Category: Craftivism

Art Out West

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Map of the open studios art trail
Small linocuts in a window display

I enjoyed making the background wallpaper for this window display. It’s inspired by a house move when I was about three years old. The new house’s wallpaper was all atomic design; my bedroom had pink and yellow ovals on a grey background. The kitchen was red, yellow and black. That was the first room to be redecorated with pale blues etc, but I preferred the original patterns.

My studio is whichever space is available at the moment, not particularly welcoming for any visitors. Pondering how to put a window exhibition together made me a bit nostalgic for previous studios. The lingering scent of dead pigeons in the roof; tin baths catching the raindrops falling from above. Sharing printing presses with people who left fingerprints on everything(!) There was a lot of admin to help out with in a studio building, the office area was usually warmer so it would be a haven of bustling activity.

There’s also the notion of being a local artist. That’s quite a difficult term, often used as an insult. I’ve lived here for 25 years but I’m not really local. A Radio 4 programme about blood types informed me that I’m part of the same group as some historic invaders. This area is known as ‘The Little England Beyond Wales’, even though the incomers seemed to be Flemish. I’ve never heard any Belgian people chatting around here (so far).

Anyway, these prints gathered together made me realise how many feature hands. Someone asked me if I could draw hands, so I drew a few. Then they asked “but what are linocuts used for?”, so the wallpaper design was to make that clear. What next? I might attempt to put my novel into the right order. It’s about an artist moving to Wales, even though their friends say that’s the same as being dead…

White Poppy

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Linocut of a white poppy
Lino block with sketch

When this lino block was first cut, a long time ago, it was going to be printed in pale subtle colours. Something on the news the other day while choosing inks made me reach for scarlet and emerald green instead.

The block is similar to an unfinished print from even longer ago. As a teenager I liked the idea of nature reclaiming damaged land. Maybe it’s still a nice idea. The white poppy has symbolised pacifism for nearly a century. Weapons are presumably more profitable but mediation and peaceful resolution has a preferable outcome.

Multitasking

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Knitting on five needles lying on a watercolour cloud

There are many tasks to do today but I knitted instead. The project will become too big for three needles so I’ve added more. They’re slightly bent from being stuck under a heavy item for too long. They still function well.

Decreasing

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Slip two knitwise, insert left needle into the front and knit them together.
Hat pattern decreases

Sometimes people ask how I made the pattern on the crown of the hat. It’s made (accidentally) by decreasing the number of stitches. Most written patterns say K2tog, knit two stitches together. That gives the hat the ridges as the circle becomes smaller towards the top of the head.

There are other methods. SKPO (slip one stitch onto the right hand needle, knit one then pass the slipped stitch over the knitted one) gives a ridge leaning the opposite way to k2tog. In theory, slipping two stitches knitwise then knitting them together as in the photo above will give a tidier result.

Climate

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Exhibition poster with sun and fog among the words

Art & Poetry won’t change anything. There again, the opportunity to look at everything from a different perspective might affect future behaviour.

Pembrokeshire Green Party is reviving slowly. West Wales has many people who are doing their best to not cause harm to their surroundings. Joining a political movement doesn’t appeal to most of us. It’s good to know there are others who would never support right wing policies. Hopefully this short exhibition will inspire someone to clean a river, stop building houses with leaky roofs, maybe remove all the obstacles to living well.

Pembrokeshire is also home to some narrow minded bigots. They will say climate change isn’t real. There can’t be any pollution here and the sun shines constantly. It does, it’s shining right now, behind some clouds. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but they are also entitled to look outside occasionally and observe the world. The planet evolves, the temperature changes. Arguing about whether humans have damaged the environment is less important than thinking about how to live without making everything worse.