Today, for the Romani Arts after-school session, the children designed and printed their own flags. Paint was used to colour the background, and either a lino stamp or stencil used for the centre print, reflecting designs traditionally painted onto vardos, or horse-drawn wagons. Some of the children decided to print their version of the Roma flag. … Continue reading Flag Printing
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Mythical Monsters
Kids love monsters; they never tire of stories from myth and legend. At the beginning of the Story telling and Art course, we travelled around the world, exploring stories from many different cultures, finding out about the spirits and mythical creatures that populate these tales. We encountered trolls from Iceland, dragons in China, a host … Continue reading Mythical Monsters
Printmaking Fun
The children I've been working with from the Gypsy, Roman and Traveller community in Cardiff had a go at etching into styrofoam. They did self-portraits, and things they liked. Then I asked them to draw onto acetates so that I could print their drawings onto material using cyanotype technique. The finished prints.
Structure for a Poem
One participant of the Friday Creative Wellbeing group is a wonderful surrealist poet in the style of Gisèle Prassinos. From one of her poems, 'Reasoning Remains a Wealth', everyone has chosen a line that resonates with them, and created their own print or artwork, taking inspiration from the words of the poem. We are always discovering … Continue reading Structure for a Poem
New Printing Project
Excited to be starting a new printing project with the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller (GRT) community in Cardiff, working with children after school on one of the sites. The Romani Cultural and Arts Company, is a brilliant charity that works through the arts for advocacy and empowerment amongst the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. It … Continue reading New Printing Project
Writing as Art/Art as Writing
Here are some of my asemic experiments. I often use asemic writing as a way in to abstracts works. I create a mysterious script that transcends semantics. It is like a complex future language, a child's first attempts at writing, an ancient script or an undecipherable code. Asemic works place the viewer somewhere between reading … Continue reading Writing as Art/Art as Writing
Mentoring Role
A student from the BA Creative and Therapeutic Arts course based in Treforest is joining my class for the next twelve weeks, and as his mentor, I will be overseeing 14 sessions that he has planned and facilitated. As the student is a visual artist, his first session was based around his own practice, which … Continue reading Mentoring Role
Breathing Space
I'm really looking forward to facilitating a new Creativity and Wellbeing course with Katja Stiller from Valley and Vale Arts. We will be delivering person-centred creative sessions that will combine mindfulness exercises for relaxation with a range of art forms. For people who are in the process of recovery from mental health challenges such as anxiety … Continue reading Breathing Space
A Brief History of Healing
Opening of the sister exhibition at Hearth Gallery, Llandough. See ArcadeCampfa website for more details. A Brief History of Healing is a collaborative partnership project between ArcadeCampfa, the Cardiff and Vale University Health board and visual artist and mental health service user Gail Howard. For the last two months Gail and artist/writer Sarah Featherstone have … Continue reading A Brief History of Healing
Print Exchange
Cardiff Print Workshop members have been invited to exchange prints with artists based in Grenoble, France where one of our members previously worked. The workshop in France is called “Le Geste et L’empreinte”, and is run by artist, Anne-Laure Heritier Blanc, who currently leads printmaking sessions at the workshop on a monthly basis for a … Continue reading Print Exchange
