Threads

I’m torn…

Should my Shed have a blog of her own this summer? She’s got a few outings to herself, and plenty going on. Or should all these goings on be included in my “Threads” blog to keep the interest there? Lots of my work overlaps, but the Shed is one thing that could have a life of her own, bubbling along in the background, having her own adventures. I’m leaning most favourably on the side of keeping all my threads together, that’s why I called my blog threads in the first place really. I know many people have a new blog for each project – Julie Dodd particularly successfully. It can be read in isolation, just the bit you’re interested in, and have a coherence that chucking it all in together lacks.

However… I’m a chuck it all in kinda gal I think?

*shrugs*

Dunno.

(sounding more like recalcitrant teenager with every post!)

Also…

Because I’m a chuck it all in kinda gal, I’ve never had a plan.

Everything I’ve done, since leaving school really, has been spontaneous, accidental, incidental, co-incidental. Jobs have landed in my lap, or I’ve found myself in the right place at the right time – serendipitous – good word.

But…

At my age, waiting for something to fall into my lap could be seen as a waste of time. I could be “working towards” something. I could still be open to serendipity, but organise myself to be in the right places maybe. At some point in the next say… ten… years… I’d quite like to be in a position to say “from now on, I shall be an artist, and only an artist, till the day I die” What a wondrous, joyous, felicitous day of song and dance that will be!

Meanwhile…

I need an income, so I need the job, and I’m very lucky to have the job I have.

*shrugs*

Pipe-dream.

Photos of dress as promised…

also…

I had a review!

(scroll down below the pictures, the link is hiding!)

http:// garylongden.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/mouth-music-the-boars-head-kidderminster/

Mouth and Music is a monthly event held by the lovely Heather Wastie in an unlikely gallery space above an unlikely pub in Kidderminster. The welcome you get is great though.

I’ve been thinking for a while that I’ve been skirting around and politely ignoring the performance elements of my work. I write poetry that gets stitched, or I record myself singing. But these words are never spoken to an audience. Having been introduced to Heather over mutual friends on Facebook, this seemed like a good way to dip my toe in the water to see if I liked it. I gathered up the friend who would be most likely to get something from the experience and off we went. I had a moment of panic in the car park when I realised I had invited an English and drama teacher to my first ever poetry reading… schoolgirl error perhaps.

There was a theme of weddings which was applied fairly loosely – people either didn’t know, or ignored it. I happened to have about my person a poem I had written for our wedding anniversary (an absurdly large number for a woman of my youth). It was ok, so I did another one, the original Lullaby poem that eventually got turned into the song (If you ferret around in a determined fashion you can find a link to it on my website).

I quite enjoyed myself, was complimented on my confident performance(pretend), and had other poets recommended to me. It was fun, and I’ll probably go again. The question is, will I start to include performance in my work?

*shrugs*

Dunno.

Really annoyed that I’ve left my camera at work over the long weekend… I’ll add photos to this later.

Despite thinking the stitching for the footprints was going to take weeks, I finished them 2 days ago. Quite like them, but because of the colour of dress and thread, I’m unsure whether the footprints in the sand reading will loom too large. It’s one of those things you don’t see fully till it’s done. I’m on the lookout for another adult garment (probably dress, but haven’t ruled out the father figure as yet) so that I can try doing shoe prints instead.

If I make another adult piece, and make it less nice, if I hang it with the yellow dress it will change it hopefully, if part of a pair.

I think I was super-motivated to get the dress finished because I had this little white baby dress with a boot print on. I sat all day yesterday stitching and this is now finished(tendonitis also looming). I think this is much more satisfactory as it’s not so nice as “footprints in the sand” dress. (I have to stop calling it that.) Well, it’s nice (must use thesaurus for alternative to nice), but when you get up close it changes. I like that balancing point…. How long do you look at it for, how close do you get before you go….”urghhh”? I feel when I hang these pieces I should observe and make chalk marks on the floor at the point where “aah cute!” takes a turn for the worse.

I’ve started eavesdropping on conversations between parents and children, and jotting things in a notebook as I sneak round the corner. I might start whispering into a dictaphone.

A few years ago… 4, maybe 5? I did the Artist Teacher Scheme through BCU. Discussing it this week someone said the scheme is great for the artist in the teacher, but not so good for the teacher in the artist, this certainly could be argued in my case. Especially considering my original intention in doing the course was to be a better art teacher. I think I’m a better artist, but my teaching is more laissez-faire and chaotic than it was. There is an argument from either side that my teaching is better/worse, because the majority of the day-to-day stuff is unplanned, and I spend my time providing the children with materials, equipment and space to have a go at the mad stuff. I think I might be helping them to become better at thinking about their ideas, but that means they are not always very productive. This makes providing evidence for assessment very difficult. Sometimes I might say “This pupil is this level, because I say so.” That can be a bit tricky…

A few years ago, this term’s work from year 6 ended up with them all having drawn pictures of the school, and designing a sculpture that never got made. This year, so far, I have seen sculptures of volcanos, engines and hearts; collages of friendship; a quilt; a comic book; a poem; a clay super-hero; Eddie Stobart trucks; acrylic paintings; watercolours; papier mache brain; an amazing piece of film made using an overhead projector, and old sheet and some twigs, recorded on the class digital camera; a series of clay figures depicting 3 stages of woman. I’m not teaching, but I spend my time wielding a stanley knife, mixing cellulose paste and finding the right sort of paper to make a giant origami phoenix.

Some children, in 6 weeks, produce 6 pieces of work, others don’t finish one.

Whether this is “good” teaching comes down to your head teacher. Luckily I have one who is brave and creative.

My final piece of writing for my MA is supposed to be about 2500 words linking my art to my teaching. I think the above discussion will be the thrust of it. I may use some of my blog to illustrate a change in attitudes, alongside photos of the children’s work.

I’m also wondering what questions I could ask the Y6 children about his altered work pattern – as up to this year, they have followed fairly conventional plans.