Playing

Recently I have been doing some workshops in order to do a few things.

• Explore new techniques
• expand my means of expression through using new materials
• Play

Item number 3 is perhaps the most important of all, as I have been an adult for a good few years,and it's all to easy to stop playing.

Remember those times when you were a kid and had nothing to do but play all day. Make believing, dressing up, making stuff just for the hell of it ... well this is what I want to keep doing!

Part of my journey into the next phase of my artistic practice has started with giving myself time to play by taking some workshops that are completely unrelated to my previous works and therefore I can just 'make stuff' with no particular intention.

The freedom of doing this is wonderful... you should try it.

Have a look at my creations below... they are not meant to be beautiful or profound or amazing or anything in particular ... they are simply experiments of play.










Sculptural Surfaces
Blending fabrics and going at it on a sewing machine like a nutter ... it was a lot of fun.

I did not enjoy so much the repetitiveness of the making the 3D circle and leaf going round and round and round. I am more sporadic than this ... not to good with uniformity and continual repetitiveness.


Wire Animals
Loved it. It first started out as if it was going to be a monkey but I persisted and now I have a baby elephant.

It is about 35cm high and took about 5 metres of wire netting. I suspect if I made a mummy elephant to go with her, it may need 100 metres of wire and then a tow truck to move it.

I very much enjoyed this workshop even though the wire ripped my hands to shreds... its hard working with big leather gardening gloves on all day so lack of protection has lead to my hands looking like I have been in a scrap with a cat! Oh well ... all in the name of play.