2011 – Here’s what you missed…

This year has been another filled with new challenges and wonderful studio time.

Here’s what you missed…

I started the year interested in folding paper.  Not yet sure what I wanted to do with the ‘folding thing’, I just kept making work.  In 2010, I had spent a lot of time folding clothes, which culminated in my exhibition I am woman, hear me… do housework, which was held in April of 2011.

This, my first solo exhibition, was a great experience.  I learned a lot about getting comfortable with the work I was making, and also seeing the work in a gallery space really enabled me to extend my ideas and gave me lots of new directions to try.

The element that was most valuable from that body of work, turned out to be the action of folding and the shapes it created.  So I went on a folding spree, leaving laundry behind me: folding paper, folding collage, folding paintings, painting the shapes the folding produced.

 

Folding, itself, involves your physical movement, and I wanted it to become more bodily.  So I began experimenting with creating an environment which the body could play a part in.  In these environments above, the viewer walks around and peers into it to fully take in the work, which is that bodily element I was wanting.

Parallel to this, I wanted to explore this idea of depth in two dimensional paintings and also began working on photographic works.  Once I had created works in this way, I started using its shapes to go back and forth between works.  For instance, I used the lines and shapes from the above to create line drawings.

From here I investigated creating entire environments where I could extend the spatial properties of the geometric shapes, use of string and colour etc.  I also continued to work in two dimensions and produced a series of oil paintings here and here.

In addition to I am woman, hear me… do housework, I also showed work at the QENOS Art Show and the Undergraduate at the Toyota Community Spirit gallery in Port Melbourne where I was a finalist for the award.

 

Now, here we are two days from the end of the year!  Next year, I have an exhibition in March (two weeks before Easter), I’m also currently working on proposals for a couple more exhibitions. And through the lovely time off from my job during the Christmas and New Year period, there’s lots of art making to be done.  So stay tuned for updates of my work in progress!  I feel some oil painting coming on.