How I got to where I am now - part 2

So for part 2 of my paper cutting journey

Somehow from all the collages I had been making it seemed a natural extension to start cutting out a pattern from the map rather than painting it on (the map).

I then started making some more and as I had an exhibition that I had to make work for, it seemed a good opportunity to show them (I seem to remember cutting them over Christmas as the exhibition was in early January).

These cut outs were made from full pages of an atlas and were based on Japanese patterns. 

The exhibition was called 'The Beautiful and the Useless', it took place in January 2003 at Standpoint Gallery in London.  It was a 2 person show, the other artist was Nik Ramage who makes amazing machines that are inherently useless.  I exhibited a mixture of collages and some cut outs.  It was the first time I had shown them in public.

Of all the work that I exhibited the cut outs got the most attention and I was lucky enough to sell most of them during the exhibition.

Unfortunately the photos I had taken are not brilliant but you can get an idea of what they looked like.

I hadn't worked out how to display them at this point, so used small clips and pins. 

I haven't made more many more of these, though I would like to as looking at them now they look very beautiful and can't quite believe that I drew the pattern on the front and cut them out rather than tracing it out and sticking it on the back, which I do now.  I'm thinking that I would quite like to make some more pieces like this, will have to see what happens.

Astronomical Charts.

I moved on from these full page cut outs to flowers.

Dancing Greek Flowers

And then on to the birds, here are a selection of the early ones I made, which were the beginning of the real bird obsession.

 Next time I'll show some other early pieces that haven't been seen in a while.

How I got to where I am now - part 1

People often ask me how I got into making the work I do now, what first got me started.

It always a difficult question to answer as it wasn't really a conscious decision.  It was the result of many things that somehow came together to try to solve a problem, though it solved a different problem to the one I thought I had.

The problem I thought I was solving was looking for a different way to use maps in the collage work I was doing then, I wasn't expecting to start a whole new way or working!

One of the pieces I worked on which lead me to make my first cuts into maps was

Aloha, 2002

This piece is made from maps, gouache, pencil collage mounted on wood, it's about 3 metres wide. It even had a sound track that went with it that was a found recording of the beginning of a Haiwian music concert.



Another piece that I made that involved maps was this one

Flock, 2001

This piece was made from a star atlas from 1938, gouache, collage. It was again quite big, about 3m high and a had a recording of bird song that went with it.  I always somehow felt the individual pieces worked better than the whole.


No prizes for spotting the theme going on here...

Bingo Parrot, 2002

I forgot all about this

I had some work in the Ideal Home show recently.  It was in The Prince's House, which was all about sustainable living.  It was pointed out to me that I had never mentioned it.

The work that was shown is

Well its not looking good from up here

 

You can find out more about it and see the whole house here.  The ideal home show goes up to Edinburgh in May so I will  blog about some of the other amazing work in the house then.

Sneak a Peak

I was very busy in January and February working on a very big commission for a new hotel in London.  I blogged about it before here. The piece is being installed tomorrow, which is very exciting and I can't wait to go along and see it (and have a cocktail or 2 in the hotel bar to celebrate!).  Until I can reveal more here is a piece from it.

These drawings caught my eye when I was in Paris recently.  They are in chalk so will gradually fade and get brushed away in a beautiful way.  Such a great use of a black space.

Paper finds

I was walking past this lovely shop the Peanut Vendor in the Newington Green area of London the other day and found this. Its a full sheet about A2 sized.

Its some kind of packaging material I think, it could be the cover for a match box.  The ship on the front is a Galiote.  I couldn't resist it. They had a few more different ones but I was drawn to the ships. I'm going to frame it I think.

Their website seems to down at the moment but you can find out further details here, its a great shop and a great area to visit for a wander (luckily its just 10 minutes from my house so I may be back for some more prints!)

Parisian Adventure - a few more photos

I took a few photos of other things in the gallery that caught my eye, though didn't make a note of the makers of them (as I said before was in a bit of a daze, from excitement when I was there, I had to control my feet from doing a happy dance in the middle of the gallery). I wish now I had taken more photos, Oh well another trip to Paris will be needed very soon.

A lampshade and installation made out of pegs with ends painted blue and white.  So simple yet stunning.  The designer is from Argentina (that's all I know)

I love this stool/brush combination.  The colour was just stunning.

That's it for Gallery S Bensimon, if you are in Paris I would recommend a trip, its just around the corner from Merci and other lovely boutiques.