I hereby declare the Spirit Parlour open!

'Tattoo parlour threshold' - mono-print on Grandma's linen

'Spirit Shroud', 'These days are all imaginary' & 'Lone Cowgirl visits the tattoo parlour'

untitled

untitled (photo of Grandma's towel,  photo of the Spirit Shroud & a monoprint about my fear of loss and death)

So my the private view of my exhibition Spirit Parlour was really nice, thanks so much to the people who came - met some really nice and interesting new people :)
I wandered round the show the day before the PV and really enjoyed it myself, which was awesome. I think it's a visually coherent ensemble, and although many of the pieces are works in progress, it looks quite smart. There are a LOT of references and reasons in every aesthetic choice I have made in every piece in the show, some of which I have written about - pick up the printed text in the exhibition space and have a look at the labels.
However I haven't detailed and explained every single piece of my inspiration and what every square inch means, because I think it's important that people work things out for themselves and spend time thinking and looking... or even better... make their own interpretations and use the visuals and ideas they can see to their own ends. That itself is an exercise in imagination which I have aimed to inspire in some of the pieces...
Above are some photos.

The Friday afterwards (last Friday) I held the first of three 'Talisman' workshops which I have designed off the back of the exhibition. The first one was mantra-making and sign-painting. Again, met some really awesome people who came down for it, and everyone made super fun signs, some of which people said really would help them in their daily life, which is so cool!
In the next workshop  - this coming Friday (event listing here...) we will be designing tattoo-esque imagery, again along the theme of talismans, which we'll transfer onto some amazing waxed cotton and paint the designs onto it to create wall hangings, which can act as talisman's in the home.
All materials provided. 2-5pm, free, at Kentish Town Health Centre.

Nadine looks at the Past Customers piece: a list of people I have imaginarily tattooed under my guise of Mistress Axolotl - brave artiste extraordinaire who can tell fortunes and align peoples' destiny with their wants and needs, and who lives in a mountainous wilderness reached only by a long trek through dense swampland: in other words, she's everything I wish to be!
Nadine and I do actually have the same tattoo in real life which we did together, so of course Nads had to be on the list :)

Some of the results of Talisman workshop #1

I live in a hologram with you

Preparations have been underway for my exhibition... which I put up on Monday at Free Space Gallery in Kentish Town. I think it looks neat. You should come check it out. The private view is next Wednesday (11th) 6:30-9pm, drinkies for all. the show explores ideas of 'safe spaces', talismans and the power of human fantasy in relation to emotional well-being.

There are some finished pieces, and also some works in progress which I will finish during one of the three workshop I am hosting at Free Space over the coming weeks. Check their website and sign up :)

I've also put up my process folder/sketchbook thing, as I think it's interesting always to see how people work, but especially so for this project, because therapeutic aspects of creativity are often more about the process than the result.

Here is a bit of what I've written about it - the rest you can see and read if you come have a glass of wine with me on Wednesday evening at the opening! Or, it's open weekdays 9am-6pm (till 8pm Weds & Thurs).

For the sake of this project, the following definitions are focal points.

Shed: A person’s self-contained space: a safe space.

Talismans: personal spiritual guidance device

Tattoo: Permanent marks imprinted upon a person’s being

Other self-contained safe spaces besides sheds include tents, tree houses, bedrooms and dens of all sorts. The thing these all have in common is that they invite fantasy, dream and adventure. They alleviate real-world issues and offer a space for solace, serenity and imagination.

Due to the nature of my residency here, having close links with the Kentish Town Health Centre and particularly the art therapy and well-being services, I wanted to conduct an appropriate project.

I like to think of art as armour: deflecting wounds and creating a space within that is that person’s hidey-hole.

It is also well known that art is a mode of self-expression, particularly in the form of clothing and self-decoration.

And so it came about that I invented a fantasy character who runs an imaginary tattoo parlour from a shed.

This here piece that I am wearing has become known as the Spirit Shroud and will be part of the workshops.

I took a break in studio time to have a solitary wander through misty Halloween parkland.

And here we have it - or some of it.