Paper Goods

The past few weeks have been good for zines!

I picked up a copy of 'Strange Days/Great Alone' by Jonny Lyons at his degree show in DJCAD.  Jonny describes it as "A collection of photographs documenting five strange days.  Each day consisted of a journey with five hand crafted functional sculptures".   If you missed the degree show I highly recommend you take a wander over to his website check out his beautiful work for yourself (particularly the videos).

Jonny Lyons - Strange Days/Great Alone

The end of May saw the last ever issue of Satellitezine,  and rather appropriately a funeral was held in its (dis)honour.  I contributed a 2 small pieces of work to this issue, just like I had to the very first and it was nice to have the back catalogue there to browse through (including my own very early and shockingly bad attempts at some word pieces).  

The funeral itself consisted of a spoken word performance from 2013 DJCAD graduate Liam Dunn, a sound workshop and a very fitting and genuinely quite emotional eulogy from Satellite founder Ruth.  And in true funeral style a nice platter of cucumber sandwiches and peanuts was put on for the mourners.    

Satellite Funeral Issue (front)

Satellite Funeral Issue (back)

Lastly, but certainly not least, there is IS THIS OK? IS THIS NOT OK?   This one came into my life outwith the usual zine buying scenarios.   I was serving two friendly folks in work and noticed that one was carrying a stack of them, and it turned out they were on their way to an event to sell them.  After a bit of chit chat and a flick through its pages I bought one for £1.  Its a lovely thing indeed, filled with  illustration, poems and various other nice bits.   All of this is made even better by the fact its pages are bound with a piece of regular string, and that kind of thinking is worth it alone.  

They both seemed rather surprised that I wanted one, I guess its not a regular thing to be approached by the person serving you in a shop wanting to buy your work.  I was also a bit surprised that there are two girls out there in a town like St Andrews doing this kind of thing; long may it continue. 

IS THIS OK? IS THIS NOT OK? (front)

Fun a day.

What better way to start a new year with the second ever instalment of Fun-a-day Dundee?  There is no better way!!  Its not too late to take part, so if you haven't gotten involved yet click on that there link above and get yourself signed up.

Click for big!

I haven't had the time to photograph my contribution yet, but a sneak preview will be on these here pages SOON!

...more broken bones.

Having a clear out of my hard drive I rediscovered this little gem of a photo (of a little gem of a person).  

It was taken just a week before I went off travelling on a day where our adventures included bridge walking and chip eating and clambering over rocks (with subsequent broken bones).  And best of all, sweaters could be discarded and pale limbs revealed in the hope of turning from transparent blue to pale white.

It was also the day I got my feet wet in the process of making some very sub-standard art, but in that process I learned something and had an idea.  So nothing was lost in the end.

Breaking Vital Bones

FINALLY!  I have found the time to update my website with images of the work made for my solo show at Tin Roof in August.

Untitled (car and baccy tin). Mixed Media. 2012

I recommend y'all take a stroll over and check it out: Breaking Vital Bones August 2012

Show preparation

Preparations for my show in Tin Roof are well underway.  It has been quite a challenge making a body of new work for a solo show with only a few weeks to do so, but I am confident that I have pulled it off.

So far, the biggest challenge I have faced is my lack of studio space.  I have always found it difficult (almost impossible) to make work at home.  I have never viewed this as a bad thing, I find it very beneficial to view making work as if it were a job and to treat my studio like an office that I have to be in every day.

I am fortunate enough to have a rather large living room in my flat, as well as easy going flat mates who aren't bothered about me taking it over with work.   I am also faced with the extra task of packing up my belongings to move out of my flat at the end of the week, clearly I am a glutton for punishment!

This was my living room a few weeks ago, as I begun making work.

Without giving too much away, there will be lots of my usual collage and some more text works,  and I am exploring colour and composition.  

All work in the show is for sale at very reasonable prices, giving people the opportunity to own a piece of contemporary art from a recent graduate (and also ensuring that I am able to eat on my travels!).  There will also be musical entertainment from the exellent Steve Herd, he doesn't have a blog but you can check out his Twitter here: @sjherd.

Want another sneak preview?  Here it is (mediocre iPhone photo, sorry):

Untitled detail. 2012

More found art.

My favourite wall in Dundee, and quite possibly of all time.  Truly beautiful. 

And some numbers.

Breaking Vital Bones

Click for big!

Thank you to Rosie Barthram for her technical skills and kick ass poster. 

Solo Show

I am excited to announce that I will be having a small solo exhibition at the end of August. I will be showing BRAND NEW art work at Tin Roof in Dundee that opens on the 24th August.

There is a pretty basic concept behind the show, and I will post more details once I have ironed out the specifics.

Fancy a sneaky peek at what I've been working on?  Here ya go:

Untitled (detail) 2012

Another chair

I spent so long sitting in this chair during the invigilation of my degree show that I think I wore a hole in it.

Getting there

Large, solid, portable, un-loosable and un-breakable. 

Picture time

For our Degree Show catalogue we had to submit a portrait of ourselves.  I felt I had hardly been very photogenic in recent months so I swithered for weeks whether or not to put one in, or to submit a random image.  Jen finally convinced me that she could take a nice photo of me, and surprisingly she managed to make me look half decent!  Here are a few out-takes to illustrate what she had to work with, ie, not much.

Photos by Jen Robinson.

Be Beautiful

I came across these lovely little cards on my way home tonight.

Sunset

Its nice to go for a walk around the Matthew Building in the evening, just as the sun goes down.  The way the light hits one specific part of this building is one of my favourite things in Dundee.

Sunset in DJCAD - March 2012

A productive day:

Chalked off most of my to-do list for today, and managed to get started on a lot of little things I had been putting off.  The rest of the week will be twice as productive!

Sunset

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Dundee, but the one thing that never fails to blow my mind about it are the sunsets.  This was taken as I was leaving the studio last week.