Monday 15th April

Hi!

Today was the studio deadline day so I decided to go into uni early to set up my work and pretend to be organised. Although when I got in, the door to the staff room was locked and none of the tutors were in, and I couldn’t remember which wall I had booked in the corridor space! After wasting a bit of precious time trying to find someone to help, I then discovered that someone had put their massive painting in my space as it had been double booked. She couldn’t move it as she wanted it directly opposite her other massive painting across the corridor. After a while of wasting more precious time and energy running around stressing out I found another wall which seemed perfect for hanging my 3 paintings in a row.

I was quite pleased after putting them on the wall and felt satisfied with the result and positive comments from passers by.... until I came back later and discovered someone had put rows of tall thin sculptures in the passage way right infront so you had to actually do a bit of head dodging to see my paintings. Oh well at least the tutors will have a bit of fun marking it!

So, panic over, all seemed well. And that was when I remembered what I had forgotten. My two small paintings to put in my studio space! After wasting even more precious time walking home and back I was able to install the rest of my work in my studio space. Which I have to say didn’t look like much work as my space was still quite empty.

But I’m happy now since I can relax for a bit and enjoy the sun. Yes there was actually sun today!

A few quick thoughts on our Red Thread Trail Exhibition:

I was really pleased with the outcome of the Exhibition and the way all our individual styles came together in a unified show. The private view was a really enjoyable occasion and I was surprised with the amount of people who came and supported us. It felt like all our hard work was worthwhile. 

Jennie has been a great artist to work with. Her constant enthusiasm and energy has kept us all going though the ups and downs. Her experience and creative ideas has helped this project come together and flourish.

 

Nadjas motivation and determination kept the project focused and organised. She has held the goal in her mind and has helped us all believe in ourselves that it was possible. I have really loved working with Nadja.

I want to thank you both for your support and say well done!

Rachael

Sunday 14th April

Still feeling that I have a lot to catch up on for our studio assessment tomorrow. I have been spending the day writing and rewriting my statement. I also had to write a short statement about my piece of work that I am submitting for Come As You Go exhibition at Crate. The concept of this exhibition is interesting and challenging. The timing is all a bit tight. I wrote the proposal about a week ago and it feels quite intense. I do like secrets so you will have to wait to hear about my proposal! All this statement writing and proposal writing has been a real learning curve.
Ah speaking of which here is a picture of one of the site/exhibition specific objects I made for my rethread installation. The other one I forgot to photograph as I was busy filming. But Rachael will have a shot of it I am sure.

This piece is going to be slightly altered as a  part of the new piece for Come As You Go. The time on the working clock was set at Finish time to honour the Finish member of the redthreadtrailers. I suppose it should have been set at Rome time to fit in with my Christian theme? ! 

 I wish that I had more photographs to post. The lane leading to the gallery was a mass of flowing threads ending up being posted through the letter box where more thread could be seen in the gallery spaces. At one point the wind blew one of the threads down from the hook on the wall just at a time when the Limbo crowd started coming to the gallery, and yes we saw some impressive limbo dancing !

One conclusive thought I have had is, that it was well worth while being well prepared. We had already discussed the installation and some of the important decisions had already been made so we were prepared.  Crate had been left in good condition for us. Setting up was a pleasant experience. However you never know what unexpected hitch might occur. Half an hour before the opening we followed advise that we could put on the rather noisy and not healthy sounding fires to heat the place a bit for our visitors without any risk. It was pretty cold and damp. (OK for passionate and dedicated artists but not for comfort loving guests). This seemed to have an unexpected and detrimental effect on the electrical circuit and the plugs all fused. Our films stopped and all equipment was rendered redundant. Just a moment of panic, enough for me to overcome my fear of electricity, and after finding one fuse box in perfect state I took some initiative to hunt for a second one. Phew there was one, and once the switch was switched on all machines re started! But it was a moment of sheer horror !

Now I must get out and have a breath of fresh air to give me the push to finish off assessment work.

Enjoy the sunny day.

Jennie

Saturday 13th April

Hello!

We made it to the Minotaur and back! Thank you Nadja for your recipe for those delicious crisp breads.

Thank you Nadja and Rachael for the collaboration. Thank you Nova and Aine at Crate. Oh dear, this sounds a bit like the Oscars but really I want to say it! It was a lot of work but really worth while.

Now it is time to take stock and to relax a bit. I think that it is fair to say that we were all happy with how it turned out. We had a good crowd at the Private View and a healthy mix of people. Friends, acquaintances and new faces. There had been a meeting at Limbo, and members of Crate and Limbo came to our exhibition afterwards. So there was a real buzz. Nadja remarked that there were rather a lot of men with beards at one point! The atmosphere was brilliant. I think that we received a great compliment when one of the artists thought that we were third year students by looking at all our work. He was quite taken back when I said no we were second year students, and he should come to see our degree show next year! Personally I was particularly happy with peoples comments about the different pieces in the installation relating well. That there was an obvious link to my video work and painting. The word poetic and narrative came up and that was a good response for me. People said that we had successfully made both of our very different works make sense in our space together (mine and Rachel's), and that all three of our work worked well together. That has been our big challenge. We had given a lot of thought to the lighting and the selection of works, but it is always good to hear that it has worked from the outsiders point of view. So all the feed back was positive and we feel motivated to pass onto the next step, and push our work further. For the immediate future I have quiet a bit of preparation to do for our assessment on Monday.

 There were some lovely moments and I leave it to Rachael and Nadja to share those with you. Rachael was our photographer for the show. I did most of the filming although we all had a go with the movie camera so we are all in it! Once edited I might put it on youtube.

And here are four taster pictures of our setting up.

 Our photographer Rachael

 Painting selected

Checking the lighting with Rachael's paintings to the right

Nadja experimenting with arranging the boxes

Before I go I could give you the recopy for my savoury cake.  Cake au Jambon et aux Olives

-3 ufs  (3 eggs)
-150g de farine  (flour)
-1 sachet de levure (baking powder)
-10 cl d'huile de tournesol  (sunflour oil)
-12.5 cl de lait entier (whole milk)
-100 g de gruyère râpé (grated gruyere...or just cheese!)
-200 g de jambon de Paris (ham)
-75 g d'olives vertes (green oiliness)
-1 pincée de sel  (salt)
-2 pincées de poivre (pepper)

Préchauffez votre four à 180C (th 6) (heat the oven)
Découpez le jambon et les olives en morceaux.(cut thé ham and olives up)
Dans un saladier, travaillez bien au fouet les ufs, la farine, la levure, le sel et le poivre. (wisk the eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and pepper together)
Incorporez petit à petit l'huile et le lait chaud. Ajoutez le gruyère râpé. Mélangez. (mix in a little oil and warm milk. Then add the cheese and mix)
Incorporez le jambon et les olives à la pâte. (add the ham and the olives)
Versez le tout dans un moule non graissé et faites cuire au four pendant 45 min. (put it into a baking tin and cook for 45 mins)

Nadja you can have fun with your French!
By the way, Rachael's biscuits were yummy!

A more conclusive summery of the setting up of the exhibition and assessment of the experience will have to wait. Just feeling a little exhausted at the moment.

Have a great evening.

Jennie

Good Morning everyone!

I am writing to you now instead of yesterday for obvious reasons, yesterday we were in Margate the whole day and evening and had our Private View. Later you will hear more from all of us Redthreadtrail-ers about that and also get to see some photos from the event.
For now I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you lovely people who came to see our show! I hope you enjoyed it and had fun, I know I had!

And to all of you also a reminder today we are exhibiting 10am-5pm so please do pop in to have a look!

And now by demand from the general public, I give you:
how to make Norwegian Cripsbread:

4 dl sunflower seeds
60 gram sesame seeds
60 gram crushed nuts
60 gram oats
2 tbs psyllium seed husks
1 tbs salt
6 dl water

Mix psyllium seed husk in water and wait 10 min. Then mix everything in.
Pour mixture on baking paper and put in oven 15 minutes, 160 degrees Celcius.
 take out and cut into pieces, than put back and bake 50-60 minutes

Nadja

Thursday 11th April

Well today has definitely been a labyrinth with lots of hopeful red threads and also a few tangled dead ends!

Ok, so at the moment my house smells like burnt baking. Maybe its good my housemates are not home since this would have ruined my reputation they always say they love it when I cook as it always smells good!) NOW it just smells like a disaster! I have attempted to make some white chocolate cookies for the private view and they looked quite nice from the top, lovely and golden brown....with black underneath...

 When they have cooled I am going to saw their bottoms off and make them a bit more edible. Not quite a dead end; I think there is a secret passage.

This morning I quickly rushed into uni to print some stuff and photograph my hidden art in the park objects. I was sooo keen I actually arrived before the receptionist! I printed a few posters we were going to hand out but the text had been cut off so it didn’t look professional. I will try and fix it for tomorrow though. It is not a dead end, just a few split ends.

Nadja and Jennie arrived at crate early to start setting up. I was waiting in Canterbury  for my parents to arrive so they could transport artwork to Margate. Traffic jams, road works and diversions caused a few knots in the red thread however we managed to get to crate around 12. A big THANK YOU to my mum and dad for their help in transport, it was a long tiring journey and probably not much fun. I don’t know what I would have done without you. 

 Nadja and Jennie were both really organised and on top of things so there was no need to panic or stress out. We all helped advise and support eachother so the afternoon went really smoothly. We got the majority of the exhibition set up so just finishing touches tomorrow. We all left together at 6.30. It was nice to get a lift home from Jennie, especially because it was absolutely freezing and I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes by that stage.

We have finally found the thread leading to crate and are going to run the last part with anticipation

Private view, Friday 12^th April, 6.30-9.00pm.

Dont miss out!

Rachael

Wednesday 10th April

Hi,

I have just got back from Crate and have the contract and the key so we are all set for curating and hanging our exhibition tomorrow! It is very cold and damp at crate so bare that in mind when you dress up if you are coming to the private view. Not a cocktail dress occasion! We will get a chance to warm it  up a bit, so nothing that should scare you away!

I will be packing up some sustaining snacks for tomorrow!

At college I have been tidying up loose ends both for my assessment, and for redthread.  The edited version of the blog is all printed out, ring bound with acetate covers, one for each month. Of cause it will be missing some of the last days posts but those will have to be looked at via this blog.

I have continued to work on my paintings. One egg tempera on board and the others canvas's. The egg tempura will not be finished, but I am happy about that as it will be fun to continue it at home in-between essay writing.   I was so rushed that I did not think to take pictures of the paintings. I will have to edit them in later.

Then I have been having a tidy up in my studio space so that when I go in on Monday I just have to put my work up on the wall. I had to put four layers of paint on the wall to cover the mess I had made. It now looks pristine.

Rachael, Nadja and myself had a quick get to gather, and we are all set to go.

See you there!

Jennie

Tuesday 9th April

Today has been a long but eventful day!

 I left Southampton coach station at 8.20 and arrived in London at 11.00. My mum and I headed straight to the Royal Academy to hand in my framed print for the Summer Exhibition. It was actually quite big and heavy with the frame so it was really awkward to carry though the busy tourist crowds and families on Easter break! It was only when I got to the hand in place when the enormity of the event hit me: we had to join a long queue of hopeful artists and there was a very organised system in place to cope with the thousands of applicants that a brave enough to endure the process. When I was let in, I had to unwrap my work and they scanned the barcodes on the two labels I had attached to the back. All of a sudden my work was taken from me in an instant and put on the racks with all the other artwork. Will it stand out amongst the crowd? That is the answer I will have to wait for, fingers crossed! I am pleased with the print and feeling hopeful. The whole process has been a learning curve, although I wish it didn’t cost me (a skint student) as much with all the travel, entry fee, framing cost and time.

 It also meant a day out it London to visit some galleries. I went to the Courthauld Gallery to see the ‘Becoming Picasso’ exhibition which was small but still worthwhile. I admire Picasso's painting style and the influence his work has had in the history of art and also on contemporary artist today.

I also had time to visit the National Portrait Gallery which excited me since I am focusing on portraits for my studio work.  It was good to see a variety of portraiture, from abstract to photorealistic, paintings, photography and sculpture, Renaissance to Twentieth Century art. It is great research for my project.

I arrived back to Canterbury just after 7.30. I am planning to go into the studio tomorrow to work on my painting again (I have been thinking about it and have decided it is not finished after all! tomorrow I will DEFINATELY finish my painting) I need to sort my space out for assessment as well.

Rachael