My creative space

Last week, a lovely photographer, Jens Marott, came to visit my creative space.

I pulled out a Halloween mask that I’d made last year and put it on the back of my head.

This is the picture that he took!

 

Weimin’s new show

Weimin He, co-curator for the China Print Festival in Qijiang, is having a solo show when the Ashmolean museum reopens next month. His brush drawings are beautiful, delicate and bold portraits of the many workers who were involved in the restoration project. Here is a short introduction that I have written for the show.

This exhibition shows Weimin He’s depiction of the recent restoration of the Ashmolean museum from 2007-2009. The majority of the art includes paintings that portray, in a sensitive and humorous way, more than 300 academics, curators, tradespeople, builders and craftsmen who were involved in the process. In addition there are drawings of the space as it evolved throughout the building work, and some woodblock prints that summarise the construction in He’s unique printmaking style.

The staff in the offices pause from their work temporarily for these portraits, fingers still hovering near keyboards, and perching on their revolving chairs. The delicate detail of face and keen observation of posture and clothing expresses a measured exploration of each person, which is kept from becoming too formal with a slightly exaggerated focus on the head and hands.

In contrast the portraits of the builders are made with energetic brushstrokes, conveying an engaging and immediate presence. The bodies are slightly elongated; head, hands and feet included as if viewed through a wide angle lens; and they pose singly and in groups, often with a broad smile and a relaxed stance. The names of each individual are written on the page next to the drawing, which, by their variety, hints at an interesting mix of languages and cultures.

The Chinese brush, used with traditional black ink on Chinese paper, creates an Eastern aesthetic, but here the subject matter is a Western workforce within a British institution. This fascinating combination of style and subject matter, allied with a throwaway accuracy, is a lovely snapshot of the spirit of the Oxford Ashmolean Museum.

 

Impact conference 6

How could I be so silent on the Impact printmaking conference? It was a five day extravaganza of printmaking lectures, panels, posters, entertainment, art and alcohol, with printmakers from all over the world congregating in Bristol. I put up the colour trial proofs from the mask series that I slaved on from last year. Soemhow they made a nice mass of faces staring out at the passers-by.

I also gave a talk during the conference on beasts in print, specifically looking at Marcelle Hanselaar’s wonderful dark etchings. You can read the text of the talk here.

 

Wonderland Show

East London Printmakers, led by super enthusiastic coordination from Katja Rosenberg, is finally breaking into the Victoria and Albert museum, with the show’ “Wonderland” opening in the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green on Saturday 26th October at 10.30 am- midday.

You can read about it in Design Week where my picture featured on the front cover of the magazine, and in the Guardian, or come along and have a look around. The show will be up until January 2010.

 

First etchings in 2 years!

I’ve just got back from a fun trip to the US where I spent 10 hours making plates in the new Print Zero Studios (belonging to Brian Lane) in south Seattle, and then proofing them in Frank Boyden’s studio in the Oregon coast. It’s been lovely to get back to mark making in a different way (most of my images are from a carved block rather than drawn).

Beasts in print are a topic that I have been considering often over the years, and these are the two random images that came out of the subconcious.

 

Printing Long Sleep in colour

Here is the final print called Long Sleep, and below are some of the stages that I went through to get there.

Grey with a gradient

Shock red

Ochre

Lila Gradient

Lila screen

Blue gradient

Alternate colour variation

 

Show of prints in China and other June activities

I’ve been asked to help curate a show of International Prints in China!

Check out the website www.chinaprintfestival.weebly.com for more information and how to submit work.

Also this month I have work in the Leigh Art trail from 13th-21st June (in Sara’s tearooms, in Old Leigh, close to Southend on Sea) and the Bankside Gallery show of prints Eleven from East London Printmakers from 30th June to 5th July. Come by and visit the shows if you have time.

 

Fairytale show at the Museum of Childhood

My good friend Katja has been coordinating this show of prints based on fairytales, and now she has been asked by her local council to get people into writing legends and myths of their own, based on the images from our show. Have a look at the website for more details and to see my print:

Mask Ka

Chinese folklore
Screenprint, 76×65cm, edition of 10

My mother told me that everyone is born with an invisible red thread that connects people by the ankle to their destined love.
In Mask Ka there are two lovers who hide in the face’s cheeks, sleeping one above the other on a train sleeper. He’s looking at her because he is aware of the thread, but she does not realise that they are yet connected, and faces away.

The print itself explores the notion that humans have more to their surface appearance than meets the eye. In each of us, as we walk through life, we accumulate memories: ghosts; attachments and connections; preferences for the past and expectations for the future. I wanted to express inner emotions, true histories; in effect, faces stripped of the mask of social pretences.

 

Not a print, but never mind!

So I have to mention that my dad has spent his whole life taking care of his body and this is the latest photos of him that I took just before he went on holiday. Not bad for a guy in his seventies!

 

Devour

I’ve been inspired by seeing a movie on Paula Rego that showed me how to be uninhibited when making art about women and sexuality. In the devour series of prints I’ve been exploring a fantasy woman who looks sweet to start off with but then transforms into a carnal carnivore and ends up coupling ferociously with a tiger-like beast. It’s going to be a book with 7 prints and folded elegantly- so watch this space as it develops.