Tuesday, 10 March 2015

School Art Competition Celebrating the Life of 'Clarice Shaw'.

Last year I was invited to Grange Academy in East Ayrshire to spend two days sharing my knowledge and skills with pupils.

The visits were arranged within East Ayrshire schools to form the “Clarice Shaw Art Competition”, created and supported by local Labour Councillor Cathy Jamieson MP. Clarice Shaw was the first female Labour member of a town council and the first female Labour MP for Ayrshire, having won her seat in Kilmarnock in 1945. Throughout her life, Clarice had a personal interest in women’s rights and medical and child welfare issues until she died at the age of 63 in 1946.

To help pupils with the ‘book’ theme of the competition, I shared my experiences and assisted pupils and teachers from all nine East Ayrshire secondary schools.

Cathy Jamieson said: “I am pleased to have created and supported this project. I was keen to give pupils the opportunity of working with an artist, as well as marking the incredible contribution that Clarice Shaw made to education, women’s rights and local politics. Seeing the workshops first-hand showed just how much the pupils were inspired by Su Blackwell and I am looking forward to seeing the artworks they create.”

I was invited, along with Cathy, to be one of the judges in the competition.

And the Winner is

'Then and Now' by Charley Skilling from Grange Academy

The winning artwork will be on permanent display at The Dick Institute in Kilmarnock.

The Runner-Up

'Shaw over Parliament' by Alison Farrell & Basilia Weir from Cumnock Academy.

Here are some of the other entries in the competition.

Artwork by Ellis Inglis from Grange Academy

Artwork by Rachel Woodburn from Grange Academy

Monday, 9 March 2015

Interview for Cass Arts Blog

To celebrate World Book Day, which was last Thursday, I was approached by Cass Arts for an interview for their blog. Here is a snippet of the interview, to read it in full, go to http://www.cassart.co.uk/blog/world_book_day_su_blackwell.htm

World Book Day Interview With Book Sculptor Su Blackwell

World Book Day; when children and adults alike dress up as their favourite book characters, celebrate their favourite stories and dig out their best books to read again. And we all know that art and books go together beautifully - a piece of art preserves its own story, meaning and piece of history, just as the published book does.

Some artists take the marriage of art and books even further. Su Blackwell, an RCA graduate and artist who works primarily in paper, makes book sculptures and installations out of second-hand books. She has been commissioned to make work for several publishers and magazines, and well-known brands like Crabtree & Evelyn and Volvo.

But it's World Book Day, and we wanted to talk to her about her page-turning, story-telling inspiration that comes from the beautiful book itself.

Happy World Book Day Su! Before we talk art – do you have a favourite book of all time?
It's hard to choose one above all others, but I could pick out some of my favourites...Alice in Wonderland, Wuthering Heights, The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and most recently The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness. I love the fantasy elements in these stories.

Betty in Cloudland

Can you tell me how you got into making Book Sculptures?

I studied mixed media textiles and sculpture at the Royal College of Art, and during a trip to South East Asia, I was introduced to paper folk art for spiritual ceremonies. On returning to my studies, I began experimenting with paper, and this led me to cutting things out of books. It has been a progression since then, as I began sourcing books as materials to work with.

http://www.cassart.co.uk/blog/world_book_day_su_blackwell.htm

Sunday, 1 March 2015

Alistair Grim's Odd Aquaticum

Last year, I was commissioned by the publisher's 'Disney Hyperion' to create an art-work for a book cover for a middle-grade book, titled 'Alistair Grim's Odditorium' by Gregory Funaro.

The book was a hit, and has received rave reviews.

Fast-forward 12 months, and I've just finished working on the cover for the sequel (again with London-based photographer 'Colin Crisford'), 'Alistair Grim's Odd Aquaticum'.

I read on the author's blog http://www.gregoryfunaro.com/odditorium that he plans to write more books in the series, so there may be more cover-art to come too!

Here is the final cover, and some photographs of the paper model (pre-post production) that I sent to the designer at Disney for approval.