Áine's Art Meanderings posted: " I wrote back in November that I felt unsure of my making and where to go next with my practice. Things have not changed much in that regard. However, my exhaustion is gone (although that may be down to new medication for hypothyroidism), my mind is st"
I wrote back in November that I felt unsure of my making and where to go next with my practice.
Things have not changed much in that regard. However, my exhaustion is gone (although that may be down to new medication for hypothyroidism), my mind is start to think about making again and ideas are popping up.
A quick catch up on what's been happening over the past few months and how 2022 is going.
I've almost completed my residency at MTU Crawford. Not as productive as I hoped it would be but as mentioned in my last post I was flattened by *everything*. I has been wonderful being at the college and having a creative base over the past year. I has helped massively with those post-graduation doubts. Before Easter I made two moulds of a quartz stone that I found on the ditches on the farm. They are core cast moulds which means it'll be an outer shell of a stone I hope to have once the firing and cold working is complete. That firing is to happen next week so crossing all the fingers. Below are some images showing the process of making.
My exciting news is that in February I was so lucky to have the opportunity given to me by Anike Tyrell to go to Corning!!! Yes, that Corning...the mecca of glass making. My mind was in fact overwhelmed by everything that I saw and experienced. The musuem!!! The studio!!! The people!!! The hotshop!!! Even the glass cabinets in the hallways had works by world renowned glass artists...it was just a staggering experience. And even more exciting is that Anike is setting up a glass casting studio in Waterford for kilnformed glass and I'll be working to produce pieces designed by designers like Aldo Baker and Nigel Peake. Richard Whiteley has been developing some of the pieces for the business and I had the fortune of being part of his masterclass Thinking Through Kiln Cast Glass for a week and then also had one-to-one tutoring with him in regard to objects he has been working on for Anike. Like I said mind boggling experience. I'm black and blue from pinching myself! A fraction of the photos I took are below.
Richard Whiteley's guided tour of Corning MuseumKaren Lemonte cast glass dress at the Corning MuseumLight shining through the colour glass windows of Corning MuseumCast bowls by Daniel Clayman on display at the Corning ShopThe hotshop based in the amphitheatre at the Corning Museum of GlassCreating an open face mould as part of the masterclass with RichardMy clay model with its first coat of plaster silica mixThe inverted plaster silica mould with the clay dug outGlass cleaned, kiln loaded...let's fire this thing! Checking on the firing mid-wayDivest and getting a good cleanA photo I took using my iPhone and a dodgy white card for background. Called Refuge, 2022
I was delighted to have my work shown at Craftworks Gallery in Cappoquin in April. Being part of an exhibition in my own county meant a lot; which means I'm just as thrilled to have been accepted to exhibition in Waterford this month for a Waterford Makers themed show. The space at Waterford Gallery of Art is beautiful and I can't wait to see all the works on display. I was there at the beginning of April having my pieces photographed by Roland Paschhoff. More bruises from pinching myself!
Photo of Bound at Craftworks Gallery, Cappoquinn, Waterford Roland Paschhoff at work. I can't wait to see the images he took of my work.
In between all this I took on a job, a 10 week contract working for the C.S.O. The struggle to balance an art practice with having actual money is real. That position has ended and I now feel my mind is ready to get back into making. My residency at the National Sculpture Factory is planned to begin the end of June after the Cork Mid-Summer Festival. I hope I can keep experimenting on core casting and develop my ideas while there. Ideally I'd live in Cork for the duration of the residency but the cost of rent is prohibitive. So it'll be a blend of from home and in situ type residency.
So I guess I have been busy, perhaps not working on physical work but maintaining a practice regardless. I remember an artist that gave a talk to my 2nd year class at the college. She told us that we'll discover over 50% of our art practice will have nothing to do with making or producing work but rather admin...replying to emails, filling in forms for grants or proposals, sourcing and ordering materials etc. She was so right. I was glad for the warning she gave. I realise that even this post hasn't been about my work or making either. But I guess I'm just figuring out my place now in a post college art world.
P.S. This post may not have mentioned the Russian invasion on Ukraine, the Corona virus pandemic that's still happening, the rise in the cost of living, the climate emergency we are living through and other social, political and global problems. I've learned my mind can only deal with so much at one time.
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