Hi!

Easter came and went and now it's back to work! Feel nicely refreshed after a couple of days off and starting to feel quite excited and nervous about the upcoming Private View on Friday. My personal expectations are high and I wont allow myself to let myself or anyone else down which basically means I'm willing to give my heart and soul and not leave the gallery on thursday until everything is set up properly. And then on Friday we'll lay all the final finishing touches and when the private view starts I just want everyone to be able to have a good time. Ultimately I think that's what it is all about, having fun!

Today I have been making books for my studio assessment, I have 12 original handmade books altogether now which I will present at uni. But I have also made a small booklet to go with my boxes in the gallery, four spreads-one for each painting, with a documentation of the painting on one side and the question on the other. All tied up as a book with a string of red yarn.
So, all is well for now, the weather is nice and I just talked to my parents on the phone and told them about all my preparations. Wish they could come on Friday but unfortunately it would be a bit too complicated to travel from Helsinki and back for just one evening. They'll get to see the photos of the happening afterwards instead.

Oh and I'm going to bake some norwegian crispbread as PV-snacks! It is something I am personally completely obsessed about, it is so good! Would be worth going to a PV for getting a taste of that bread alone. And it's gluten-free. I know both Rachael and Jennie will bake nice stuff too, it will be a feast!
See you there!

Nadja

Sunday 7th April

Looking through this blog I realise that I have a habit of mentioning things and not really elaborating on them. Well, I am going to use this post to talk about the third year's degree show fund-raising  art auction. This is an event that is held each year, to raise funds for producing the degree show catalogue and extras for the event.
I entered four prints. Two small lino cuts, a pair of silkscreen prints, one of my 'I reckon that my body gets in the way' silk screen prints, and yes one of our zine's with a Private View invitation attached. Well, I could not resist the chance of some extra publicity!
I was only able to stay for an hour of the auction. Phil our sculpture technician was the auctioneer and it was great fun. Most of the students organising it work from my studio so I was aware of all the hard work that went into making it a very professional event. I have just found out that they raised approximately £2000 from the auction. (maybe more). I have also found out that everything of mine sold so I helped them to raise funds. I have to say that I also benefited as I had really never given my work a financial value. I now have some sort of bench mark for pricing my work which is useful. It was good for my confidence after the auction at the Horsebridge in Whitstable. It is much better that my art can be enjoyed by someone and not just sitting in a portfolio somewhere.
I find it strange to think that next year we will be organising this. Time flies.

I worked towards completing my two little wall installations yesterday. It involved dying some labels red. Hint, Hint. All will be revealed at Crate. (and I am looking forward to showing Rachael and Nadja).

I have been looking a book on the Arte Povera movement this evening. Also I have been looking at some new artists on the internet, in particular, Pierre Sauvageot. A french friend told me about him as apparently he is installing a piece next to Marseille this month. Well, look at some of the videos by typing in his name and Harmonic fields.  He installs instruments in the environment and leaves nature to make the music. It is fascinating and I would be intrigued to see one of his installations.

The sun was shining today and I had a wonderful drive over to East Sussex. Got quite lost in a traffic diversion but with the sun shining it was an adventure even though a bit expensive on petrol.

Oh yes, I spoke to Aine on the phone. She kindly phoned to find out if we would like her to leave up the blackout material in Studio 2. Also she wanted to check whether Nadja wanted to use the projector. I said yes to both so she will leave them out for us. We don't have to use the blackout material but it might be interesting. It depends on how we can play with the lighting. Also she is going to leave out the ladder for us.

Looking forward to actual not digital communication next week!

 Jennie

Saturday 6th April

I think that I agreed to do the blog today! Its Jennie here.

It has been great to catch up on Nadja and Rachaels news via this blog. I do not have a great deal to report back on. The library at college has been open I have been into college; not bright and early but luxuriously in the early afternoon. I have made a start on some reading. I am so so slow with these wordy texts. I have been looking at Hans Belting's writings and in particular An Anthropology of Images. The first chapter is the one that I have been looking at. I was very interested to learn that he omitted a whole chapter because it was not translatable into English without loosing its meaning!

I have also been working on a small wall sculpture but I am going to keep it as a surprise for Nadja and Rachael. It is called secret!! We may not use it so plenty of surprises for our redthreadtrail.

I don't think that I have included a picture of the zine on the blog, so for the record here is one.

The below is the A2 poster when the zine is unfolded. It folds into eight parts and has text on the other side. Although it looks like a printed newspaper it is silk screened. It would have cost us a fortune to print it professionally and we would have had to do a large quantity. This is an edition of 20 !!

Tomorrow is my holiday outing. I am going to visit some friends who have just moved to a tinny cottage in a village called Burwash near the Kent/Sussex boarder. I have never been there so it will be an adventure. Rosie studied at UCA and did illustration in Maidstone. She is now expecting a little boy in a months time so I might have to take my painting and decorating cloths!! I envisage a beer in a country pub and I know a shepherds pie lunch because I am providing it!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Jennie

PS Something strange happened when I tried to edit this. Might need some help later.

Hi everyone!

I'm back! Will definitely tell you a bit about Brighton, but first check this out!

http://cratespace.co.uk/modules/news/article.php?storyid=114

So we are on the "News" page on the Crate website. Nice!

Brighton was also nice. A short trip which I feel made my easter break much longer. I also found the town very inspiring and I loved all the artsy shops and colourful houses. My camera sadly run out of battery after just the first day but fortunately I was travelling with other artistic individuals so a lot of photos were taken also during the second day. Here is a mishmash of a handful of my pictures from Brighton:

Also, when browsing through books and comics in a cosy original bookshop, I found Edward Gorey! How come I haven't seen his books before? I absolutely adore his ironic, dark and funny illustrations.

Jennie: Thank you for e-mailing Crate and doing the printed-out-version of the blog!
Hope both of you other redthreadtrail-ers are having a good and refreshing holiday!

Nadja

Thursday 4th April

Good Evening

The sun had unfortunately disappeared today and it has been lightly snowing on and off- can’t believe its APRIL and this cold!

Sounded like a mission clearing out your car Jennie, it is interesting what you can discover!

Today I finished a small painting of my sisters coffee cup for my studio project. It links to the portrait I have done of her where she is holding the cup. It has been nice to paint at a more relaxed pace than the last few manic days before the holiday.

Last Tuesday I took my silk screen print in to a picture framing shop to be professionally framed as I am submitting it to the RA Summer Exhibition. I know it is extremely hard to get in but I decided to take the risk. It is a small thread in my red thread pathway with an ambiguous ending: it could lead somewhere or it might just be a dead end.  I am collecting it from the shop tomorrow so can’t wait to see how it looks. I will take it to the RA on Tuesday and it also means I can have a day out to look around some London art galleries. 

I have also been transferring my blogs to a word document as a record. Don’t know if my format will be the same as yours Jennie so we can check with each other and Nadja if we want them all the same.

Rachael

Wednesday April 3rd

No April fools though I liked yours Nadja. I had visions of me returning to the potters wheel ! I hope that you are having a good adventure in Brighton. Hey we have ABBA on our blog!! That will make my friends chuckle : )
Rachael you look as if you are having a well deserved holiday.

My news is slightly less out of the ordinary. The sun came out for a full day on Monday and I got rather excited; got my bike out and went for the first bike ride of the year, some feat peddling against the strong almost gale for blustering winds. The sea was choppy. So nice to pop in and have a cuppa with a couple of friends. I felt very upbeat and full of spring.
Then as the sunny weather continued I did the epic thing of clearing out my car, come, garden shed, store room etc. I came across many treasures including three paintbrushes, some bits of art work from last year, and some treasures collected from the Dover caves that I visited with Erica and her fireman husband (when I was on the access course) two years ago!! and quite a few dead snails. Oh dear was it that long ago that I cleared out my car!!! I might even give the outside a clean, but steady on, slowly does it as all the paint might come off!! Anyway I can now put down the back seat to stack in work for Crate. etc.
Since then I have been working on downloading our blog so that I can print out a copy for our expo for our documentation and  the entrance hall. Maybe no one will be interested but I am happy to at least have done it. It printed out in black and white. Just a few problems with different formats that people have used so it will be very much a working document. There was one page that foxed me so I will wait until I speak to the others. Could it have been done on Id before posting it?? I have had to cut down on images especially of artists work. There again I don't know how they were posted, but they were jumping all over the page or not moving at all when I tried to edit the page. I ended up cutting them out as they were often off centre when put into word and anyway they lost their lustre when not printed in colour. I am going to find a way to bind them as monthly pamphlets/booklets.
Otherwise the plinth is nearly painted (white) just one more coat.  I am feeling very virtuous, but skint as I have just been to the dentist!
In-between this I have just been enjoying life and doing a bit of this and that. I have just come back from tea and cake with neighbours. I also was in Canterbury and have taken out a great book on Robert Rauschenberg which I am going to have a browse through now.
I will also look out all the tools that we need for setting up our expo. (I can put them in the car with out loosing them now!!)

And lastly I am adding some inspiration for our redthreadtrail by artist Chiharu Shiota. I do love her work.

Have a lovely evening !

Jennie

Tuesday 2nd April

HELLO

Hope everyone is enjoying Easter!

I have been having a break the last few days from more messy practical work (e.g painting), however I have still managed to stumble across things to inspire my creative imagination (which never takes a break!).

On Good Friday I thought I would look in the Lilford Gallery in Canterbury before I went back home the next day to Southampton. I have always liked the art is this gallery and I frequently visit it. I convinced two non arty friends to come with me and introduced them to contemporary art by professional artists. I can say that they were really impressed by it.

Tim Fawcett

Kirsten Baskett

 Yesterday I was reading the March issue of country living magazine, which had an article about the Illustrator Emily Sutton. Her quirky and colourful drawings and animated style immediately captured my attention. I think you will love her work Nadja!

Today I went to Bosham with my Mum, Dad and Sister. It was a lovely sunny day, although there was an icy wind, and we went for a little walk around the harbour and village church. I took some photos as the scenery was very picturesque. It is a nice little village with a variety of miscellaneous cottages with beautiful gardens. It is a perfect attraction for tourists, and they even had an art and craft centre which we looked around.

We went out for a family meal at Prezzo in the evening, so overall it has been a great eventful day.

Rachael