Clare's studio view, work in progress

Work in progress, textile piece Thread Wood, 1.8m x 2.2m

Displayed here with back lighting (using over head projector) to accentuate surface marks. Work makes use of abstract mono type print, paint, onion skin dye colour, applique, hand stitched on multiple layers of recycled cotton and wool.

Other artwork seen in clip:
screen print fabric samples on cotton (designs from photography of origami + other 3d paper exercises), fabric dye experiments with onion skin colour, food colouring, tie dye, origami constructions, mono type printing onto plastic and paper, A2 black and white drawings referencing Thread Wood composition

Some still images:

Origami fabric constructions with naturally dyed fabric, hand-sewn

Developing composition, fabric screen prints pinned into surface

More images viewed in gallery>>>

Printmaking Recording

Example of print sample photographed with back lighting

Here are some links to recordings I've made about mono-printing, demonstrating the process and describing how print relates to my textile work as a whole. I use print samples as surfaces to photograph, creating new imagery, and also to assemble together to form large scale patchworks. Samples are cut and re-stitched onto various dyed fabrics.

Some of the audio from this recording is causing a bit of trouble. Words and sometimes whole sentences are missed. Something I will be trying to remedy as this project continues. The last section, part d, is nearly all without sound, a good one to fast forward and just get a general feel for work in progress.

Mono printing introduction.......part a

Mono printing inspiration.........part b

Mono printing practical (small samples)......part c

Mono printing practical (large scale samples).....part d

Textile construction including printed fabric

Origami and print demo for Winslow students

With some trial and error, managed a recording from my studio. My first demonstration online, dedicated to the Winslow School group called Picasso's Ipod. Feel more than strange, chatting away to myself like this, plenty more to follow.

Origami and print demonstration........part 1

Origami and print demonstration......part 2

Part 2 demonstrates the setting up of the origami shapes ready to photograph. Example of images viewed from link to Picasa Web Album:

Origami still images

Quick Studio Tour

A quick 360 degree turn in the space, testing how links will work, have posted my first YouTube clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXFsRd3bHog

(its the same clip....just on the giant You Tube)

Making Preparations

Installing the 50m cable

With intentions of being as natural and 'as you find me' about my studio space, there has been a bit of a re-shuffle in preparation for visitors. Clearing room, whitewashing walls, installing good lights, getting hidden work up on the wall, organising more efficient storage solutions, all actions to aid clearer communication during the project. Trying to understand an alternative perspective of the space which wasn't about being the maker/worker.

Another, crucial component for the project to happen is securing a stable, strong internet connection which can support the Adobe Breeze application. This one job has branched into a sequence of steps, each one a little daunting for me, a technical novice who's impatient to crack on. Here's a run through of what's happened to achieve this mighty goal:

1.) Confirm need and suitability for broadband connection with owner of studio, who I rent from. Decide on a wireless connection to suit all internet users in the building.
2.) Order broadband package and wait for installation date.
3.) Installation date arrives, test connection in studio, situated three floors below where router is sited.
4.) Wireless configuration headaches with my Mac ibook, what's a WEP code? Where do you find it? Is it lost forever? Shall we start again? We do, I generate my own, and its written down safe.
5.) Get connection in studio, first opportunity to observe very shaky, slow and at times faltering connection. Web pages load and freeze, I start to worry a little that three floors between ports may be a bit ambitious.
6.) Get researching back at home about signal strength trouble shooting, learn about 'range extenders', a device to boost wireless signals, purchase a mac compatable divice and plug in.
7.) Signal strength is up to 90% from 40%, an improvement but encountering same slow, inconsistent connection on my computer back in the studio.
8.) Deciphering root cause of problem must be my computer, I'm off to the genius bar at the Apple Store. A kind and clued up Apple man reminds me of my elderly Operating System and wireless adapter I'm attempting to use to 'talk' to the server. My internet browser Safari is way out of date and can't be upgraded on my current OS. Relief at understanding problem but worry about what is implied for next step.
9.) Two solutions, one, to install a wired connection via a cable to the computer from the router. The most stable of all ways to secure an internet connection. Or, upgrade/replace my computer. I opt for installing the cable.
10.) Problem, three floors between router and computer site in studio. A long cable will be required and acess through building negotiated.
11.) Get the okay from owner to use cable, decide most direct(!) route will be from back of the building, up the wall, over the roof (which is flat) and down the front side and into the studio three floors below. Estimate 40m.
12.)Source cables, select a 50m RJ45 Cat5e UTP cable, known as an ethernet cable. I'm learning....RJ45 is the code for the type of connectors on cable ends, Cat5e means its an enhanced 5 band cable suitable for internet connection, UTP means its suitable for exterior use. Nearly there now.

13.) Find a man that can, cable gets up and over the building, all secure. I get to see the view from the top, neaten up the cable path, marvellous autumn evening, feel better.
13.) Connection better, but still something not quite right, more troubleshooting.....

14.) Thinking of plans b, c, d....etc Can make video recordings of space and post to blog, Youtube, Facebook....for later access by participants.

View from the roof

What's a Virtual Residency?

In collaboration with Waddesdon Secondary School textile/digital artist Clare McEwan will be leading a variety of workshops, talks and tutorials with four of Buckinghamshire Schools; Waddesdon, The Grange, Chalfonts and Winslow. This project is supported by Arts Council Creative Partnerships in Slough. It will consist of real and virtual communication via webcam from Clare's Kent studio and include a series of school visits over the course of the term.

All webcasts will be produced with Adobe Breeze software. This allows us to record each meeting and access content at a later stage as a resource and documentation of the project. The Adobe Breeze application provides safe and private communication with only invited users to participate.

How to start? Clare's notes

A question or a 'how to solution? I think I've been asking the 'how to start' question for some time now. The answers will have to come gradually when I am able to piece together all the unexpected components and add ons of this project. The first, how to make an introduction and set the scene...and before I could start I paused, where to do this and for whom?

Where? Virtual residency blog and Virtual residency web album

Still investigating all the 'whos' this project can reach.

It begins with lots of casual, curious conversations about the nature of an artist's space. By convention, the space an artist inhabits publicly, tends to be owned/managed by others, and is a temporary platform in which the artist can exhibit, talk, demonstrate or teach. As open and generous as an artist can be in communicating within this space, is there still a sense of mystery that lingers? Maybe its better to switch the ambiguous word mystery, for distance. There can be a distance between the artist, the work and those trying to 'get the picture'. The quality of time to formulate ideas and produce artwork is a challenge to doccument, package and deliver effectively towards a receptive audience.

My own work is developed gradually, the end point/resolution showing itself very slowly, dependent on a series of processes gone before such as photography, printmaking, stitch, construction, painting and drawing. All these elements pull together to create a large scale textile hanging. This development occurs over a period of months, deliberating in the studio, trying things, making wrong turns and occasionally stumbling on a sense of 'rightness' about the project which springs it forward. It is a large undertaking to meet an artist and their completed work. The audience has been removed from a large chunk of creating time and content. As a result, information on technique and subject matter is weakened. It is these two elements I will be seeking to illuminate over the course of the project. To bring others closer with that unique deliberating period. A period which occurs in the artist own space. Already, the notion of an artist's space must surpass the studio walls and is dependent on a shaky, less concrete quality, one of time.

I was fortunate enough to experiment with an unusual work space when accepted for the Art Council South East Setting Up Scheme Award in 2005. For 18 months I established my studio in the art department at Waddesdon Secondary School. Marking out independent territory in a public terrain; the classroom. Merging these boundaries would be frequent, ever changing and require an openness and trust from both sides. This model was of great mutual benefit for host and artist and went a long way to manage the issue of audience and artist space. The audience in this example being staff and students, impacting the group and the individual.

It was while at Waddesdon School, that the question of sustaining this quality of relationship between host and artist was discussed. I was able to visit and work with a variety of partner schools during my time at Waddesdon in the form of day visits. The new challenge is to be able to offer an equal level of engagement simultaneously with all four schools, sustained over a whole term. An engagement to stimulate my own practice as well as collaborate with student's work would be ideal. A sustainable model would have to maintain the same openenss and trust described for the Waddesdon studio.

Digiatally equipped and technically confident, Head of Art, Mr Berrett led Waddesdon School's proposal of a virtual artist residency. Scheduled times to fit both school and artist have been arranged. Communication will be via webcam from my new independent studio space, (now in Kent) back into the classrooms I had visited in the past (Buckinghamshire). The geographical distance highlights the ubiquitous benefit of the internet connection.

This is a trial residency style being undertaken with great enthusiasm by all schools. We will test a variety of exercises during the scheduled meetings via webcam, linking students work practices with my own to suit both parties. The Adobe Breeze software allows discussion, sharing of files, and live video streaming with audio, all of which can be recorded as future resources. Already there are clear benefits to the virtual collaboration and I am sure new examples will show themselves as the project develops.

Here lies the intention and background for the project. I am looking forward to the collaborative opportunity. If my private studio is to go public, it seems right that the work takes on a more public dimension, group efforts, interchangeable work, feedback and a general loosening of ownership in response to this trialling.