Black Swan Arts Volunteering

After finishing uni I finally managed to get a part time job, and started looking around for some volunteering work that could fill my days off. I looked up the galleries in Somerset and found one called Black Swan Arts. It appealed to me mainly because after doing so much job searching and CV writing, I was relieved to see somewhere where volunteering was easy to get into. They were looking for people to give a hand and had an email address where I could simply ask if I could help. If anyone out there is in the same situation as me, with a part time job wanting to do bits of vounteering on the side, I do suggest you look into working with the Black Swan Arts. They have recently lost all their funding so this year (their 25th Anniversairy) was geared towards an appeal to raise as much money for the next year as possible and keep their gallery running! Therefore they love people who are willing to volunteer, and were really appreciative of my interest. I was immediately put through to Amanda Sheridan- the curator for the upcoming exhibition called 'The 25 Years of Christmas', and she asked if I would be interested in working with her to organise the exhibition. Obviously this was a dream come true; direct work experience in curating a fundraising exhibition! I could already feel my CV start to glow!

 

The whole thing has been great fun. Being busy with my job and this exhibition I haven't had much time to keep an online update on things, so it's all coming out now. The open evening was on the 2nd on December, with all the other volunteers and trustees attending alongside the artists and everyones guests. It was a lovely night and Amanda seemed really happy with the exhibition. The Black Swan has guest curators for each exhibition, and since this exhibition was about fundraising and looking back at the history of The Black Swan Arts, Amanda had to work very hard to get donations from as many artists as possible. The artists were really generous, and there were some absolutely beautiful pieces in the show, with one selling even before the show was hung!

Working with The Black Swan Arts has been great. I got to know some of the community of artists in Somerset, became friends with lots of lovely people at the gallery, and had a great time with Amanda Sheridon who is a great mentor and just a lovely person generally. I was given the task of designing the poster/ leaflets, making labels and giving advice to Amanda when needed- she was very sweet in asking my opinion on things!

To sum up it was fab, and I'm looking into working with Amanda on other projects. I will provide some photos of the exhibition, and some I took of its preparation, as well as the poster I helped design. 

For more information on the Black Swan Arts Centre visit: http://www.blackswan.org.uk/

See the full gallery on Posterous

4992_Black_Swan_25_Years_of_Christmas_poster_A3_V3.pdf Download this file

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Gifts and Cards

I'm afraid I didn't managed to get any pictures of Joes portfolio in end- however he did get the job he wanted so it obviously worked! I need to make myself one....

 

This blog is just giving a quick update on my activities. Mainly I have been working on making things for people. My sisters birthday has just been and gone and I made a her a card and a painting of a place where we live that we used to hang out at years ago. She lives near where the painting is of so she wanted me to make this for her- so I did! The other two pictures show the card and small painting I made for my gran recently. She had a large stroke about a month or so ago and shes really quite ill. I have been to see her recently but before I went I made a few things for her and was sending up photos of things I have been doing. The painting is from a photograph of her and me the last time I saw her before the stroke, when she was down at mine for my birthday in April. It's a lovely photograph and she has always been really supportive of my art. I'm looking forward to seeing her again soon!

 

Lastly I have been loving the 'Fake or Fortune' series on TV at the moment! It's great to see all the different ways they can explore a painting to find out exactly when it was painted and who by! I've been catching it online so I don't know when exactly its on but if you're interested in art and conservation its worth watching! 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Portfolios and Pamphlets

Obviously since I finished working on my degree I haven't been making much art. Generally the creative stuff I have been doing is practical stuff, usually as favours or part of work. I have been working for an organisation in Bradford called Fabric. They have a lovely art space called Pop Up (Facebook profile can be viewed here: http://www.facebook.com/PopUpArtSpace) My main job is to invigilate but I have also been working on a pamphlet that promoted small, interesting venues in Bradford. I've been looking around to find these places, restaurants, bars, galleries and local shops, then adding them to the guide with pictures and descriptions in a nice design. It's been interesting doing design work as I usually try to avoid it. I also had to make a map which you can see on the back of the guide. These are meant to be simple folded pamphlets so the designs have been very free and unrestrained by the layout of the booklet.

The other work I have been doing is making portfolios. The picture I have attached shows one I am making for my friend Joe who is hoping to become a designer or design teacher having just finished a PGCE year. He hasn't got a website yet but when he does I will be linking it cos his work is great! I also made a teaching portfolio for my sister who managed to get the job she needed the portfolio for, so obviously very proud/ jealous of her! I don't have pictures of that portfolio yet but I will try and get some soon.

The portfolios are very simple, I just get some photos of fabrics from Leeds Market and send them to whoever I'm making the portfolio for, and they choose what design they want. I then use the chosen fabric to cover some A3 boards and a spine, attaching ribbons to the sides that can be tied to keep the loose boards inside. With my sister we spent a whole weekend going through all the photos and papers she wanted in her portfolio, organising it, sticking it onto the boards then annotating it. I expect something similar to happen with Joe's, currently it's just drying. I love making these as the result is usually very satisfying!

On a last note I found out I got a 2:1 for my degree which I am very happy about! Looking forward to seeing my family and celebrating with them, my Dad has the champagne ready!

 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

University of Leeds Degree Show Website

Here it is!! > http://www.leedsschoolofdesign.co.uk/

 

The pictures on there will probably be on here as well, but look out for my friends- Theo Durrant and Sarah Kaul in particular- but also all the other art students, lots of amazing work!

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Work submitted!

Heres a quick look at the submission set up of my work, a lot the books there I won't use for the final degree show to make sure its all good standard of work. I'm aiming to keep the simple layout though. Also I will have the projection all set up at the show. 

 

Finished my degree! Lets hope I do well enough to graduate :P 

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Show Me the Monet

A quick post just saying that anyone interested in art should watch this programme- on Mondays at 5.15pm, not sure how long for. It's a competition for artists to get an exhibition and sale in the Royal College of Art in London. Heres a link to the facebook page for more info- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Show-Me-the-Monet/104610129609798

Look out for Belinda Durrant who I know, her work is very good! http://www.belindadurrant.co.uk/

Not much happening with my own work right now. I'm thinking the next thing I will do (having pretty much finished my uni work now) is to make a sci-fi book for a show in Portland. Should be fun just to make even if I don't get in! 

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Two New Books

These are the two books I have made as 'final pieces' for my final year of uni: 'Thread and Ink.' and "Thread and Hands.'. They are an summery of all the other books I have made looking at printing, sewing and xerox. They were made very simply as concertina books using my printer. I composed the images and threads on my scanner and photocopied it onto heavy weight paper then glued it all together as a concertina. I realised after a few experiments and visits to book fairs (went to the Bristol Artists Books Event last weekend- it was great!) that the simpler the printing and construction, the better the quality, therefore these books are all paper, with soft, loose covers as the binding. Hope you like them!

 

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Artist Book 3.0

Artist Books 3.0 is a site I have just signed up with. You become a member and customise a profile page, adding your own images of your work, others work and galleries etc. You can also blog on it. It's much like this except its dedicated to Book Art, making it a great resource for book lovers! It also has this thing called 'groups' where certain aspects of book art are discussed and explored, such as "book art in education", or "libraries and artists' books". I have only been on it for a day now but already it seems to be providing lots of useful info. Annoyingly I didn't know about it when I was writing my dissertation because it would have been a great way to discuss the issues I was addressing with others in the book art world! However I just got my thesis printed today so thats that :P 

 

I found it at the UWE book arts website http://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/ which has been a massively useful resource throughout this term! If you want to see my profile or become a member of Artist Books 3.0 yourself (I do recommend it!) my page is at http://artistbooks.ning.com/profile/RosieDodds, you can link it to your twitter if you have one.

I will keep posting on here I think because it spreads my posts across twitter, facebook, blogger and obviously on here. I will mainly use Artist Books 3.0 for discussing things with others and finding out more of whats out there. Have fun!

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Leeds International Artists' Book Fair 2011

It was a couple of weekends ago now. I'm sorry I only just got round to talking about it, I've been focussing on getting it into my dissertation first because it was just so useful!! It was held in the Parkinson Building at Leeds University, with the hall filled with tables all exhibited artists' books from tonnes of different artists. It was incredible for art lovers and book lovers alike.

 

One thing I noticed was how the fair itself reflects Book Art. It's history could be seen in the contemporary work being shown, with concrete poetry, zines, livre's d'artists and every kind of genre possible being shown somewhere in the hall. In a way it also reflects the sequential nature of books, with lots of different tables of work coming together to make one entity. In my dissertation I made the point that it is only in events or exhibitions like this, where every different type of book art can be seen and compared under one roof, that the nature and scope of book art can be fully understood. It worked to depersonalise what be art can be. Rather than only having your own idea of what it can be, you can see everyones view, and therefore its diversity.

 

I sold a couple of small books. My first ever sale of my own art (yay!). Most of the books I sold were my acetate books which you can see in the image below. That was the table that the University of Leeds Art and Design people had. It was great fun! I also got some books- my first artists' books for my (hopefully) growing collection! A very successful day!

 

Thanks to Chris Taylor for giving us that opportunity! If there is ever an artists' book fair where you are, or if you are in Leeds for the 15th book fair next year make sure you go! 

 

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Improving Previous Ideas

In my last post I showed the new way I have been binding books as well as some acetate books I have been making. Since then I have made about 10 acetate books which are drawn, and three bound books. However I've found a way of improving the books I make.

 

In the pictures with this post there I have shown the acetate books and some pictures of the new way I have been binding books. Instead of using hessian (which as I said before was too thick) I have been using felt, a softer, thinner fabric. I have also slightly changed the way I cut the fabric before gluing it to the boards so the folds around the corners aren't so apparent. I feel that these minor changes have made a world of difference!

 

After rebinding the first fold out printed book (shown in the previous post) I made another which folds differently and got a photo book printed and bound that. The photo book contains stills taken from an animation I made of handling books in a library. It's almost like a flick book except its presented as the normal book layout so the movement of the photos is slower and represents the journey the viewer takes as they travel through the pages of the book. The body of this book is attached to its cover with an elastic band (the best way I have at the moment of attaching the book to its cover without restricting the movement of the pages).

 

The acetate books have evolved to be photos printed onto acetates then folded into little books and pages (rather than the images being drawn). They look much smarter and have a more resolved feel, linking into the photo book in their use of photography, yet also referencing paper folding. However I still feel the drawn versions (shown in the previous post) look more fragile... At this point I will probably carry on making both!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

 

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Transparent Books and Learning to Make Covers

I've been trying to improve how I make the covers on my books so they look more resolved and professional. This is turning out to be quite tricky as book binding is a very complicated and precise craft. The first image here is my attempt at making a cover with the body of the book loose so it can be played with and handled without the hardback cover getting in the way. I used Hessian which is too thick really as on the inside the paper I have stuck onto the book to hide where I have glued down the hessian is quite bumpy and not very tidy. I will keep trying!

The other two pictures are some transparent books I have literally just tried out this evening because I fancied doing some drawing and had some transparent paper hanging around. I made a drawing on the paper then folded it in different ways after. I like the way the viewer doesn't have to handle the work to know the contents. I think this is something I will continue. 

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Book and Degree Show Update

After my last two posts I thought I would continue the seasonal/ degree show theme. The first image I have posted is a set of valentines day cards I have made as some of the students on my course are selling valentines day cards to raise some money for our show (thanks guys!) and this is my contribution. If you're studying at Leeds Uni then do look out for these stalls because there will be some lovely cards and bits to buy and give to your loved ones (aww).

The other three photos are images of my work in progress. I'm mainly working on books that use concertina folding as a layout but then have extra pages unfolding from the main body.... kind of like a puzzle book. I'm experimenting with different ways of folding paper to make intricate little books that can be played with when handling. I have also been sending books off to be professionally printed and bound. They mainly contain images taken from animations of my hands playing with paper puzzles. I'm still using the mono-printing and animating technique that I developed last semester to create whole images that I can cut into to make a book. 

Happy Valentines Day (way in advance!) 

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous

Degree Show

I'm currently a student at the University of Leeds and it's my third year so our Degree Show is coming up. I'd love for people to come if they can! Here's a little preview of some of the artists (fellow students) making work for it http://www.youtube.com/user/SeeMoreOpera

It's in June 2011 (between the 2nd and the 27th to my knowledge) and it's in the Clothworkers South building in the main Leeds University Campus. More information about where the Uni and it's campus is can be found at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/info/20014/about/157/how_to_find_us

My work is so-so but the other guys on my course are really amazing artists who I think will go really far! Some of their work will be for sale so if your looking for new and interesting art come along. 

You can follow this event on Twitter just type ArtDesignSHOW into the search box. I'm also following it and theres a link to my Twitter on this page.

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything on here for a while but I promise I will update you soon (when I actually have some decent/ finished work to show!!)

Thanks Everyone! xxx

Posted via email from iamrosie's posterous