life during lockdown Part 2

Time during this lockdown is totally bizarre! Even things that happened recently seem long, long ago. I am just re-capping here a couple of highlights of May and June, and I feel like I am looking back at years ago. At the beginning of May I was happily working on some oilstick drawings in my studio, as part of the Memory Is My Homeland series and finished this piece, Kingswood Iris. I have previously blogged many times about different pieces for this series, and I have posted those links in last week's blog, which can be found here. I have specifically talked about Kingswood Iris here.

Signal Arts Centre re-opened in June so that staff could prepare for a public re-opening in July. Because of this, a number of firings were put on as there was a plethora of ceramics from the workshops that were waiting patiently since March for something to be done with them. One of the first things of mine that came out of a glaze firing, was the large glaze-painted tulip vase. Three years ago, I had meticulously painted a tulip design on a vase but the results were disastrous as what I thought was a white glaze was, in fact, a glossy white paint! The results sat idle for a number of years until I decided to revisit the vase in the New Year. I blogged about the process of reclaiming this vase here, including giving links to the initial work and failure.

In the latter half of June, I took a 2-part silk fibre paper-making workshop via zoom. I was completely unaware of this process for paper-making but loved it and could immediately see the possibilities for my future artmaking! I blogged in more detail about this workshop here.

In addition to my tulip vase (above), I also had a number of draped slab dishes come out of the kiln in June. I had glazed several of them with a crackle white glaze, the crackle in this glaze only becoming apparent after India ink is applied and rubbed off. I blogged about this process here.

Also in June, I took part in the "Grasp the Arts" campaign. The point of the campaign, for me, was to highlight the role of artists in society's general mental well-being. Many art practitioners, in the widest sense, have lost work and opportunities during the lockdown. An under-acknowledged field of work, the arts are the mainstay of civilisation and survival and it is during lockdown that people have turned to the arts for entertainment - through binge-watching tv shows, streamed music, fb & instagram music &  poetry gigs, theatre, opera, literature, etc - to mentally survive this crisis. I discuss this campaign further here.

Grasp the Arts!

I came across the #GRASPTHEARTS campaign a few weeks ago, and have been thinking and talking about it since. In a nutshell, it is a "participation and support campaign in solidarity for Ireland's prolific creative industries across all genres, during the COVID-19 pandemic". Personally I think the campaign is a good one regardless of the pandemic, but coronavirus provided the impetus. For further information on the campaign have a look at this. Essentially, artists in any genre create a sculptural "grasp" and share a photograph of it on social media, along with a series of hashtags. It can be seen by wide participation just how large and varied the cultural industry is.

COVID-19 has certainly made more people realise how important the arts are as entertainment of all sorts (music events,visual arts exhibitions, theatres, cinemas) has been shut down or postponed. Lots of events have gone online - music gigs on facebook, free theatre on youtube, poetry readings on instagram, and visual art exhibitions, talks, and workshops - and most are freely available. Artists have been stepping up to keep people busy and sane during lockdown. I finally dedicated some time to participate in this project. I decided I would use salt dough to make my "grasp" and a simple recipe for salt dough is given here. It takes all of about five minutes to make and form a hand-sized tube.
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I took the plunge and grabbed the dough firmly.

Following instructions, I placed the "grasp" on a parchment-covered cookie sheet.

I almost forgot to pierce holes at top and bottom of the "grasp". One hole is for a tag label and though I wasn't sure what the second hole was for, I did it anyway! The recommendation is to bake in an oven on its lowest setting for about an hour and a half. Admittedly, mine seemed a bit moist still so I microwaved it for a few minutes more, again on the lowest setting.

 Since I had used self-raising flour, I thought my "grasp" strongly resembled a loaf of bread. The socialist in me immediately thought of the phrase "bread & roses" and I decided to take my photo in the front yard with a wild rose in bloom. I think this is appropriate to the campaign too - the necessities of life are thought to be food, shelter and clothing but these are not enough to sustain the soul. Art is a necessity to life.