New gallery and new ideas

I’m very pleased to say that I now have work in the Sarah Wiseman Gallery in Oxford. It’s a lovely gallery, and I’m delighted to be represented there alongside many artists that I admire, one of whom is my very dear friend Clare Tottem. I stayed with Clare while I was down there and finally got to see the studio she shares with fellow ceramicist Emma Jagare. Being out in the Oxfordshire countryside it’s very peaceful and obviously conducive to productivity as was evident from the sheer amount of beautiful ceramic work covering every surface and wall. It was really nice to see pieces in progress, and I’m always thrilled and inspired by Clare’s creativity every time I see new work of hers. She very kindly let me take a few photos while I was there.

All images © Clare Tottem 2010

Just being away from home often seems to have the effect of stirring up some new creative ideas and this time was no different as I was literally woken up in the middle of the night on the first night I was there with a burst of inspiration. These occurences are often accompanied by a desperate feeling of panic that by the time I get home and am able to explore the idea some of it will be lost along the way. I’ve still not really had a chance to do so but it seems to have at least triggered further sparks of ideas and so I’m hopeful that something interesting will come to fruition soon. I’m really keen to work with other printmaking techniques besides screenprinting and am quite excited about learning lithography as my great granddad and great great granddad on my maternal grandfather’s side were both employed as commercial lithographic printers in Glasgow and Edinburgh. It’s also likely that I’ll revisit etching and I’ve been quite inspired by the work of several people at Edinburgh Printmakers who combine etching with screenprinting.

In some ways this surge of new ideas is interfering somewhat with progress on the current series. As I’ve already made a few pieces in the series I feel I need to stay on track and maintain the consistency of the work. It’s been quite a strange year in many ways and in general I’ve not been able to be as productive as I normally am, therefore, further interruptions are not necessarily what I need right now. At the same time I can’t ignore the fact that any new ideas that I allow to develop could improve the current work. It also doesn’t seem to make any sense whatsoever to stifle my own creativity.

Another casualty of 2010 has been my progress on the book I’m writing but I’m determined to pick up the pace again. This should in theory be helped by the fact that the non-fiction writers’ group I started back in May with fellow writer Gillian L. Jack is turning out to be something of a success. We are now listed on the City of Literature website and seem to be attracting more people with every meeting. It’s a great feeling when something you talk about doing in a pub over a pint actually becomes a reality. Although I think it was actually a cafe and a cup of coffee but somehow that doesn’t sound as good.

I was going to attempt to say nothing whatsoever about the Edinburgh Fringe in this post but having seen two of the best pieces of theatre I’ve seen in a long time last night, that’s simply not going to be possible. Both were at The Traverse Theatre (one at their festival venue in Stockbridge). Flesh and Blood & Fish and Fowl is visually brilliant, slightly demented and very very funny with a psychotic air and blossoming ending that could be described as optimistically apocalyptic. The cast of two (if you don’t count the taxidermied members) were so good that I would definitely go out of my way to see them perform again. The Not-so Fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo was also very very funny and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, while it managed to get across an unexpectedly touching story. The prevailing commentary on small town America was more entertaining than scathing and the clever set and energy and inventiveness of the cast was used to full effect in conveying stereotypes in a way that felt fresh and had the audience laughing all the way through. I highly recommend both of these shows to anyone looking for quality productions and a good night out – especially as you easily have time to get from the Stockbridge venue to the Traverse between the two performances.

Openings and closings and in-betweens

For the past few weeks I’ve been quite pre-occupied with preparing to set up the exhibition at Artsdepot, but now that it’s up and the private view has happened I’m slowly getting my life in order again and starting to process all of the other stuff that’s been happening and is happening soon. The opening turned out to be a lot of fun, and despite not knowing that many people in London it was really great to have the support of a few good friends.

Exhibtion at Artsdepot: Images © Sharon Whyte 2010

I was fortunate enough to be in London at the same time as the Roundhouse CircusFest was on, so I was able to make it along to a couple of the events that were being presented by Professor Vanessa Toulmin of the National Fairground Archive at the University of Sheffield. One was a talk on ‘peculiar entertainments’ featuring many of my favourite types of acts from the history of performance (plus some very rare film footage) and the other event I was able to attend was a symposium on the tradition of the ‘showwoman’ which Professor Toulmin had organised along with Marisa Carnesky (currently Performing Arts Fellow at the NFA). The day featured presentations on the personal experiences of showwomen including Sandra Wright, Anna Carter, Carol Gandey, Rose English, Petra Massey, Lucifire and Miss Behave, as well as a performance by Empress Stah which I sadly had to miss so I could go to my own private view. It was a really valuable and rewarding event and provided some interesting insights for my research.

The rest of my time down there, when I wasn’t with friends, was spent wandering around the V&A – amazingly I had never before managed to get as far as the Theatre & Performance section so spent a good portion of my visit there.

Images from the Theatre & Performance section of the Victoria & Albert Museum

So now I’m back home and back at work on the new screenprints. I’ve been making a piece featuring the great Adelaide Herrmann using one of the images that I’ve kindly been given access to by The Magic Circle in order to produce this series on female magicians. It’s one of the most complicated prints I’ve done to date, as it consists of ten layers (I usually only work with between 4 and 6) which are quite intricately intertwined, meaning that technically it’s more of a challenge than previous pieces. I’m loving it so far, and will complete the final layer this week. I’ll also begin work on the third piece in the series this week too – so time to start thinking about getting those proposals in for exhibiting next year.

Some bits of news to finish with…

My current exhibition at Artsdepot finishes on May 30th, after which I’ll be exhibiting A Sage of the Stage for (I think) the final time at Edinburgh Printmakers from July 1st – 20th. I’ll also be showing four pieces in the upcoming Out of the Blue Studio Artists exhibition at the Drill Hall from May 28th – June 10th.

I’ve also started an Edinburgh non-fiction writers group with my friend Gillian of Harlots, Harpies and Harridans which will have its inaugural meeting on May 19th at The Meadow Bar – you can find out all about it at Stranger than Fiction.