Butterfly Ball

After a very busy summer, I feel like it has been ages upon ages and ages since I've been working in my  beamed garret and getting any body of work out there. But even though I have not been physically making the work as much as I would like (I have the rest of my life), I'm always thinking about it, absorbing ideas, taking photos. Down time is just as important as the activity of making work. 

But I'm back in the studio, music of choice is Coco Rosie, Fever Ray, Joanna Newsom and any imaginative female vocalisation in touch with their elven fairychild side. Oh, and some lively Balkan Beats and Klezma music!

This week, I have been working for my Dutch client and adding some beautiful critters to their poster (see above) I produced earlier in the year. The original poster has quietly becoming quite famous in it's own right. It is being used as a backdrop for a film, is on tour around Europe and, when the updated poster gets printed, will be posted all round Amsterdam. So, if you happen to be in Amsterdam and you walk past it, please send a photo in!

Lastly, in Todmorden on Friday, Three Valley Vegans are presenting a fantastic and fun evening of said Balkan beats, (with a bit of klezma thrown in) as well as Irish and a mixture of folk, including the great Lazlo Baby, Phil Reed and Trixxie Corish. They will be playing at the Fielden Centre from 7 pm. My teeshirts will be for sale at the main door!

Click here to buy the tickets: 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/world-vegan-day-todmorden-gig-featuring-lazlo-baby-and-guests-tickets-37389256272

Journey around Cornholme with local artist, Karen Alderson

Just got back from a wonderful (and too short) holiday in Cornwall; my imagination running rampant with visits to stunning smugglers coves, precariously built tin mines sitting on the cliffs that have stood the tests of time and the mysterious creeks of the Helford River where French pirates used to hide. I half expected to see men wearing tricornered hats and meet beautiful women called Demelza. We didn't though, apparently we were a few weeks late for the filming of the coastal scenes in the 'Poldark' series, adapted for the BBC.

But it is always great to get home to our own dramatic and timeless landscape and to the historical village with it's Victorian industrial charm, where, a hundred years earlier, Demelza would not have looked out of place on the moors cradling our village. Fellow Cornholme (pronounced corn-home) resident and artist, Karen Alderson, takes her creative inspiration from walking around the village and surrounding Pennine Hills every day, absorbing and observing the characteristics in it's intricate detail, both grit and beauty. Thanks for sharing your inspired world, Karen, we love the blog!

Journey around Cornholme

West Yorkshire boundary marker

Last year Harriet visited my studio whilst I was exhibiting in Todmorden Open Studios, she had recently moved into the village and was making contact with other artists. Since then we have been involved in CAG, Cornholme Artists Group, set up by Clare Pearl, with the aim of bringing artists together for support and collaboration. Harriet put a call out to the CAG for us to write about what it’s like being an artist living in Cornholme, I thought about this in relation to my practice which is exploring walking as a primary research tool and given that I have lived in Cornholme for 8 years but am unsure where the boundaries are I decide to take a walk to find out. Walking helps me to see more than when I’m driving, I become part of the environment than separate from it and have more conversations. I take my camera.

The walk starts on the A646. I locate the Lancashire signage welcoming careful drivers and ten metres eastward that of the Borough of Burnley/Cliviger one camouflaged by a ripple of young ash trees. Seven metres down the road the West Yorkshire boundary marker waits, it’s cycloptic white rose gazing into the seven metres of liminal space in-between the boundary markers. I stand in the unmarked zone, the non place and feel at home.

Roebuck Inn, Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the first village in West Yorkshire. “The first pub in Yorkshire” is The Roebuck, mouldy white walls, crumbling window frames, chickens running on what once was a bowling green, it boasts real beef and real gravy and welcomes cyclists on a large hand written board. The road takes me past stone and brick built houses, a corner shop up for sale and the Glenview pub, flanked by parental hills covered with pine trees. I pass Flavas, a Chinese take away, with nauseating orange roller shutters and follow the road as it skirts a small glut of social housing. There stands the Cornholme sign, like an omen before you go under the pigeon infested Hungry Wood railway bridge.

Hungry Wood railway bridge

On the other side of the railway bridge high stone walls contain the road and reflect the hills on either side making me feel like I’m being pushed through a stone birth channel.  The village doesn’t get much sun. I pass two sets of steps that lead up to houses on the left and then follow a third set that take me to a small building in which a cat sits on an old car seat. The cat looks like it has cold sores. Three empty larger cans have been crushed on the floor. There is a low advertising board and a piece of wasteland on which is a derelict shed surrounded by security fencing. The hillside races up almost perpendicular at the bottom of which is a drain, newly refurbished after the floods.  A notice says “The Coal Authority” with a number to contact in case of emergency. I begin to wonder what kind of emergency would warrant a call to them.

Due to the installation of new water mains the bus stop has been repositioned outside the cemetery, I go into the graveyard as it starts raining. The steps are more than slippy and I keep hold of a thin iron railing, each step has two crosses carved into it, Led Zeppelin comes to mind. The stationary cars blare out loud music and fumes, white fuchsia hang like small ghosts in the rain but behind the gate a quiet stillness hangs like an exhaled breath.

New water mains

The roadworks bring a carnivalesque feel to the road with bright red security barriers, blue pipes and temporary walkways, I imagine hook a duck and candy floss stalls. Flats squat the place where the biggest bobbin making mill in the world once stood, this is the creation story of Cornholme, houses and communities built up to provide labour for the mills. It must have been grim. The Community Centre at the Old Library has recently been extended after a successful funding bid, it hosts job clubs, a cafe, advice and guidance sessions. A tall chimney appears out of the mist.

Second railway bridge, at the ventricle of the village

The second railway bridge is longer and darker, as I photograph the interior a man approaches then hides his face once he realises what I’m doing. Immediately at the other side Frostholme Mill imposes its huge facade seemingly as big as the hill behind it. The Waggon and Horses pub is situated directly opposite on the corner of Pudsey Road, which passes under another railway bridge, this is the main ventricle of the village where the industrial heart would pump and trains cross. It would have been busy with a row of shops, schools, churches and its own brewery.

Frostholme Mill

Its raining hard, a usual state due to the clouds getting caught on the hills and contributes to the algae that grows on everything. I mooch around at the bottom of Pudsey Road where the dye works used to be, now primed for a new housing development, contested by local residents and more recently heavily investigated by the Environment Agency for structural damage to the drain after the floods. I blissfully lose myself in photographing a distressed door and rusty metal containers at the yard where sometimes you can see chickens and potbellied pigs.

Walking through the village a woman notices me taking photographs and stops me outside the post office, she has recently moved into the village, I welcome her fresh eyes and ask about her first impressions.  “Friendly and safe” she replies and then explains she has come from Ipswich and lived not far from where the bodies were found of the women murdered by the Suffolk Strangler. We have a short conversation about the dehumanisation of sex workers. She likes the woods up Pudsey Clough. Further down I meet another woman who I have not seen for 3 years, we “catch up” briefly and discuss how it feels when children leave home. She is Columbian, we compare the differences in family culture.

Short dark streets branch off on both sides of the road, some paved with cobbles, all compressed into the acute valley carved out by a glacial river, the remains of which runs under the houses to the right and emerges fast and orange as I pass Station road. I’m coming to the end of the village, there are no houses on the right, the hill rising sharply with a lone tree and a ridge of teeth like rocks. On the left Calderdale Council Wheelie bins block the pavement.

The last three houses are called Blackrock, a small ginnel takes you to the rear which butts up to the railway line. A small stone coal shed is the final building before I walk round the bend and see the Cornholme sign. A purple and blue train slips by behind the trees, straggling blackberry bushes offer up their worm infested fruit, autumn leaves litter the pavement, a bus almost grazes my side on the narrow corner. I turn and walk back.

Karen is exhibiting at Bankfield Museum & Art Gallery as part of the Ellipsis group & the Secret Lives of Objects project. The opening is on Saturday 11 November & it runs until 6 January 2018.

Find out more on

https://thesecretlifeofobjectsblog.wordpress.com/category/karen-alderson/

Summer of Love and the Consciousness Revolution: Guest blog with Rudi Somerlove

Very excited to see my poster hanging behind an absolute hero of mine, Cambridge Biologist, Dr Rupert Sheldrake (sitting right of photo). If you have never heard of him, look him up. He is the brains behind Morphic Resonance and the author of the ironically titled bestseller, 'The Science Delusion', which scrutinises a series of ten dogmas within the scientific arena with dynamic and credible arguments in an effort to push the parameters and 'Set Science Free', which is the USA title.

The man interviewing Dr Sheldrake and sitting on the left is Netherlands resident and childhood friend, Rudi Somerlove, with whom I have collaborated several times. He has the exciting task of interviewing such luminaries and movers and shakers of the Consciousness Revolution right now. It is becoming a more mainstream fact that consciousness (experience, subjectivity) is our primary source of existence, rather than a material viewpoint (observation, objectivity). Both primary and secondary viewpoints compliment one another to give a more balanced viewpoint. This profoundly changes and expands our understand of who we are and the nature of the universe. Fascinating, huh?

The following blog comes with a caveat; I do not endorse the use of party/recreational drugs, nor is the blog below doing so. Taken irresponsibly, they can have traumatic and damaging effects: Don't take the risk. However, entheogens have been used for thousands of years successfully by indigenous peoples all over the world as a well-being medicine and to deeply connect to Mother Nature. Just recently, scientists such as Dr Robin Carhart-Harris have been allowed to research their extraordinary medicinal properties here in the UK, which is great news, because this is not only helping to shatter the destructive fear culture of this powerful tool and, thus, re-educating us, but it is looking at natural, sensible solutions to heal.

Over to you Rudi:

When I needed a logo for our third ‘Summer of Love’ venture here in the Netherlands there really was only one person I could turn to. Harriet and I have known one another since we were teenagers and throughout that time I have constantly admired her artistic acumen. Plus Harriet had already recently provided me with a really impressive logo for my new company Metamorphogenesis.

Our first step after engaging Harriet for this commission was an extensive Skype call to discuss ideas and explain what I wanted and expected for this logo. Most important was that it was eye catching and conveyed the spirit and essence of what our third ‘Summer of Love’ is all about. Harriet asked me to make a mood board with ideas and I sent her some doodling I’d been doing around the idea of sigils. A sigil is an inscribed or painted symbol considered to have magical powers. We wanted a design that honoured the feel and zeitgeist of the original ’Summer of Love’ but somehow also progressive and encompassing the ideas from now behind our new Summer of Love 3.0

Also important for me was the inclusion of the four leaf clover symbol which has a special significance for me along with the strap line ‘Third Time Lucky’ following the idea that this time the ideas embodied by the spirit behind the ’Summer’s of Love’ will finally take hold and become normal reality. 

The aims of this third ’Summer of Love’ is to promote the current renaissance around entheogenic plants. Catching the zeitgeist around the growing movement for the use of entheogens for healing and promoting awareness of a higher consciousness which is currently evolving in humanity. The first two ‘Summers of Love’ have informed and influenced this new and emerging 'Third Summer of Love', a celebration of health, life and a new conscious era dawning for the planet as a whole. We stand on the threshold of exciting times as the power and efficacy of these medicines are being proven in case study after case study to help with PTSD, depression, addiction and reducing the anxiety of the terminally ill. Amsterdam is the only place this 'Third Sumer of Love' can emerge, as here we have the luxury of a traditionally tolerant and progressive society quick to realise the medicinal benefits of these plants.

Harriet provided some initial sketches which were promising and we worked together to tweak it into the outstanding logo you see now. At one point it became evident that we needed a kind of shorthand logo too which was developed from the original. Nice touches from Harriet were the outline around the yellow ’Summer of Love’ lettering which really makes them pop. Plus the graduation of colour from one side of the lettering to the other so the outer edges are orange graduating towards yellow in the middle this gives a dynamism to the lettering helping to make the curvature stand out. 

The idea of using a red pool ball for the centre of the sun was an idea I had when I realised that the pool ball no.3 was a red colour which meant we could use it for the sun design at the centre of the poster. I asked Harriet to make this as subliminal as possible, so that the pool ball only appears when pointed out.  

Initially the sun was a different shape, we looked at many ideas for sun shapes, but we settled upon the hypnotic one you see now. This was adjusted at the final stage so that instead of appearing to rotate from right to left (anti-clockwise or backwards in the western tradition) it now rotates from left to right (clockwise or forwards in the western tradition). I think you’ll agree that we chose the correct shape for our sun as it now gives a hypnotic effect which really draws the eye in towards the centre of the logo. The curvature of the lettering and the bright green contrasting background giving the appearance of a single (third) hypnotic eye looking out at you.

Finally Harriet added some special effects to our overall purple background to give the poster a slightly worn and used look as if it had been pulled from an attic somewhere after 50 years from the time of the original Summer of Love in 1967. The fading and creasing effects do this brilliantly.

I’m sure you’ll agree Harriet has done an outstanding job and the logo really pops. We have had many compliments from all different kinds of people about the striking appearance and the hypnotic effect that it produces. At the end of our launch party people were scrabbling to remove the posters to take home as a souvenir. Thank you so much Harriet for your valuable and ongoing contribution to our project, we are very grateful.

If you would like to know more about the Summer of Love 3.0 please visit or join our: 

Website www.summeroflove3.com  

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/166021720520305/

Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/SummerofLove3_0

Todmorden Open Studios is finally here!

Finally here, Todmorden Open Studios 2017 (8th, 9th and 10th September, 11am - 5pm)! It's going to be a fabulous weekend with 50 artists showing their work, either in their own homes, studios or in venues around Tod. Brochures are dotted all over town, but you might want to head toward the Todmorden Informations Centre to get one so you can navigate your way round. May I suggest you start in Cornholme and make your way through Todmorden, down to Walsden. Pop in and say hello over a cup of tea!

This year I am showing my work with the very talented Goldsmiths artist, film maker and fellow Cornholme neighbour, Clare Pearl. She paints exquisite works of colour abstract and glorious drips in oil. I am a big fan of her work, so I am very happy to have her on board and showing in my home. 

Here is a little bit about my work, ' As a trained Illustrator, the underpinning discipline to harriet's work is drawing and how to work with representation as a strong tool for communication. This year's work at Todmorden Open Studios 2017 represents her enjoyment of this craft. Harriet uses a series of photos, drawings from life and imagination with a splash of subtle humour to get her message across. Most of the work is for sale, however, the exhibition also acts as a portfolio of work for any potential commissions and collaborations (realising your own visual ideas and projects through Harriet).

Harriet's commissions and collaborations have been an eclectic mix of greetings cards, graphic design, posters and portraits. She has also exhibited her work throughout the UK.'

See you at mine :)

Todmorden Open Studios 2017

Only a month to go for the great Todmorden Open Studios 2017 show and I'm very excited because I am fortunate enough to be showing my work with some amazing talent. Lots of artists studios and their homes will be open to the public and will be well worth the visit. It will take place over the weekend from 8th September to 10th September. The launch on Friday, 8th from 7.30 pm will be held at the Golden Lion Pub, Todmorden, with some great (and bonkers) entertainment. Free food. Big drawing board so everyone can draw some silly squiggles. It's going to be a bit of a happening! You are invited to the launch and to look around Tod at the artwork. If you live outside of Yorkshire, book an air bnb today!

What a pair of Great Tits!

The original (in pencil and gouache) is now winging it's way over to the States where it has found a forever home! I like this illustration a lot. I will make copies and frame for the upcoming exhibition in September and I will add to my Shop for anyone who can't make the exhibition but would like a copy.