miscellaneousPosted by Janette Mon, August 23, 2010 10:26:00On Friday, I had the good fortune to be invited to the private view of O2 Textiles new exhibition "Bloomin Marvellous" at RHS Garden Hyde Hall. In previous years, when EAST has had exhibitions at Braintree O2 Textiles have exhibited in the Town Hall opposite. Unfortunately this could not happen this year, hence O2 Textiles' new venue.
After a particularly difficult week for me personally, it was truly uplifting to attend this exhibition - birds, flowers, people and flowers were the overwhelming themes but this is certainly an exhibition worth visiting for its riot of colour alone.
The exhibition continues now until Thursday 16 September 2010 - see the 02 textiles website for more information - www.02textiles.co.uk
Of course the exhibition was also a welcome reminder of how close Talking Textiles is now, and in between I have a part of a talk at the Foundling Museum this coming Sunday looking at the foundling tokens, and including the story of Margaret Larney, who also features in my EAST work. All are welcome to this talk and for more information on that go to www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk and look under "Bank Holiday at the Foundling".
miscellaneousPosted by Janette Mon, June 14, 2010 16:06:58As part of the Leigh Art Trail this year a retrospective of the work of Yvonne Pedretti, who sadly died this year, is to be held at Southend Adult Community College, as well as an exhibition of students work.
Leigh Centre
Elm Road
Leigh on Sea
SS9 1SP
Opening times:
June 12th - 19th, late nights Mon 14th and Weds 16th
closed Sun 20th
See the following link for more information:
http://www.leigharttrail.co.uk/lat-p-ArtistDetail-aid-88.htm
And for information on the Leigh Art Trail which will include the work of new EAST member Tricia North visit - www.leigharttrail.co.uk.
miscellaneousPosted by Susan Sun, June 06, 2010 21:02:00On Friday I travelled by train to the Hub in Sleaford to see an exhibition by fourteen members of the Textile Study Group called "Visual Thinking Unpicked". On display were some of the initial responses made by each artist to their source material. This may have been in the form of a collection of objects displayed between mirrors and glass (Jan Miller), strips of textured and painted fabrics and paper trying to evoke fields after a light dusting of snow (Jan Evans), or beautifully observed drawings of bones which took on the form of landscape (Ros Chilcot). I was able to see that some members of the group were still pursuing earlier themes whilst others had begun new areas of study. It will be interesting to see how this work develops.
However, several pieces had been stolen from the exhibition - books by Mary Youles and items from an open case by Mary Sleigh. These thefts meant that other exhibits had to be displayed in cases when it had been intended that they should be free-standing.
Nevertheless, there was still plenty of thought provoking work to see and I was able, at a time when I am frantically stitching to finish a piece for "Talking Textiles", to view other artists' practice and think abut the direction my work could take in the next twelve months! An excellent day out.
miscellaneousPosted by Janette Mon, January 04, 2010 13:55:47In view of the fact that we are now in a new year, I thought I should try and update the blog banner with a seasonal look.
miscellaneousPosted by Janette Thu, December 24, 2009 08:57:17Just wanted to wish all the readers of the EAST blog all the best over the holiday season and in the New Year.
miscellaneousPosted by Janette Fri, December 18, 2009 11:21:06Today I should have been in London looking at archives dating back 200+ years, but instead I am at home looking at the snow. I'm not completely snowed in but with the threat of more snow to come today, I was concerned that I may end up stuck in a snow drift on the way home. It is always unfortunate when you have a day planned and then those plans are thwarted. However what it does do is give me a chance to do other things, and that included updating this blog.
One of the documents I was going to look at relates to a poor woman who admitted two of her children to the Foundling Hospital because she was in Newgate; (her full story will be revealed at our Braintree EAST exhibition). But it made me realise how lucky I am only being "trapped" by a little bit of snow (that will probably be gone soon) and not stuck in an 18th century prison knowing the terrible fate that awaits me, like poor Mrs Larney! Mrs Larney and I do have at least one thing in common - I know she sewed, and before that fateful day when she was imprisoned she was going about her daily life buying patterns for her husband's shirts (this bit is not quite like me, who probably would go to M&S). But what did she think about while she sat stitching them - what she was going to cook for dinner, how to stop the children from making too much noise, how she was going to pay the bills - so perhaps not so different from many modern stitchers?
On a slightly different tack, earlier in the week I had the privilege of being invited to the Foundling Museum's annual Volunteers Christmas Party and what struck me there was how so many people can be brought together just because of an interest in one small museum. Apparently the museum has more than 150 volunteers and going by the selection that made it that evening, a group of people of diverse ages and interests. And of course many artists have been drawn to the museum (and the hospital before it, eg Hogarth, Gainsborough, Handel etc) all with a similar starting point, and yet interpreting their thoughts and impressions in vastly different ways. At present there is a film/sound display on in their exhibition gallery which I did visit briefly and in the new year there will be a new exhibition by Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin and Paula Rego - so I may not be in quite the same league but at least I can feel we have something in common! 
Above - Coram's Fields - the site of the old Foundling Hospital. For more information on the exhibitions at the Foundling Museum - www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk
miscellaneousPosted by Janette Tue, September 22, 2009 20:35:04The EAST website is almost a year old now - and hopefully it is just going to get better now I have worked out most of the technicalities. In order to "celebrate" the website's birthday and also EAST's 14th birthday this month, I have changed the heading on the blog page.
These ladies were actually created for the ERTF exhibition (www.ertf.org.uk), which is just coming to an end in Cambridge, but are based on similar figures I made for our last EAST exhibition. At present these ladies are keeping an eye on the people of Cambridge walking past the gallery window in Jesus Lane. The piece is titled "No Persons, Just Women" and relates to the fact that almost 100 years ago this year (1811 in fact) many ladies grouped together to complain about the inequality of women. They met on census night and instead of completing their form with their personal details they would just write "no persons, only women"; a subtle way of saying their felt like second class citizens.
And the next change to look out for is on this website, which will be altering in the next couple of months with information on the new work that the EAST members are completing. Once our EAST @ The Warner Textile Archive exhibition has completed at the two Knitting and Stitching shows in London and Harrogate I will also put a "virtual" exhibition into the gallery section of the website.
And for those of you who I have met recently to say that you have been looking (and enjoying) the EAST website, I'd like to say thank you - it's nice to know that when I am "waffling on" someone out there is listening!
miscellaneousPosted by Janette Fri, August 28, 2009 21:20:02This week, in particular seems to be one where I am wearing my different hats - not including my "home" and "work" hats, I have had to wear my "ERTF Esex representative" hat, my "EAST" hat and my "foundling researcher" hat all in the space of a week - perhaps I will call on Lorna to make me a hat for each task, so that I can remember which one I am wearing at any one time!
As ERTF (Eastern Regional Textile Forum" Essex Representative, I attended a committee meeting at the beginning of the week and it is good to be amongst other textile artists who are not necessarily all embroiderers. Our main priority is our first exhibition in Cambridge (www.ertf.org.uk) coming up in September but we are also looking at events and actvities for the year ahead.
Then today I wore my "foundling researcher" hat by meeting at the Foundling Museum with Gill, my fellow researcher and the director of the museum, Lars Tharp. My involvement with the museum would not have come about without my involvement with EAST and it looks as if there are some exciting plans for next year and the year ahead happening at the museum (www.foundlingmuseum.com).
Then in between I have been nipping in and out of my EAST hat - working on the hand stitching I started at the Belstead workshop, I am now waiting for the delivery of some threads (bought over the internet), so I can get on with the inside of my "18th century box" for our EAST @ The Warner Archive exhibition at the K&S Shows. I've done the samples but just need the thread to start stitching and in the meantime making some birds which will fit inside the box.
