Julie James-Turner Textiles so far....

I've decided I need 5 dresses to evoke a landscape or environment for my poem, so Ive finished 1 dress, 4 more to go! 

Laura Wake - The Lake District

Here are a few shots taken in the Lake District over the last weekend. More shots to play with double exposures.

Laura Wake - Double Exposures

First experimental work with double exposures - All images taken by me within the last week - First Image - Location - Pulborough. Second Image - Self Portrait. Third Image - Double Exposure of first and second image edited in Photoshop.

This is just one of many possibilities!! - more soon!

Maddie Smith. New poems, new ideas

New Poems- New Ideas.

Although I am continuing to develop ideas for the poem “Hey Cowboy” and have not abandoned this film, I have written three new poems. Once edited I will post the poems on the blog.

I am exploring the therapeutic concept of “Boxing it”. This is the idea of boxing painful memories, things that cannot be dealt with in the here and now. Acknowledging they exist but placing them away for the time being.

The poems deal with three different characters and have inspired early ideas for sculptural pieces, places that people might “box” their painful memories.

Poem 1 – A box made of broken pallet and driftwood, wrapped in white ribbons, roses wove around it, scattered in sand.

Poem 2- A suitcase, with clothes taken travelling, the painful memories have started to scold.

Poem 3- For this character memories hit her when she doing her shopping. A plastic shopping bag, pieces of broken bricks inside, wrapped in chains.

These are initial ideas.   

Maddie Smith- "To scrape the stars into a dirty jar, with long and pointed nails"

I have left the circus idea behind. I am now thinking of displaying the film in a clear cut environment.

I am unhappy with way it has been edited and am going to focus on one image for about 45 seconds to a minute.

I am going to either speak the words of the poem or have them displayed as titles.

These are my ideas-

-“Sweetheart I like the way you shake your tail feather” Male eating a red feather, smoke and feathers.

 -“You are the queen of the bees knee” Cut between bees and my knees being grated with honeycomb.

- “Brothers of blues and lovers of so much more” female mouth, blue lipstick, eating red love heart sequins.

-“Come back to mine and let limbs tangle till dawn” Red lipstick line being drawn down a leg. Legs tangling.

Do I need two images to contrast each image?

I experimented with one sculptural piece. A lightly painted jam jar with many different sized diamante’s inside and some rusty nails. I took photographs of this. This was an exploration of the line “To scrape the stars into a dirty jar, with long and pointed nails”. I am happy with some of the photographs.

I am no longer thinking about stitching out the poem. Just having it typed and displayed, large.

I took a lot of photographs. Some of the photographs came out too blurred. I have made a selection.

Julie James Turner- Further explorations to create textile samples

                                               Experiments drawing with yarn

                                                    yarn on plastic

                                                    yarn on plastic 2

                                                    yarn on organza voile

                                                    yarn on net

                                            sketchbook page ideas

                                              sketchbook page ideas for garments

Laura Wake- Poem/Initial Ideas

Laura Wake

My first choice of poem for the exhibition explored the ideas of choice/fate and chance, these were all themes that really resonated with me and sparked a lot of ideas for artwork, however, after a lot of research about the copyright to the poem I have decided not to use it. Unable to let these initial ideas go I have found another poem that covers a lot of the same topics (albeit in a very different manner) –

Invictus

William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

This was a poem written whilst Henley was in hospital and deals with death, courage and determination in hard times. Throughout the poem, however, there is a still a strong reference to chance and fate (and with fate comes the opposing matter of choice) “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”. “Invictus” has a celebratory outlook on fate/chance/etc – the title itself meaning unconquerable! In the artwork I produce I would like to take a much more uncertain and questioning approach to these themes – of course we would all like to think we are “masters” of our own fate.

As a starting point I have a recorded tape of a psychic reading which I would like to fragment and incorporate somehow with a set of images to explore the blurred lines between choice/chance/fate and also the anxiety that we all feel about making the “right” decisions in life, how we will look back in years to come. The images are likely to include the same figure throughout and will be set in different outcomes/parallels – at the moment I am planning to use the more obvious visual of location – e.g. seascape/cityscape/landscape. Currently I am thinking these will either be full photographs or I may overlay the images through photoshop like a double exposure. I am planning on experimenting with both ideas to see which is more successful.  

Julie James Turner- Exploring textile samples

Julie James-Turner

This is my first post so I'm going to share my poem with you, its by Christina Rossetti the sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti the Pre-Raphaelite artist working in the mid 1800s. Christina wrote poetry and short stories and was a really interesting character, she was eventually diagnosed with 'Graves disease' and this seemed to liberate her from the prospect of getting married, the expected route. So she could concentrate on her true love, literature. I find some of her poetry so melancholy and spiritual, creating strong visuals and emotions. It also has a very personal and powerful resonance for me as a source of comfort and acceptance of loss.

Song – Christina Rossetti

When I am dead, my dearest

Sing no sad songs for me;

Plant thou no roses at my head

Nor shady cypress tree

Be the green grass above me

With showers and dewdrops wet:

And if thou wilt, remember,

And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,

I shall not feel the rain;

I shall not hear the Nightingale sing on as if in pain:

And dreaming through the twilight

That doth not rise nor set,

Haply I may remember,

And haply may forget

So far I have been exploring the figure through garments and I want to create an ethereal beauty that evokes a twilight world. I ve being experimenting with black veiling net and yarns and embroidery.