My work for the staff art exhibition will be a response to the life and poetry of John Clare - Angela Wright

I am - yet what I am, none cares or knows;
My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
I am the self-consumer of my woes;
They rise and vanish in oblivion's host,
Like shadows in love's frenzied stifled throes: -
And yet I am, and live - like vapours tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems.

Even the dearest, that I love the best,
Are strange—nay, rather stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes, where man hath never trod,
A place where woman never smiled or wept—
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling, and untroubled where I lie,
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.

A portrait in the style of Jane Austen by Sarah Birt

Hello!

I'd just like to introduce my offerings to the Staff Art Show this year. My name is Sarah Birt and I work in Visitor Services but I am also a jewellery designer so I have decided to combine my love of portraiture with the skills that I have learnt whilst working with silver over the last year or so.

I finally started on my most ambitious undertaking today; a portrait in silver and I thought I'd post a few photographs of the work in progress (it can also serve as a record in case it all goes horribly wrong!)

My aim is to pierce the drawn lines of the portrait by first drilling small holes into the silver sheet, which measures 5.3 by 6.8 centimetres and is 0.8mm thick. I will then using an extremely fine saw blade to 'sketch' out the design. This should give an interesting effect reminiscent of the sparsely sketched out portrait of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra Austen found on display in room 18 at the National Portrait Gallery.








I have used myself as a model although it is an extremely stylized drawing so it bears only a passing resemblance. This is quite deliberate because the portrait of Jane Austen was deemed inaccurate by Austen's contemporaries. Jane's niece wrote 'there is a look which I recognise as hers, though the general resemblance is not strong, yet as it represents a pleasing countenance it is so far a truth.' I have used this quote to sanction my own artistic licence!

The silver sheet will have a highly polished, mirror-like surface, which will enable the viewer to see their own reflection and will hopefully encourage them to contemplate how they would create their own self-portrait. On the right, you can see the sketched out drawing that I have scratched into the protective plastic coating on the surface of the silver sheet. The next step will be to drill the holes and start sawing out the design. I am using the silver as a blank canvas so this will not be made into jewellery. At the moment, I am searching for a suitable antique picture frame to hold it but so far I haven't found the right one.



Well, that's all for now. I will post again when I have made some more progress! :-)

Viyki Turnbull

DEADLINES FOR ART SHOW

If you have not already done so please forward Bev your completed application by THIS FRIDAY!
Finished works must then be handed in, ready for installation, on the 9th JUNE between 10 -5.30. Works not submitted within this time will not be considered. If you need special arrangements please contact Bev ASAP.
Installation of the works will commence on the 13th June - 17th June.
Looking forward to it!!

Radical Quotes

"By 'radical,' I understand one who goes too far;by 'conservative,'one who doesnt go far enough;by 'reactionary,'one who won't go at all" Woodrow.T. Wilson

Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos." - Mary Shelley

Giles & Pawcasso

Dear All,

 

The bases of my piece for the staff art show 2011, reflects the use of 'Applications' from smart phones. Representing this concept such as the 'Iphone' can be used as a medium for a final piece of work. 

 

The work itself will be of mixed media but the end result will be a portrait. Interacting with the theme of the 'radical' with work I have experimented on over recent months. The piece will be loaded with all kinds of interpretations on different levels, in the hope every time the viewer looks at the work they will see some thing different. I also tend to work very quickly with the final piece to be completed in one sitting. So this blog work in progress will be idea's towards the finish piece. It will be interesting to see how much the finished piece will be from this original thought pattern.

 

Till next time

 

Giles & Pawcasso   

Lord Byron

Gustave Flaubert to Ernest Chevalier (September 13, 1838)

 Really I profoundly value only two men, Rabelais and Byron, the only two who have written in a spirit of malice toward the human race and with the intention of laughing in its face.  What a tremendous position a man occupies who places himself in such a relation to the world!