Rachael Allen

I've been busy lately with all kinds of things. One of the things that keeps me busy is running the gallery space at the Uni Campus in Weston. I keep meaning to post more about what i've been doing there, but it seems like real life has taken over virtual life and i'm just not getting the time to update here as often as I used to. Either that or twitter has stolen my time...

At the moment in the gallery is a show by Rachael Allen. The show runs until March 26th and is open Mon-Fri 9-5pm, please pop in if you can as the work is really fascinating. Rachael works with miniatures, and in her words one of her main themes is 'death'. As well as the tiny miniature sculptures there are detailed drawings taken from photos of cadavers.

You might think that someone who works with themes like that would be incredibly solemn and maudlin, but Rachael was far from that! She single handedly managed to corrupt our knitting group on Friday night by bringing wine along- soon everyone was cracking open bottles of booze, seems like knitters like a drink as much as anyone else, we just needed a visiting artist to show us the light.

Yaron Lapid

whilst i'm not at room212

As well as getting things organised for Calm Air All Ice, i've had this project on the go- it's a dirty screen, hiding dirty hankies. My deadline for Uni is tomorrow, which meant some juggling when it came to making work for both shows, but both are up now and it's just a matter of wait and see how things turn out. Tonight I think I should really just have a nice bath and early bed, but of course there's all those last minute tweaks to be done before I can head to bed.

Claire is in the gallery tomorrow- do pop in and say hello if you are in Bristol. Full details are over on our blog, including transport details and a map.

Heaven and Hell

This semester one of the pieces of work I should be making is based around the idea of Heaven and Hell- it's part of a contextual studies module and is more a way of getting us thinking and talking about our work in terms of ideologies rather than a sudden religious turn in the syllabus.

I decided to do some research over on Flickr and discovered that my contacts are evil, nearly twice as hellish as heavenly:

Coney Island: A Very Good Representation of Hell
Originally uploaded by kmel

We found 412 results from your contacts matching hell

Up we go Sisters..
Originally uploaded by snailbooty

We found 247 results from your contacts matching heaven.

None of this has anything to do with the piece of work that's forming in my head at the moment- I think it will probably be a video piece, and it will probably involve butter. Then again it might be a drawing with no butter at all.

outstanding!

I know I already mentioned it, but here's my proof that I did so well this year. 85% equates to an 'outstanding 1st' which is basically as good as it gets- hence my happy face in this photo. Anything over 70% is a first (top grade possible) so I did really well all round as my lowest grade was 74%. When I did my first degree over 10 years ago I think the highest mark I ever got was 81% in the first year, and I came away with a 2.1, which is a very respectable grade if I do say so myself. I didn't ever really expect to be a first class student so it's good to prove myself wrong. I suppose the fact I already have a degree might seem like cheating, but i'm covering so much new territory this time round it feels like i'm starting from scratch.

My Mum and Dad popped in for afternoon tea (well evening tea actually) today and Dad told me all about his new studio space! For his birthday this year we all clubbed together to pay for him to take a course in stained glass- he's taken to it like a duck to water and now the course has finished he's found himself space in someone's garage with a window and a work bench where he's going to start making stained glass pieces on commission. I've already suggested a few pieces he could make for my house- and tried to convince him to set up an online shop so I can blog about him. I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

My friends have the most amazing taste in accessories

There's no real reason for this post, other than the fact I met up with Alys for tea yesterday and was impressed by her necklace (Alys is consistently the best accessorised person I know). (The other photos are of Jenny, Becky and Ally)

In other news I got my grades for my last two modules for my degree today and I got four firsts, which has made me very happy indeed. I got 85% for my drawing, which is higher than any mark I got in my last degree, and is a really high class first, now if I can only keep this up!

In less happy news my boiler is on the way out- I came home to find my kitchen was about to be flooded by the leak and I have had to turn it all off until I can work out a way to fix it. You'll probably be able to smell me coming soon...

Work placement needed...

As part of my degree I have to do a ten day work placement next semester. I already have some ideas of places and people to approach, but thought maybe some of you dearest readers might have some hot tips for me to follow?

I have a background that is a mixture of things- my first degree was in ceramics and film studies, I then worked mainly in education/social care before co-founding the here shop and gallery as part of Ladyfest. I've curated lots of exhibitions, contributed to several books, made clothing, crafts and cupcakes and exhibited locally and internationally. I am now taking a second degree in Applied Art and Design because i'm an eternal student at heart.

If you know anywhere or anyone that you think might find me useful for 10 days this summer, or in the Autumn i'd love to know about it!

We got stuck in the mud

Well, that's the end of the first year pretty much. We aren't having an end of year show as we've not been working on a body of work, rather filling our time with commissions and drawings. This is my final piece for the drawing component of the course- it's about 8 x4 ft and now i've got it back home I have no idea where it's going to live. This isn't a brilliant photo, and you can't really see the detail, but i'm more or less happy with it. Of course there's always something that makes you feel a bit disastisfied with anything you produce, and this is no exception, but it was good to make a return to drawing again. Now...who wants to find the money for me to frame this monster?!

Just in case anyone's interested this is made using layers of newspaper, old book pages from Sweden, tissue paper and brown paper. I worked into it with stitch, sharpie pen, compressed charcoal, white gouache, white emulsion, water, brush pen, graphite stick and my beloved 3 in 1 pencil. I also used letraset text as a form of texture, but think that was the finishing touch, after I took this photo.

Coming soon:
exciting news about Mythical Beasts

Thankyou!

Last week I posted a little Q+A for people to fill in- I just wanted to say a big thankyou to the people who've taken part, and let you know that it's not too late to send me your thoughts on the questions I asked there. I certainly wasn't expecting to get replies from this many busy people, and was impressed by the detail some people went into with their answers, considering some were cheeky ones about supplies and finances.

So once again a big thankyou to:

Edith Abeyta
Ruth Boyask
Anna Butler
Alika Cooper
Gabrielle Gamboa
Betsy Greer
Kirsty Hall
Erin Hensley
Meg Hunt
Leila Johnston
Missy Kulik
Faythe Levine
Bjørn Lie
Jenny Louie
Janet MacCaffrey
Mardou
Meghan Murphy
Motodraconis
Alys Paterson
David from Peskimo
Susan Schwake
Allyson Shaw
Deth P Sun

Go visit their websites, spend your money on them, commission them, invite them to show in your gallery, or just drop in and say hello.

A little Q+A

As part of my new degree I have to conduct case studies on other artists and how they work. I've been sending out this very rough and ready Q+A to people I already know and have been amazed by the responses i've got so far- seems artists really like filling in questionaires (or is it more likely they like to procrastinate?). I thought i'd post it on here and if any of you want to add your answers please do so- either in the comments or email me.

Who are you and what do you do?

What are the tools of your trade? Do you have favourite brands/materials/suppliers?

Have you made a business plan?

How do you support yourself financially?

Did you do work experience/ unpaid/paid internship-did you find this useful?

What are you inspirations and influences?

Did you train/what in/where/when?

Have you always been based in one location?

Do you set yourself goals/targets i.e. ‘if I’m not doing x by y then z’?

What problems have you faced?

Is it worth it/ what keeps you going?

What exhibitions have you had?

How does the internet aid/ promote you- do you have a website?

Do you have any links/useful contacts-materials/galleries etc?

At the moment your answers will only be seen by me and tutors, but as some of the information i'm getting in already has been so useful i'm considering making some of it into either blog posts or a mini zine- so let me know if you want to be included in any of that.

Thanks to:
Meg Hunt
Bjørn Lie
Alika Cooper
Gabrielle Gamboa
Leila Johnston
Deth P Sun
Kirsty Hall
Edith Abeyta
Ruth Boyask
Allyson Shaw
Meghan Murphy
Mardou
Missy Kulik
Jenny Louie
and David from Peskimo

for already helping me out with their answers- go take a look at their websites, they are all awesome!

The Shipping Forecast

A couple of years ago I knitted 'The Shipping Forecast' as part of a sculpture project. I plotted out the areas of the forecast and then knitted segments that matched up with my highly unscientific calculations. In the end it was a bit of an unresolved piece of work as I couldn't work out how I wanted to display it- I played around with wrapping it on pieces of driftwood, as it looked like rubbish washed up on the beach, but that took away from it's original intention. This morning I dug it out from the knitting basket and took it into my studio space to hang, and hopefully inspire me as I work on my new drawing project ' A Sense of Place'.