Abstractions of Snow

Is there really such a thing as true abstraction in art? I observe myself in this snowy weather unconsciously reflecting the soft, quiet shapes of the snow in my drawings this week. My studio is freezing and feels very open to the outside and exposed to the elements. As I sit now in the warmth of the Rayburn I recall the blizzard of flakes that fell on me during a walk this afternoon and know that these informed my
 drawings and were just abstracted memories.

an exhibition:on and off the paper at Horsebridge Centre Whitstable

Went down to Whitstable at the weekend to look at the Horsebridge Centre. My cousin Nick and I are having a joint show there in February next year. I like the title with its suggested layers of connections and meanings.
Whitstable is a great mix of chic and tacky, fishy smells mingle with expensive gift shops. The Kent coast, with its Junk Shops where my sister Victoria, Nick and I used to browse in the early 1970's is gone.
 Does anyone else recall those musty interiors where amongst the clutter there was always a bargain to be had? What did happen to all those Military buttons, fans and hat pins?

'Oh' at the Saatchi Gallery

Has anyone seen that gorgeously tactile work entitled rather deliciously 'Oh' in the Saatchi Gallery London????
It is by Juliana Cerqueira Leite. It is by far the best piece of work in the Gallery, honest and moving.I think I could have sat on the floor and looked at it for a very long time.
Most of the other exhibits are paintings and sadly nothing new or particularly interesting there, unless I was missing something.....perhaps someone can enlighten me?There is also a notable absence of video art which made the Gallery beautifully silent.
I am trying to pin down the 'found words' to make a special selection but each one has its own special 'place'. It is as painful as throwing out well worn and loved clothes and I keep finding an excuse to keep them!!

Found Objects

Found objects,the odds and ends that catch one's eye sometimes become the stimuli for art works don't they? As I was thinking about this the other day it occurred to me that the found objects that I find particularly fascinating are words....words and phrases either heard or read.Little nuggets that settle in my mind and later may surface as a drawing.

A slight pursuit....

These are only very small. A continuation of my experimentation with drawings in thread as well as playing with drawing using a three dimensional element.The search for a kind of disappearance, a slightness of touch continues to be fundamental to my thinking.

Barely a whisper....

Last week had the opportunity to put up one of my MA pieces,'Between something and nothing....' in the studio flat of a friend.It was interesting seeing the work in an entirely different setting....a sort of domestic/gallery hybrid.The height of the space is 4.2metres.From below the cord seemed to carry on floating up and from the mezzanine above it just graced the floor. Barely a whisper of a touch.....

skin on the outside

I continue to want to make drawings or works that are immensely fragile....it seems a contradiction to use the word 'immense' here but somehow that is what I mean.....it is a search to express something that is just on the edge of language.....

...spare but there....

The beautiful weather enticed me into my studio for a couple of hours this morning.Most of the time I simply sat and mused. Listening to the radio I caught the tail end of a comment from a pianist/composer who improvises many of her performances. She said that the work bypasses her mind and comes straight through her body....I felt that this rather summed up my drawing as an intuitive process.....and yes a drawing now sits on my studio bench.....spare but definitely there...

Inspired by Rachel Whiteread

I went up to London on Monday to see the Rachel Whiteread drawings. I was particularly struck by the glass vitrines containing paraphernalia collected over many years. This collection of various bits and pieces were used as sources of inspiration in her studio...a habit of collecting shared by many of us who are artists. Judging by the interest of my fellow gallery viewers this was the highlight of the exhibition. That is not to say that the drawings themselves were not well worth seeing but the vitrines left so much to the imagination and so much unsaid....I am now playing 'Kim's Game'!!

A beginning or an end...?

Took down the M.A. show yesterday. It rather felt like an end rather than a beginning. With the pods laid to rest in a box of tissue and their voices silenced I am wondering where I will take my work form here. Moving on is always difficult and painful. What is clear is that I will not go back and that with time I will find a new way forward....

The works in my MA exhibition have received some interesting responses.I think that in general people loved the simplicity of the work and appreciated its spareness and lack of sophistication. One person commented that the transparent shapes did not demand immediate authorial explanation, but allowed the viewer to feel the harmony of the artworks.
I enjoyed watching people on Saturday having to stoop low to look closely at the 'pods' sensing their longing to touch. For one or two the temptation was too hard to resist; a sensory experience for those who dared reach out a hand!!

Bank Holiday Monday

Picked some Marigolds from the garden this morning and thought that the strength of their colour made a nice contrast to the little forms on the window sill.

The day seems rather empty now that my M.A. is over. Had a bit of a clear up yesterday which is always therapeutic. I've put five of my little process works on the window sill to remind myself where I have been and to allow their presence to show me a way forward......back and forth, to-ing and fro-ing in my head but it will be in the making that something new will eventually emerge.
After the MA show it will be back to the studio....