Stars in Stripes Rotherham Adventures - window artwork

The Stars in Stripes were commissioned by ROAR (Rotherham Open Arts Rennaissance) and Rotherham Council to fill the ground floor space of a relatively new tower block right in the centre of town. The original ask was for the Stars to produce window based artwork, and as a group of eclectic artists and illustrators to pursue their individual ideas and build these into a cohesive whole. This vast space in a central location lacks definite purpose, and offers an unusual opportunity for artists to be ambitious - the scale of the windows truly shows off the Stars in Stripes exploits to passers by.

 We were instantly taken with the idea because being offered a space like this to work in and subsequently exhibit is such a rarity. Though we are all based in Sheffield, it would be extremely unlikely for us to happen upon this opportunity there, particularly not with council funding for our troubles. 

The train journey to Rotherham is so swift you barely feel it. (Unless your train breaks down because of the ice. Brrrr.) So the next step in the operation is encouraging the Rotherham public to visit along with people from Sheffield, who surely could brave the ten minute journey to check it out. Remember, Rotherham is the new Berlin.

We've been met with sub-zero temperatures, so putting pen to window has been difficult (at times painful!) but we have persevered. The space now certainly has our stamp on it, from bears, carousel horses and sheds, to winding vines, chains and parachuting foxes. I have met the eyes of bemused passers by through the window whilst drawing on it, and I hope people in Rotherham will keep looking in on us as we fill the space. It is essentially like working inside a great fish tank - there is no escape if we blunder.

We're building up to our first group exhibition in mid-January, exhibition title TBA....content TBA...but keep an eye on the Stars in Stripes website to see our progress into the New Year. We also hope to plan in a number of events from Live Art, screening nights, to workshops.

Special thank you to Peter Martin who is helping to curate our work, and manages the use of the space. He's been a great support and encouragement to the Stars in Stripes thus far.

 

Many more images and info can be found on the Stars in Stripes website.

Rotherham is the new Berlin

The next issue of Article Magazine will be out in early February. In the interim, I've been writing a bunch of articles to be fed onto the online version of the mag, you can read the first of these on the website today! :

S1 Artspace relaunch - interview with Louise Hutchinson the curator. S1 is one of the most significant artist led spaces in the North and it's celebrating 15 years of being established, coincidentally this anniversary also ties in with their move to a new premises...exciting times for them. (If you're in or close to Sheffield, their relaunch event is this Friday 10th December at 6pm!)

Rotherham exhibition!

 It's been snowing like there's no tomorrow in Sheffield. In fact we've had way over foot and now we're dealing with the icy aftermath...We haven't been able to get to Rotherham as much as we'd like (seriously) but the thrilling news is we've got the ball rolling for our forthcoming 'Stars in Stripes' exhibition! 

In the few weeks before Christmas we'll be drawing on the windows of the exhibition space, they're a huge feature as they make up 3 of the 4 walls.We will keep a record of the work in progress and upload it to the Stars in Stripes website.

Rotherham is the new Berlin! But I'm sure you already knew that. It's time we give Rotherham another go.Buy a tshirt to express your optimism.

Live illustration by Kikayis an illustrator based in BCN.

Putting pen and brush to paper more often

A little note to explain the delay. I'm on the brink of a few art projects my time has sadly been stretched lately! Doc/Fest was in Sheffield last week and normal life paused a little. I saw a lovely new film about the old favourite Rolf Harris, and was blessed to share the first screening of this film with the star in question.

It should be showing on television around christmas I think...The film confirms what we already know of Rolf as a wonderful person and accomplished painter, tracking his painterly process executing several interpretations of the scene from Midsummer Nights Dream where Titania falls in love with Bottom the donkey. Much like the Henry Fuseli masterpiece of the 18th century. He is shown getting on famously with Lily Cole and Jade Jagger amongst other females in pop culture who pose as Titania for him. It's a real comfort to see that everything we find endearing in Rolf Harris is quite true.

• There's writing to be done for the cracking Article Magazine , with the next issue out just before Christmas! 

• Review for AN Interface (AN magazines website) on the book Failure by Lisa le Feuvre which I'm hankering to read now and feel it's publication is timely. Failure has almost become a familiar friend, as we're all having to face it to some degree and it is a healthy way to work particularly as an artist with failures often leading to better, more reasoned results. Not something to be afraid of.

• Project in Rotherham (where you must believe me, some thrilling art and music projects and events have come to fruition in 2010, certainly something has been revived!) The Stars in Stripes will be doing something special at 'Histogram' in December!

• I'm also working on an illustration commission for wedding invitations, goes without saying that this is a treat.

 So that's plenty. Be right back with evidence of new work!

 

Stars in Stripes go bird crazy for road safety!

Stars in Stripes appear at Sheffield City Council event to produce artwork to promote safety on the roads for young people. We hope our toucans, pelicans and zebras did the job! 

The artwork will be shown elsewhere in Sheffield including the Winter Gardens too apparently...  

* Click here to find out more! *

Photographs by Geo Law

Brighton Photo Biennial heaven

Just look at these fabulous photographs and you'll understand why I found Brighton Photo Biennial so exciting last weekend...

The House of the Vernacular> 

This was without question one of the most interesting acts of curation I have ever experienced, having never visited Fabrica before I'm not sure how things normally look, but this was exquisite.
Images by amateur and professional photographers from all over the world. Entering each room is a remarkable experience and culturally enlightening.
These Brazilian family photographs have been hand coloured to improve constitution, render the subject in better clothes, or even to bring the dead back to life...

Brazilian family portraits

Brighton Museum and Art Gallery>

 In 'Three Views of Brighton' artist Steven Gill had the foresight to best photograph Brighton by physically putting bits of Brighton into his camera, and the results are so captivating they literally made me itch to take photographs myself...but to step outside of my own standard approach and realise that incorporating the 'alien' into the picture taking process can become in itself a familar yet thrilling routine. 

Alec Soth's work mostly employing his seven year old daughter as photographer is also well worth a look. He was banned from working in the UK so he continued his project for the biennial through his daughters' eyes, and lens.

Steven Gill - this was my favourite. Actual moth wing inside his camera.

Alec Soth

This year the BPB has also made obvious reference to the limited funding for production, and employed strategies to make sure photographs could be seen effectively, uncompromised by rudimentary and cheap display methods.

I emailed the BPB team about the hanging methods used, the festival manager responded to say they used a system you can buy from Magnet Expert and they cut metal plates for backings. I'll look into this and post if I have luck putting up pictures using a similar method. (Not that my current budget will stretch to such large photo prints!)

Currently I'm hanging photographs using string, akin to a washing line and a row of bulldog clips holding each picture. There is a fresh and exciting quality to display methods of a temporary nature, especially when you can disregard expectations and keep the display up there. Who needs frames these days? Well...the Brazilian photo/paintings in The House of the Vernacular show are framed, as they are traditionally meant to be, but the frames themselves are printed.

p.s. Martin Parr is a genius.

British Art Show and Sideshow in Nottingham!

Freshly uploaded piece on the Article Magazine website about the imminent British Art Show and Nottingham Sideshow...can't wait to jet over to Nottingham to take it all in.

“In the Days of Comet” is a science fiction novel by H.G.Wells, published in 1904, which tells of a society torn apart through poverty and corruption. A comet breaks through the ozone and enters the world’s atmosphere, gassing the entire population and sending all to sleep. Eventually people wake from the haze, but instead of all the depravity each person has a new found clarity and lust for life.

If only things were so easy! The next exhibition landing at Nottingham Contemporary this month bears the title ‘In the Days of Comet’, and it is The British Art Show, so we are naturally geared up for something apocalyptic. In reference to the comet as ‘harbinger of change’, will the show awaken us to the most crucial contemporary art of now?

Read more! Click here! 

Just got back from Frieze Art Fair and Brighton Photo Biennial, so much to say but so much to ponder over first so any remarks will come later.

Paintings by Amy Bennett

It's been a while since I've seen paintings that have made me do a little gasp! Amy Bennett's paintings seem to portray suburbia as I picture it in my head. I found her thanks to  It's Nice That magazine and their online blog which points out the nice things around us so we don't miss them.  Amy Bennett's work is certainly nice... and beautiful, and simple and captivating. 

Acutely aware that I'm gushing but this is oil painting just as I'd like to achieve it myself,  applying lighting and flat colour to build an atmosphere like that on film sets, of false and fiction and utopia. Bennett has literally painted from observation of miniature town models and scenery. They are clearly fabricated subjects but surely any painting of real life suburbia will be tweaked to some degree by the artist, even if unintentionally. Let's pretend these are real places and that one day we might relocate...

Stars in Stripes illustrative pursuits in Sheffield

The Wick at Both Ends, Sheffield asked the Stars to illustrate their cosy snug of a bar in a regal manner...which suited us all well, particularly Thomas Ball who has recently acquired an interest, and a few books, on crests and regal symbolism. Particluar highlights of the work are Alex Mac Peck's magnificent stag and Sarah Abbott's 'Notice the day' mural. Beautiful!

Click to see more of Stars in Stripes.

Louise Wheeler

Sarah Abbott

Thomas Ball

Castle and birdies - Jane Faram and Geo Law

Jane Faram

Hailey Evenett

Alex Mac Peck

Article Magazine and Manchester's Free for arts festival

Article is a magazine made in Sheffield (arguably the brightest, most useful and engaging zine/journal to have emerged from Sheffield in many years).  

Article Magazine says of itself; 'We like to present the stories of what’s around people, from architectural analysis to personal tales of strange subcultures to interviews with people who make things. Above all, we’re driven by the wish to make something fascinating and absorbing about the normal everyday'. 

Article is a guide which also wends its way to numerous distributors in Nottingham, Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester. I'm very pleased to have recently joined the Article team as their Arts Editor!

Photograph by Gareth Hacking

On the website you'll find my first piece, on Manchester's Free for arts festival which launched last Friday and closes this Friday 8th. 

My stand-out favourite element of the festival is Papergirl... 

'Out walking the streets of Manchester this week, there’s a chance you might get pelted with a cardboard tube thrown at you by a passing cyclist. This is nothing but a lucky occurance. If you’re good enough at catching you’ll be the recipient of a collection of artists’ drawings found rolled up inside, the initiative of PaperGirl which is an artist run ‘urban action, party and bicycle workshop’.

Check out http://www.articlemagazine.co.uk/ to read the rest and there's also an interview I did with two of the festival curators.

Definitely look out for some of the festival if you find yourself in Manc, it's a short one and as you can imagine there is a broad variety of art to see and no admission fees! Wahey.

Screen printed house by Laura Gee

Toy Shop exhibition at the Art Corner, Manchester

http://toyshop-exhibition.blogspot.com/

Brightening up the waiting room...

Featuring these artists

In the Metabolic Bone Centre of the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, the Stars in Stripes spent a day illustrating the walls of a room with no windows or no particular stimuli.

For those patients spending time (though hopefully not too much of it) in this waiting room there are now seven new hills of Sheffield adorning the walls, and an array of characters and creatures playing parts in an overall surreal narrative, this should keep everyone entertained!

All photographs by Hailey Evenett

Nature Set - band illustration

Nature Set are a lovely band based in Sheffield, who recently asked me to illustrate one of their songs entitled 'Albatross' which you can hear here >

http://www.myspace.com/natureset

Kites, French Plums and Blackberries

Louise launching the rainbow kite, photograph by Jane Faram August 2010

Collecting fruit in St Malo, photograph by Jane Faram August 2010

I often pair my photographs or will create triptych to bring a sense of action and narative to my pictures. I thought this approach suited these photographs beautifully - they should be seen in one instance and as seperate viewpoints of one event.

Live Painting with fellow 'Stars in Stripes' at SOYO, Sheffield

The *new* Stars in Stripes Art Collective - debut at Tramlines festival, Sheffield

The Stars in Stripes, Live Art collective - we made our debut at the Washington in Sheffield on the Saturday of Tramlines. George was the initiator of the group and chose who he'd like to involve - as group dynamics go I think he got it spot on! All based in, or close to Sheffield, it was an inspiring weekend working amongst this vibrant group of artists and illustrators with eclectic ideas. Day two was at SOYO bar and gig venue, where more of the group were able to join us. We intend make more exciting pictures in the midst of events in the future, so keep an eye out. Better still take an immediate look at our website: http://starsinstripes.wordpress.com/


I worked on the same piece on both days, it was a sizeable board! I was thinking about traditional circus posters, pulling together something ridiculous involving unlikely animals, props and events - I thought immediately of performers and crowd pleasers to suit the situation. I hope it was fun to watch.

I made enlargements of some old magazines pictures to collage, another element in the live art which I think is engaging for people. Thankfully I remembered my scissors but I'm afraid I forgot the glue, so cut-outs were haphazardly adhered using paint. 


Music wise I caught the great Echo and the Bunnymen, an event made golden by the appearance of Richard Hawley on guitar, the Dum Dum Girls were sultry and played catchy songs for us, and the Heebie Jeebies were as ever fun fun fun.

The Harley Hotel - wall art

 

A snap of the Live art on the walls of the Harley Hotel venue, Sheffield. Made in the good company of Geo Law, Sarah Abbott and Lee Bamforth. I arrived later than the rest so things were well underway. 

Sarah had already built up her beautiful, retro painted areas of colour and delicate patterns which gracefully seemed to pull our varying styles together. Shown here are George's characters in all their surreal, cute but slightly menacing glory and I penned the hot air balloons because lately I've been thinking alot about early modes of transport, often finished to a beautiful standard. I wanted to paint something a little like the original Montgolfier Brothers balloons in all their vibrant, ornamental brilliance.

Look Mum No Hands! Sign painting

My friend Wilson and I rather liked this signage so I snatched a photograph. It's on Old Street in London > A new place, apparantly channelling the old tradition of cafes for weary, hungry cyclists who need a mid-ride rest in the city.

Cards to like / keep / remember

 

Mother's Flamingo Birthday Card - May 2010

A couple of cards I've made for recent occasions. I'm always inclined to go for a cut-out or unexpected shape in my cards - I simply think greetings cards should always be memorable for the recipient, and I like to think they are keepsakes that surpass their usually brief shelf life. I hark back to many antique greetings cards I've seen, which concertina out, are a plethora of shapes and sizes and deliver something truly different and personal.

 

Katie's New Baby Card May 2010 (teddy cut out of the back is reused on the front.) *One of my favourites

 A mixed bag of antique cards... ranging from the terrifying to the extremely kitsch and tacky. These are cards but not as we know them...thank goodness.