Unsung Muses in words

putting the old and newer work together

As part of getting ready for my show at the Scottish Storytelling Centre (less than two weeks to go!), I have been trying to write about my work.  I’ve been finding it really hard.  Although I have been working on the ‘Unsung Muses’ series of work for several years and have had lots of time to think about it, it isn’t easy to express all of this in words.

Reaching by Gillian Cooper

Each time I have to write about it I find myself struggling again.  This time I’ve been trying to be more structured and have following Alyson Stanfield’s book  'Relatively Pain-Free Artist Statement'.  It has been good to consider my work and how others see it.  Unfortunately I haven’t reached the end yet, but I needed to get some more words to print today.

Detail of Unsung Muses by Gillian Cooper

So this is what I came up with:

Celebrating the lives and influence of our female ancestors and forgotten goddesses - the “unsung muses” who have shaped our lives today - Gillian Cooper creates her own mythology in fabric, dye and paint.  Delicately coloured, these flat and empty figures are survivors of time, washed out as the waves of the passing millennia lap and crash over them.  As she slowly creates this multi-layered work, Gillian is pondering the human shape; searching for the defining elements of being human; trying to connect with the past.

Waves of Time by Gillian Cooper

I spend ages obsessing whether it sounds too pretentious or on the other hand not arty enough, weighing up the impact of each individual word.  That’s before I try and decide whether it actually says what I want to convey!  It is somewhat ironic that I love writing about other people’s work but struggle to write about my own.  However, how do you sum up four years of work in just a few lines?

Detail of Unsung Muses

What does this paragraph say to you – good or bad?