Wirksworth Arts Trail 2013

 
 

 SEPTEMBER 7th  2013

Had a brill time at the Wirksworth Arts Festival trail weekend. Saw lots of wierd and wonderful art work - contemporary craft, fine art, installation, performance and music. Discovered the 'Northern Light' Cinema (see further down blog), an independent cinema showing a broad range of films. During the trail films were showing that you could drop into (taking your 6 year old son into an Isabella Rosellini film called 'Green Porno' - even if the poster did have Isabbella Rossellini dressed as a  cute green spider was not a good idea at - the clue is in the title of the film really)!

 

Saw a great 3 piece band playing on one of the side alleys where one guy was playing a saw (bottom left of photo)- sounded amazing.

 

 

The Blacksmiths Depositree installation piece in the old blacksmiths was really interesting, a collection of found objects created into a story telling tree:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the last couple of years Wirksworth Festival has clearly established itself as a key event in the East Midlands cultural calendar. During 2012, over the famous trails weekend over 170 artists exhibited in every conceivable space in the town; houses, historic buildings, churches, shop windows, gardens, pubs and public spaces - a high quality contemporary visual arts programme, that has helped the Festival grow in profile and now attracts applications from all over the world

 

some images of my favourite work:

 

 

Phoebe Eason

 

I like to make people laugh, feel strong and remember. I first cut lino when I was 12 and became gently obsessed. I now cut and hand press lino, wood and vinyl. It makes me very happy to be so involved at each step which I hope shows in the work. I can’t wait to see the final reveal. I’m not trained as a relief printmaker but I’ve done it a lot and made my own way. I love my family, animals, music, fairytales, nature and colour and feel compelled and content to let them inspire me.
Website:http://www.phoebeeason.com/

Serena Smith

The images I create are often developed through the methodologies of printmaking. Recent work, based on the local landscape, is produced through the combined use of digital photography and hand drawn stone lithography. The images that emerge from this convergence, shaped by the systematic limitations of technology and the interference of chance, knowingly play with the potential for lyrical ambiguity inherent within the structures of pictorial representation.

Website:http://www.serenasmith.org


Katie Stainer

 

Katie is a Nottingham based designer specialising in unique origami jewellery and sculpture created using recycled books. As a child Katie was fascinated by stories and papers, and during her time at University this interest developed into a passion. Katie lets her materials dictate colour, texture and feel and strives to allow the qualities of the paper to speak for itself. Through experimentation with paper techniques and effects Katie explores the contemporary market for intricate paper crafted items, working to reinvent the role of paper in the modern age.

Website:http://www.katiestainer.co.uk

Email: katiestainer@gmail.com

 

Suet Yi

 

"Ceramics and I... are bonded by destiny. It is holding my love for a simple and quiet life." Suet Yi explores beauty and simplicity from her love of the countryside and enjoys transforming her drawings into 3D objects using wood and clay. The beauty of wild flowers, falling leaves, resting birds and autumn trees draw her to create a little world of nature into ceramics. From her playful plates to her little birds and trees, there is a sensibility as delicate as the materials. They symbolise Suet Yi's fine draughtsmanship and fertile imagination within a classic oriental tradition.

Website:http://www.suetyiceramics.co.uk

Email: suetyiyip@gmail.com

 

 

Karen Woods

 

This independent British design duo, Karen Woods, John Goadby, have combined their talents to create unique collections with an illustrative narrative for the home and as fashion accessoraries Each exciting collection tells a visual story as diverse in scope as 1940s pin ups, tattoos, Victorian engravings, and botanical sketches to poetry. The concept is researched for clarity and then hand drawn, printed and embroidered using Karen Wood’s signature textiles. The final designs are scanned and re digitally worked before being printed onto natural fabrics and fibers. The scarves have been accepted for One Year On 2013, showing collections such as Sailors Sweet heart and The Foundling Flowers. RugSlug Bear company brand, also hope to expand their work and product range to include birch ply trays and soft furnishings

Website:www.karenwoods.co.uk

http://www.rug-slug-bear.com/

Email: mail@karenwoods.co.uk

Aly Jackson

 

Photography

My work draws on an ongoing fascination with factors affecting us over time, particularly separation. I am drawn by the powerful emotions attached to fragmented memories and phantasies.

From original photographs I draw out specific aspects, disrupt landscapes and develop layer upon layer of disjointed images, creating new unrecognisable places which identify with the confusion of truth versus flawed memory or conscious denial.

The images are detailed, containing numerous elements and ideas. I am interested in the interaction between the viewer and the piece, the viewer becoming author of the work, enabling their own personal narrative to develop.

Phone: 07974 252567

Email: alyjackson@me.com

Web: www.alyjackson.com

 

 

Joe stood in front of work - becoming part of the art!

 

 

"Every Contact Leaves a Trace"

My current work developed out of my ongoing series LAT/LONG of low light night photography of rural and urban landscapes.

When we usually look at a photograph we try to interpret and discover the intentions of the photographer by applying our own notions and preconceptions.

With my recent installation, I invite the viewer to step through the curtain and to relive this moment of excitement that leads me to press the shutter. By lifting the veil of the disregarded photographic process itself, I challenge the viewer to start a new dialogue.

Phone: 07786541009

Email: nebeltal@googlemail.com

Deborah Bird

 

My work involves the use of ice and paper for the purpose of photographic intervention. During the festival my exhibited work would include pieces developed whilst working as artist in residence in the Grand Canyon National Park from April May 2012. I take inspiration from organic pattern and structure in the landscape and prepare intricate paper sculptures which I set into sheets of ice. These are then captured using photography through all of the stages of thaw and disintegration. Final pieces are exhibited as photographic giclees, alongside paper sculpture work, melting ice pieces and pen and ink studies.

Website:http://www.deborahbirdart.com

Email: artybird08@yahoo.co.uk

The Northern Light Independent cinema

 

http://www.thenorthernlightcinema.co.uk/index.php/home/news

 

The Northern Light Cinema will bring back the glamour of the big screen to town and try to provide a cinema fit for Wirksworth - charming, quaint, quirky, friendly, sometimes challenging but always good fun.

It will provide film with ‘all the trimmings’ (curtains, trailers, adverts etc), a platform to explore a wider appreciation and experience of world, independent and local film, and live links to other arts performances, such at the NT (eventually), communities and cultures.

The auditorium will seat 52 in style, with 3 delux vintage sofas on the back row, 6 eclectic armchairs and 40 refurbished 1930s cinema seats. The bar will blend the best of British with a touch of Manhattan.

The idea for The Northern Light Cinema has been a while in the making. The brain child of Esther Patterson and husband Paul Carr, who have both lived and worked in the town for over 16 years, it has taken the success of Esther's other business, hand-blown glass lighting (Curiousa & Curiousa), and the sale of Tony Weston's former electrical showroom, to bring the dream closer to reality.

 

 

 

About Green Porno

 

Isabella Rossellini's critically acclaimed and provocative online series, GREEN PORNO covers both land and sea! The series features Rossellini as she acts out the reproductive habits of marine animals and insects, both scientifically accurate yet extremely entertaining.