Artist of the Week - SAM CHIVERS

Sam Chivers

At the moment I make Screenprints and collage. I constantly draw in my sketchbook.
I like the infinite possibilities working digitally affords, coupled with the limitations that screenprint imposes, I see it as a challenge to get as much mileage out of each layer as possible. I'm forced to accept a level of serendipity in the print process.
Presently I'm fascinated by Tantric art, and various forms of symbolism.
I like balancing appropriated imagery with drawings and vectors.


One favourite living artist?
I didn't really get Neasden Control Centre's work when I first saw it, but it really planted itself in my head early on and over the years I've become a total fan.
NCCs work ties together various disciplines like graphic design, animation, installation etc whilst all the time retaining this brut edge to everything. It dances on an indistinguishable knife edge between order and chaos, but all the way through there's this seam of humour and enthusiasm.

When and where did you first want to do what you do?
I've always been busy with drawing, if I was having a bit of a rubbish time, drawing would make me invisible. When I was about 12 I got into 2000ad in a big way and that set me off on an altogether more serious trajectory. All I wanted to do was illustrate Judge Dredd (something I still intend to do), Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog or Slaine. Then I started getting into European stuff like Moebius and Enki Bilal. Later I ended up making comics of my own, self publishing a small Zine/Comic called 'Apocalypso'
Then I made a comic called 'Headcase' that was more of a picture story - (there's an online version here

What place in the world has inspired you?
My dad has lived in the south of France since the late 70's, so from an early age my sister and I would be packed off every summer for our yearly visit. That place has always been an intense influence. His village is sandwiched between vineyards to the south and the more mountainous regions to the north, compared to where I grew up (Portsmouth) it's pretty isolated, and with the exception of odd gunshots here and there of Chassuers shooting wild pigs it's pretty quiet. It's a very beautiful place, and that combined with not being able to speak the language too well has given it added potency.


Do you work best on your own or in collaboration?
I'm a total control freak when it comes to my work so I probably wouldn't be any good at collaborations, I'd give it a go though depending on who it was with...


At age 15 who influenced your style?
When I was fifteen Simon Bisley was the biggest influence on my work wheather I liked it or not, that was back in the days when it was cool to paint comic pages in full colour, I can't imagine the amount of time that guy spent illustrating Slaine: The Horned God, but it was worth every minute. At art collage in the early nineties doing comics was akin to blasphemy - the lecturers equated it with fantasy art (which I guess it sort of is) but that just made me more determined As Bisley did quite painterly stuff I could practice my Bisley skills easily avoiding the idiot lecturer's fantasy art detectors.

Last best read?
Iain Sinclair's London: City of disappearances


How much do you bend your 'vision' to suit the marketplace?
I practice illustration pretty much full time, between the hours of 9 to 5 I'll bend my vision as far as I have to. Out of hours when I do my self initiated work I won't bend at all.

How do you set about starting a new project?
I have a list of pictures I want to make in my head, most of them are drawn out in my sketchbook, some of them have been queuing for years, others get lucky and jump into existence ahead of their time.

What is your favourite website?
htttp://www.fecalface.com is one of my favourites, it's well laid out and they always have a good selection interviews.


What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work?
hubbabubba

Do you think art and craft has any real importance?
I agree with what Alan Moore says about Art, in that he equates any artistic expression as an act of magic 'the use of words, images, and actions to affect people and the way they think'.I think art can be a tool to understand the universe and one's place in it, so yes, it is important. Sometimes though, people just want a nice picture to put on their wall.

Can anything be 'art'?
Put anything it into the right context and it's case could be argued for. I think it's all about language, and the viewers emotional response to it, or the viewers ability to decode it. I think that's why some conceptualist stuff gets criticised sometimes, because only a tiny percentage of people are either well read enough in art history or can be bothered to to decode what they're being presented with. Whether it's any good or not is an entirely different question.


What do think are crimes against good taste & decency in art/craft/design?
Lazy stencilling, heavy reliance on Photoshop filters, badly executed plagarism. The Chapman brothers seem to have a fairly successful offensive against good taste and decency, they made my mum ''want to get a f**king machine gun and shoot it all to hell!" If Alan Moore is correct then those two are a pair of Aleister Crowleys.

One favourite historical maker.
Marcel Duchamp - I like his good humoured approach to everything, he wasn't too serious yet he's credited with giving birth to conceptualism. But nobody really knew who he was.

Most underated artist?
Victor Savelkoul. - Savelkoul's drawings are beautiful, he even did a series in blue biro and they're outstanding, in a similar way to Neasden Control Centre he dances on a knife edge between order and chaos, you can't work out what was planned and what was a happy accident.

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Maker of the Week - Barbara Macleod

Barbara Macleod Jewellery
I`m inspired by old decorative patterns found in anything from vintage lace work to architectural features from bygone eras. I aim to bring these sources of inspiration into a contemporary context through my own particular design process- largely through the use of vector illustration and photo etching.




1 Money spent on anything is never wasted. I always write it off as experience if something seems like a waste of money, there`s no point in stewing over it.

2 One favourite living craft maker I really love the contemporary jewellery of Marianne Anderson. She has been very successful in bringing ornamental design into a contemporary context and has a very cohesive collection of work.

3 One favourite historical maker (and why?) Peter Carl Faberge – I love antique Faberge jewellery because it`s very opulent and has a magic quality about it. I love the use of enamelling and stone setting.

4 When and where did you first want to do what you do? Growing up in a remote rural area without many entertainment facilities, I started enjoying making things from an early age. I thought about going into other careers, but I knew I would have to do something creative to ultimately keep me happy. Going to Art College seemed like the obvious thing for me to do and I enjoyed the jewellery design/making course the most in the foundation year so I went for that.


5 Do you work best on your own or in collaboration? It can be great fun getting the buzz from bouncing ideas of other people but ultimately although it sounds very egotistical, I probably prefer working on my own as I prefer to take the full glory!!

6 At age 15 who influenced your style? Was there any individual who very much helped you on your way? I have always loved decorative patterns, but at 15 I don`t think I really had a specific style, but I had an abundance of creativity and enthusiasm which got me in to art college. From there I think the most influential person was contemporary jewellery designer maker Eileen Gatt who gave me some great guidance in my third and fourth years.

7 Last best read? It`s a bit of a chick novel, but it was the `Bridges of Madison County`. It`s incredibly romantic but sad. I read it one night which is good going for me as I have a short attention span when it come down to sitting down and reading.

8 How much do you bend your 'vision' to suit the marketplace? I think the general aesthetic of my work is fairly commercial to a degree as it`s quite decorative and feminine, but when it comes down to it, it`s the buzz of designing and making a piece that`s totally original and unique that gives me the biggest thrill and the pieces` originality is hopefully what the buyer wants .


9 Who would you say buys your work? Somebody who likes pretty, feminine, wearable jewellery which is also unique and contemporary. My work is probably of more interest to people who prefer a more decorative aesthetic.

10 How do you set about starting a new project? I don`t really start new projects, it just keeps growing and evolving.

11 What do you have on your pinboard? Decorative textile/wallpapers, vintage lace.


12 Where and what is your studio? Do you work alone? In silence, radio? I work alone in my shed just outside my house. My partner who also works from home likes to stand outside my shed window from time to time to scare the living daylights out of me!! I live on a croft so there`s constantly sheep/dogs/deer passing by my shed to say hello, so I`m never really alone.

If I have a lot of wet and drying of cold enamel to rub down, then this can be quite laborious and mindless so I need to get some good loud music on the go to keep me going or to drift away with a play or story on the radio. If I`m doing some technical soldering or tricky stone setting, I prefer silence though.

13 Surprising activity/hobby? I`ve got quite diverse interests including: Astrology, metal detecting alternative theories, hill walking, growing vegetables

14 Do you have a good work/life balance? I never really switch off fully. I get really bored and unsettled if i`m just doing nothing. I think a creative profession is never just a 9-5. I`m always looking for nice patterns everywhere I go. When I do have some free time, I really enjoy brainstorming fresh ideas in my sketchbook.


15 What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work? Satisfied to the core.

16 Would you rather be doing something else? No I`ve tried to picture me doing other things, but all I see is an unhappy person.

17 Do you think art and craft has any real importance? Well we`ve always had art and craft and they`ve always served as a benchmark for the times we`ve lived in and continue to do so.

18 What do think are crimes against good taste & decency in art/craft/design? Pure shock value and unwarranted attention.

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Tech-tile: Stephen Bottomley

We visited Hove Museum the other day to see Tech-tile, an exhibition of the work of Stephen Bottomley inspired by and in homage to the work of Mario Fortuny, the Venetian artist who at the turn of the Twentieth Century brought together past and present, modern and medieval, designs and technologies.


Stephen Bottomley uses traditional craft skills combined with cutting-edge computer design tools to produce his work inspired by the geometric orientalism of Fortuny.


Bottomley says ‘My work plays on the inherent differences of two arenas - one the product of our time, the other the tradition of our discipline. Where these two worlds interweave is a new territory that stimulates ideas and imaginations.’

Tech-tile: Stephen Bottomley, is at Hove Museum & Art Gallery, 12 July to 12 October 2008.

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Artist of the Week - Andy Lovell

Andy Lovell artist/printmaker

Observational drawing and painting are the foundation of my work imprinting a memory of place and form that inevitably informs the final printed image.

I use monotyping and silkscreen printing to interprete my initial drawings and paintings exploring the layering of texture and colour which are at the heart of my work.

1 Money spent on the highest quality art materials is never wasted
Investing so much time, emotion and thought into the image making itself, it would be madness to use anything less than the best that you can afford to create the final work.


2 One favourite living craft maker?
Cath Derksema, a fabulous Australian textile designer who creates wonderfully bold and colourful designs all hand printed in her workshop. Her approach is experimental and full of energy.

3 One favourite historical artist?
Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman who was a Dutch typographer and printer and was killed by the Gestapo in 1945. He created very simple strong prints using wooden type and rollers amongst other things. A lesson in concise experimental dynamic printmaking.
YouWorkForThem | Monographs: H.N. Werkman

4 What was the last art/craft/design thing you purchased?
I've just bought a singer sewing machinist's chair off ebay for my studio. It has a cast iron base and bent plywood seat and back and is a beautiful combination of function and design.


5What one product/item do you really covet?
I would love to own a Harry Rochat etching press, I love the design, the shape of the wheel evokes that sensuous Man Ray photo.

6 At age 15 who influenced your style? Was there any individual who very much helped you on your way?
At 15 I didn't know what I wanted to do, my school was hopeless with "artists", if you didn't want to be a doctor, a lawyer or a city broker they didn't want to know.
Fortunately my art teacher Bob Brown was/is an extraordinary man who infused me with his enthusiasm for art, life and garlic and has become a lifelong friend and mentor.

7 How do you set about starting a new project?
I'm learning to commit to paper without questioning too much, allowing the image to emerge based on the emotion evoked by the subject.
There's is always something unexpected that comes out of a session that excites and inspires one onwards into battle.


8 Surprising activity?
Seville marmalade making

9 Do you have a good work/life balance?
This is very hard to get this right in my experience and very hard especially for the poor partner who has to put up with all the artistic angst that goes with it all!

10 What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work?
Hope


11 Would you rather be doing something else?
Absolutely not, to be able to make your own images that then people want to take home and put on their wall is supremely satisfying.
Making "Art" viable financially is the much harder part of the equation though I can see with a ton of self belief and hard work this too can work.

12 What do think are crimes against good taste & decency in art/craft/design?
Cheap framing, over decoration, dingbats

13 Most underated artist?
Definitely not underrated by those that know his work but should be far more widely seen is Charles Shearer a fabulous printmaker drawer/painter whose work can be viewed on Emma Mason's website
Charles's work is poetic and lyrical and technically brilliant.

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How Green is Craft?

Makers often contrast themselves against the corporate system. Believing the one off and small batch production work is inherently more green, than producing millions of products in far-away places, then shipping them round the world, up the motorway to shops in town centres throughout the UK.

But really how green is art and craft?

Defenders of corporate mass production claim that it is the most efficient way of manufacturing products. In an ideal world companies get a great designer to perfect their product, they work out the best and most efficient form of producing it in bulk using minimum materials and energy, test it to distraction and therefore deliver to the consumer well priced and designed products which make efficient use of energy and materials.

I think that there is a lot to be said for that argument - in some areas - for instance new cars are cheaper in real terms than ever before whilst they don't seem to break down either. The argument would probably work in green terms if people bought well but rarely, but you only have to go round a car-boot sale, to realise the sheer bulk of stuff people buy, most shipped across the world and most badly designed, and made in poor materials. In a country where people are living in smaller and smaller spaces they seem to be buying more and more, and most of it of poor quality.

Meanwhile makers produce in small quantity often using labourious processes to make often less 'perfect' looking goods. It seems to me that although mass production is probably more efficient, it is it's very efficiency that is causing the problem (environment, energy use, resource use etc and consumerist angst). In the same way that 'farming efficiencies' has pushed down the cost of food, price has become until very recently the primary benchmark, so in order to cut costs quality, flavour, and animal welfare has suffered.

I heard recently a chef called in to 'design a sausage', having to pick sage from the factory decorative flowerbed and borrow salt from the works canteen tables because simple natural ingredients just weren't stocked in the research kitchens just cheap 'flavourings'. This has meant that generally we value food less and end up buying more and more and ever cheaper food of lesser and lesser quality and flavour.

In the same way mass-production in some other sectors has developed such that price is the main benchmark. A certain Swedish furniture manufacturer has made modern design very affordable, but price has again become the major decider. The only trouble is that whilst inexpensive, chipboard isn't the strongest material in the world, veneers chip off and furniture has become a disposable item - either by choice, its so cheap that furniture can be disposed of to match the decor rather than the other way round, or just because the materials are so fragile that they don't survive moving house.

In the same way that food guru's encourage the meateaters amongst us to buy less meat but better - free-range, organic, local - then I think the answer is for us all to surround ourselves with items that we love and will last. Also to 'ground' our houses and lives by buying well and surround ourselves with what is meaningful to us - commissioning a local craftsman not only means that you get exactly what you want but it means that money is kept in the local economy and because you are involved in the commissioning process you feel an additional commitment and involvement with the piece - the contents of the house become an evolving document.

I now grow my own vegetables, buy organic veg boxes and shop at farmers markets. I confess that I can't really tell the difference in flavour between fresh veg from Waitrose or fresh veg from the garden (well maybe a little). But psycologically it feels a more grounded way of buying/eating, - we know where the food is produced, they don't have to be transported across continents and the farmer is paid a proper price rather than the middle man or retailer taking the profit, and the veg are grown with the minimum of inputs and additives.

So although mass production is probably a more efficient use of resources - even with transporting goods halfway across the world, it is the philosophy of the handmade, bespoke, one-off which can help to turn around the price led craziness of the consumerist binge we have been in for decades. We should be buying better and following William Morris' dictum. 'Have nothing in your house that you don't know to be useful or believe to be beautiful'

This post is meant to be a first attempt at rehersing arguments about why we feel that craft is important. I would very much value your contributions about how craft and design can tackle green issues in a practical way, and perhaps whether makers can contribute philosophically to a more sustainable and contented society.

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Online shop of the week - Abigail Brown.

Abigail Brown's new blog was pointed out to me the other day, and I said I'd highlight it on the this blog. There are some lovely pictures of her birds and other products such as masks - and of course her links...


Whilst I was there I had a peep at her etsy shop and although her work seems to sell quite quickly you can see a great range of her lovely work in the sold section, masks, small birds in matchboxes, cards.

I've heard some people pour scorn on artists and makers selling direct through the internet and in particular Etsy, as though work is only legitimate if it's on the wall of an art gallery and ideally is an installation. Whilst it is true there can be lot of dodgy items on sites like etsy (eg crochet antlers for cats perhaps), selling direct over the internet in small quantities can allow artists to spread their wings, produce new work across discaplines, experiment with new work, widen ranges and get immediate feedback. In fact it can increase creative freedom by side-stepping the reasonable demands of shopkeepers and gallery owners for a sure-fire-best-seller!.
Anyway if you have any favourite online shops do let me know.

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Maker of the Week - Sophie Woodrow

Sophie Woodrow, ceramic artist

Subtly strange hybrid porcelain "beings".
www.sophiewoodrow.co.uk


1 Money spent on Pencils is never wasted
Pencils, they are cheap and have infinite possibility.

2 When and where did you first want to do what you do?
In a dark dank pottery studio at school when I was about 10.

3 Last best read?
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera. Franz Kafka. I have just read "The world without us" - Alan Weisman - it's brilliant.

4 How much do you bend your 'vision' to suit the marketplace?
The answer until recently has always been not at all, I'm now finding that these thoughts do creep in as considerations, and confuse things horribly.


5 Who would you say buys your work?
I'm no sure, and think it may be best that way.

6 Where and what is your studio?
I'm on the third floor of a lovely old building, with amazing city scape views. I work mostly alone, though thankfully there are others about to take breaks with, otherwise I chat to myself, and get cross with the radio when the music's no good.

7 What is your favourite website?
I love checking random people out on Axis, it feels almost clandistinley nosey, though they are offering their for others work to see.


8 Do you think art and craft has any real importance?
The very brief answer is yes, but I think it is always important to ask this. At this stage in my life/career I am more interested in the importance it has personally as a maker, than any transformative qualities it may have for others or society.

9 Can anything be art?
Yes absolutly.

10 If you could exhibit in any gallery which would it be?
I would love to exhibit work amongst the Natural History Museum collections.

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