Friday 2 May 2008

May studio exhibition

I am participating in a Spring exhibition organised by the Parade Artists Cooperative at the WASPS' Hanson Street studios. The photo of the post card invitation is below. And the press notice that explains all the things you cannot see on the post card follows that. This is the first of the shows that are being organised by the participating artists. If you are near, come by and see what is on offer.

PRESS RELEASE- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Parade Artists
W.A.S.P.S Studios 77 Hanson Street Glasgow G31 2HFT: 07796312613
E: paradeartists@yahoo.com
PARADE ARTISTS SPRINGING ABOUT

10th May – 11th May 2008
Opening: - Sat 10th May 2008 from 10am – 5pm
The newly- formed collective, Parade Artists is proud to present and host “Spring Show” at the W.A.S.P.S Factory Glasgow on the 10th and 11th May. The event will showcase a selection of new works for sell ranging in paintings, ceramics, textiles, jewelry and glass. Deirdre Murphy, Kathryn Pender and Zoe Gadsby are some of the many participating artists, all of whom have strong connections with Scotland and its Art Colleges.

Deirdre Murphy, 31, is winning an enviable reputation as a contemporary textile accessories designer for fashion interiors. Murphy’s’s style is attributed to her mother who used a sturdy singer sewing machine to make dresses for her six daughters. Murphy uses the same tool to create vibrant, luxurious, yet hard wearing, handbags, purses, cushions and throws. Her experience in the industry includes studio assistant with London ’s fashion designer, Arabella Pollen and dispatch assistant at Baird McNutt’s Linen factory, Ireland . She is now director of her own textile company Tenterhooks Ltd. Murphy completed her BA (Hons) degree in Woven Textile Design at the Scottish College of Textiles, Galashiels in 1998.

Kathryn Pender, 27, continues to explore themes of social constructs, personal interactions and the human form through multiply layers and abstraction in her paintings. Through the use of various materials combined with texture, Pender is demonstrates her own dialogues in her work. A BA (Hons) Fine Art Graduate from Gray’s School of Art , Pender has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Her work has featured in several galleries including the Aberdeen Art Gallery , Aberdeen (2001); the Compass Gallery, Glasgow (2002) DAAD Zentrum, Germany (2005) and Lloyd Jerome Gallery , Glasgow (2006).

Zoe Gadsby, 34, is continuing to go from strength to strength as a glass artist after graduating from Glasgow School of Art in 1995. She has established a growing national reputation for her vibrant fused and leaded glass. Gadsby explores and manipulates glass’s transformational qualities using vivid, luminous colour that powerfully engages the senses and abstraction through geometric form. Simple geometric symbols and complex geometric patterning reflect naturally occurring chaotic forms fused with high-tech. circuitry, microscopic photography of viruses, cells and even atoms.

Frank To, a member of the Parade Artists Collective says, “It’s quite rare to have a large number of artists working together to showcase an event of this scale. ‘Spring Show’ is the perfect opportunity to show the scale of Parade Artists as a collective as well as talented individuals who are participating.”

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“Spring Show” opens Saturday 10th May 2008
W.A.S.P.S Factory 77 Hanson Street Glasgow G31 2HF

Latest Glass Installation

I have just finished a fused glass skylight installation this afternoon. It is above the half landing of a staircase and is 1.85 by 1.35 metres. A major requirement was that the colours were such that the light was not reduced significantly. Thus tints of colour were used in the realisation of the theme. The theme relates to the sea and the shore. A number of elements are included in an abstract manner for the clients and their children to discover and imagine.

The panel is too large for my kiln and so was made in three parts. The sinuous blue line is a raised ribbon of glass that overlaps the adjoining panels enabling the whole to be joined together on top of the 19mm sheet of toughened glass that supports the whole panel.