Shirley Bell – Fine Art Journal – a place to look at what I learned during my MA in Fine Art

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT – A feature about me in Art Seen Magazine from The Curator’s Salon

“Launched in 2021, Art Seen is a leading contemporary art magazine featuring visual artists working around the world.”

Gita Yoshi is the editor and she was also a tutor on the scholarship I had for the Contemporary Art course with the European Cultural Academy in Venice in July 2023.

Final Major Project – Silk Painting for “Illuminate”, a Transported Arts community parade.

This has relevance to my Final Major Project in several ways. The whole theme of “Illuminate” links to my practice, which uses light to express transcendence. Furthermore, I have acquired a skill set to enable some further pieces to be produced for my project, using silk as I always intended.

It also links to my experiences in the Collaborative Practice module. It was a delight to take part in a process which brings together the community of Boston in an exciting and moving event. Then Donna Fox and her assistant artists, members of Transported, members of Boston School of Mosaic (which was the focus of my study in Collaborative Practice) and members of the public all worked together to produce the shawls in record time. So it was a doubly joyful process, of working with a group of people on a shared project, and producing such lovely end results.

At the end of November 2023 there will be a night-time parade through Boston, which includes a display of 5 flamboyant silk shawls with shoulder panels and headdresses, illuminated with lights. The shawls will be made of 3 metre long panels of silk, and will be worn around the shoulders, with wooden battens inserted at each end so that the shawls will move around, as the dancers parade through the town.

https://www.transportedart.com/events/boston-t-party-illuminate-parade-2023

https://www.transportedart.com/events/silk-painting-and-costume-making-early-slot

I always intended to make art works on silk for my Final Major Project and on 29th, 30th and 31st of October 2023 I joined silk painting workshops in my local town to create costumes for “Illuminate”.

We were shown painted silks and given a circular silk sun catcher each.

We drew motifs on paper, outlined in black pen, and placed them under the silk circles. The motifs were inspired by the imagery from the many different ethnic groups which make up Boston’s local community, with Eastern European, Portuguese, and British cultural references.

On the 29th we were given a quick class in making and painting motifs, to be used on the suncatchers in the first place. On the 30th the motifs were copied to use in 5 x 3 metre strips of silk for the Illuminate costumes, which were outlined in soya wax.

On the 31st the silk shawl was painted. Each shawl will have the same red border but the topmost portions will have different colours and designs. The first shawl has a yellow upper portion. My image was used as the centrepiece on shawl 1, hence the smug photograph, but there is a whole stock of other images to use on future shawls and shawl 2 is being developed now. The silk is dyed with Procion MX dyes.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT – More about my Exhibition October 3rd to 26th 2023

The Amazon proof is now approved and I plan to order a few copies to put out on the table in the lobby of Fydell House. It is a bit late, but the feedback has been very good. People have approached me in person and on Facebook to say how much they enjoyed it. I also put out a comments book which had favourable comments. Therefore there might be people who would like a catalogue. I am debating whether to just let anybody who wants one to take one ( the price to me is under £4).

The works are described in this booklet:

https://www.dropbox.com/t/sZwNbWGLbGypWMzc

There will be an Amazon book which describes the ideas in my art coming soon

My proof was approved on 30/10/23

KDP_PRINT_INTERIOR_SPREAD-30.10.23-1

PRIVATE VIEW

19TH OCTOBER 2023

This was the night of the Private View. in one image you can see someone looking at the booklet I produced as a catalogue of my work

These photographs show the poster for the exhibition and the initial set up.

I need to finalise labelling and pricing and insert a video walk through

Experiments for my Final Major Project

Man of Sorrows – alcohol ink on parchment, H 65cm x W 30 cms

new materials – silk, tulle, canvas

Virtual Exhibition

My work on transcendence in scale

https://artspaces.kunstmatrix.com/node/11921976

Looking towards my FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

Back to Venice, some mosaics.

I became very interested in boat wakes out on the lagoon so I have been experimenting with small mosaic pieces.

boat wake on the Lagoon

sample pieces – mosaic on plywood, 9.5 cm square

On the lagoon – boat wake a – 19cm square

I plan to do a 60cm x 30 cm abstract with architecture and water

This is some work I did in Photoshop while I was on the Contemporary Art Course in Venice with the ECA.

I took the original below left and photoshopped the image below right into the idea for the central new work – the Madonna image was resized and blurred around the edges

The original is: dimensions – H 100 x 30 x 3cm; I think a painted image would be succesful added to the original, see detail below for close up.

Madonna in the Trees:-

21x 14cm sketches below for a new work, either acrylic painting or collage.
Left to right top there are sketches after Raphael’s Tempi Madonna, 1508, Madonna on a Crescent Moon, anon, 1450s and Schongauer’s Madonna of the Rosehedge, 1471.

Bottom row I have decided to go with the Schongauer inspired version and bottom right there is a sketch of how she might be placed amongst trees and a lake. I have changed her cloak to blue to emphasise her symbolic meaning. I will try to have her receding into the background.

Final Lady in the Lake:-

Lady in the lake H 70 x w 60 s depth 1 cm

Final version – I am pleased that I have been able to add a figurative element to this piece.

Work in progress 13 06 2023

mixed media and acrylic paint

A lady in the lake H 70 x w 60 cm x D2.5 cm

I have been working on abstract landscapes expressing transcendence in nature.

Above this piece uses mixed media on canvas, with collage, paints and inks.

Above, this piece takes up the same idea but in mosaic, using glass on a white background.

Mosaic became part of my practice after I volunteered for a public mosaic installation and I have continued ever since in what became Boston School of Mosaic (BSM). It was the subject of my Collaborative Practice module and it has also now become part of my personal practice.

The other direction is a consideration of how the spiritual can be expressed in abstraction, including an ambivalent view of Christianity.

In October 2023 I am having a solo exhibition of my work at Fydell House, a Queen Anne mansion in Boston, which houses the studio of Boston School of Mosaic.

I will exhibit works and produce an art book*, with the title and cover below (in progress). I am debating how to combine my abstract landscapes with my abstracts on The Stations of the Cross, The Annunciation, etc – perhaps hanging them in separate rooms at Fydell House.

*9″ x 6″. No cover text yet.

Work in Progress at 4th June 2023

I am doing another light-filled landscape in collage and mosaic. Below this is the mosaic board with the test painting and the collage is in progress below. I want the top to be
3- dimensional and the water flat as a contrast.

Continuing Collaborative Practice in Mosaic after the end of the Module

I still regret the lack of a forward-facing event during the Collaborative practice module, however, there are a number of exciting projects which have happened already or which are still to come.

On May 1st 2023, as part of the Boston Town Jewels project, there was a wood-carving outreach day, which was followed on the 2nd May by a Mosaic outreach day.

This was a community day, which included groups from Scott House, for those with brain injuries. The theme was fish, frogs and frog spawn with mosaic templates and jar lids for mosaic pieces to be arranged as desired.

On the 4th May, a group from Boston School of Mosaic (BSM) visited Greenfield Pottery In Holbeach along with Nick Jones, Programme Director of Transported Arts, University of Lincoln to talk about BSM’s collaboration in a huge community project.

The idea is to produce a large collaborative mural to be installed in a neglected passageway in Spalding. Greenfield Pottery will work with schools and community groups to create 3000 ceramic “tulips” to be installed in “fields”. This celebrates Spalding’s tulip-growing history and its flower parades.

Boston School of Mosaic will contribute a mosaic landscape to run across the top of the piece, depicting sky, clouds, trees and churches.

27th May BSM stall for Hanse Day

https://www.transportedart.com/events/boston-hanse-day

BSM, woodcarvers and others are having stalls on this day to show the public what we do.

ONGOING PROJECTS

A prep school in Boston wants to use Jane Kay and me from BSM to create mosaic panesl in the playground of the school, with lots of collaborative input from the children.

funding was confirmed on Friday 12th May.

Reflect: reviewing my documentation

Learning Outcomes
PROCESS: Evaluate your use of processes, techniques and technologies through experimentation to refine your creative practice according to self-initiated objectives.

PROFESSIONALISM: Formulate active management and communication skills to exhibit pro-active engagement in the course, realising ambitious projects that prepare you for professional practice, while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

COLLABORATION: Plan and execute collaborative opportunities, both within and external to our academic community, using appropriate communication strategies to consolidate roles andresponsibilities to realise creative projects.

Tutor Feedback

Process
There’s a good balance of text and visual documentation. It’s helpful to see work in progress and what goes into the creation of a mural.

Professionalism
You’ve shared ways the project impacts and targets your local community with how you recruit. There’s also mention of future plans for the project and further recruitment.
What further detail can be shared around the schedule and timeline? What can be shared about the practicalities of bringing a mural in public space to completion?

Collaboration
Consider your role within the collaboration outside of your formal title of Secretary – how are you contributing creatively? Where will the final work be installed and what does that process look like?

Next, you are going to review your documentation and reflect on what aspects worked well and what changes you might implement. You will then make a revised plan to document your finished work based on what you learned throughout this process.

Review documentation

Look critically at the documentation materials you produced. Consider what the images show, and what is missing or not sufficiently evident:

What works best: is there a medium that feels more successful in transmitting the feel and atmosphere of the work? Photography and short videos
Is there a medium that does not add much, and that you can discard to simplify?
There is a lot of text regarding the administration of the group: some of this could be shortened/condensed
Are there elements of the work missing, and if so, which medium might be more appropriate to integrate those?
There is frustration in getting the details on the planned outcomes of the Town Jewels project. However, Nick Jones, Transported’s Programme Director, is coming into the School of Mosaic on Wed 29th March to discuss our mosaic pieces and the places that are earmarked/being considered for installation
The result of this meeting regarding the Town Jewels is summarised by Nick Jones in the video here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ji9Vr_aSGM&t=40s
Are there elements of the work that need to be enhanced, and which medium would work best for that? How I am contributing creatively as well as administratively

Select the documentation outputs that you feel are most successful. Critically reviewing your documentation may also give you insights and glimpses not only about the documentation of the work, but about the work itself, and you may note areas for further exploration.

Photographs and sketches with some text and a durational 8 minute video because:
the end of my project, Boston School of Mosaic’s part in the installation of the Town Jewels mosaics in selected places in Boston, will happen after the end of the course.

Therefore there will not be a public-facing event in time.

However, the group has a lot of followers on social media, and participants in our room in Boston, so I would like to submit a video instead if that would be OK as It would reach a lot of people.

I could show the group and its dynamics and how the creation of the Boston School of Mosaics, with its imminent bank account, is progressing, as this is part of my project.
I could document the past installation of the Dolphin Lane Project, in which many of us participated, using videos and stills.
I could use videos of work on the pieces for the Town Jewels, and the finished pieces we already have created.
I could talk about our future plans for installations in a “ribbon of jewels” around the town as part of Town Jewels and show their likely places for display.
I would produce a voice-over to give a commentary on all these aspects and how they contribute to my project.

Your revised documentation plans

You tested your documentation approach and reflected on the results. You most likely noticed things that worked very well, and things that did not work so well. Based on this, make a note of how you will document your final resolved work. This may change later as your project evolves, but having a clear idea means that you can put the resources in place to document your work to the highest quality possible.

The main alteration will be the durational video.

I will also show my own creative input, which has consisted of many sketches and the creation of drawings for the mosaics for other people as well as for myself, as well as my work on mosaics.

I am also experimenting with using mosaic in my own practice, in a mosaic glass landscape, echoing my canvases, concerning light and transcendence in nature.

Upload your reflection, and a selection of images to the CRJ

Finally, upload a curated selection of 3–6 visuals and your thoughts on documentation. Your uploaded materials may include photographs, short videos, sketches, scores, narratives, and/or audio files, as appropriate for your project. Your short written reflective summary may include what worked well, what didn’t, and how you plan to document your resolved work. You may also begin thinking about how to document your public sharing.

The images below show the development of the Dolphin Lane Project and how it is metamorphosing, with skills and even partial mosaics developing for the Town Jewels: I have added a video for up-to-date details of the group’s work, creating mosaics of endangered species for the Town Jewels.

Summary of discussion re Boston School of Mosaics finances on Monday 20 March 2023

Stephen (Treasurer), Jill, Jenny, Jan, myself (Secretary)

We are now collecting £20 a month (£5.50 drop-in as an occasional day rate) towards rent, materials, tiles and other expenses.

However, when Stephen discussed rent with the Fydell house admin, we found that the rent is charged at £75 a month only if we pay 6 months in advance = £450. The next payment will be due at the end of May.

We need to reiterate to members that payment is due as we have only £125 at the moment, so some members have not paid for March yet. 3 months’ subs will only give us £375 at the current rate and that does not allow anything for materials, tools etc.

We all agreed that Fydell House is an ideal base for us, and we can drop in any day between Monday and Friday to use the room, which is amazing. We can leave work out, store our finished mosaics etc etc. Also, when the Dolphin Lane Project was being set up it took ages to get premises.

We are also in a perfect location to eventually apply for grants.

Contextualisation

I still have a lot of contextual research to do, but these are my starting points:

The context of my work during this module is the creation of mosaics for public installation, which involves working in a collaborative group, Boston School of Mosaics. Mosaic is an ancient art form which is ideally suited for public installation; it is long-lasting, easy to clean and colourful. Roman pavements are still often uncovered, and in church art, mosaics

This picture taken on October 12, 2022 shows a view of a mosaic floor dating to the Roman era being excavated in the city of al-Rastan in Syria’s west-central province of Homs, after its discovery was announced by Syria’s General Directorate of Antiquities. – Syria revealed on October 12 a remarkably intact 1,600-year-old Roman-era mosaic including depictions of warriors in the Trojan War, with authorities hailing it as one of the “rarest” found. The mosaic is the latest to be found in Rastan, which the government seized back from rebels in 2018 after years of bloodshed. “It is not the oldest of its kind, but it’s the most complete and the rarest,” according to Syria’s General Directorate of Museums. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA/AFP via Getty Images)

Relevant theoretical issues include
the art v craft dichotomy

Some of my research includes the following:

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/womens_work

There is a hierarchy in the arts: decorative art at the bottom, and the
human form at the top. Because we are men.
—Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant, 1918

Below, an iconic image: Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1974–1979, mixed media, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Courtesy: © Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago Hits Back at 'Dinner Party' Criticism | Frieze

Art vs crafts?

Alana Tyson shares her response to the debasement of ‘feminine’ domestic crafts, an attitude which continues to marginalise many women in the art world.

Dangerous Women Project

This is something I am continuing to explore, with the records of Dangerous Women Project, This ran for a year under the University of Edinburgh’s Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), 2016/2017, with its iconic image of a crocheted balaclava, and there was a book published in 2021:

The Art of Being Dangerous: Exploring Women and Danger through Creative Expression Paperback – 3 May 2021by Shaw (Author, Editor), Fletcher-Watson (Author, Editor), Jo (Editor), Ben (Editor)

I am also looking at this:The Distinction between Art and Craft, Sally J. Markowitz, The Journal of Aesthetic Education Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring, 1994

The work of Kaffe Fasset and Grayson Perry, Judy Chicago and others show these are permeable boundaries.

Collaborative approaches:

Claire Bishop, The Social Turn: Collaboration and its discontents in Week 1 of Collaborative Practices illustrates ideas of relational practices and attitudes to aesthetic practices. The collaborators need to be respected as authors of their own work and this was followed in the week 7 lecture series where Pedro Matias (Part One, Video) said that there needs to be the “an active viewing of each utterance from the perspective of the other”, and directors should be a facilitators of the collaboration, also

Managing Art Projects with Societal Impact MAPSI study book
“The societal impact of art projects can be seen as two-fold: 1 Impact of participation in art projects (e.g. social, cultural, aesthetic and economic) 2 Impact on passive surroundings of arts and cultural projects” looks relevant.

Boston School of mosaic is working well as a collaborative group, desinging and making mosaic for a project in the town. It feature endangered species, so this connects well with the prebious module on Sustainable Strategies..