Tag Archives: My Art

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I've been dying to tell you about this since last month and I'm glad that now I can...

I'm delighted to announce that the last Craftypod of 2007 is an interview with me. It's pretty interesting, if I say so myself, and Sister Diane did a fantastic job in editing our long conversation so that I sound reasonably coherent!

Many thanks to Sister Diane for her great editing, her insightful questions and for being kind enough to ask me in the first place; I very much enjoyed being interviewed by her and what a great way to round off my year of drawing.

DP 344
Kirsty Hall: Diary Project Envelope from 10th December 2007

In the early hours of yesterday morning I finished a mammoth update of The Diary Project blog because I thought it would look really shoddy to Craftypod listeners if the blog was still stuck in November - it's helpful to have a bit of a kick every now and then. Apparently I'd had a long enough break from writing about drawing and I was able to do it again without banging my head on my desk. I'm nearly up to date now, I just have a week's worth of envelopes to write up and then I'll be all caught up. It's so nice to be ending the year without that hanging over me.

Wow, I can't believe that I only have 3 days of the project left to go, it's a very strange feeling and I'm still processing it: it feels quite unreal.

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Sometimes correspondences in your work surprise you. me-jade recently added these two photos of mine as 'favourites' on Flickr.

DP 207
Kirsty Hall: Diary Project envelope from the 26th July 2007

Kirsty Hall - photograph of a red thread drawing entitled Parse
Kirsty Hall: Parse, January 2007

Although I wasn't conscious of it when I was drawing the envelope, when I saw the two images next to each other, I was struck by how very similar the shapes are.

I've been concentrating on updating The Diary Project blog this week: I'm woefully behind on it and it's getting embarrassing. I've been updating the blog in small chunks because that's all I can manage right now - writing the little musings is getting to be almost impossible. I've pretty much run out of things to say about my work: I didn't know this was possible but apparently it is!

I did an update on Sunday and another one this morning plus I'm about halfway through scanning more than a month's worth of envelopes. I scanned to the end of October yesterday and felt very pleased with myself before realising that hey, we're already half way through November.

Here's my favourite drawing from the latest update:
DP 294
Kirsty Hall: Diary Project envelope from the 21st October 2007

Hopefully I'll get another chunk done tomorrow - although frankly, if I never have to write another word about my damn drawings, it'll be way too soon! In the meantime, I'm off to scan envelopes, which is time consuming but thankfully a lot less mentally taxing and I can catch up on podcasts while I'm doing it.

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Having seen the Paying It Forward idea on Artist, Emerging, I immediately wanted to join in, so I headed over to the people Deanna was making things for and was delighted to discover that Kaija from Paperiaarre still had one space. So I'm her third person and I consider myself very lucky because wow, just look at the gorgeous books she makes!

Kaija

Kaija

I've done a little bit of very simple book binding and it's a lot of fun but I've certainly not made any as luscious as this. She also makes very beautiful handmade brooches.

Anyway, it's now my turn to pass it on.

Pay It Forward (via Kaija, via Deanna, via Mrs Eliot and so on)*

Here are the rules:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Pretty straightforward huh, I agree to make and send something to the first three people to comment, who then make things for their first three commenters and so on. OK, have at it, people...

EDIT: Even though it looks like I've got three responders, one of them is my partner and he doesn't actually want to take part - he was just responding to the question of who came up with the term 'paying it forward' - so, there's still one spot available.

* I've tried to find out who originally started this idea but haven't been able to follow the thread of connections back far enough. Does anyone know who should get the credit?

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I've been in a creative slump lately because I've been unwell. I just haven't had the energy to do much of anything, let alone making art - although of course, I'm still doing my daily envelopes for The Diary Project. But overall, I've just been feeling totally blah about my work - it happens and I know it'll pass but it's still not a fun place to be in.

One of the few things that has been creatively exciting me lately is Camilla Engman's Organized Collection group on Flickr.

So my art practice for the last few weeks has mostly involved collecting little object on the days when I've been able to get out and about and just taking simple photos of them on walls or paving stones. It's small and it's simple but at least it makes me feel as if I'm still doing something.

Kirsty Hall, photograph of red rubber bands
Kirsty Hall, found rubber bands, October 2007

Kirsty Hall, photograph of red rubber bands
Kirsty Hall, found rubber bands, October 2007

One of the things I noticed when I first started joining Flickr groups was how it made me see the world in different ways and how I stretched my photography a little bit because of it. I'd take different photos than usual because I'd think "hey, that would be a good shot for such-and-such a group". If you're feeling the need for a bit of a creative stretch, particularly in relation to your photography, then I'd recommend it.

And having said all that, I'm now going to take myself and my camera outside to the garden to see what I can find, before I need to go for yet another rest.

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The Diary Project suffered its first real casualty recently when this envelope came back so mauled that the Royal Mail put it in a special 'oh dear, we're incredibly sorry' plastic bag. Amazingly, the contents are still inside.

Kirsty Hall - Diary Project envelope from Sept 10th, drawing on damaged envelope
Kirsty Hall: Diary Project envelope from the 10th September 2007

bag
Kirsty Hall: plastic bag from the Royal Mail

I was totally thrilled, it's the most exciting thing that's happened so far!

The project blog is currently up to date until the 16th September and should be updated again over the weekend, although we have house guests this weekend so it might not happen until Monday. I've been a bit behind with it lately but I'm attempting to get back onto a regular schedule with updates. If I leave it too long it gets completely overwhelming.

I got an interesting email from someone a couple of weeks ago asking me why I post the letters to myself and not to another person. I won't post their original letter because they haven't responded to my request to do so but here's an extract from my reply:

Why do I post the letters? Well, I like the sense of risk involved - the envelopes might get lost in the post or damaged. I'm a bit of a control freak so posting the letters is an interesting way for me to let go a bit. My work has always involved a certain amount of 'letting nature take its course' - in the past I've often made sculptures that rot, decay or slowly change. I like to open myself up to chaos a little because it challenges me and the posting does that. Plus, I've always been interested in the idea of journeys and I love the fact that the envelopes take these little journeys without me.

I wanted to send the envelopes to myself rather than someone else because I wanted to have them all to exhibit at the end of the year. Also, there's just something very absurd about sending letters to yourself for a year and that aspect of the project makes me laugh. And on a completely mundane level, I absolutely love getting post and because of this project, I get a year's worth of letters, which just delights me. I get a little bit excited every time a letter comes home safely.

Oh, and I think that posting the letters also stops me cheating. It's a firm deadline - I absolutely have to get the letter in the postbox by midnight or I've failed for that day. It's good to have that sense of 'I must get this done'. I know that no one but me would know if I did the letter after midnight but somehow having to go out and post them keeps me honest about the project. I don't know why, but somehow it works as an external control.

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Since I seem to have been on an 'art made from books' theme this week, I thought I'd share one of the few pieces that I've made using books.

Burn was a small sculpture I did for an exhibition in a church in Gloucester in May 2004.

Kirsty Hall, art, sculpture, bible burning, Burn
Kirsty Hall: Burn, May 2004

It's a glass bottle engraved with the word 'burn' and it contains handmade ink that I made from the burnt and ground up ashes of a Bible. Although it sounds rather blasphemous the piece was actually about William Tyndale, who translated the Bible from Latin to English and was strangled and then burnt by the Catholic Church for his efforts.

Kirsty Hall, art, sculpture, bible burning, Burn
Kirsty Hall: Burn, May 2004

I was trying to convey the idea that although you can burn both books and people, once an idea has been expressed you can rarely eradicate it completely - even if you burn the books the words will be rewritten and if you burn the people who wrote the words, others will pick up the pen. So to me, it's a very hopeful and positive piece and I liked it a lot. However, it was tiny and was completely dwarfed by the space. One day I'll do something with it and the lovely series of photos that I took of the burning Bible and the ashes. Ironically enough, I quite fancy making a book...

Kirsty Hall - Burning, art, sculpture, photograph of burning bible
Kirsty Hall: Burnt Bible, May 2004

As a dedicated bookworm, I had a bit of moral trouble with the book burning part but it was so integral to the piece that I couldn't not do it and I have to confess that once I got going, I took a wicked glee in the process. I was also worried that Christians might be offended that I'd burnt their holy book, but I've yet to get any complaints.

The following is the text I wrote for the exhibition brochure:

Burn
Glass, ink made from the ashes of a bible

"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."
Heinrich Heine

"The paper burns, but the words fly away."
Ben Joseph Akiba

The Catholic Church burnt not only Tyndale’s Bible, but also more than 1,000 people found with the forbidden text. This work is a memorial to everyone who has been killed for reading the wrong books.

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My partner sent me this story about an attempt to make a record breaking amount of porridge. It made me laugh because a couple of years ago, I made some art using porridge and did an accompanying 'Porridge Performance' where I made big pans of porridge for people at the private view.

The piece in question was called My Glorious Cultural Heritage. It was a chest of drawers, filled with various items that related to my Scottishness.

Kirsty Hall - art, sculpture, My Glorious Cultural Heritage
Kirsty Hall - My Glorious Cultural Heritage, Feb 2004

Here's the text from the exhibition it was in:

When I was a child my dad told me that Scottish shepherds used to make porridge and pour it into a ‘porridge drawer’. The porridge would set hard and during the week slices would be gradually be cut off and eaten cold. I remembered this late one night and became obsessed with finding out what a drawer full of porridge would actually look like. Now we all know!

Without understanding the culture we come from, we have no anchor for our imaginations. Recently I have become increasingly fascinated with my own conflicted relationship with my homeland. William McGonagall, Calvinism, a strong work ethic, a dour practical morality, Robert Burns, Celtic romanticism, tartan, shortbread and a harsh Border wind: these are some of the stories that have shaped me.

Kirsty Hall - art, sculpture, My Glorious Cultural Heritage
Kirsty Hall - My Glorious Cultural Heritage, detail

The drawers were collaged with Scottish literature and contained shortbread, a book of Robert Burns poetry, a Bible, a bottle of whisky and of course, the infamous porridge.

Kirsty Hall, art, sculpture, My Glorious Cultural Heritage
Kirsty Hall - My Glorious Cultural Heritage, detail

The 'Jacobite' text was made from shortbread and was probably my favourite drawer.

This remains one of the odder pieces I've made - I'm still not too sure how it relates to the rest of my work, although collaging the drawers was certainly obsessive. I find it a bit literal now and feel my work has moved on quite a bit from this. I think if I was ever to show it again, I'd take all the drawers out of the chest and just show them and I'd probably alter it quite a lot (I have absolutely no compunction about revisiting and remaking work).

And here's the porridge making, which I enjoyed immensely and would happily do again.

Kirsty Hall - art, Porridge Performance

I had masses of little bowls filled with various nuts, dried fruits, chocolate chips and spices, plus honey, maple syrup, sugar, rice milk and cream so people got their bowl of porridge and then added the things they wanted. It was wildly popular because it was a freezing cold night and many people came back for seconds and thirds so they could try out different combinations. It was a lot of fun and definitely helped the private view go with a bang. Actually, that night remains one of the best private views I've ever done because we had me doing porridge plus a fantastic performance piece by my friend Elly and then a live band later on. People ended up staying for hours and it was a real event. I always think it's worth having things like this at private views, it makes them more memorable and exciting for people.

There are more images of this piece over on Flickr, click on any of the images in this post to get over there.

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Kirsty Hall - art, mail art, Diary Project 242

I did a massive update over on The Diary Project at the weekend. It's been getting harder and harder to find something to say about every individual drawing, so it sometimes it takes me a while to get the scans up there. I've got another six that I uploaded onto Flickr over the weekend that I need to write bits of blurb for.

It's definitely getting harder to come up with new drawings too, I keep worrying that I'm repeating myself too much but fortunately I hit on a couple of new drawing techniques last night, so that should keep me inspired this week.

I'm going to try to get round to that second Diary Project update later today but right now, I'm heading over to Spike Island to sit in the Associate Space and do some research. I've been meaning to get over there and do some reading for ages, they've got a small but interesting-looking selection of art books. The thing I miss most about college is the lack of access to decent art books and magazines. I don't have much of a budget for them (they're so expensive) so I miss the college library like crazy. The local council library doesn't have a particularly great art selection and although I can and do order stuff in, I miss the serendipity of random browsing. The little local college where I do my silversmithing course has an art library but it's so small and after several years of studying there, I've read most of the interesting stuff. I'm looking forward to starting back there on Wednesday though because there's bound to be a few new books and magazines that came in over the summer.

My book consumption slumped drastically over the summer. For some reason I just wasn't feeling like reading (it happens occasionally, even to this confirmed bookworm!), so I could use a bit of a boost in that area.

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Kirsty Hall - Stained Cup
Kirsty Hall - art, photograph of Stained Cup

About five years ago I went through my mother's cupboards and took a series of documentary photos of the objects I remembered from my childhood. This photo is my favourite from the series.

The cup in question is a plastic cup from my granny and grandad's old caravan. The caravan - and my grandparents - are long gone but the stains of their endless cups of holiday tea remain.