PROJECT OUTLINE
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Emerge at
Devas is an open to the public exhibition which will explore the idea
that we all have artistic potential.
The
exhibition hopes to take visitors on an imaginative exploration of the vast
range of possibilities and impossibilities within the theme – perhaps serious,
frightening, amusing, absurd
The overall aim
is to provide art workshop opportunities which help young people and children,
from all walks of life, to potentially build artistic and creative skills and
interests and discover future work opportunities that might otherwise feel
out of reach for them. For example, for 13-25 year olds, the opportunity may
provide some particular motivation for a
pathway towards education, training, an apprenticeship or paid work.
Young people
and children who participate will be asked if they gained insight into their artistic
potential as a result of this creative process.
Of particular
interest are art workshop opportunities offered to young people and children
who might be considered at risk or harder to reach, such as those who are not
in education, employment or training; are long-term unemployed, from a minority
group or have a disability.
PROJECT RATIONALE
How we see
each other and the emotional connection between faces, is for me, the most
intensely emotional subject. It is also a direct insight into how young people
feel they should present themselves. For example, I have always been struck
with the way young women - including my own teenage daughter - see eyebrows and
eyes generally. In drawing they always become very heavily drawn, basically the
way that makeup is used to emphasise and distort the truth of face. I would
like to explore both the art and the truth in the way we see each other and
show ourselves, to imagine what would really be there if only bare reality
existed, without the art of ‘presentation’.
MY INTEREST
I am very interested in collaborating with young people to engage
with their direct experience, the untrained eye, the authenticity of response.
MY WORK
Making a painting work is my primary concern, I am driven by instinct and seek to understand the mystery of each painting through the act of painting itself. Drawing has always played a dominant role in my work, something I understand now is something to do with immediacy - the intuited response and decision . The line as Matisse said "Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.". Portraiture has emerged as a strong theme in my work, partly due, I think, to the long hours of commuting into London everyday and the absence of other subjects, but also because the face provides the stimulus and emotional connection I require to make work.
Making a painting work is my primary concern, I am driven by instinct and seek to understand the mystery of each painting through the act of painting itself. Drawing has always played a dominant role in my work, something I understand now is something to do with immediacy - the intuited response and decision . The line as Matisse said "Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence.". Portraiture has emerged as a strong theme in my work, partly due, I think, to the long hours of commuting into London everyday and the absence of other subjects, but also because the face provides the stimulus and emotional connection I require to make work.
