Creative and moral influences

I seem to have had  week full of creative and moral influences, and it is only Thursday.  The creative influences started with a visit to the British Library.  I am embarrassed to admit that despite liven gin London for 30 years, and regularly passing the library, I have never been in .  I went to hopefully see the original manuscript for Alice in Wonderland, which was " Alice's Adventures Underground" but it was not on display.  There were many other marvels, including an original piece of the manuscript for The Messiah.  The building itself was wonderful, with pieces of art dotted about.  Good to see this anamorphic artwork by Patrick Hughes in the basement.  Photos form my phone, so a bit blurry.

Out on the street, on the way to the Diwana Bhel Poori house for lunch and some intriguing grids and reflections

Then on to the painting course, where we did more colour mixing, and then a colour study of a shell.  It was only when we were about half way through the exercise that it dawned on me that this was exactly the same exercise that I did in the "Embroiderer's Ledger"  course with Karen Ruane, only using paint rather than thread. 

Source material

Resulting colour study, needs a bit more pink.

The day finished with a sobering talk from two of the volunteers from Fine Cell Work, who teach prisoners how to embroider.  It was sad to hear that the charity can only support working in 25 prisons, particularly in light of some of the letters written by the prisoner participants about how the stitching had helped them in so many ways.  There is an exhibition of the quilts made by prisoners currently at the Quilt Museum in York.

It was also an opportunity to borrow the new books by Linda Seward, " The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting".  At first glance, this is a very thorough introduction to many of the techniques used in art quilts.  Linda has continued to use the diagram format as in her previous book, The Complete Book of Patchwork, Quilting and Appliqué. As I refer to that book often, I might be buying this one as well.

I have also been following the work of embroiderer Rebecca Harris recently, particularly her spat with Facebook about whether her embroidery " Symbiosis" was an "overly sexual" image.  She is now setting up a website, " StitchingScience"  featuring the work of professional textile artists who use science as their inspiration.  It has really made me think about how to better link my science knowledge and my stitching, as I have not really done that to any great extent.

My own stitching this week has been to complete more cards for our group's exhibition in October, using a combination of appliqué, embroidery and a bit of iridescent paintsticks.

 

and…….. I am going to see this next week.  That will be inspiration overload.

 

 

London day out

Two exhibitions today.  First, Ceramic Art 2013 at the Royal College of Art.  I could have spent a fortune.  Unfortunately, this exhibition was only on this weekend, so it is finished,  All images from the Ceramic Art site, as no photography was allowed.
Dorothee Loriquet, wonderfully tactile structures that can be placed horizontally or vertically, each about 40cm in length.

Patricia Volk, these pieces are big, about 1 metre high and designed to be shown outdoors.

Duncan Ross, the colours and the precision in these were superb.

Thomas Bohle, striking, powerful shapes and marvellous glazes

Antonia Salmon, fantastic, hand-formed Archimedes' screws

Tina Vlassopoulos, whose work has featured in this blog before

Lara Scobie, and Sasha Wardell, whose work I have also seen before and loved


Fenella Elms, with intriguing ribbons of porcelain mounted on walls or encased in acrylic

Kate Scott, gorgeous sea-themed pieces

Ikuko Iwamoto, astonishing, vaguely menacing,  delicate assemblies of repeated elements

Then a quick whizz round "Strictly Science" at Imperial College, to mark the centenary of the Medical Research Council.  Somehow , I missed the publicity for this, and the closing day was today.  Great fun and some terrific interactive exhibits.  Some new names to me, of which I am rather ashamed, particularly Dame Harriette Chick, who did important work to demonstrate the link between rickets and a lack of Vitamin D.
My own photos of the day were taken with phone, rather than camera, and the rain was appalling, so this mosaic of "Lookng up to London" was my only contribution to imagery of the day. ( Mosaic , courtesy of BigHugeLabs.com)

Half-term – half full, not half empty

Despite unpredictable weather , we fitted in some art and some outside at half term.

 

Turf on a taxi

Still water ( and grey skies)

 

Catkins in the wind

 

Picturing Science exhibition in Richmond, forgot to get the artist’s name.

 

Inspired by Andy Goldsworthy

 

Sunshine at last

Water Gardens in Bushy Park

Simon Singh vindicated - BCA drops case

A day of celebration as Simon Singh has been vindicated. The British Chiropractic Association have dropped their libel case against him.. A victory for common sense, open debate and questioning of untested claims, hurray!