The Temple of a Thousand Bells

‘The Temple of a Thousand Bells’ by Laura Belém at York St Mary’s

 

One of my favourite things about visiting York is going to YorkSt Mary’s.  A medieval deconsecrated church, it is a beautiful space, which is filled with an annual art installation.  This year is has been ‘The Temple of a Thousand Bells’, made by Laura Belém.  It is based on a legend of The Temple of a Thousand Bells which stood on an island that sunk into the sea.  It’s not a story I had heard before, but it made for a lovely experience.  Each of the bells is hand blown, transparent and silent.

‘The Temple of a Thousand Bells’ by Laura Belém at York St Mary’s

 

Again, the work is made so much more interesting by its interaction with the old building and the silence of the empty bells seems so appropriate for the silence of a former church. 

‘The Temple of a Thousand Bells’ by Laura Belém at York St Mary’s

 

The exhibition is on until this weekend, so if you haven’t had a chance, I would recommend visiting it.  Alternatively, there is a lovely film about the hanging of the show here.

A break from the funding applications

Last week was our half term holiday and we went to York for a few days.  We almost went up north to the wilds of Scotland, but I chickened out, worried about what we would do if it rained.  York was great.  We visited loads of museums and galleries and the sun shone the whole time.

 

The highlight of the trip for me was a long awaited visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  It is a wonderful place, spread over a huge country park.  It was fun to explore finding new sculptures round corners, behind trees and as part of the landscape.

Barbara Hepworth at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

I don’t know whether I was just more attune to art that day or whether it is my tastes changing, but I got very excited by the Barbara Hepworth sculptures; pieces that have never really interested in me in the past.  I loved the way they stacked up and how, although simple shapes, they looked different from each angle due to holes cut into and through them.  From a distance they looked sleek and smooth, but closer up the texture was more interesting

Barbara Hepworth at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

 

There was also a Miro exhibition on and again, I loved the simple shapes.  The associated children’s trail had pictures of household objects Miro had used as a basis for his sculptures and the kids had to find them in the exhibition.  It was a great way of keeping them entertained whilst we got to look at the artwork (the body of this one is based on an almond by the way!).

Joan Miro at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

 

So I would highly recommend the Yorkshire Sculpture Park – and we didn’t manage to see it all, so hopefully we can go back soon.  It is really exciting seeing artists in a different light.  Have your views changed on any artist recently?

Trying a long arm machine

Life is rather busy at the moment, but without many pictures to show you.  I’ve been filling in lots of funding applications, which I can’t really share with you at the moment as we can’t start the projects until we find out whether we have the funding.  However, they are rather exciting...

I’ve also been doing lots of drawing and will show you some of these soon.  I’m not sure how these drawings are going to translate into work yet, but that’s part of the fun.

I had a lovely fun day on Wednesday at Beechwood Quilting, trying out their long arm machine for an article for Popular Patchwork.  I really enjoyed it.  It was amazingly fast and I quilted a single bed quilt in an afternoon.  I can see great possibilities for it in my work....

Last night was also fun, when I visited Helensburgh and District Quilters to talk about my Unsung Muses work to date.  They were a lovely group and very appreciative of my work.

Anyway, I need to get back to those funding forms.  If anyone has any great strategies for getting funding, I’d love to hear them.