filled their “window boxes” with flowers, trees, the occasional tank & aeroplane and some interesting semi abstract patterns. We should have said no to writing and we would have avoided a lot of “dudes” in speech bubbles and references to football teams. In the end we wiped away most of the writing and kept just the drawings.
The children also made a lot of small collages but not many made it onto the exhibition wall – most were taken home which is how it should be.
Art Allotments grows out of ripped up artwork …….
So begins the article appearing today on BBC radio Shropshire website.
….. Art Allotments was born out of the frustration that comes with artists block. In need of inspiration, Shropshire artists Angela Martin and Heather Prescott decided to send each other pieces of their artwork – to cut up. They added an assortment of other cuttings and materials and came up with a series of collages….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/shropshire/hi/people_a…
The grand opening has happened. No time to update this blog before hand as too busy making cakes & seed packets. It was great to welcome 50 or more people. We can’t be sure of the exact numbers because we had forgotten to bring a number clicker & at some point fairly early on I lost the pen & list I started & gave up.
In order to have cake everyone had to first make a collage. We handed everyone a seed packet – an envelope full of random collage scraps – for the task. We didn’t make it compulsory but even so, half way through we needed to put out more tables. Many people made one or more collage postcards and some took extra packets home.
Gradually as the cakes disappeared, the notice board was filled with small pieces of Allotment Art. The results ranged from exuberant to restrained, witty, abstract, figurative and even a 3D thank-you collage bouquet.
The feed back has been so positive. Everyone found the gallery despite some of the posters/directions going astray. The whole event felt relaxed and everyone said it was fun. As fun was one of the aims from the very beginning we now both feel exhilarated & inspired. Several visitors want to join the project & so it will now move into the next phase but first we have a family workshop to run next week. ‘Art Window Boxes’.
Last few days have been hectic. Publicity is now distributed, framing done … It seemed odd to be framing ideas & unfinished work including pages ripped from sketchbooks. By Saturday lunchtime the exhibition was up. Thank you to helpers. Questions still surface. Is the work any good? Is it worth exhibiting?
I give myself the answer. It has to be yes & yes, but there remains a sense of apprehension & unease.
So we have to remind ourselves again that this is an exhibition about a process. “Finished” work will be for a future exhibition.
Next task is to plan for the “official opening” – Next Sat. March 6th.
Art allotments started as a weekly swap of images and ideas, like packets of seeds. We posted and received A4 envelopes of collage materials made up from what came to hand, a mix. The idea was to have an artist¹s conversation through something different, accessible and spontaneous. The focus was on doing. It has grown over a year and so now it is time to see what this looks like in an exhibition and find out what other people think. The exhibition space is a long gallery connecting two buildings with windows on one side and zigzag walls on the other. Outside is rough ground.
The thing about the art allotments and growing ideas is that it is about seeing what would come up. It has also been about working on an idea with another artist and friend. This has given two different perspectives in our choices of materials, the collages and the effect all this has on our other work. The exhibition is itself another collage to sort, place and build. There are narratives that appear accidentally, cumulatively and the ones that, for me, reappear. What I love about collage is that its like a puzzle without a picture on the box. The activity is about space and placing things, shapes, colour, noise, creating sets, and movement. The exhibition is a process in progress. I can be wary of process but in this case, it¹s key. Its great to see work recycled and returned and images have started to resurface such as figures as part of the furniture or moving through it. The process has made new images and new work to develop and grow. I find it hard recycling some images sent to me and it is hard to rip up someone else¹s images!
Ok now I am starting to worry as one of the other things is that the strength of this conversation is that it has persisted in the face of many other demands of everyday lives. I am clearing the path for this week and keeping my animation (work) sessions at bay.
Angela
