A Better Style

My last post of 2023. This balances out the product showcase post on Sunday 17th.

I went on an interior styling intensive course at Chelsea College of Art and Design. It strangely felt like revisiting my old employer twice. Once because I was previously course director of a MA programme at UAL and second because I worked for the Tate one summer in the membership department at the Tate Britain (Millbank) site in the 1990’s. My work at Tate Britain meant that I then went on to do my arts management dissertation comparing Tate and Art institute of Chicago’s membership strategies. Ahh, those were the days. Sorry I digress.

Anyway, last week, the tutor for my interior styling was the amazing Emma who took us through the practical steps of being one of those people who set up the shots for glossy interiors magazines as well as the communication collateral for big brands.

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Why Transitional Art? On Emerging from an Architectural Imprint

Looking at photos of houses that were once my home I noticed a common theme. The commonality might be about the London Building vernacular. But I’m beginning to think 🤔 more about my home style choices and preferences and how that is expressed in my artwork and making.

Our place in Hackney, I was brought here from the hospital. From year O till about age 4 or 5. We lived on the top floor but we used the whole house and the garden because the landlady was nice and liked our family.
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Noticing the artistic contribution in our everyday life.

I visited Covent Garden for a meal and did some shopping. There I also noticed how the artistic contribution features m in our everyday encounters. Sometimes we must look deeper to notice how the hidden artist gets to express their work through mundane things like our retail experiences and our eating out.

A balance of thought used to present this maple tart at Clos Maggiore.
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Social World Inspiration

I had a few days of annual leave from my 9 to 5 this week. With this time I managed to make a few skins in preparation for bigger paintings and to help finish the smaller pieces.

Experimenting and playing with making skins

I managed to meet up with old friends for lunches and suppers. It was at these events where I later became struck at how much my social world influences or at least threatens to shape what I do with my art.

Cultural references

London Pearly Queen’s 👑 outfit seen while visiting Sommer Town Museum, this week. Triggered our conversations about class, place spaces belonging. It made me think about aesthetic traditions and whose aesthetic is most dominant in the art world and why. I also considered occasions when the aesthetic of the less dominant is allowed to shine and be expressed. I concluded that there is a virtuous story to tell about duty, goodness and working hard that I discovered my art was at risk of being embroiled in.
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