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| Needle Felted Brain- Laura Cameron |
Who doesn't love an intriguing proposition or two? If the rumours are to be believed I certainly do (no need to go into that now). Recently I've been flattered to be invited to collaborate on a piece of art with an artist I admire and been offered a little feature in a Welsh language tv programme. Interesting & glamorous times indeed especially compared to my usual daily activities of stabbing myself repeatedly with a needle (felting) and chattering to the cats (who don't listen) or Evie the rabbit headed lady (who does) as I busily sew on fox ears or make noses for squirrels.
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| 'Connected'- Rebecca F. Hardy & Laura Cameron |
I was delighted to be asked by
Rebecca F. Hardy to collaborate on a piece of art for her upcoming solo show at the
Bocs Gallery in Caernarfon ('Neuroanatomy': opened 29th May, runs until 29th June). Rebecca is possibly the busiest person I know, having returned from the lure of London, she manages to work in various prestigious galleries in NW Wales, create her own fantastic art, be one half of the fab
Dyfal Donc, bring up a small (super-cute) child & presumably be nice to her husband (the artist
Morgan Griffith-Sonomano & surely a strong nominee for 'Gwynedd's Best Beard' title). I feel a bit lazy & underachieving just thinking about it all! As well as an exciting prospect, the idea of collaborating was mildly daunting, I've never attempted to tie my work in with others and have little experience of the art world. I've been more at home in nice craft fairs and the occasional exhibition where my work stands alone.
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| Needle Felted Heart- Laura Cameron |
Since collaboration was uncharted territory, hopefully I wasn't too trying to deal with. I'm aware that all of the seven collaborations with female artists developed differently in methodology & outcome which must have been a pleasing, interesting process. For me, an indulgently long chat in a favourite local cafe (of course with cake) of ideas and inspirations got things rolling. We have several overlapping interests so it felt fairly easy to find common ground. We're both fascinated with representations of body organs especially hearts & brains so I pressed on and made a needle felted anatomical heart and brain (thanks to my lovely Dad for supplying old illustrations of brains to help me with this, even if they turned out to be horses!). The idea was to link together our work & Becs transformed our contributions (my felty organs with her plaster cast large brain & illustrated paper heart tag) into one beautiful piece, 'Connected'.
I hugely enjoyed working on something a bit more visceral and edgier than my usual bunny heads and strawberries. It appealed to the side of me that loves taxidermy, anatomical drawings, Jack the Ripper tours and Grimm tales where there's no happy endings but plenty of dastardly things occur. The mixture of sweet & sinister that needle felting lends itself to is my main reason for loving it. Here's me with the needle felted heart in my hands, you can see my vintage style strawberry-dotted wedding dress in the background which makes me adore this pic even more.
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| Me, Evie & patient camera man |
Now onto my tv debut. Wearing a very worried expression with hands covering my face, I'll be watching my little feature on
Y Lle (S4C) on 3rd July. I anticipate this'll be the cringeyist thing I've ever endured. For a girl whose guiding motto has been for years now 'humiliation is only fleeting, just do it anyway', this is nonetheless still very troubling. I was thrilled to be contacted by
Anenta to feature in the arty bit of
Y Lle. I've seen other local artists in it before, they & their work came across really well. They, however could speak Welsh. Despite my weekly lessons, addiction to
'Rownd a Rownd' and my Welsh speaking husband & in-laws, I'm 'ofnadwy' (terrible). I've stumbled through the interview and I imagine the bits the poor editor can salvage and screen will feature a very serious and unsure version of me. I will probably be nodding too much, against the express advice of my sister in law who is more tv savvy than I'll ever be. Ah well, the mangling of this ancient & noble language aside, I'm hoping my work will look great with the quirky visuals a distraction from any of the sound.
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| Evie was ready for her close up... |
The day I spent with the two lovely men from
Antena (Llyr & Gwion, both extremely patient & encouraging, diolch byth!) was a fun & fascinating insight into the world of television. I now appreciate a bit better how much footage is required to make even a 5 minute feature. There were numerous shots & retakes of me just walking up steps or getting wool out of a cupboard to ensure various angles were covered. Evie very much enjoyed going on location to lounge outside, much to the bemusement of people walking in Parc Glynllifon & the youths on the swings. Despite my pitiful performance, I'm hopeful the editor will have been kind and the feature will attract new fans (and buyers) of my work and not scare off any existing ones. I'll post a link to the programme when/ if it goes online (with subtitles).
UPDATE 07/07/14: the feature was broadcast on 03/07/14 so here's the link. I've made a YouTube video out of it as the programme itself expires in 30 days or so. Watch it
HERE.
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| There's something in the wood shed... |
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