Tuesday 26 July 2011

Me and Twinkle on Resonance FM

This week artist Sean Worrall invited me and Twinkle onto his show The Organ Hour on Resonance FM.  To talk about our forthcoming project ‘Opinionated Objects’ at Debut Contemporary on July 30th.


Sean and Marina were very good hosts and made us feel at home!  I was nervous about the whole thing at first but it was quite relaxed and we ended up having a good laugh.  We managed to remember to say everything, including the address and date of the event! 

You can listen to the interview here:
http://soundcloud.com/organart/organhour24-07-11edit

Sean is live on Resonance every Sunday between 9 and 10pm, he’s always chatting to lots of different artists and playing lots of underground and alternative bands.

You can see his artwork and find out more about some of his other projects here:
http://www.organart.demon.co.uk/seanworrallart.html

Monday 4 July 2011

Opinionated Objects at Debut Contemporary

Me and Twinkle will be doing a fund raising event at Debut Contemporary Gallery on Saturday July 30th, we need lots of people to donate their unwanted objects so we can turn trash to treasure! All the info about the event is below.

Debut Contemporary Gallery, 82, Westbourne Grove, Notting Hill W2 5RT
Saturday 30th July 11am - 5pm

WHAT: What do YOU want for the future of our planet?  Politically, economically, spiritually, environmentally, in your lifetime, what do you wish to happen?

Twinkle and Tinsel’s 'up-cycling' event in the Debut Contemporary gallery will explore this question and find out what you want to happen in our world.

YOU bring us an old object you don't know what to do with anymore
WE recycle it by turning it into a piece of art.

HOW: Along with the unwanted object we want you to tell us your hopes and dreams for our planet. We will paint these opinions as text on the objects. These redundant objects will thus be transformed into unique pieces of art, old will become new and they will start to communicate your hopes for the future.

All pieces will be signed by the artists and then returned to their owners as brand new unique pieces of art.

THE DETAILS:

To have your object up-cycled we ask for a donation which will be given to our chosen charity. The charity is Ubuntu Education Fund (www.ubuntufund.org), a non-profit organisation which provides orphaned and vulnerable children affected by 
HIV/AIDS, poverty and abuse in the townships of Port Elizabeth, South Africa access to the world of higher education and work.  Ubuntu aims to transform the lives of the children they serve so that they can grow up healthy, educated, well-supported and prepared to enter university and fulfil their dreams. 10% of all gallery sales on July 30th will also go towards Ubuntu Education Fund.

Opinionated Objects at Debut Contemporary will operate on a first come first serve basis, contact us at opinionatedart@hotmail.co.uk in advance to get your name on the list and we will send you instructions. Once the list is full up we wont be able to take on any more objects.  As the event is for charity we will be asking for the donation upon delivery of the item. 

On the day, we will be sat in the window at Debut Contemporary painting the objects in view of passers by.  The completed items will then be exhibited, we will be adding each finished item to the collection in the gallery throughout the day.


Friday 1 July 2011

Painting workshop at Carshalton High School for Girls

On the 29th June, I went in to work with some Year 10 pupils at Carshalton High School in Surrey.  It was a one day painting workshop where the students were asked to create ‘An Alternative Self Portrait’ and incorporate text into the painting.







I really love working on projects like this! Its really rewarding to see the kids enjoying painting and benefiting from the experience of the workshop.  The teacher had contacted me through the LONSAS website back in April, and asked me to submit a proposal for the kind of workshop I would like to do.

I took elements of my own practice to develop the idea for the workshop.  The students were asked to find an image or take a photograph of something or a place that they felt represented who they are, they were also asked to write a slogan or find a quote that they felt represented them.  These were combined to create a painting on canvas, which they worked on throughout the day.  We also looked at examples in art history of artists who have made alternative self-portraits (Van Gogh’s chair and Emin’s bed), and artists who use text in their work.







A lot of the pupils wrote some really inspiring and interesting pieces of text for their pieces, and they produced some really good work.



Thankyou to Miss Care for inviting me to do the workshop!  And it was lovely to meet all the students in the year 10 class.