Making Art, Getting it Out There, Marketing, Evaluating and Living

Deep Space Moolog 17 Sep - 12 Nov 2016, 20-21 Visual Arts Centre photo by Jules Lister

It’s six months since my last blog post and in that period so much has happened: I made a new website, finished making the work for Deep Space Moolog, installed the show, had a Celebration Event, presented an Artist Talk, met and chatted to various visitors to the show, ran a day of drop-in kids workshops for almost 100 children, made a presentation to a group of to Fine Art Foundation Students, took the show down and packed the work away. 

Most recently I have completed editing a 6 min. video interview (which I think fairly concisely explains how I drew on the disparate influences of Neolithic cave drawings, vintage sci-fi and Time Travel to make my immersive walk through installation - Deep Space Moolog).

I am now continuing to publicise this body of work as I am still on the look out for a second venue to move it on to.

That’s the ‘in a nutshell’ version of my 2016 and Deep Space Moolog, so now onto some more detail and highlights.

Everyone knows that artists need to have staying power, don’t they? I mean it is common knowledge that things don't just happen overnight isn’t it? My method is to just keep on going (no matter if at times the pace does seem slow) and keep making the work that I feel compelled to make. A friend said to me recently that I must make what I make because I want people to like it. No absolutely not! I’m certainly not trying to please anyone; if other people connect with my work, well that’s a plus … a big plus.

A young visitor to the show. Photo by Kirsty E Smith

Someone else recently said, ‘Well of course it’s common knowledge that artists have other (day) jobs’. As it turns out in the middle of making the work for Deep Space Moolog I had more than one big change in my life and one of them was leaving my full time day job without a new one to go to. I’m not complaining; just mentioning that artists are people with lives outside of their studios too.

Kirsty E Smith presenting her Artist Talk at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre Photo by Dominic Ewan

Anyway, back to Deep Space Moolog……
Making the new beings for the show was a real pleasure. I had so much fun and it just reaffirmed my love of making in 3D and working in a playful way while not worrying about a pre-determined outcome. What I mean is that I don’t work by designing first; rather I experiment with materials, spend time with them and wait to see what form suggests itself. Next I work out how on earth to make it; I love pondering on construction problems and when working with unconventional materials, repurposed objects and ‘scrap’ then this is often a challenge.

Charmaine in the making Photo Kirsty E Smith

But as Susan Simpson mentioned in her mini review blog post about the show each of these new beings was ‘pet sized’ so actually I felt that construction challenges were on a manageable scale.

I’d always planned to have a translucent curtained walkway for the installation and I had included costs of having fabric digitally printed in my Arts Council funding application. I have to say I was absolutely delighted with the quality of the 20m long by 240cm deep digitally printed curtain (great work Dominion Print). I enjoyed making the digital collage even though the file was so huge that it nearly killed my computer. By the time that I had ramped up the saturation and layered elements of the partially made beings and line drawings (that I was also using for the animated sections of the film) onto photographs of the Cresswell Crags cave walls it all looked pretty zingy. 

Taken in the late afternoon winter light- this was the best time of day to appreciate the curtained backdrop. Photo by Kirsty E Smith

Making the 7 minute film for the show was happening at the same time as making the beings and backdrop; I like having variety in my work and I need a balance of sitting at computer and working in a more physical way. The video editing tuition from Dominic Ewan was invaluable. He was great to work with; listening to my ideas as they evolved and taking things at a pace that didn’t overwhelm me. Building my video editing skills was a key part of my Arts Council funding application and I feel that I succeeded in this. Sound became significant element of the video and through my editing I feel that I succeeded in pulling together my thoughts on Ancient Astronaut Theory with the 40,000 year old cave drawings found at Creswell Crags. It was a wonderful moment of synchronicity when I discovered that the voice that I’d heard on so many of the Radio360 podcasts (that I was listening to while working in the studio) was that of Alan Watts and I also later discovered how well known Erich Von Daniken was when I spent time in the gallery and had lively conversations with people who remembered the significance of his writings and films on Ancient Astronaut Theory.
 The celebration event took place a month into the 8 week show and I am so grateful that I took heed of the motto of successful people. Don’t wait until you can do things perfectly; don’t let the desire for perfection hold you back. So it was decided (at the last minute) to video the talk and stream it live as a Facebook Live video. Wow that was easy and it certainly enabled viewers around the world (UK, France, USA and Australia in particular) to get a flavour of my work.

Some of my favourite advice from marketing icon Paul Arden

The next major job to be done was the evaluation of the show. Completing the ACE evaluation form was actually really good because it allowed me to recall and re-live all the enthusiastic responses, the curious questions and even the giggles that I had heard from visitors. I reread comments in the gallery visitor book and edited photos both mine, friends and professional ones. (And as I type this I’ve received notification this morning that the final instalment of the funding has been paid into my account. Thanks Arts Council England and Wales)

Of course as I my marketing ‘machine’ trundles on I really do need to get back into the studio and let loose some fresh creative ideas.

Special thanks to:
-Dominic Mason and the team at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre. If you get a chance to work with them do!
-Joanne Lee for her mentoring and essay A Transmission from Deep Space Moolog
-Dominic Ewan for his all round support and video editing teaching skills
-Martin Currie for his surprise interview
and of course
-Everyone who came to the show 

View from the security camera. Photo by Kirsty E Smith

The brewing of a creative project idea- countdown to Deep Space Moolog

Kirsty E Smith: the early stages of making Treggi Lo a new Frillip Moolog being.

Sometimes people ask questions such as, “Where did you get that idea from?” or “That sounds interesting, what made you put those ideas together?’”

The problem is that often the creative brain makes connections very quickly and also not necessarily logically and you don’t stop to jot the stages down, so later, when you have to explain your train of thoughts it can be a challenge because you haven’t actually got any ‘dots’ to join together. But that doesn’t usually matter because you’ve already got going and started working on your project anyway.

I am currently making new work for my forthcoming solo show, Deep Space Moolog which will be at 20:21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe 17th Sept -12th Nov 2016. 

I am excited about this for various reasons: firstly this show takes the form of an installation and will be a theatrical experience of my work, secondly the show will be eight weeks long (my longest to date) and finally, I have been successful in securing Arts Council England finding for it. So all in all a lot to be excited about!

How do you come up with good exhibition idea?

• Draw a mind Map.
• Drink (lots of) wine and then scratch your head and see what you come up with
• Doodle ideas on a napkin. It might impress someone … especially years later when the napkins can be auctioned? 
• Lie in bed in that half-awake state and allow yourself to daydream.
• Put yourself in the mindset of one of your artworks; what would they suggest? (This is the main technique that I use; after all it has been observed that my Frillip Moolog beings are extensions of my own personality.) 

My relationship with 20:21 Visual Arts started way back in Feb 2012 when I visited Scunthorpe for the first time. Three and a half years later after some major life changes, including relocating from the Midlands to Sheffield, it was now October 2015 and my meeting with Dominic Mason, Exhibitions officer at 20:21 Arts Centre, was looming and I was starting to feel slightly panicky.
I had a cup of tea and a chat with my good friend and artist, Sean Williams, and I poured out my garbled thoughts to him; amongst those were that I thought that Mi Wawa would like to go to Cresswell Crags. 

Cresswell Crags, occupied by wild animals and early homo sapiens since Neolithic times

At this point I was thinking of a photo-shoot similar to the ones that I had previously done with Hurgle Lenz and Hooty but then I revealed my interest in time travel and mentioned Ancient Astronaut theory (where some people believe that cave drawings were done by alien space travellers rather than neolithic man or early homo sapiens)  
and before you knew it I had also thrown in a comment about how I had been an avid fan of early Star Trek and that I loved the craziness of the screen-sets and the obviously fake boulders in the Star Trek sets.

My paper mache rocks look just as fake as these Star Trek TOS ones
And interestingly this zingy pink colour features in both the new beings and the film that I have been making for the show.

Sean didn’t laugh at my idea but instead was very encouraging about it and so when I had my meeting at 20:21 Visual Arts a couple of days later it was doubly fantastic that Dominic Mason was also really enthusiastic about it. 
I think that it was while in conversation with Dominic that I threw out the idea of making paper-mache space boulders and using them as plinths for my ‘real’ artworks to be shown on. 

I have also been interested in the question of what is the art and what is a prop for quite a while now so I felt that this would be an excellent way of further investigating this question. 

Over the next few weeks I developed my exhibition idea and sent Dominic some very basic photoshop mock-ups of how I visualised the installation looking. Back in 2009 I had been awarded an Arts Council Grant for an earlier solo show Close Encounters of a Frillip Moolog Kind but despite that I still found that putting together the application for Deep Space Moolog was hard and arduous work. The task seemed to take ages (I spread it out over 10 weeks) but I was having to fit it around my full time job, so e mail enquiries were sent at 6am and writing and budget spreadsheets were done in the evenings. I finally pressed the ‘Submit’ button early on Boxing Day morning and then heard back from Arts Council England by the end of January 2016.

What fantastic news … my application had been successful. Phewf what a relief!

So from then on I have been very focussed about getting into my studio 3 evenings a week and also for at least 4 hours at the weekend. 
It has been great to get right into making and over the months I have felt happier and happier in my studio.

I know that I am slow but steady worker (rushing usually results in bad creative decisions) however I realised that I couldn’t afford to take things too slowly- I have just had to keep the faith and keep an eye on my diary to check that I am getting the work done within my time target. 

My full time job is in a special school so luckily (and in my opinion also entirely necessarily) I have had the summer holidays to really forge ahead preparing for Deep Space Moolog.

Being an artist is a lifestyle choice and when you're doing what makes you happy it never feels like work, it's just what I do. 

My show at 20:21 Visual Arts will take the form of an installation which comprises: five small Frillip Moolog beings, space rocks to place them on, a curtained walkway with printed surreal rock face imagery on it and also a short film which draws together the strands of time travel, aliens from space, and neolithic cave dwellers. In previous films I have enjoyed using incongruous sound effects and in this one I am incorporating some swooshing ‘beam-me-down’ sounds amongst other alien music and otherworldly voices.

A video still of one of the animated sections of my short film.
This is the knobbly 'head' of Treggi Lo 

Over the last three weeks I have done a lot of sitting in front of my computer and despite enjoying learning and improving my Premier Pro film editing skills I really don’t enjoy sitting still that much and I am missing the physicality of making in my studio. 

I have also made a new website (finally one which is mobile friendly) www.kirstyesmith.co.uk and so I am now ready to get my publicity ‘machine’ rolling into action. 

Being an artist means that you can’t ever do nothing … well unless you have an idea brewing and then yes that is the time to drink some tea/coffee/beer/wine (delete as applicable) and have several daydreaming sessions opening your mind up to possible artistic project ideas. 

Treggi Lo, my most recent Frillip Moolog being.

Deep Space Moolog

17 Sep - 12 Nov 2016
20:21 Visual Arts Centre
Scunthorpe, DN15 6TB
UK


Tue - Sat 10am-4pm

The power of The Scallop, Nest magazine and everything in between

Detail of Hurgle Lenz

I’ve been very busy in the studio lately; busy thinking and busy creating. As an artist thinking time is vital; it is one of the most important elements of the creative process. 
I have read articles about creative thinking but in my experience the only thing required to be creative is periods (long or short) where you can let your imagination run wild and just see what comes out. 
Sometimes other things in my life can take over my thoughts and at those times having playful and fun thoughts can be nigh on impossible. 
BUT being an artist is what I’m about so whenever my mind has a chance to it is thinking about possibilities.


I have just completed a new being. She / he is called Hurgle Lenz and is a close relation of Mi Wawa.
Mi Wawa, Hurgle Lenz and a third new Frillip Moolog being (who will also be large in size) together comprise my commission for Wirksworth Festival.
When I put my proposal forward to the Wirksworth Festival Committee back in April. I felt that it was completely and absolutely right that these three beings should have the opportunity to inhabit the ancient and atmospheric space of Wirksworth’s St Mary’s Church this September. I am delighted that the committee agreed with me!


As I don’t want to spoil the surprise I won’t reveal all of Hurgle Lenz just yet but see above photo for a tiny peek.....So now let's talk about Scallops!


I’ve always loved stripes and when I was a little girl learning to knit I felt that there was nothing more satisfying than changing colours of knitting yarn and getting onto my next stripe. Then back in my teenage years I realised that my perfect job I would allow me to wear dangly earrings and stripey jumpers on a daily basis. Many of the Frillip Moolog beings have stripes in them (Colin is one such example) and these stripes can take on interesting contours. Bettina is made up of segments with feathered seam definition and in Madeleine I let the contours and stripes continue right through to Madeleine’s ‘hair’.

Back in March 2011, I had the opportunity to read a few issues of the intriguing and quite idiosyncratic Nest magazine (now sadly defunct) and was captivated by the issue dedicated solely to The Scallop.

Joseph Holtzman, whose baby Nest was, really understood how as humans we love to handle objects and if you ever get the opportunity to read an issue of Nest you will understand just what I mean. Don’t be surprised if there is a hole drilled right through the centre of the pages or, as in the Scallop issue, the magazine’s edges are actually scalloped themselves. 
It gives a whole new take to the act of flicking through a magazine. (I still flick from back to front... not your logical and linear magazine reader).

....."In its seven years, Nest won two National Magazine Awards and gained a loyal following in creative circles, less for the interiors it featured than for the risky ways it featured them...
...It's more about the pathologies of interior design than its perfect execution...
...The photographer Nan Goldin, the fashion designers Todd Oldham and Karl Lagerfeld, the novelists Michael Cunningham and Dennis Cooper and the artist Richard Tuttle helped Mr. Holtzman prove his point. Mr.Tuttle said that Mr. Holtzman, with his almost baroque approach to graphic design, ''channeled the collective unconscious, to give us the pleasure of ornament before we even knew we wanted it.''
New York Times (article by Fred A. Bernstein).

I was already working on Mi Wawa when I experienced the Scallop issue of Nest and it was exciting to realise that the curvaceous sculpted stripes that I was working with were forming scallops.

Back in 2010 writer Anneka French had asked me if there was a special name for the padded tubes that I liked to work with. Anneka wrote the exhibition text for one of my solo shows, Inventions of the Mind and more recently her essay, Lurking with Intent: A short essay on the sculptural practice of Kirsty E. Smith which was published in the ‘Waiting’ edition of Conjunction magazine.

This illustration leapt from the pages of Nest. I feel excited that my current Frillip Moolog beings are an evolution of the Scallop: they are part of history! 

Suddenly it was obvious that I have held a passion for The Scallop for a long long time. I have quite a collection of scallop photos in my own library of images; here’s a small selection.

A favourite holiday photo from years ago

This vase has sat on my studio window sill for a couple of years now

Vases designed by Constance Spry for Fulham Potteryware. This display was photographed at Quindry, Lillie Road, London SW6 7LL

You've got to just love this ceramic butter dish in the form of a WW2 Anderson air raid shelter!

A Photoshopped sketch for Bristle, one of my early Frillip Moolog beings.

The curvaceous form of a Paul paraffin heater

Cute squidgy and spongy paint rollers.... and together they form some lovely scallops.

Grayson Perry strikes again!  Check out these scallops with their own scalloped edges! 

Mi Wawa, Hurgle Lenz and the being that I am currently working on all have a central element of a vintage cooling element from a dairy farm milk tank. This common element unites these larger sculptures as a small body of work, but perhaps more importantly in each of these beings I have experimented further with making sculpted curvaceous forms. I have moved the scallop on from its status as a mere decorative edging and developed it into a tool to construct sculptural forms (or as I prefer to call them Frillip Moolog beings).


Forthcoming Show 
Wirksworth Festival 8th- 23rd September 2012
Commissioned Frillip Moolog beings will inhabit St Mary’s Church Wirksworth.

Professional photos of a prizewinner.

These shots of Reg at The West Midlands Open 08 look fantastic. It just goes to show what a difference a good camera and professional photographer can make. My thanks to Wolverhampton Art Gallery for access to these images. My thanks also go to Wolverhampton University who sponsored the Best 3D art work prize. Which Reg won! More photos from the opening night here. Sadly I was not available to collect my prize in person so Dave had to smile for the camera on my behalf!