fibreca.mp // daniel rose art @ fibrecamp

Sometimes being a smoker still has it's strange benefits. It's often been during those brief escapes behind the bike sheds or at the back doors of various venues that I've met some of the most interesting people in my life, and perhaps at their most relaxed & open to talking about themselves.
Such was how a chance meeting came about at Patchings Art Centre in Calverton with Vicki-Sue Brotherhood of Indian Summer Textile & Jewellary Boutique, as we were skulking out a little hidden spot to indulge.
I have to confess that I'm not hugely into textiles & jewellery, which isn't to say that I don't appreciate the skill & artistry that goes into making such items. But what really interests me about Vicki is the story about how she's arrived at what she's doing creatively right now, influenced by the time she's recently spent in India but also in no small way due to a refreshingly positive and self-aware attitude toward an ongoing life journey and the world we all share. What I find particularly warming about her is a genuine concern for the ethics of her business and associations with the people she's met and works with both here in the UK but particularly in India.
I kick myself now that I didn't get some audio or video of Vicki so that you can hear her story in her own words - sometimes we get caught up in the moment of meeting someone for the first time. We'll have to rectify this as I can't do it the justice it deserves.

In the meantime I want to briefly describe the photo here of Vicki.
She's standing in front of a blanket on which she had digitally printed a map of India prior to embarking on her trip. On this she embroidered the path of her travels as she went, the places she stayed and spent time with various people (including teaching the Dalai Lamas monks English, and teaching street kids in Jaipur). Around the border are stitched dozens of pieces of fabric from the various people she met and experiences during that trip. The overall piece is, in her own words, a textile blog of her travels in India.
Hopefully we'll get a proper interview recorded with this intriguing individual soon. I'm certainly glad to have met her during a quick cigarette break.

Indian Summer - Textile and Jewellary Boutique
www.indiansummer.uk.com

Here's another film sent to me by my archivist friend. From the same makers as the 'Ognams' documentary, it ponders the notion of ancient communications from distant galaxies via 'The Shell Theory'.

<p>The Shell Theory from Daniel Rose on Vimeo.</p>

A while back I was talking with a film archivist friend of mine about some of the more obscure jobs that have landed on her desk, and she mentioned this little documentary which roused my curiosity. Apparently an amateur piece, it traces the history of a little known and failed wonder product from the 40's & 50's.

Ognams Dehydrated Water - a short documentary from Daniel Rose on Vimeo.

 

...with a little help from Phil Campbell

I've been trying to get to grips (in a procrastinating sort of way) with where I am right now. Worryingly I seem to have been doing this for quite some time. Mine is a sorry tale of someone who had a goal, got side-tracked with lots of dribbling and tackles along the way, and...wait a minute, I hate football! Forget that analogy. You get the idea.

The early part of this week has thrown up a few relective moments. Yesterday I went along to Creative Business Derby with @philcampbell to get a feel for some networking opportunities. Among others I met an artist by the name of Justine Nettleton who, it turned out, has a studio very close to where I do a lot of my freelance work in Long Eaton. But the coincidences kept on coming. She also did her Fine Art degree in Newcastle just before I started there, and so knew one or two of the people I used to hang about with for a while (I moved up to Newcatle for a year before my first year to get a feel for the place). Not bad for a random meeting.

All this got me thinking again about those early idealistic days when the art for me seemed to be more about something. I can't knock being a commercial artist too much, having been consistently in work for over 15 years, but it's not all about the money. I feel like I've let a whole creative side of me stagnate over the years and I kind of want some of it back now - to try and play some kind of positive role beyond just getting pictures onto people's walls that often don't really mean very much. The economic meltdown & ecological concerns of the last couple of years has also fuelled my own personal disillusion with the way our system operates. So I remain in a transitionary state of sorts, still needing to earn money but looking for a healthier balance.The last few months have been a little tight with money, so there's a sense of urgency there but also a degree of caution not to get too sucked into just chasing freelance projects.

Today, after a bit of web searching for a couple of projects I want to resurrect, I drifted down to LaceMarket House where @pcmcreative was running an open office to view the live-stream for the Glasgow Digital 2011 conference. It was looking pretty quiet down there for a while, despite the fantastic tech setup (Huge wall-mounted touch-screen monitor in the conference room at LaceMarket House). But it seems I wasn't alone in succumbing to the lure of a well priced lunch from Rico Mexican Kitchen (www.ricomexicankitchen.co.uk) as CJ & I were soon sat in a full room with folk from @spinningclocks and @attitudedesign (also based in LaceMarket House), as well as @philcampbell & @carlybunny.

When people get together it creates a buzz & things can happen. There was intrigue and excitement about the potential of live-streams and social media, and I was soon being quizzed by Tim from Spinning Clocks about the artwork on my Moo cards. The Mexican food went down a treat, enhanced by the story of how we came to be eating it via the interactions & video work done by Phil in the Fibre Studio with Marcela of Rico Mexican Kitchen. Phil was also doing some work with Carly Bramwell to set up some music oriented video interviews in the Fibre Studio, and we ended up chatting at some length about what we were all trying to achieve.

Now, these last couple of paragraphs describe a situation I haven't often found myself in over the last few years, tending to work somewhat in isolation on artwork either in my studio at home or in a cold Mill building in Long Eaton. But it struck me today that it's the kind of positive social interactions I was experiencing, where people come out of isolated workspaces and offices and are curious about each other, that I've been missing for so long. People connect, ideas are sparked, possibilities emerge. I know that it's exactly this kind of creative space that Phil CJ have been trying to nurture with the Fibre Studio and for LaceMarket House, which is why I've been so keen to support them in any way I can. But I really felt that potential today, not just for them but for myself also. It's a small revelation for some but in these days where for many people things are looking very uncertain and downright grim, I find it really quite uplifting.

Time waits for no-one, and the time is now for me at least to be kicking myself out of my own complacency and get interracting as much as I can, to get myself back to that healthier creative practice I felt I had way back in my post degree days.

 

Rock On FibreCamp!