Y Llwynog.

Ganllath o gopa'r mynydd, pan oedd clych Eglwysi'r llethrau'n gwahodd tua'r llan, Ac annrheuliedig haul Gorffennaf gwych Yn gwahodd tua'r mynydd, - yn y fan, Ar ddiarwybod droed a distaw duth, Llwybreiddiodd ei ryfeddod prin o'n blaen Ninnau heb ysgog ac heb ynom chwyth Barlyswyd ennyd; megis trindod faen Y safem, pan ar ganol diofal gam Syfrdan y safodd yntau, ac uwchlaw Ei untroed oediog dwy sefydlog fflam Ei lygaid arnom. Yna heb frys na braw Llithrodd ei flewyn cringoch dros y grib; Digwyddodd, darfu, megis seren wîb. R. Williams Parry (1924) This is a brief translation of the poem i came across, the only one i found that came close to capturing the atmosphere thats conveyed in the original welsh version. Near the summit of the mountain, when the church bells from the valley called all men of God, And when the clear summer sun, undimmed, spoke to the mountain peak. Then, precisely then, came the stirring of his honest foot, with its rare beauty, startling to our sight; We did not move, nor did we wish to, But remained transfixed, like a trinity in stone We stood stock still, frozen in our stride. He also stopped; his eyes staring unblinking Above his steady paws, and then, without a sign of fright or haste, his blur of red moved on, Disappearing like a shooting star. It's actually quite enjoyable re-visiting poems that i studied in school, i think it also gives more obvious point to my work and depth. Also, no that i'm having to consider how my work would maybe appeal to buyers, its important that its not just decorative but also have some sort of element that viewers could connect with - therefore consider investing.

Y Ci Defaid / Sheep dog.

I have been thinking again and again about how i could take my felts 'root' pieces further, and also thinking of displaying them alongside something in some sort of deep frame so that the texture is not lost, but everything looks finished and structured.

I have also been looking at binging text into my work, and looking back at old poems that i studied in school about the welsh land, animals and culture. This one by Thomas Richards particularly grabbed my attention. 'Y Ci defaid' translated to... the sheep dog.

Rhwydd gamwr hawdd ei gymell–i’r mynydd,
A’r mannau anghysbell;
Hel a didol diadell
Yw camp hwn yn y cwm pell.

Thomas Richards

I had not done much hand stitching previously in my work, but had a go to see how bringing text into my pieces would change the dynamic and hopefully be a positive thing and give my work more Welsh depth. I found it very hard with the sizing of letters and getting everything to fit. But do do like what i came out with allot, and am going to pursue to produce another bigger one that could hopefully be one of my best piece.

Me and Lois are determined to bring a bit of welsh nationality involved in our work as its being displayed far from home, even if the words aren't understandable to most of the viewers, I hope that would bring more interest to the work and hopefully produce more feedback. And as I'm using quite a traditional format of working -stitch, i hope this will aswell give a warm traditional feeling to the work.

Roots.

Trying to change the direction I'm taking my work, after being criticised for putting my pieces in frames, i spent more time looking at different ways i could display my work - but still looking at different methods of framing. I want people to appreciate the work that's gone into the tiny areas of my pieces, so that's why the way ill chose to display is essential, so i can do my work justice and intrigue viewers so they look closer into them.

I also am still considering working into my sheep as i did at the beginning of this term, but I've produced new ones experimenting with background colour so that they wont collide visually with the felt pieces if i chose to take my ideas about them further.

This is a monoprint of a sheep on top of stained fabric. I'm yet to decide weather I'm going to take these further.

Edinburgh.

Propa' tourist.

Spent the weekend in Edinburgh, watched the rugby (WALES WON!) and also spent some time experiencing the local cocktail bars...

I came across a man selling photographs of general places in Scotland, so i decided to be a proper tourist and buy a couple.

I love the colours and the trees remind me a bit of how i was planning on displaying my work the this module..they were also similar to the views i saw on the train ride back to Liverpool.

Ffelt roots.

The pieces I've been working on recently is quite different to my previous work Iv concentrated more on producing work with representation of 'roots' as that's what will be the end title of mine and Lois's exhibition in April. Iv been working more with felt rather than the fabric, and concentrating more on detailed stitching, rather than the faces i was working into with the trees and colourful hair, and so on.

I feel these pieces will be more suited to display in a gallery environment, alongside photos of my previous work. I'm concentrating on producing work that will eventually all be brought together and portray a sense of welsh community and tradition to the 'scouse' audience.

I have carried on to make my own felt, and sewing into it in the middle as a representation of a tree's roots, but carried on to use the same colour's as iv been working with previously as i still want to photograph these pieces on trees, and hope the contrast in colours and texture from the tree will work well together.

The next step in to decide how to display these pieces, i have a couple of framing ideas i would like to try out, I'm not yet dismissing the idea of a collective mixture of the felt pieces and new sheep pieces that I'm working into at the moment, as well as photographs of my watches and so on in the trees. If they will work together, or ill have to find a balance between what i would like to display. The way ill end up displaying my work also depends on how me and Lois will share the space, and what will go well together. I don't want to loose the feeling and texture of my work, but i do want to get people intrigued and look closer at the detail within the pieces.

I'm starting to doubt my 'fence' idea, and weather or not it will be worth it, as it will be a long, patience testing process for an experiment that might not work out at all, where i could be working into other pieces without having to waste time traveling around. Not that I'm dismissing any of my ideas, more like, trying to choose what will be possible to achieve in the time i have, and what will work better within the gallery environment and convey the right issues.

Also, we need to start thinking about the advertisement of our show, as we'll need to maybe produce posters/leaflets with a taste of the work that will be shown, so that's an added pressure on me to decide on what ill chose to display, and also, deciding on a date....!

Blewog.

LCAD.

Had a successful week last week as we managed to find a place to exhibit mine and Lois's work in Liverpool, as were still hopeful on somewhere to transfer the show in Wales, once our time is up in the Liverpool location.

We have managed to haggle our way to getting a small room in the Liverpool centre for arts development, near our university and a very convenient location. The workers there seemed very keen to get involved and helping us, as they do encourage and display allot of work by young/ amateur artists, mainly local. Allot of work that was up there was very interesting and colourful. Neither of us had previously heard of the place, or what it was about, which is a shame as it took part in the Biennial, strangely no one mentioned it to us - seemed as a waste with the building being so close to uni, and the work was about the Beatles.
The room has two completely plain walls and two with windows. We obviously thought hard about how our work would fit, and how we could display it, that's the main reason why we chose this room as its conveniently set at top of stairs and as there's only two of us, we thought combined with the corridor space out since, it will definitely be enough space for whatever we chose to display. The women we talked to were very helpful, so I'm sure they will be very helpful when setting our work up.

Also in this room, there is a large window, we immediately thought of Lois's transparent photographs when we saw this, thinking it could be a different and successful way of displaying her work rather than complicating things with bulb and lighting and so on. My work on the other had, as I'm in the middle of producing it, can be adjustable to any space and as my initial idea for displaying didn't go down well in the assessment, i guess i have a lot of re-thinking to be doing anyway... It will be interesting to See the reaction of local people in Liverpool to our work as its vary much about Wales, so well be bringing a bit of the countryside into the city. Which was the initial idea we had to begin with.

Shani & co.

I'm lucky to have grown up admiring and being influenced by welsh artist as well as other artist around. I do feel that this has been a massive impact on my work as i have attended many exhibition openings in wales, and know of the high standard of work that welsh artist produce, and now know, as me and Lois try our best to find somewhere in wales to exhibit our work of how filled up with work these welsh galleries are, due to an enormous amount of artist and competition around. We weren't naif to think that it would be easier to find somewhere in wales -thinking it would be easier to find somewhere there rather than in Liverpool, not at all. We just decided that our work would simply appeal more, and maybe make more sense set in a welsh environment as our work's deeply influenced, plus...an excuse to go home once in a while! i miss the sheep.

Shani Rhys James is one of my favourite welsh artist. She produces huge paintings of people usually with you could call props, or set in a kind of theatrical situation. Her paintings are rich in colour, i love the way she conveys expression on faces, and the texture of the paint. Although I'm not painting at the moment, i still think in the same way i would if i were painting. As I'm known for going 'too far' with my colours, i always try and remember the same things weather in drawing or doing sewing work- STRUCTURE !!

Shani uses allot of red in her work.It does give a very dramatic feel to her work. I suppose its the same as my obsession with using turquoise in all my work. I cant judge her for it.

But in all seriousness.The way she works is very similar to mine, she uses objects and sets up a scenario as the base of her paintings as well as tell us a story. Some of them are overwhelmingly big, and they're a great example of a brilliant welsh artist.

Luned Rhys Parri.

Luned Rhys Parri is another artist I'm a massive fan of. Her work is mainly 3D little sculptures, usually containing little quirky characters that also try and tell us a story, fun and humorous. She works from drawings and her pieces are a combination of lots of materials ranging from photographs to cardboard. Her painting is also very good, and after attempting myself to work with cardboard, i can admire her skills and realize how difficult the whole process is. The people in her work are sparked form real life or her childhood, her welsh upbringing and surroundings are very important to her and her work. She mixes and combines numerous different medias as i attempt to do the same.

http://www.oriel.org.uk/Gallery/Gallery-ARTISTS/Profiles/Portfolio/Parri.aspx#/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=83a4f540-be88-46c6-9263-da46f87fbc63

Tate. Nam June Paik.

I visited the Tate today to see June Paik's work, i didn't know allot of background about the artist, only had experienced his collaborated laser piece in the Fact couple of days ago, and liked it. I also knew that he worked allot with videos. The first piece i say was Mercury, a piece with 12 televisions projecting different pictures and patterns. I found it very exiting, unfortunately it was juxtapose with the 'opus paintings' which i found a bit of a waste of a space, this confused me a bit about his work, as they were both completely different, therefore my views on theme were completely different. Paik represented Germany in the Venice biennial. In this room i also got a taste of his collaborative pieces, Joseph Beuys, a duet between him on the piano and a man 'beat boxing'. Upstairs i later learnt that he had an interest in avant guard music and his first public performance was with John Cage.

The first room upstairs didn't really interest me, i couldn't really connect with the work, i felt more like a museum collection of objects such as a piano that June Paik had used during his career. I did like the Tv magnet series, where he had placed a magnet on top of a tv, this manipulated the television from withing to produce a strange shape on the screen, i also liked the Cello Tv, but i found the painting on the boxes a bit pointless and 'sloppy'. It didn't add anything to the piece, so not really sure why he bothered. The combination of the physical physique of the Cello against the video recordings worked well, all his videos were all full of psychedelic patterns and vibrant colours, the sort of things you could stare at for a long time.

Without electricity there can be no art.

The second room on the froth floor was worth paying for. It was the Tv garden, i assume this room was about combining nature and technology. There were numerous tv sets hidden in a room full of jungle plant playing a video of the global groove. The clips consist of some tap dancing and a mixture of other types. The colours were still as vibrant and the psychedelic footage contrasted well with the natural greenery. The videos also lit up the room. In a strange way, the explosion of colour and the contrasting clips reminded me of one of the first video pieces i saw during the Liverpool Biennial, by Ryan Trecatrin, that at the time i found quite frightening, but then it grew on me. The way he treats the footage as his paint, and the television set as the canvas, or a supplement for a sculpture piece is a very refreshing way of working.

Moving away from this was a series of similar television based sculptures, also involving some live feed filming of different object, some with fish tanks placed in front of the screen. There was also a 'Robot family' there, this was a very numerous piece with all they're body parts made out of different size televisions, with more colourfull patterns frequently flashing in the screens. But again i found the random paint splashed on the boxed a bit un-needed and pointless, the work was successful as it was. I did enjoy the exhibition, it was nice to see a completely different variation of work in the Tate, and something so vibrant combined with a story about his like. I'm sure this will attract a large variety of people. Worth a fiver.

Life drawing.

To help me be a bit more confident within my work, drawing especially, i have been attending the life drawing classes on Tuesdays. I find them very helpful, even when i do quick sketches, or spend time on a long pose, i do notice that it helps me, especially when I'm drawing the faces within my work.

Also within these sessions, i get to experiment with different media such as collage and painting.

I enjoy this and it also makes me spend time taking in and studying the tone of the different places on the body.

Its also a nice way to spend the day, i find it very relaxing.

Fact. Laser cone.

nam june paik.

Relaxing, phsycodelic laser patterns reflected over a crystal.

I wish i had a place like this to sleep under at night....

Ffelt balls.

My own felt balls.

They're not as peeeeeerfect as i intended them to be. practice makes perfect.

I am now going to experiment and try and work into the balls with stitch hopefully, see how that turns out, and also where it'll take me and my balls.

Pembleth.

Me and Lois have been searching for somewhere to exhibit our work for our module. we decided that we wanted to do this in Wales, preferably, as its a very strong aspect in both of our works ans as we both are originally from north wales, and also maybe the welsh audience would appreciate the work more as our home country is a significant aspect in the meaning behind both of our projects.

The space at Oriel Dafydd Hardy.

I knew of a small gallery in Caernarfon that encourages young undergraduates to get involved and exhibit there, it wasn't a huge space, but it would definitely provide for the ideas me and Lois had, and the sort of result we were aiming for. I got in contact with the woman in charge only to find out that the space was currently closed down as a gallery space, and they were trying they re best to find funding to build a new space for similar idea- of exploiting young artist, in Caernarfon.

I was very sad to hear this as i attended many exhibitions here, and when in school got a chance to show some of my work, i enjoyed the whole experience very much, it it gave me an chance to experience being acknowledged for my art.

I received allot of positive feedback from the experience, and it was exiting to get to enjoy the opening night and acknowledgement.

This situation has made me learn not to put all my eggs in one basket, and put all my hopes on a space, as its a very unpredictable situation, and i was lucky to even get an answer, as I'm well aware that our second year pupil status might not appeal to many galeries, as allot only take well established artist' request seriously. That's why is important to try and hunt out somewhere that's interested in working with young practicing artist and encourage us, rather than us feeling under pressure and out of our depth. And also, remember that the space we might get might influence our work, either positively or might not do it Any justice at all. we have coma across allot of little galleries that are interested to show/sell photographic work, although that may be useful for Lois, me on the other hand, i enjoy working out different ways of displaying my work, and the idea i have fr this project, i will need floor space. But obviously, at this stage, i am willing to adjust to any alternative space, if needed., as we cant bee too fussy, and this process is mainly for learning how the industry work, how to get you're idea to appeal to these places , and fit in with they're criteria and a space thats not to big.

http://www.rcaconwy.org/

I suppose because I'm producing new work for this, ill be able to adjust successfully if we find a space in the next week, ill be able to stir my work in the right direction for that space. But i have noticed this process of contacting is a very long and tedious process, especially when not receiving back any information. Since receiving the email form Dafydd Hardy, we have contacted numerous small gallery spaces and even looked into renting a room as a space, we are also going to go see a space in the student union, in case we would also like to show our work here in Liverpool.