Recent News...

I felt very saddened when I read a article in the newspaper today about marine life and the beach. The article was raising concern about litter found on the beach. This article relates to the deadly toll that our 'throwaway culture' is having on marine life. The picture above shows the shards of plastic which were found inside the stomach of a dead turtle that had ingested this rubbish.

The picture above shows the shards of plastic which were found inside the stomach of a dead turtle that had ingested this rubbish. The article I think just illustrates the battle against the rising tide of pollution. I think that the images above shows what an issue  beach litter and pollution is.
The article also has astonishing facts and figures, that really shocked and saddened me:

-Sea turtles are prone to mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish, one of their favourite foods.

-The plastic can block the digestive tract, leading to a slow and agonising death from starvation.

-‘More than 260 species have been reported to ingest or become entangled in plastic debris.’

-Worldwide, 260million tonnes of plastic are produced a year – up from just half a tonne in 1950.

- ‘Sea turtles have spent the past 100million years roaming seas free of pollution and are now sadly the poster animal for impacts of our throwaway society on endangered species.’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1369438/Dead-turtle-ingested-100s-pieces-plastic-highlights-sea-pollution.html#ixzz1HjCJsRm4

Poppy Treffy - Artist inspiration

I find this artist, Poppy Treffy really inspiring. She lives and works in Cornwall, St Ives and seeks inspiration from her surroundings. She uses this inspiration to create, what I think are beautiful textile pieces. Although I find this very interesting, this is not the only thing that I can relate to whilst researching this artist. All fabrics and textiles she uses to create the pieces are recycled, which I also find pretty interesting and inspiring.
Below are some pictures of her pieces, which coincidentally also relate to the Seaside. Brilliant....! :)

 http://www.poppytreffry.co.uk/other-info/about-poppy-treffry

Norwich Castle Museum

The last three days I have visited Norwich Castle Museum and concentrated on drawing. I enjoyed looking at the fish that had been caught locally and drawing these. This I thought related to the fisherman's heritage that my project is concentrating on.
Whilst drawing I decided to consider the drawing lesson that I had a few days ago with John and therefore drew on colour paper. I liked to choose the colour of the paper referring to the object I was drawing. For example if I was drawing pink shell, I decided to draw on pink paper. I think that this helped to reflect the sense of drawing more and also made a difference from shading or colouring the object in :)

Some pictures of shells that I decided to draw here...

Time and Tide Museum

This weekend I travelled to Great Yarmouth to visit the Time and Tide museum. I found this very useful to both my practical and contextual studies. I spent time in the museum drawing and found the history of marinetime fishing and my local heritage very interesting. I firstly went Saturday and was half way around the museum and found that I had been in their for over  3 hours,  I was very disappointed. Therefore I went back to the museum on Sunday also :)

http://www.culture24.org.uk/am19771

I also found the current exhibition Two Shores very useful to my studies. This exhibition explores the relationship between man and the ocean. A number of the artists exhibiting look at the working coastal life of the local region and connections with the north sea. Maggi Hambling whose work is exhibiting in the Two Shores and whose work I have related to my work (see previous posts).

http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%26+heritage/transport/maritime+history/art313732

I especially enjoyed this weekend, I enjoyed looking at the individual identification Fishermans Gannsey. I really felt that this subject is my personal interest and I am very excited to reflect this in my work :)

Drawing

Today I had an interesting lesson with john which included lots of drawing. Previously I have not really been very enthusiastic about the drawing lessons, however today was different. I really enjoyed drawing objects that I had chosen. I feel that this lesson not only developed drawing skills but also enabled me to keep track on my project by relating my drawing to relevance.
In this session I drew several line pictures of shells and seaweed, as well as further shading to these pieces. In the lesson we were encouraged to draw onto a coloured background. I really felt that this changed the drawing and made it more interesting to the eye and contrasts of drawing. Very informative and is something I will defiantly do in the future :)

Fishing netting

Today I had a very interesting and informative lesson with artist Zoe Miller. The session was focused on looking at different materials and considering their properties. The lesson also focused on manipulation of these materials and how the materials could be changed. Prior to this I purchased some recycled yarn and in lesson I stitched onto both recycled paper and materials. This created something interesting as I found that these pieces often looked as if they were fishing nets.
This then considered me to think about the fishing netting that I found on the beach and how I could reinvent this. I think that this also relates to the recycling of this netting and how me collecting this will prevent the marine life from getting caught up in this :)
Good deed of the day or what...!

Landingstage and exciting opportunities!

 I have recently found a very interesting website called Landingstage.

 The Landingstage is described as a artist community, were local artists have the chance to post recent works and promote up and coming events. I find this website very useful as it enabled me link my project to artistic cultural influences. I also found that like me the artists on this site are interested in viewpoints concerning land in the Suffolk coastal area: the defence of it, its communities, its relationship to the sea and the impact of climate change.

As previously mentioned I found the work of Fran Crowe very inspiring. I found that Fran Crowe is one of the artists who posts her work onto this site. Further research into this artist and her work allowed me to see that she  is running a workshop called Tidelines, which is described as a creative walk and workshop day. I found this a excellent opportunity and have therefore assigned to go on this course on the 3rd March.
I feel very fortunate to embark on this journey which will include a boat ride over to Orford Ness, on the walk along this beach I will be collecting various pieces of plastic and debris found on the beach, in which I am inspired by. In the afternoon the day will be followed by creating a piece of artwork in Fran Crowe's Studio.
Whilst reflecting on my research so far I think that it relevant to research this artist as, like the Fisherman,  it can be assumed that Crowe is passionate and influenced by her surroundings.

Very excited, cannot wait!

http://www.landingstage.net/about

Beach rubbish

Whilst I was sketching on the beach I was both astonished and saddened to see how much rubbish had been washed up upon the waters edge. From the raising issue of rubbish on the beach, I found a number of artists which address this issue. This gave me various thought provoking issues such as sewerage and how this could damaging to the sealife. An example of this is of the recent news headlines involving a sperm whale being washed up on a beach in Kent. Below is a picture of this whale which I found very sad.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362516/Sperm-whale-washes-Kent-45ft-sea-titan-dies-washed-beach.html

One of the most relevant and interesting artists that I found relating to rubbish on the beach is of the work of creative visual artist Fran Crowe. I found that she likes to work on the beach and finds creative ways in which to explore and reinvent rubbish that she finds.

Below are some images of the artists works.

 http://www.flyintheface.com/index.html

Beach inspiration my own drawings

  Below are some drawing that I completed at the beach. I found just being in the environment of the beach was inspiring and gave me many ideas. Due to this fact I have found it very useful for me to visited the beach everyday this week.

Wherstead Beach

Thoughout my PDP studies I am always taught that it is vital to really look at things and objects around us and to SEE! Therefore today I visited a beach close to where I live. I regulary visit this beach, however I went with the intention of really looking at what was around me. Below are some images that I have taken whilst I was 'really looking'...

Maggi Hambling

Yesterday I visited an interesting exhibition, which I found very informative. I decided to visit the exhibition in Ipswich as I used to have drawing lessons when I attended Suffolk New College. I have fond memories of going to this place as it has really good architecture (especially in the round hall entrance) and I found the old building very inspiring.
Earlier this year I heard that it was no longer a place where students go to draw but it had been refurbished as a gallery. Currently the exhibition taking place involves local artists in Suffolk and a number of these also attended the 'Old Ipswich Art School'. Therefore the title of the exhibition is ‘The Class of…’.One of the main exhibitors to this gallery is the local Suffolk artist Maggi Hambling. I have heard of this artist from the sculpture The Scollop, that she created which stands on Aldeburgh beach. However I have never looked at this artist work in great detail, visiting this gallery gave me the chance to see some of her interesting work. Hamblings style could be described as expressionistic; a lot of her landscapes are influenced but landscapes in and around Suffolk.
 I have chosen to research the work of Maggi Hambling further as like previous research, her work also relates to an individuals relationship and how where they live can influences this. In my opinion Maggi Humbling’s reacts her surroundings by influences such as the sea and Suffolk Landscapes. This can especially be seen in her works of the dramatic Seascapes on canvases.

Maggi Hambling - The Scallop, Aldegurgh.

http://www.ipswich.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=352
http://www.maggihambling.com/

Maasai Tribal group

Whilst researching the subject of individual relationships to textiles further, I decided to consider exactly that...An individual’s relationship to textiles and what influences this matter.
At this point I found it interesting to look at other heritages and how they contemplate their relationship to textiles and how they react to this. I am very interested in Tribal groups and have recently read the book ‘The Tribe’ by Bruce Parry; therefore I found it relevant to research groups of Tribes in areas such as Africa and Ethiopia. I found that what most interests me when looking at this subject is, like the Norfolk Fisherman, is the idea that these individuals very much relate to their heritage and the place they habitat.

 For example to the Norfolk Fisherman the sea is the most significant part of their lives, especially historically when the men were out at sea for most of the day. It is clear to sea that for them and their relationship to textiles their ‘Gansey’ is a necessity, as this is what kept the Fisherman warm at sea.  However, the individual knit jumpers that were produced could be seen as a choice where in my opinion shows a kind of patriotism and general interest in where they live.
I found that when reading ‘The Tribe’ book the Maasai tribe of East Africa are a good example of how an individuals relationship to textiles is customised and related to their residence in the world. Like the Norfolk Fisherman, the Maasai tribe modify and adapt their style of textiles to the hot and dry climate that they live in. This is clear when looking at the distinctive way they choose to dress in wraps of cloth and the brightly coloured cloth they associate their tribal group to.

A Fisherman and his gansey

Considering the previous post, I am most interested in how an item of textiles can characterise a family. The picture relates to how historical the clothes that a fisherman wear determines his heritage.

"A fisherman's Gansey was once his most distinctive feature. A navy blue jumper, patterned on the top half and part of the sleeves, was a proud possession.
It was likely to be knitted by a loved one and carried a pattern characteristic of the fishing port or family.
Ganseys could be found all around the North Sea coast from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century and the tradition lives on with a few Norfolk fishermen today."

http://www.maritimeheritageeast.org.uk/museums/cromer-museum/ganseys/fishermen-and-their-ganseys

Individual Relationships to Textiles

The lecture held by Les Bicknell gave me lots of inspiration for the following project on Individual Relationships to Textiles. Ideas that most interested me consisted of identity and how textile items such as kilts and certain knits indenting families and their identities. I also considered the things I enjoyed in the last project and later developed, which consisted of ideas surrounding recycling and reinvention.