Sunday 27 May 2012

I am indeed  very bad blogger :)
Short trot through external projects last autumn.

In September I joined in with Growing Hearts and Minds Tree cosy project for B-Arts Harvest production,
Led by Rachel Grant we knitted multicoloured strips to sew together round a nice tree near the bowling pavilion in Northwood Park, Hanley.
This was done over several afternoons knitting and chatting, almost more important to the artist than the physical project was the sharing of stories and experiences that happens when a group make something communally, also the passing on of making skills - I had not knitted properly for nearly 40 years.

Some of the completed strips:

The tree cosy installation:




The final thing:








Saturday 30 July 2011



Buns for the Burlington

I'm not going empty handed this afternoon - I have made Buns and will take Vodka :D


Friday 29 July 2011


I've also found out how to convert powerpoint slides into pictures. Here is the updated Burlington Lost Zine




I'm off to the close party/event for the Burlington Fine Arts Club tomorrow and have been messing around on the printer making postcards.
I've made some using my Beauty in the City images from the other weekend to give to Anna and Glen http://thereisbeautyinthecity.blogspot.com/- some are more successful than others, I've not quite got the hang of the scaling. the one above and the two below worked fine, however the closeup of the dove chopped half the magnet off.


I was using some blank postcards to start with, however they were a strange size and I got on better using 4x6 inch indexing cards as the printer has a setting for those.

I'm also experimenting with putting some of my procion prints on them - these work better than photos on the cheap paper.

Thursday 21 July 2011



A bit of background to the Airspace Dialogue Box piece and the "without whoms"


The opportunity to design work for the Airspace Dialogue Box came out of a 2nd Year Staffordshire University Module, AM00070-2 Introduction to Site Specific study. The site for which we were to design a piece of Art being the Airspace Dialogue Box.

The gallery were very helpful, not only with allowing access to the parts of Airspace which are not normally used and supplying background information on the gallery and the building in which it is housed, but by looking at the resulting proposals and associated sketchbooks and giving invaluable feedback. The directors Andy Branscombe and David Bethell also did the bulk of the installation for me - Thank you chaps!!

The Image used for the final piece was not the main proposal, but one out of my sketch book which the Gallery liked. It had been taken on a site visit in one of the many rooms above the usable galley space where traces of the original occupants can be seen in the layers of old paint and objects left behind.


There were some lovely details

and textures.



Also leftovers from previous occupants


This is the image we chose to go forwards with:


Unfortunately the image having been taken with my compact camera, and not on it's best setting either, was not good enough to blow up to 3m x 3m needed to fill the airspace window. I re-took the image using a good digital camera belonging to my friend Lindy Brett, many many thanks to her and Roger for the loan of the camera and the technical help with setting it up.
Thank you Lindy and Roger.

Here is the final image as can be seen in the dialogue box until the end of the month.


I now needed to get the image blown up and decided getting it printed on a banner would be the best option both for ease of hanging and storage and also cost. The image also had to fit through a small door into the window space so one that could be rolled or folded would be best for this. After much trawling round for a printers I decided to use one based in Macclesfield that had the advantage both of being local to me and having an offer on banners. I'd established in May that they could do what I wanted and could turn the banner round in a week. Minor disaster then struck, I called in with my image with 2 weeks to go before the hanging date to find that they were closing down and accepting no new work!.

A bit more ringing round and I tried Colour Concepts down in Stoke Town who had done some A1 boards for me for the end of year show. http://www.colourconcepts.co.uk/contactus.htm
they not only quoted a price that was cheaper than the idiots in Macc who decided they were dissolving their partnership, but would be able to turn the job round in 3 days! They were as good as their word and the image was more than acceptable! Thank you Colour Concepts.

The last "without whom" is my sponsor Mary Howie (aka as Mum) who helped out a struggling artist by funding the printing and my travels to Stoke and Hanley to get the printing done and install the image in the Airspace Dialogue box. That she is a geologist directly influenced my choice of title "Metamorphic Intrusion?" referencing the overlaying of the old by the new and referring to the superimposition, of both electric lighting and the modern white cube gallery onto the original gas lit Victorian building.

REALLY BIG THANK YOU MARY HOWIE!!!






Friday 15 July 2011


My friend Lindy and I had a minor ascent of the free arty bits of the Manchester International Festival. In response to a hunt for the Burlington Fine Arts Club and inspired by the Zines I made my first mini zine.

Here is the A4 sheet unflolded.
if I find out how to get a powerpoint slide to load onto the blog I'll put a better image on.

Tuesday 12 July 2011

From the airspace mailing

AirSpaceGallery Mailing list
show details 13:28 (1 hour ago)


Dialogue Box
Jane M Howie: Metamorphic Intrusion


July 11th - 3rd August 2011



This work was made in response to a visit behind the scenes at AirSpace. I was interested by the way in which traces of the various uses and users of the original gas-lit Victorian building are visible behind and underneath the contemporary white cube gallery space.



The history of the building is written in the layers of decor and technological change, the remnants of old gas lamps and parquet flooring, redundant door plates, paint sprinkled carpets and electrical fittings chiseled into the plaster lath walls and ceilings.


Jane M Howie 2011


http://janemhowie.blogspot.com/