Wool Cycle (at 40 degrees)

My old washing machine drum was sitting outside the house for a few weeks and as I decided whether to take it to the tip I had a thought... This piece brings together my love of nail and thread / string art designs with a more truly sculptural form of the disregarded. There's a little bit of Barbara Hepworth about it too which I like.

Wool Cycle (2015) has just moved from Gallage to the group show End II Begin in Coventry Arcade, curated by The Pod and its arts collective Collective//Pod. For further details of this show and the Scratch the Surface Arts Festival (running March 14th-27th 2016) please follow the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/472368119615901/

Printmaking Workshop

Joanna Rucklidge ran two printmaking workshops on 18th October, using found objects and reclaimed materials. Adults and children alike left with great art works under their arms, big smiles and messy hands!

The 79.7% of the way through party

Unusually for a Private View the celebration of our exhibition Shed - Collect - Shed came 79.7% of the way through it's duration. This gave visitors an opportunity to look at some of the items that members of the public have collected over the last 8 weeks and a few extra works and items added since the opening day. It was a great evening and lovely to see so many familiar faces. Thanks to the Herbert Art Gallery and Arts Council England / Lottery funding for making it all possible.  

Going Round in Circles

When I first met Joanna Rucklidge 15 years ago I was inspired by her vision to collect and display bread tags - something that once seemed so 'nothingy' which I'd never given much notice to. Yet from that day on the humble bread tag took on a very different relevance and significance in my consciousness. Joanna continues to challege me to see the beauty and worth in things that even I can easily overlook and discard. For Shed - Collect - Shed she presents Going Round in Circles (2014) a set of 9 works including screen prints of objects such as rubber bands (previously pictured) and cup lids, and circular assemblages of plastic or metal bottle lids as if they were a set of rare antiquities. By so doing Joanna invests power and value into the most commonplace of the found object world. This is very much part of her ongoing fascination with environmental issues, waste and the disposable culture that we inhabit.