Mixed and Recycled Media Artist

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Dad Picture almost finished…

DadThis picture is in memory of my dad who died in October last year following a two year battle with cancer.  The writing is a mixture of dad’s own beautiful poetry and notes my two brothers wrote for the eulogy they read at his funeral (they spent a lot of time, and went through a lot of paper to get dad’s tribute just right. I couldn’t let the notes be thrown away!)  You’ll also notice blue tack wrappers (dad relied on the stuff to fix any DIY problem – including broken light fittings!) , hedgy the hairbrush (When I was younger I bought it as a present for him despite him having no hair!) and other bits and pieces that remind me of him.  The photos I’m working from make me smile every time I look at them!

dad1 dad2 dad3 dad4

Your Art – The Festival 2009 Scrapbook!

Here’s the artwork visitors made at the Wirksworth Festival 2009!

A few people said they had been inspired them to get collaging  – If you have made any collages, please send me a picture – I’ll add it to the gallery if you would like!

Thanks for coming to the festival!

Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone that came to Wirksworth last weekend.  I had a really great time, and will post some pictures soon!

Wirksworth Festival this weekend!

I’ll be exhibiting and selling my art, and showing off what I’ve been up to over the last year.  Bring any sweet wrappers, and tickets – I’ll be putting together a scrapbook of memories from this years festival made with everyones rubbish, and will offcourse be looking for some creative helpers!

Hope to see you there!

The Chesterfield Canal Collage – Really Nearly Finished!!

Nearly Finished!

I’ll probably carry on adding bits and pieces to this over the next few months, but think that it looks lively and captures the feel of the festival – Thanks to all my helpers over the weekend, I’m very happy with the (almost!) finished result.   Let me know what you think (you can leave a comment below)…

I’ll be exhibiting this along with some of my other work at the Wirksworth Festival on the 12th and 13th September.  If you haven’t been to the festival before, its a fantastic event – Loads of artists display their work in peoples homes and buisnesses throughout Wirksworth – I’ll be just off the Market Place, in Crown Yard.  There’s loads of performances and stuff going on, so there’s plenty to keep the whole family entertained.  The website is www.wirksworthfestival.co.uk if you want to find out more.

What I’m working on now…

Dad Close up of dad

The wonderful Mr S…

Creative Partnerships, Sheffield

For the past 3 months, I’ve been working with children at Hunters Bar School, Sheffield one day a week as part of a Creative Partnerships project to design and produce a structure that makes the classroom a more creative learning environment.

Working with a textile artist to make the wave of inspiration!

The result is fantastic – a set of drawers that look quite ordinary from the outside, but when each drawer opens, the space is transformed to help you learn in different and exciting ways.

For example, the bottom drawer pulls out to form a stage on which you must wear the special hat to give you good luck…

Performance!

There’s a friendship funfair that pulls out of another drawer, with loads of games and activities designed by children to help you make friends…

The friendship funfair!

Conversation trees grow out the top of the drawers and can be taken around the school – the colours, textures and pictures inspire different conversations…

Conversation Trees!

There’s also a chill out den that folds out one drawer, and an inspiration wave that rolls out of another! As one child exclaimed on seeing the finished result ‘It’s like each drawer is a tardis!’

Canal Collage!

The Chesterfield Canal Festival was a great event – lots of children helped cut and stick and paint using all the rubbish visitors and exhibitors gave me over the weekend! In a week or so, I’ll have a bit of time to finish the collage, and will put some more pictures up.  For now though, here’s some pictures from the event itself…

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busy busy busy!

getting messy!

making birds for the sky!

Chesterfield Canal Festival, Kiveton Park, Rotherham 23rd – 25th May 2009

I’m going to be displaying my work at the Chesterfield Canal Festival – www.kiveton2009.com – It should be a great weekend – you can camp there and they’ll be loads of stalls and stuff going on – including boat rides! I’m going to be getting visitors to donate their rubbish from the festival, and help me create a canal-inspired collage – it should keep me busy for a few days!  Would be great to see you there!

Your Sheffield NOW! Rivelin Valley

Sheffield NOW! teamed up with Ruthie (a fab artist who makes giant knitted structures), and lots of young people and their families to find out more about spaces through den-building and collaging. Using a mixture of french knitting, weaving and collaging, this fantastic structure evolved over the course of an afternoon! A really fun and relaxing way to spend a weekend!

french knitting!

Den-building!