Hallo there!!
I have relocated to Berlin! This has been an unusual and challenging past year in many ways. I reduced my mainstream teaching in schools having quit my main job and income as a full-time art and photography teacher last September 2019.
I continued to work as an ad-hoc teacher supporting my old school as and when i was needed as a separate yet secure(ish) income stream. I moved in to a small individual studio in Hackney Downs (!) which was wonderful, with my own kiln and equipment. As well as developing my own work i started teaching one on one ceramics lessons and a weekly class for adults; both of which were amazing, with a terrific group of people learning about ceramics and developing their own projects. Some students were learning for the first time as beginners, some were coming back to pottery after some time away.
Katy
In spring this year tragically my colleague and very good friend Katy became terminally ill in her battle against cancer. A devastating and unfathomable turn of events for Katy and all who knew and loved her. Katy herself responded in true Katy style with strength, humour and unbelievable poise and grace. Something i still can’t quite get my head around, she was truly inspirational. Katy passed away in March. Again something that i don’t really feel i have accepted. No formal funeral has been able to take place (in line with Covid/Lockdown rules), something that feels like a denial of an essential human right for Katy, her family and others (as well as others that have sadly passed away during these last 8 months) that wish to markedly celebrate the life of a young person who genuinely had a tremendous impact on surely all of those around her; her family, friends, colleagues and her students who she cared for dearly. This need for a occasion to mark her life hangs in the air. Katy’s last days and passing was just before lockdown and marked the beginning of a very strange time. A time that continues on like a bizarre dream or nightmare.
Relocation to Berlin
During this summer just gone, i decided, unable to presently continue the development of my practice in London and pay my rent without teaching in mainstream school almost full-time, to move to Berlin and join my boyfriend who was already there. So here i am, having moved in the brief easing of lockdown rules. I don’t speak German but i am getting on ok with the limited interaction i have with others. Temporarily i am making my work at Ceramic Kingdom in Neukölln and painting it with underglaze in my makeshift ‘studio’ in the apartment me and my boyfriend share, which happens to be above Ceramic Kingdom! I am looking for a studio collective to join, applying to markets and making new connections with other artists. I would like to teach (in english) a little here and so i am looking to do that eventually when i have set myself up in a studio big enough. I am now, after a couple of months, feeling much more settled and enjoying this new city; its relative calm and better work/life balance. Days painting and making whilst i listen to podcasts (Desert Island Disks, The Guilty Feminist, Adam Buxton, Radio 4, as well as many more), hanging pictures in our old but big apartment with evenings swimming at the local Sommerbad (just closed now!) or lakes have been my day to day routine. Not working constantly has been difficult to acclimatise to (weirdly!) and being productive with no ‘rush’ has been something i have had to get used to. Processing the global situation, thinking about my friend’s passing and reflecting on the last 8 years teaching has taken some space and still does. But i think i am slowly creating a new practice.
Current Influences
I have been inspired this past year by many influences and have been documenting this in my sketch books and phone. Somethings i looked at a year or so ago i am still processing in my work. Exhibitions i have been particularly inspired by are:
The Klimt and Egon Schiele Exhibition at The Royal Acadamy of Arts. I was interested in the depiction and study of the female body. How both these artists viewed and chose to represent women in their portraits. There is vulnerability, power, romanticism, a mystical and surreal quality. And also a celebration of what i see as beauty in the rawness and real visceral depictions of the body and poses. I like the quality of the lines, the tones and colours used.
My studies from a book i bought at the exhibition ‘Egon Schiele; Watercolours and Drawings’.
Another pencil study from the Egon Schiele book.
A drawing from a photoshoot i did in response to Klimt and Schiele.
Study by Klimt for ‘The Three Gorgons ‘ Painting. Some of Klimt’s themes overlap with mine, in this case his interest in female characters in Greek Mythology and changing the traditional, sometimes negative representation of these powerful female archetypes.
I also visited William Blake at Tate Britain. I have always loved the themes, visual depiction of narratives, use of colour and style of William Blake. I am interested in the subtle variation of washes used and how the images are still graphic through this subtle tonal work. The way the human body is drawn and the various guises and actions it is captured in is something i am fascinated by. I like the history, magic and myth i experience looking at his drawings.
Emotions running high. The Judgement of Adam and Eve by William Blake. We’ve all felt the shame of our elders when we’ve inadvertently let someone down whilst failing to control our impulses!
Prophesying - Greek narratives again. Depiction of Hecate or The Three Fates. The Greek Mythologies are an age old subject matter of the arts and something that is not often present in contemporary art, for good reason, they’ve had a lot of air time! However i remain fascinated by the themes and aim to respond to these stories in my own work.
Chaos - I am starting at the beginning with my response to Greek Mythology. I have been making a dinnerware set - the aim being to have an injection of this origin story in everyday life.
Charleston House.
Last summer i visited Charleston House (home of the famous Bloomsbury Group) with my friend Katy. A last minute trip i am glad i agreed to! I hadn’t looked much at the work of Vanessa Bell (painter) and her contemporaries, Virginia Woolfe, Duncan Grant - Painter, Quentin Bell - Ceramicist, but i really loved the house and all its interior adornments, artworks and ceramic wares. I can only dream of having my own house one day, let alone with every surface, plate, and light fixing made by me and/or by the people i love. But i live in hope! And in the meantime i have made a promise to try to do this wherever i reside. I digress. I loved the simple and joyful patterns, the pastel colour palettes/muted tones, and range of colours included, and use of natural homemade paints and glazes. Where there wasn’t decorative patterns that were celebrations of the surrounding gardens, there were my favourite things, portraits, and many portraits of women, the women who lived in the house or visited the house. There were extraordinary portraits of men too, but i was more drawn to the depictions of women there, in that time, living an ‘unorthodox’ life.
A sneaky picture Katy took (and sent to me!) of some of the portraiture in the house.
Some of the decor in the living-room, bright tapestries, ceramics and painting on every surface.
Some textiles in the gift shop. I love gift-shops.