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.

 

SAQA Benefit Auction

Past Divine by Gillian Cooper

This little piece is in the SAQA Benefit Auction, which is on now.  The prices in the auction start high and drop over the week, but therein is the gamble.  Wait too long and the piece you want could be gone.

As part of the promotion for the auction, members of SAQA were invited to create their ‘dream collection’ and I was delighted when Virginia Spiegel included my piece in her collection.

There are so many amazing quilts in the auction, I’m not sure I could chose which ones I would have in my dream collection, to go in my dream house.  My dream house is remarkably similar to the one I live in, just a lot tidier, with less clutter and not requiring first aid from plumbers and roofers!

A moment of madness

 

I’ve been a bit quiet on the blog front recently, not because I haven’t been doing much to share, but rather because I’ve been doing loads!  Since my youngest started school just over a month ago, I’ve been helping out the lovely organisers of the LochLomond Quilt Show one day a week, started back teaching 5-14 year olds art on a Saturday morning and written some articles (more when they are published) and spent some time trying to get my own work back on track, whilst working at a possible book idea.  

 

 

As if that wasn’t enough, Dawn and I have also started mini-ArtWorks for 1-5 year olds.  Running art classes for pre-schoolers and their parents is proving fun and popular with the parents.  We already have two full classes and a waiting list for another third.  I have to admit I wasn’t sure about art and pre-schoolers, especially as I have just finished that phase myself.  However, we knew that it was something that people really wanted locally, so we thought we would give it a try.  And actually, I’m really enjoying it.  Well, apart from the cleaning up afterwards!  Last week we played with salt dough and flour.  I’ve got some left over and keep meaning to make something with it myself.

 

I’m not quite sure what the next activity with the pre-schoolers will be.  I quite fancy trying painting with feet, but I might chicken out of it due to the mess!

 

 

The fourth yellow journal quilt

Past Present IV by Gillian Cooper

For my final yellow journal quilt, I decided to try something a little different.  On one of the (many) wet days in the summer holidays, the monsters and I were playing with modelling clay.  They did some nice pieces, but pretty soon wandered off to do something else.  They kept coming back to see why Mummy was taking so long!  I had great fun shaping the clay and marking it with some of the motifs from my ancient female figurines.  These circle shapes were made at the end as they were really running out of patience with me, but I like the rawness of the rough edges and the imperfect circle shapes. I can definitely see some potential in using them going forward. 

Past Present IV (detail) by Gillian Cooper

The final four journal quilts of the year have the theme of shades of blue.  I'm going to try and finish these in a more timely fashion...!

CQ@10 book

At the Festival of Quilts the other week, I was constantly asked if I had any work in the show. I felt like I was doing something a bit wrong when I said no, which is a bit silly as there was no reason why I would have anything this year. Actually, it wasn't quite true as a bag I had made using a pattern from the Creative Handbags magazine was on the Popular Patchwork stand, but that doesn't really count!

I was also asked the same question about the CQ@10 book, which as well as being a catalogue for their exhibition, also had works from their other projects over their first ten years. Again the answer was no, as I am a relatively recent member of CQ (the Contemporary Quilt Group of the Quilters' Guild) and am only currently taking part in their journal quilt project for the first time. Hilary who was organising the book had asked for images from the current project and I hadn't sent any, partly because the timing was whilst I was away and mainly because I don't think they were amongst my best work. I was really surprised when I flicked through the book that evening and found my journal quilt was included (it's the top right). And actually, besides all the other little red quilts it didn't look too bad. I'm very pleased to be included so. A big thanks to Hilary Gooding, who I only met for the first time at the Festival of Quilts for including my work.



Second and third yellow journal quilts

Past Present III by Gillian Cooper

For my second and third yellow attempt, I stayed with the idea of collaging paper to fabric, but I decided that newspaper was slightly too thick and also the words were potentially interferring with what I wanted the piece to say.  So I used tissue paper.

As one of the conditions of this year's Contemporary Quilt Group challenge was to use at least 75% yellow in these quilts, I had to add some tea staining to the white fabric to bring it up close to the required level...!

Past present II by Gillian Cooper

Fabric purchases at the Festival of Quilts

Normally I don't actually spend much money on supplies at the Festival of Quilts.  A mixture of maybe not quite the right supplies being sold for me and sheer bewilderment at the choice of fabrics and threads available. However, this year, I went with several purchases in mind, and I can't quite believe how much I spent.

I'm intending writing a book or e-book or expanded blog this year about log cabin quilts, so needed the fabric to make them. I decided to ignore my daughter's comment from a few months ago that I never needed to buy fabric again and that I should use up everything on my shelves...

 

 



I also expanded my collection of paintstiks for my art pieces, as now all the children are at school I should have more time to create and I have loads of ideas milling around in my head about how I want to move my unsung muses figure pieces forward.

When I saw the woven bands of soft cotton at the African Fabric Shop, I knew immediately that it could make any interesting addition to this work.



Then there were some books I couldn't resist: Pauline Burbidge is an artist I've admired for years and I was thrilled when Bridget from Popular Patchwork commissioned me, without any pushing on my part, to interview her for the magazine. Watch this space for details of the article.



 I also purchased the CQ@10 book and the EAQ catalogue.



 

 

To round it all off, I also purchased some Wonderfil rayon thread. I just liked the look of it!



Next journal quilt

Past Present I by Gillian Cooper

After trying to play with design for my last set of four journal quilts and not enjoyed the experience, I decided for this four, I would use them to continue to explore the themes in my main body of work.

I'm not sure if that made it easier or whether I just found shades of yellow as the designated theme easier to work with than shades of red.  I did bend the yellow a little to include some yellowy brown. 
Of the four, I think this is the least successful.  I'll show you the others over the next few days.

Past Present I (detail) by Gillian Cooper

I collaged some newspaper onto fabric and then painted over the top.  I think the contrast between the black print and the yellow paint did not leave much room to allow the stitching to come to the forefront, no matter what colour I used.  However, it was a useful exercise to try and I will use the technique again, but with a darker paint!