Pictures from the Holloway Arts Festival 07-07-07

The kids from the Rowan Arts after school art club Art Games did a fantastic job and we had such a great day! It was better than anyone expected. And the people who attended were very interested and asked the children lots of questions and it went really well. Well done everyone!
Also, not only did it not rain but I got a bit of a sunburn! Woohoo!

070707

It is July 7 2007.

Poster in Stick*Stamp*Fly

Stick*Stamp*Fly, 2007
Gasworks
10-26 Aug. 2007

I have had a poster selected for exhibition in Stick*Stamp*Fly. It is an A2 version of my 50% happier flyer.
There will also be events each Thursday at 7:00 during the exhibition.

Another picture of my studio floor

Holloway Arts Festival

The Art Games group of kids and Over 60's will have their work set up on Saturday July 7 for the big day of the Holloway Arts Festival. The art work is really good. They have made sculptures based loosely around the idea of a made-up board game. There are plaster buldings, wishful islands, and trophies (for things like the best limbo dancer). It has been great working with them and the other artists.
Here are the new links available with information:

Holloway Arts Festival
Holloway Arts Festival on myspace
Rowan Arts blog

UK Artists' Book Fairs

At my Open Studio private view last night two lovely people said I should put the dates of book arts fairs on my blog so that new book artists and collectors could see an overview. I will just do the ones I attend for now, and add more later. A good place for this type of information is UWE's Centre for Fine Print Research

March-Until this year there has been one in March in Halifax, this year it moved to Leeds.
The 10th International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair

April-BABE - Bristol Artist Book Event is a weekend affair in April at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol. This year was the first one and it plans to be every two years.
BABE website
UWE's website coverage of BABE

September-Manchester book Fair is in September. This will be the second year. (and I better get my table soon or it will be too late!)
Manchester Artist’s Book Fair

November-The London Artists Book Fair is every year in November at the ICA near Trafalgar Square. Very expensive to have a table unless you share or can put your book on the table of your alma mater or something. It is huge and is a great opportunity to see a lot of work.
London Artists' Book Fair

Open Studios Summer 07 !!!

It's that time again! Sunshine and blue skies and walking around visiting the artists in their studios. It is one of the few times when we are all here at the same time and hanging around rather than immersed in work. So it is a perfect time for me to get to catch up with studio neighbours, see what new work people are making and meet new arrivals to our group. Please come along. I would like to know if anyone reads this blog! There is also a new building with lots of new studios in it! (I think the group is about 18 artists in the original building and maybe about 14 in the new one. A few of their spaces are really huge.)
It will be the weekend of June 16 and 17 in North East London.


The Chocolate Factory N16

Afternoon sun pics from the Oxford House exhibit

I went and took some pictures of the exhibition on Wednesday and I love the sun from the glass roof and the architectural interest from the ramps and railings everywhere!
Here is a sort of tour for those of you who can't make it.

These first three are from the lower basement gallery, with Rachel James' breathing sculpture in the back:


These next ones are in the upper gallery:



This piece (there is a detail below) is made of 100 panels and is titled:
Which One's The Pretty One?




And finally, looking down from the upper gallery:

Art Games kids

The group of kids I work with in the Rowan Arts Project is amazing. And Anna Boggon, the artist/teacher/leader of the group is very good at bringing out their best. Here is a picture of some paintings the kids did this week. They are a mixture of acrylic, collage and printing. They look even better in person. We are working towards a big project for the Holloway Arts Festival in July.

Oxford House Exhibition

The private view at Oxford House went really well on the 3rd! Lots of lovely old friends and some lovely new friends, most everyone - managed to come out for the evening!
The work looks great in the space. All the light is amazing and the different levels of railings and stairs make an interesting architectural backdrop.
It is still up for 3 more weeks, through May 29.
A big thanks to H for all her hard work. I could not have done it without her.
Photo credits for the pictures of the private view go to H




These two pictures are from the hanging days:

Five years in Engerland!

My coach arrived in Dover on May 3rd, 2002 from Belgium where I had been visiting my friend Jana. Five years later I still live in London and things are working out well.
Since I arrived I have:
Fallen in love and we've been together almost 5 years now.
Received my MA from Camberwell College of Art.
Had my painting studio at the Chocolate Factory for 3 years and been in some interesting exhibitions.
Found the few acceptable Mexican restaurants in London.
Learned to love the beautiful game. I support Arsenal.
Gained weight from my poor hibernation strategies (lots of tea and biscuits) to get through the winters. I think I may be genetically a hot-house flower.
Learned that ignoring people is a form of politeness in a crowded place; they are letting you have your privacy.
I have also learned patience, moderation and that the other person may be right.
I am obsessed by my work; painting and concepts for books are always in my head. I don't make enough time for people. I feel the results of this sometimes and it makes me sad sometimes but that is how it is.
Quinacridone crimson rocks.

A Picture from BABE

(Bristol Artists Book Event)
Last weekend was the first of many book fairs at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol we hope! It went very well. Saw lots of wonderful work and some old friends! This is a picture of my table.
P.S. Happy Birthday Elaine!

Celeste Art Prize public on-line vote

I am in the Celeste Art Prize on-line voting at http://www.celesteartprize.co.uk/2007/publiconlinevote/artist_2.asp
I have a 120cm x 150cm painting called Going Out of Business that is a result of my thinking about Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest and if it is true anymore.
Voting ends 20 May.

BABE (Bristol Artists Book Event)

BABE (Bristol Artists Book Event)
Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay
Bristol BS1 4QA

I will have on display, available for handling, books from my Serendipity Press.

Over the weekend more than 50 artist bookmakers, dealers and small presses from Bristol and around the world, will come together at Arnolfini to show and sell their work. The first ever event of its kind in Bristol, BABE has been organised by Arnolfini in conjunction with the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England. BABE provides a great chance to meet and chat to artists about their work and to buy works of art; prices start from just a few pounds.

I make big paintings and little books.

Colour Matters

I will have about 20 large paintings in a 2-person show in East London for the month of May. Some from 2005, one or two from 2006 but most are new ones, some of which I am still working on!
Here is the invitation and press release:

Press Release
(London, April 2007)

Colour and a Breathing Sculpture Converge

A dynamic contrast between the active inflatable sculpture of Rachel James and Julie Caves’ painterly exploration of colour is featured at the Oxford House Gallery in Bethnal Green from May 3-29, 2007.

One is immediately greeted by the visual impact of “Colour Matters” as the gallery space becomes a panorama of colour filled with the painterly and expressive work of Julie Caves that leads you through the high sunlit room and then down to the lower gallery. Of these paintings she says that “Viewers often feel that they are seeing a vast landscape but at a magnified level, like a universe inside a drop of water”.

Julie Caves received her MA from Camberwell College of Art and works in East London where her practice involves an investigation into colour, ways of seeing and the act of painting.

The visitor is ultimately led to the dramatic finale “Col de Alba“, where they are met by the expanse of a living, breathing, imposing sculpture that appears to be alive as it rhythmically inflates and deflates, expanding to fill the space around it. The union the artist felt between the landscape and her yoga practise during time spent in Catalana, Spain, inspires the piece. The breathing effect created in the sculpture echoes the feeling of the expansion of the breath within the body and our own connection with the earth around us.

Rachel James has been exploring the inflatable medium since 1997 and is one of the few artists pushing the boundaries of this medium as an incredibly diverse and exciting form for artistic expression. Incorporating movement into these pieces intrigues her and this quality has individualised her inflatable work.


Venue:
Oxford House
in Bethnal Green
Derbyshire Street
London E2 6HJ
(+44) 020 7739 9001
www.oxfordhouse.org.uk

May 3-29, 2007

9 AM - 10 PM Monday-Friday
10 AM - 6 PM Saturday & Sunday

Private View: Thursday May 3, 6-9

Public Pages Exhibition

The web site is now up for the Public Pages Exhibition.
Public Pages is an exhibition of Text Art and Visual Poetry bringing together contributions from poets, artists and makers of works which explore the visual and cultural impact of the word, the sign, and the slogan in public space. I have my 50% Happier piece in it.

Oxford House Show

I am very excited to say that I have a big show coming up! The curator at OH! Arts loves my paintings and I will have about 25 large ones up in the big space. I will be sharing the space with a sculptor who has one enormous white or colourless inflatable piece that will be downstairs. I am working on 2 very large pieces for the biggest walls and five 150cm paintings for the other walls. There also will be an assortment of paintings from the last 3 years, sort of a survey.

I think I will call it Colour Matters. It is a lovely space with a high conservatory roof for the upstairs, so lots of light. And interestingly 1 wall upstairs and 2 downstairs are different shades of red.

Watch this space for more information. I still haven't met my co-exhibitor yet, so there will be lots more info coming about her! I also have so much work still to do! So excited!

Oxford House is in Bethnal Green in East London. The show will run from May 3 to the end of May 2007. Private view is set for May 3, 6:00 to 9:00.

This is a snapshot of the corner of my studio yesterday, the paintings are piling up and the in-progress work is everywhere. I see many long days of work ahead of me for the next few weeks, materials to be delivered and canvases to stretch, and lots of painting. This show is going to be great!

Rowans Arts - Holloway

This month I started helping with the Arts Games programs put on by Rowan Arts at the Whittington Park Community Centre.
There is an Over 60's art group that could use some more participants. If you know of any seniors in Islington who might like to attend, we would welcome them.
There is also a children's Art Games after school group that is lots of fun. The groups are both run by Anna Boggon an artist whose work I really like.
The two groups meet at separate times on the same day but see and talk about each other's work regularly and at the beginning of the summer the two groups will join together to make a project based on the theme of Games for the Holloway Arts Festival.

Hackney Winter Salon

Pictures of the Hackney Museum show of small paintings and my orange one in the centre of the right wall.

"Where I Go When I Get Wet", 2006, 30x30cm, acrylic on canvas

Snow Day

February 2007, North East London
Pretty snow, not common - so fun!
(But I learned from a heavier snow a few days later, the hard way by ruining shoes, that it gets wet and dirty and slippery as it melts...)

A bike I passed on my way to work and snow at the studios!