karen joyce
  • Home
  • Prints
  • Book arts
  • Exhibiting history
  • Blog
  • Contact

A facebook find on creativity

21/9/2014

0 Comments

 
In spite of a compulsion to check in an unhealthy number of times, I'm not really a great fan of facebook.  It seems generous to call much of it filler, even if I follow up on quite a lot of it.  Though I hate myself for it, so that's ok. 

But from time to time, one way or another, it chucks up something good, and this article on creativity was one.  I'm not going to repeat great chunks of it here, but very briefly it dealt with composer Aaron Copeland being interviewed for "The Creative Experience" by Abt and Rosner.  I found myself nodding away at nearly all the things being said.  One was that sometimes you find yourself wanting to be creative but with nothing ready to create - been there, often.  It can make me feel I have no imagination and should give up Now and Forever.   Another was that if a piece of work doesn't please you, it doesn't matter whether it pleases anyone else or not, it just won't do.  I think it can be a result of the previous problem - trying to push ahead with an idea that isn't right.  Though it didn't mention the 'yeah, but put it away for six months and then have another look before you chuck it for good - you might find you feel quite differently' theory.  Works surprisingly often, though not by any means always.  It didn't address, either, that sometimes you might not like something initially because it turned out wrong for what you wanted, and you're too close to see yet if it's any good regardless of that. 

The article also talked about an incubation period for ideas - figured that one out - and Copeland said about having to get things down while the fires of creation were burning, because afterwards it would all be gone.  That too had a ring of familiarity - it's all so clear when you just can't sleep because it's searing grooves into your mind, but when you settle down a couple of days later, now that you think you have the time, it's nowhere to be found or is just a misty memory waving a cheery farewell.  Ah me. 
0 Comments

The 2014 Neo: print prize

17/9/2014

9 Comments

 
Picture
I might have mentioned before that I'm not great at turning up to exhibitions to order - I manage quite a few, sooner or later in their run, but normally more by luck than good judgement.
This is especially true of Neo: exhibitions.  They're very handy and I often think of them when I'm in Bolton, but inevitably on the wrong days.  I seem to be far more together on Mondays and Tuesdays, while the Neo: gallery is open at the other end of the week.  However, for the biennial print prize, with Gemma Lacey's 'Longing' work in it (though I'd love to have seen the actual print with the cabinet), I made an exception and turned up with the rest of the world on the first Saturday afternoon of the exhibition.  Rather too many people for me, but in terms of an opening, I have to suppose many people is a good thing. 
Picture
Gemma Lacey - Longing Cabinet

As you might imagine, it was a fascinating show, rich in variety of print method, theme, substrate.  The most odd might have been printing on a wasps' nest, and it was definitely unusual to see a piece of work suspended under a shelf .  The show was, of course, entirely different to the previous neo: print prize - obviously; different artists, different works, but presumably most importantly, different selectors.  I'm sure it's a hackneyed idea, but it made me realise how interesting it might be to present the same pool of work to different selectors and see how much the choices vary.  Or even, maybe, how little.  I suppose that's sort of what happens with Discerning Eye - there are six selectors, who each pick their own mini-exhibition, but I don't think there's any overlap of work between them.  The same artists might turn up, but not the same pieces.

Lots to like here, though I didn't particularly go for any of the prize prints.  I don't expect to - I'm never going to be a cutting edge sort of a person, in what I do or what I like, and so what?  My own particular favourite was Barbara Ann Swan's 'DNA Women' -  I stood in front of it for ages, studying the riveting selection of body parts.  Loved it.  I liked the strips of film way of hanging it, trailing on to the floor, too. 
   
Picture
Barbara Ann Swan - DNA Women

I also really liked Rosey Prince's 'Elephant (with yellow wall)' for its lovely combination of saturated colour with obviously black and white, Victoria Ahren's rich 'Home Front', Fiona Grady's 'Arcs I-V' as they quietly developed across the set, and the non-prizewinning work by Susan Eyre, 'Paradise Row SW4' for that lovely, sly flash of colour in amongst the shades of grey. 
I recognized Kaori Homma's work as something I had seen in Discerning Eye's exhibitions a few years ago - they are described as being fire, acid and water on paper, and I'd love to know (of course) how they're made.  Looking through the catalogue, I have realised first that a dozen or so works aren't in there - seems a bit of a shame - and second that there are works in it that I like but failed to notice at the show.  Must really try to go back before it finishes on 2nd November.  
9 Comments

Flyer fails

17/9/2014

0 Comments

 
I started efforts to print flyers for this year's Manchester Artists' Book Fair on one of the HBP riso machines - these were two of the fails.  Can't use them, but love the colour mixes.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

    Hi there

    I make prints and book arts, though nowhere near as often as I'd like - no good reason, just an inability to get on with things.  I occasionally go on about landscape (with which I am mildly obsessed) and various of its elements, and I like to pass comment on exhibitions I visit.

    Archives

    April 2022
    September 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    October 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    July 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011

    Categories

    All
    Art
    Bath
    Book Arts
    Books
    Ceramics
    Doodles/sketching
    Exhibitions
    Handmade Books
    Hot Bed Press
    Landscape Etc
    Other People's Blogs
    Print And Printmaking
    Stories
    Stuff And Things
    Theatre

    RSS Feed