Aunt Joan's sampler is finished

I'm pleased to say I've finished Aunt Joan's sampler.  This image shows it laid out, prior to hemming. As usual the final additions - the central section with the pattern pieces - did not take very long to stitch.  It is always the border that takes the longest.  Because I know what size I want the embroidery to be, I mark out the border first.  Also, I had the ideas for what the border would be (inspired by Sissinghurst), what the alphabet at the top would be (styled from her handwriting), examples of her style of embroidery (all counted work, carefully executed) and the description of what her values were (researched from my cousins).  It took me a lot longer to come up with the idea of using dress making and glove making patterns to show the depth and breadth of her skills, yet this bit was the quickest to stitch.

Portrait of Aunt Joan

I've been galvanised into action to prepare for the Private View at Dundas Street Gallery in Edinburgh, where my Self Portrait will be shown as part of the Women's History Month exhibition.  I've booked my flights and hotel.  I'm losing weight to get into my 1960s shift dress (3lbs so far!) - I need to lose half a stone by 6 March.

I went to my art class, and took some invitations for the Private View.  I felt really self conscious.  I very much wanted someone to come to the PV, but it's a long way to go to Edinburgh, would require an overnight stay, and would involve a fair bit of spending for anyone to attend, what with flights or trains, and accommodation.  To my utter astonishment, 3 people wanted to come!  Lori and her husband love Edinburgh, and this will give them a reason for a trip to Scotland.  Karin and Sheila also want to support me and my work, and would enjoy a trip away, and would take in some galleries too!  How good is that!

I've started trying out different images for a new business card - I think this might be the image, but I'm struggling to get it right in all the details.  This might be unconventional, but I think it will be great for the above event, as it is a section from my sampler.  I've taken about a dozen shots on my camera phone, in different lights, and with varying degrees of ironing and pressing.  But only the first 2 shots are appearing on My Photos from iCloud.  Still working on this one.

Potential business card image.

Seeing Linden and Gareth

I had a lovely meal with Linden and Gareth last night, to celebrate Gareth getting the Best Dissertation award at London Met.

We discussed my values project - and Gareth thought it should be called The Unvalued.  Look at Pragmatism.  Henry James.  Values come from your life experiences.  How are Lieta and  Margaret getting on?

Listen to Analysis R4 last Monday 29 January.

May Morris at William Morris Gallery.

Great exhibition at the William Morris Gallery.  May Morris commenced in the family business, working to designs of her father, William Morris, then progressed to her own designs.  There was an exquisite stitched piece of a Gothic figure - typical of a WM design - which apparently was a technical demonstration piece, but May Morris rarely stitched this type of design from this point on.  She focussed on foliate border designs and flowers.  Her work varied from tiny, miniature, stitches on 6" x 3" panels, to big chunky stitches on commercial felt 15' x 15'.  She used satin, stem, long and short, and split stitch extensively - simple stitches - used skillfully and to best effect.  Lots of clever, directional line work.  She was unimpressed by fancy stitches.

May Morris was unimpressed with embroidery designs of black or dark blue on light ground.  She obviously liked colour work and was very skilled at colour blending.  She held interesting views on purple and yellow.  She advocated soft dusky purples with bright clear yellows, and was scathing about bright purples against buttery yellows.  I wonder whether she was reacting against the Victorian Perkins coal tar dyes which originally were a bright, artificial purple.  May Morris advocated good quality materials, specifically light fast dyes, and I wonder whether William Morris' colour dyes were as lightfast as artificial chemical dyes of the tie.

Vine, stitched wall hanging/quilt cover c1910

 May Morris was excluded from many Arts & Crafts societies because she was female, and was a founder member of a women's  exhibiting society.

Label - Why has a section been cut out?

And the table runner it was attached to.

Altercloth with gold work.

Amazing detail.  Goldwork and lustrous silks reflect the light very well.

There was also a hand embroidered cot quilt made by May Morris.  Apparently it was made in the year before she married.  She never had a child, and the marriage ended in divorce (unusual for the time).  It had various quotations around the edge, and lots of animals stitched on it.  I found this piece quite poignant.

Designed by May Morris, stitched by Jane Morris,
The Forest and the Homestead cot quilt
Courtesy of William Morris Gallery

It was a lovely day out.

London Artfair at Design Centre - Curating Gender

What a waste of time.  I expected a chaired discussion of the issues curators have, to fairly exhibit artwork by and about men and women, and the issues of men and women.  It turned into a moaning session about how hard it is to be a woman in the art world.

One speaker obviously knew many statistics about the differences between what women and men get paid, and the difficulties of being an architectural artist who happens to be female.  The next speaker was speaking English as a foreign language, so was speaking via a translator, and had done feminist artwork but did not appear to be talking about Curating Gender.  Some of the questions from the floor were just bleating about how hard it is to be a female artist (it's hard for all artists) and another was a young student who wanted to know how to make it big, quick.  There was comment about how women always get lower fees than men, and one of the men (a former music promoted, now art promoter) said "make better art" which went down like a lead balloon.  I would modify his comment to "make more commercial art".  If people want to make a profit at art, then the customer needs to be prepared to pay for it, and it needs to appeal to a wider, richer, market.  However, as I am making art to understand my world (rather than earn my living at it) then his comment about 'better' art is inapt.

But nothing about the issues curators have when taking gender into account.  £16 entry, and a lot of travelling to learn nothing.

Panel - Curating Gender

17/1/18 - Tutorial with Jill and Imogen

I'm feeling thoroughly confused.  My tutorial went well while I was up in Coventry but now I feel confused, unfocussed and aimless.

I started showing my 3 samplers - Mrs Konieczny, Self Portrait and Aunt Joan - to Jill and Imogen.  Jill was amazed at them - the difference between seeing something on screen, and in reality.  I agree with her, that it is very different to see the actual object, to seeing an image on a screen.  I'm always somewhat surprised when people really like them - so many people pass them by - so when someone understands how long they take to make, and the feeling and respect for the person that is imbued in the work, it is reassuring but also unusual.

I told them about how I had used Schwartz's Value Chart in the NPG.  I'd used it to make quick value judgements on imagery based on gut feel - which is how psychometric testing on self assessed personality questionnaires is conducted. You don't agonise about the rating, you just get on with it.  This was obviously not what they thought appropriate.  They felt I was using a tool out of context.  Which it is, but using a tool out of context can give insights not otherwise available.  If I wanted to analyse the values in paintings, they were talking about measuring the tonal value, size, space occupied by different people in the images, and creating, manipulating and analysing big data.  This is not what I want to do.  I don't have the skills, and I don't have that level of data rationality.

My notes of the meeting are not great.  Too much information was coming at me too fast.

I need to deliver 2 x 5,000 words.  Two chapters (of what?) (By September?)
One is an enhanced literature review.
The other is either 5,000 words of writing, or a piece of artwork.

At my Performance Review Panel in September(?) there will be an independent assessor (possibly Graham Charlton, painter or Lee ... artist, from Coventry)

Jill suggested that my reading/writing could focus on:

Context of stitch
Value of stitch
Purpose/value of decoration
Purpose/value of pattern - what happened with the colonial

She suggested I look at Michael Brennan Wood's work.  I loathe it.  Pointless depictions of flowers.
Imogen suggested I do some artist research - of which I have done a lot.  She suggested I categorise the work that I like and dislike to identify patterns and trends.  I know I like work with a strong narrative.  I'll do this.

Imogen also suggested I look at her book Contemporary Crafts and use the bibliography to direct my reading.  I need to identify the key dates from 1979 for what happened when.  Peter Dormer - The Culture of Craft.  Also Glenn Adamson.  Create a chart for key dates.  Don't divorce industrial from domestic (what industrial? what domestic?  How?).  Stay broad.  Look at men using textiles - I get hacked off with this.  I'm interested in how women are represented in museums, and the fact that very few textiles get shown in museums, but often when textiles are shown, it's men who are often showcased for their 'non-stereotypical' use of textiles, like Michael Brennan Wood and Richard McVetis.  What might be interesting is 'what' are the differences between men's and women's textile work and 'why' does men's work and women's work get their respective prominence?  Look at samplers directing what women were.

For PhD, research students are required to produce 25,000 words.  Text has to back up the work.

Female making in stitch.
Values of decorative (holds meaning culturally and personally eg in borders)
Cultural Capital
Economic Capital
Values ascribed to gender

I struggle with finding right search terms.  Often cannot get access at home.  Jill/Imogen said often you can only get access when on site.  So I need to spend more time in the library at Coventry.
Try searching under Decoration, female, gender.

Join British Library.  Closer to home and very helpful staff.

As a female visual arts practitioner, construct a narrative, using non-traditional means.

Create a funnel: Not sure whether I should start at the top or bottom?

  Why it is of value?
    Cultural Values
       Writing re value of stitch
           What is displayed?
             Me - Practice - lived experienced

Create a list of words for how I work.

I don't have the skills to do the research I am actually interested in  - How are the values of women portrayed in art exhibitions in museums?.  I'd be better off working in a team, where the leaders are experienced in the type of research being conducted, and I'm the worker doing the grunt of data collection, while I learn the skills required.  Maybe what Jill and Imogen are suggesting is taking a different route to the goal.

I feel I am getting further and further away from knowing what my question is.

Actions:

Get/read Contemporary Crafts - ordered 17/1.
Start reading from its bibliography
While waiting for book to arrive, keep working on Aunt Joan's sampler.  This needs to be finished so I can move on.
Read more of The Subversive Stitch.
21 Jan - Look at May Morris exhibition at William Morris Gallery
23-26 Jan - Contemporary Watercolours art class.  Start new body of work about public toilets for Liverpool St toilet attendants.
Library book search - Dormer/Adams-on
Conduct library word search for articles - textiles-narrative-women; gender-stitch-value; decoration-female-gender etc
Categorise my artist research folder to identify what is meaningful to me.
Create a chart for key dates in feminist art.
Join British Library
Create funnel of thought as above
Create list of words for how I work.

I'm still feeling confused but with a list of things to do, at least I'm no longer aimless!

Work in progress - Aunt Joan's Sampler

White border, hot border, purple border and line drawing of Sissinghurst

Purple border

White Border and a bit of pulled thread work

Purple border

Lettering and blackwork strip

Purple border and a bit of pulled work

White Border

And the script is nearly finished.

Imogen's talk - British Artists of the 1980s - Art, Money, and Radical Practice

Imogen gave a presentation on her research to date for her next book.  She has two options for the title:

Diverse Practice: British Art in the 1980s
British Artists of the 1980s: Art, Money and Radical Diversity.

I think the second is better because it tells the reader it is about the artists - the people behind the artwork - and includes Money, which was important to 1980s society.  However it does not include the word Sculpture - which is what I think the book is about.

Why:  Imogen wants to focus on the unknown names, the lesser known artists.  Those who are not in archives.  Or are still in boxes and not listed.  Some artists have disappeared, went off to do other things and were not collected.  There was much marginalisation of women and BAME.  Her book aims to focus on how these people got around these issues.  The French describe the 1980s as the Lost Decade.  So far, the 1980s has been written out of history.  Imogen aims to address this.

New British Sculpture became the promotional name at the time - patronage dependent.  (Does this indicate that private patronage supports white men?  Or is it that patronage supports 'people like me'? Which could be any type of person?). The Lissom Gallery in particular was a big supporter, plus major museums and national collections.  However, archives become fractured (how?) and the continuum is lost.  Thus, Imogen has been conducting semi-structured interviews - gaining trust - in order to access the artist's archive.

Difficult to find people - many are wary by bad experiences or designation.  Allow them to structure the interview.  How do they want to be represented?  Essential to gain trust.  This is a new style of research for Imogen so it is a learning experience for her.

Ailsa Wilding
Cathy de Monchaut - hand maker - the patina of the hand made.
Catherine Gili - loves her materials - steel - follows her own agenda - deeply impressive.  Does not work with a Gallery as she wants to work to her own path/inspiration.
Helen Chadwick - Mutability exhibition.  Used own body.

After the interview, Imogen sends the transcript for authorisation.  But she finds speech is fractured - ungramatically spoken.  So she has taken to stating there will be a 'light edit'.  As an experienced interviewer and transcriber, I think there are ways round this.  In the interview introduction, you say the purpose of the book/interview is to portray them in a positive light; that you will make grammatical corrections to the first transcript to make it readable; that the interviewee has the right to edit out chunks that go off on a tangent; that they have the right to hear the recording while editing so they can check for authenticity.

Money became more important from the late 80s.

Her book aims to be demonstrating rather than theorising.  Material and metaphor eg place and belonging.

Put interviews in PhD appendix - gives legal protection (against slander?  how/why?)

We had a quite a debate about how/what you write about people.  There was a PhD student who managed to get right up my nose.  Obviously very clever, and appeared to want to be an art critic.  He had been talking to a mature writer who had given him a serious warning to be careful what he wrote, as this mature writer was living in the garage of his children, because he had been sued (for slander?) and lost everything in damages.  But even so, this student was pontificating about how he wanted to be a critic  and ....  He kept talking in half sentences, about his right to write articles as he thought fit, resulting from interviews.  He was implying he was strongly critical to an artist's work, but did not actually say it, and also assuming the audience understood the point he was (not) making.  Came across as a right smart Alec.

It made me think of my Study Abroad landlady, Tangea Tansley, who was a university creative writing lecturer.  She told a story about being interviewed live on radio in Sydney.  The discussion before the broadcast was all very friendly and chummy, but once they went on air, the interviewer publicly threw some very hostile questions at her and was snide about her work. Tangea was immediately on the back foot, and felt publicly humiliated by the interviewer.  The outcome is that Tangea will never do another live interview on air.  It only takes one experience like this, for artists to become suspicious of interviewers' motivations.  Add into this mix, that the interviewers are highly trained, and the interviewees are not, and you have the situation where power is unequal in the relationship and trust is non-existent.

Just from the behaviour of the student in this presentation, I would not participate in an interview with him, about my work.  How easy to lose trust!