Hackney farm

Largest pig I've ever clapped eyes on

Hackney Faram chicken no.19

Louise - Columbia Road roses

Photographs taken in Winter '10, Pentax Spotmatic II.

Time to break the creative hiatus

Awful break in blog maintenance not for lack of things to say (promise) but a great deal of excitement at Site Gallery and Article Magazine, from radioactive merry-go-rounds, book clubs, shows to write about and general planning. Surely not enough making.

Yesterday I met with the delightful Sarah Abbott (Sheffield illustrator) and stressed my concerns over this hiatus in my art making, having gained so much in the last few months supporting artists such as Eva & Franco Mattes, and writing about the latest young artists at degree shows. Mark my words, by the end of this summer I'll have prepared towards an exhibition (no matter how small) as I'll have revived my paints and pens!

Collage Party at Bloc Projects, Sheffield

Tonight I remembered the joys of collage, joining artist Elizabeth Rowe and a group of fellow cutters & stickers at a Collage Party - definitely as fun as anticipated. Printed material and tools provided, great vinyl djing by the artist herself and lovely conversation whilst we all selected between a photo of a tropical fish, and a photograph of Prince Charles when he was remotely handsome. Pieced together on the gallery walls, our pictures built into narratives as we utilised the matter that artist Rowe sourced in charity shops but made individual choices about them. 

These collaged works certainly say a great deal about our disparate visual interpretations and decision making processes. Here are my results, mostly ridiculous! :

 

 I've been really inspired by Rowe, who will take her collage approach to the Bloc Billboard on the building exterior. Thanks to Bloc Projects for providing such a fun place to cut & chat! Collage night should come weekly...

New work on the Site Gallery Canteen Frieze

<<< Somewhere to put the menus...

 

The frieze after an update & reshuffle...

...And a new bull for summer!

www.sitegallery.org

Live art at Sheffield Millennium Gallery back in April!

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/museums-sheffield/page2/

Why so blue? Article Magazine interview with illustrator Sarah Abbott

I recently interviewed [personal favourite] fellow Sheffield based illustrator Sarah Abbott check it here! on the Article Mag website

Seeing the trees for the wood - peg board animals & condiments / silver birch shelving

We Are Click have been working on their handsome new website to showcase their excellent late work as Industrial Designers.

The silver birch they felled now stands in the gallery as a shelving system

Included are some cracking photographs of our transformation of Site Canteen back in March (see post).

Here are the wooden pieces they carefully cut in order for my Frieze to be realised on the gallery canteen wall, and the frantic painting that took place on the launch date, I literally painted my heart out for 24 hours! Also see the Site Gallery website for further information.

Cycling in the big city and a pretty Christmas box

Again I stumbled across the lovely LOOK MUM NO HANDS cafe on London's Old Street

www.lookmumnohands.com

I spotted this sign being painted last year and posted a photograph (click here), largely in envy of the task: if only sign painting by hand was still a vocation! They have serve coffee and beer, show movies, and even have on site bike mechanics, so it's a one stop shop for cycle enthusiasts. Sheffield needs this!

  

In other news, I have also stored up these photographs of an Christmas Advent Box made for my sister - hand-painted and collaged, containing an assortment of treats from dried fruits to hot chocolate.

Final inappropriate festive post - I was determined to try my hand at old school lino printing to mass produce my Christmas cards last year, but without losing a sense of receiving something personal. So became this robin print. I'd like to layer colours in future - practice makes perfect.

Picture this, a day in December

 

These are exposures I've hoarded up from my Pentax Spotmatic for months, posted with apologies for being so shamefully out of season. It's all for smug hindsight on the relentlessly deep snow now the clocks have gone forward!

 ...Spot the snowball mid-flight?

Recent press - Sheffield Telegraph / MissieCindz web blog

Sheffield Telegraph preview of the Site Canteen makeover

"AROUND 80 people booked in for a special dinner at the Site Gallery on Friday night. 

Guests from a cross section of Sheffield’s cultural scene were invited to bring along one book which had special significance to them ...

"Thus young design team We Are Click contributed light shades of strands of wool and a structure of a pair of tree trunks from Ecclesall Woods. Neon artist Richard Wheater provided a window sign and Sheffield furniture-maker Finbar Lucas designed the tables to go alongside Sixties chairs featured in This is England and originally made in Chesterfield. 

There is also a facia board above the food counter proclaiming the local produce which was created by Jane Faram, an illustrator and member of Site staff"...


Cindy Cheung/ Missiecindz reviews the redesign
"PJ Taste Site Gallery's NEW tasteful and refreshing interiors. Beautiful illustrations" ...

Site Canteen at Site Gallery - NEW frieze

Last week a rather spectacular dinner party was held at Site Gallery to introduce new Director Laura Sillars, previously programme Director at FACT Liverpool. The dinner saw the launch of Site’s ‘Ex-Libris’ - a public library housed in the gallery. Offering a stock of titles donated by creative talent in the city, with handwritten  personal accounts inside the covers to inspire the reader. Note that Jarvis Cocker, Ian Anderson, Tim Etchells and Russel Senior have obliged!

Site Canteen where the library is based has undergone a whirlwind transformation. Wooden furniture maker Finbar, and Sheffield’s hot young design trio ’We are Click’ (who have built a stunning shelving structure for the new library, with books stacked between silver birch trees on steel angular shelves. It's a gorgeous creation. Dotted around the space are their wool and resin lights hung at varied heights for reading/coffee drinking/boozing.

I was commissioned to work alongside We are Click to produce a frieze for the wall of the Canteen.  PJ Taste are the local food connoisseurs resident at Site Canteen. Sourcing produce from all over Sheffield, foraging in the woodlands, digging up from their own allotments and supporting Sheffield’s city farms. Their ethical production and commitment to source locally, preparing fresh food in a responsible way with notable creativity,  led to the idea of a frieze. The work combines a map of Sheffield and their key producers with a menu board of sorts, to narrate the process from planting to devouring!

The wall is surfaced with peg board, so the frieze is in flux and goes with the seasons -  I'll produce new fruits to grow from the tree, or animals to graze the farmland. We Are Click cut these pieces from plywood based on my drawings, and inserted dowel for them to be plugged in anywhere on the pegboard. 

I painted seven hills of Sheffield (including a hill of milk bottles!) as an underlay environment for a varied foreground of food, farms and local contributors to the PJ Taste table. 

It was a real privilege to help transform Site’s café into Site Canteen, a hot-spot for Sheffield where inspirational ideas, talent & happenings will find a base over the coming years. You really have to see it, you probably can’t miss it actually - there’s a new neon artwork installed by artist Richard William Wheater screaming OPEN at you from the window.