New Life

Amy is my friend who wrote the amazing soundrack to the "One Hundred' Film. One incredible lady.

We have given the opportunity to work together through a residency at Suffolk's leading contemporary music and arts venue, Snape Maltings.

Our work is a multimedia performance project which explores the relationships we have with the places that we live, our history and heritage through the media of moving image and music.

First things first though...an Easter VW trip away for all of us and a new baby on its way for Amy, Matt and the girls!

Relief

I have been working with digital stills from my film ‘One Hundred’ Using an image transfer process onto Fabriano paper – I have been working over the top of these textured images using yellow emulsion, foiling and white vinyl stickers.

I am interested in surface relief so have been punching holes and stitching too.

It has been a back to front process; starting off with digitally made images and working them through into handmade and one off pieces.

And it feels good to include my dad in my work too.

Listen to the Quiet Voice

(This the explanation of my film - a personal comment that I have decided to share...)
Unexpectedly, life went very quiet for me in my former years. Silence, in a once boisterous family home, deprived me of a sense of security and sanctuary. I was frightened and deeply affected by it. However, with the silence came the gradual acceptance of a new sense of home: one that that has continued to nurture me and keep me safe.

I lost a valuable consistency in my life and in that chasm, it has only been in recent years that I have been able to create my own sense of stability. I have come to be dependent on quiet, if not silent, time to work things out. The need to be on my own listening to my inner world is essential and at times, urgent.

Since the long silent days spent in my childhood home, I have been following my quiet voice, my inner compass. I have been led, at times unwillingly, through the quiet to tumultuous storms, fortuitous adventures, and the fulfillment of personal dreams.

Having built a stronghold for myself, my internal dialogue is now concerned with the strengthening of my creative practice with meaningful association. The significance of establishing a home life, both internally and externally is at the heart of all I do.

The film is a timeline of a complex journey and the recognition of our own quiet voice. It honours inner adversity and its potential for growth, and my reconciliation with the past.

http://www.asdmedia.net/tate/onehundred.mov

Quiet Voices

I had wanted to make a film for some time to celebrate the life of my father who, if he had lived past 1986 would have been 100 in 2009. This was an important thing for me to do but unworkable if my husband Jim hadn’t agreed to make it following my direction.

We were given the opportunity to submit a film for consideration for the ‘Late at the Tate’ series of evening events back in January. ‘Quiet Voices’, curated by former Big Chill visuals resident John Rixon, was to be an ambient audio-visual feast, celebrating 'Quiet' and the understated.

With Jims expertise and an incredible soundtrack written by my friend Amy Mallett, a five minute film was created over a weekend. I was thrilled with the results and even more excited when it was actually selected to be part of the evenings showcase!

Back in the 1960’s, Dad would take my Mum on dates to Treasury events at Tate Britain. It was an important place for them. It was truly special knowing the film was going to be seen there.

The night was magical. A packed venue, close friends, amazing projections on the walls and a soundtrack by Jon Hopkins made this an incredible evening for all involved. Seeing my tribute to my dad played to a full auditorium was magnificent and will never be forgotton.

With very special thanks to John Rixon who not only gave us this opportunity but also inspired me as a student and set me up on the original blind date with Jim.
xxx

Finding the return key in the darkness

Welcome back Lulu.

With some important things in life out of my control, I have had no choice but to return to the things that keep me afloat in times of uncertainty and disappointment.

Why is it that the things we try very hard to invoke elude us and the things that are off our radar come to fruition?

Almost without trying, I have had some pretty amazing things come into place already this year:
a film at the Tate
a show in Birmingham
acceptance into an online textiles store
featured in a pattern compendium

It feels good...and its been a while.

I

While I've been away...

Summer is coming and so is T I M E...

Press Return.
See you in a bit.

Lulu x

Fruition

I have had to learn the art of trust.

I put it onto the hands of Glasgow School of Art digital fabric printing team.
They took my jpegs and turned them into substance, into something tangible.

It was a good decision as I am seriously loving how its come out. Really.
I am so excited!
It has been transforming to see my ideas go from my sketchbook to digital to fabric. And hopefully when I've worked it out, to a skirt.

I'm keeping it moving forward.

End in Sight

I am just coming up to the last stretch.
Its been emotional.

I'm going to be really busy soon: making, stitching, cutting, stretching, delivering.
I feel settled when I'm working and it been an unsettling time of late. I am in unknown territory getting ready for a gallery show - I have simply no idea how its going to be.

I like surprises...

THE WANDERER RETURNS

I’ve actually been right here all along.
I’ve been caught up elsewhere, but I guess that what Summer is all about.

I have made a list of some of the really great things that have kept me elsewhere for 127 days

Putting up 41 Art School shows
Seeing Jamie win an award
Meeting and working with one of my all time creative heroes
Spending the day in the sunshine at Walberswick with Joab, Verity & Albie
Looking after Elizabeth & Joe while my poor tired sister slept
Celebrating Ben & Vickys wedding – they arrived by boat!
Camping out by the sea in our new VW Camper
Watching the cats play fighting in the sunshine
Dinner & drinks with in London with Nick
Pleased as punch at the rather unexpected early arrival of Miss Holly Iona Hodgson
Seeing Wendy & Tim so happy
Printing 5 metres of fabric in my own design by hand installing it in the van
Dancing to the Disco Shed at Latitude festival
Watching Emma walk up the aisle with bare feet and flowers in her hair
Getting good news
Helping Liz with her HUGE boat installation and celebrating her private view
Realising I could live pretty well without sugar
Knowing I can rely on Noelle in times of great upset
Being so proud of Jim, playing in front of 30,000 people at The Big Chill
Drinking Champagne with Mel as she dressed for her marriage to Kali
Watched the amazing Carnival Collective at Festinho
Reaching the deadline

I have lot to be grateful for.

INTRODUCING...

I have been working some new ideas through...

It seems that I work back to front, preparing artwork on the computer only to then transform it to a hand made piece.

I am thrilled with these images - they are the beginnings to my new fabric collection to be exhibited at The Reunion Gallery, Felixstowe in October.

MAD SEASON

Its been a while.

There has been so much to do - and so much I planned to do, but then I got sick. Six whole days in bed.
After a couple of days I wondered if I got sick because I was sick of having my time filled up with stuff I didn't want to do...its been great just to lie with the window open and think...

Went to a great show last week at The Big Chill House at Kings Cross. Fabulous work by the talented Mr Wild, I was proud to be there and support my friend. Check out www.simonwild.com for a visual feast.

Last week was a great week, good news from all sides which is heartwarming and also with an eye to the future. My Wednesday studio day was perfect. I'd been holed up listening to my head carefully and working through ideas, making work and generally feeling inspired and excited about the exhibition. You know, once the ball starts moving, the momentum and capacity for so much more begins. Theres nothing like new aspirations, new ideas and the thought of new destinations to make me get up and get on with it.

The day job however is not quite as inviting as it once seemed....come in lecturing post...maybe your time is up.

MINE FIELD


I've never been one for ideas.

I love researching, processing, methods of working, experimenting and making. I like to have a starting point and an end point. Apparently I am a "structured' personality. Or maybe a less sensitive term would be..uptight.

Through my own education, the processes I was taught were based on me becoming a commercial illustrator, someone who would be given the idea and then whose job it would be to provide a stunning/thoughtful/provocative/interesting visual insight.

Nowadays, its different. I need to figure out how to come up with ideas that are mine. Ideas that can be identified as mine and that can help to move my practical work forward.

But where do I start?

REWIND



I try to live consciously: I recycle, eat and grow organic produce, shop in the co-op and farm shops, struggle in yoga and walk to work (it is only 3 minutes, but it still counts huh?)). I have no doubt this all makes a big difference to how I feel and maybe in some small way in caring for our surroundings.

Even so, I have shyed away from anything more than this because in my work, I just LOVE anything chemical and everything very bad for both me and the environment.

Computers
Screen printing
Highly pigmented dyes
Spray mount
Magic markers
Oil based inks

I don't know how I can finish this twenty year love affair.

But I have had a breakthrough: I have bought tester pots of new 'eco paints' in a range of beautiful colours. I wasn't sure what to expect, but they are seriously good and smell great.
www.ecopaints.co.uk

Polar opposites can work I guess. A bit like going swimming with chips on the way home...

REUSE & RECYCLE

Somewhere in between being on the phone to New York, packing for Russia, cancelling New Delhi and digging the vegetable patch in Ipswich, Jim made us some new furniture. Took him about an hour.

We have been collecting old/unused drawers ready to be incorporated into our Eames inspired shelving unit. (We totally copied this idea from a recycle design book..details to follow). Our drawers were from a variety of sources - this is the part I love the most:

2 drawers from an old roll top bureau given to me by a student who found it on an East Anglian beach
2 drawers and legs from Jims Nan and Grandad's veneered bookcase from the fifties.
1 drawer from an antique stand given by our favourite Australian relatives.
3 drawers from Ikea

It really is beautiful, I love the look of it, sure, but the history, the stories, the family connections andf teh contemporary use of it in our first home together.

Something very special indeed.

SILENT WONDER

I have small pockets of time to think about my work: the ride to work, waiting for the lift, in line for a cake, staff meetings, and in the bath.

These moments are precious even though they go hand in hand with the incidental trivia of daily life.

To make work takes longer - I need a few hours of quiet, with my resources ready to go, cats fed, washing on and phone on silent. I've managed to find it on a Wednesday. I am poorer in monetry terms for now, but richer in spirit.

Working within these confines means I have to visualise constantly the actual work I want to produce. I don't have the luxury of time to experiment and wait for happy accidents. This happens in my head, working it out, seeing if it's going to work, giving me the simplest way to produce my idea to its best.

This process worked beautifully today. I wanted to produce a collection of fashion led illustrations showing my pattern work in context. I wanted them to be beautiful and hand made, yet able to work digitally when sent for publishing. The times waiting for cakes had worked and I was happy.

LOVE ONE


I've spent too long trying to control the uncontrollable.
It doesnt work of course.

I have been working on several things so far this year and I've managed to finish a couple. At the moment I'm focussing on the 'doing' of these jobs rather than the outcome. Finishing the task and then letting it go.

Who knows where it goes next? I guess thats the fun bit.

( Picture shows some new work ready to go on display in a shop window www.loveone.co.uk)

SUNDAYS

I love Sundays. Who doesnt?

Every week I’m off on my bike, off road, in all weathers.

I am lucky enough to live next door to the Bicycle Doctor, who, when he fixes my bike, he leaves it for me like a birthday present in the back garden. He also delivers fresh eggs for our Sunday breakfasts. A true hero.

Noelle and I ride about twelve miles, watching the landscape change every week. This activity started off as exercise, to counteract our love of good food and wine, but has slowly become more. An adventure, a time to share stories from the week, to laugh, to feel brave and to remember we are alive.

Our husbands can’t quite believe that we do it every week without fail or that we really do love it. We were out today in gale force winds today, the last time we went out, Noelle fell off into a tree and cracked a rib. Now thats what I call an bike ride.

LUBNA CHOWDHARY


These have made my week. Incredible. www.lubnachowdhary.co.uk

CREATIVE SILENCE



I am keeping things to myself.
No to hide or be wierd, but to hopefully gain momentum in all I do.
In my world It's tough to be quiet. I talk. Alot.

But recently things are changing. I find my ideas becoming clearer as there is no more stabbing in the dark when I find some time, but clearer and more clarified thought processes. And things are moving.

At work and at home, there is so much to distract, discuss and deliver. It is relentless, but slowly I'm working it all out.

My sketchbooks are growing, my projects realised, proposals actually being written and people getting in touch.

And I'm suddenly realising that this could be how it all works.

CONSERVATION
(A state of relaxation. Preservation and protection of resources).

I had a perfect day on Friday.

We visited Cambridge and went to the Kettles Yard Gallery and House. The gallery was exhibiting selected drawing sequences by William Kentridge and others. Having been blown away by a retrospective of Kentridges incredible work in Stockholm last Easter, it was a real treat.

The Kettles Yard House where Jim Eade lived was a home like no other. A beautiful collection of furniture, books, natural objects, plants, interior pieces, paintings, sculptures, instruments, textiles – a museum? Maybe to some, but essentially to me, a home.

Looking around I could really feel a sense of intimacy, and also afeeling of great joy for all that was there. Despite its great beauty and very precise artistic consideration, it felt comfortable and peaceful.

For us, it was a place to reflect and a place to grow.