I'd like to announce my new website. www.ingahamilton.com
It's a cohesive collection of my work in an ordered manner, with a newsletter that you can sign up to for exhibition info etc.
From now on, my blog here will be just for my work in progress pictures, sort of a sneaky peak around my artistic practice. Hope you enjoy the site.
We were very lucky to have lovely Italian photographer, Franco Bistoni, not only taking part in ELEMENTALS Birds, but also photographing it on the opening night.
The following shots are all 2012©Franco Bistoni.
There it work in the show that's not mine, but Franco takes such beautiful pictures, that I couldn't resist...
My Tarpit's paper and wood sculptures - Woody and Buzz.
Sabeth Jackson's woodblock owl.
Karin Patry's textile pieces.
Joe Crows by Love Ablan, Bernice Anderson, Jon Adams, Patricia McCall, Tara McNeill & Conor McGrath.
Debbie Orr, aka Skein Queen's knitted owls.
Marty McClure's Thunderbirds.
Cas Holmes' red legs.
Jo Hatty's flock and chicks.
Mark Morgan's Joanna and chicks.
Anita Bruce's delicate hummingbirds.
Ashleigh Downey's paper birds and books.
Paula Fenwick's Poppy, Cornflower and Marigold birds.
There are so many more to share.... next post....
All the beautiful artwork that we installed in St Lawrence, NY, has come back to Northern Ireland with us and is now roosting in Lisburn's R-Space Gallery.
We'd love you to come see what all the fuss is about.
I'll post more detailed pics soon.
Inga
x
As the saying goes, "I've been up and down like a bride's nightie" (to the south of Ireland) just lately. It would appear that the people in the south of this beautiful isle are liking the artistic path that I tread.
Firstly, Dubh, the show that took me to New York's 5th Avenue last October, has come home to roost at the Oliver Sears Gallery in Dublin.
The setting is great: a gentrified house hosting beautiful black objects. Sadly, the Steinway piano didn't travel back with my piece, but curator Brian Kennedy placed my installation to echo the sweeping lines of Vladimir Kagan's chair. An honour to be side by side with a piece from such a respected designer.
The show is on until the 15th March. Go knock the huge door and see some finely crafted pieces from US and Irish creatives.
Secondly, my foray to Dublin on the 1st March will see me sitting on the ethics comittee for Trust Me, I'm an Artist.
I have the honour of being one of the panel deciding the fate of Anna Dumitriu's pitch to build a lab in a gallery. The debate will be filmed before a live audience at the Science Gallery, Trinity. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance. Event 6pm-8pm.
Then thirdly, just a few days later, on the 7th March, FOOD FIGHT hits town. I'm really looking forward to this one (as for once I'm just a spectator).
My fabulous husband, MyTarPit, will be livepainting and exhibiting his new body of work, Cereal Killers.
If you've ever wondered what dangerous cereal looks like, then get yourself down to the Cathedral Studios.
These are just his works in progress. He's just putting his finishing touches to his paintings as well as his limited edition boxes with prints and badges as I type.
There is a fourthly and a fifthly, but I'm going to save them for my next blog because the organisers are still, well, organising them. But rest assured, my little sculptor's fingers are busy, busy, busy.
'Til next time.....
The 7th October was a beautiful day in NYC. And I couldn't believe how lucky I was to be walking across Central Park to the American Irish Historical Society on 5th Avenue to see my piece in a show. That building opposite is The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Now it's fair to say that we got a few strange looks.
Me in my lime green Doris Day dress.
And Andy in his clan tartan, fully kilted, especially in the hot sunshine (27C, in October, go figure).
But it was a wonderful night. Filled with talented craftspeople and many a compliment. Followed of course by tipsy giggles with friends being far too kind.
But truly, it was an honour. A privilige to be part of the show, to work with someone like Brian Kennedy again.
To have access to such an incredible building.
And to be given the opportunity to try and reflect the icon that is a Steinway Piano.
All photo credits, photographer, Ari Espay, 2011.
There was a time that I would have been burned at the stake for my dalliances with burning and boiling stuff. Thank goodness for the 21st Century laws.
My porcelain birds for Elementals awaited their colours patiently.
Their firey pit burned in the autumn evening air.
They huddled warmly in the embers.
Helped by onlookers, I fanned their flames
'til they emerged
toasty warm. Everyone cossetted the hot little birds in their hands to keep off the chill.
And here they are.
A flock of little sparrows and dunnocks.
Fawn and cream,
brown and grey. I love them all.
Meanwhile, pots blasted - heating us against the falling rain.
Smoking us til we couldn't see.
The next day, Marilyn Carddell taught me to mushrooms dye.
Silk scarves fluttered into summery life.
Ethereal whisperings from woodland fungi.
Two seasons in one weekend.
By the time you read this, I will be at 37,000 feet (approx), heading for the USA. It's tour time again. 10 weeks' of exploring the US and hanging out with groovy talent - hoping some of it rubs off.
My piece for the Dubh show is travelling independently. I won't see it until I get to NYC on the 4th October.
We're heading for Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring MD, first however. I'll post as soon as the jet lag wears off.
Now, wear's that drinks trolley?
A while back, MyTarpit and I had an idea that has since been gently brewing.
I am often struck by how much grief and turmoil is poured into artwork by artists. I understand that this is all part of life - I've had my fair share of suffering. But I'm beginning to get worn down, when walking into a gallery, by being confronted by 'tortured souls, relationship breakdowns and grief heaped upon grief'. If I want to see this, I can watch the news or read the press. I'm not saying it shouldn't exist, just that all to often in life, we seem to forget to harness the deep joy and happiness that can pour forth from us so easily if we just let it. We are not sure if this is the first show of its kind, but already, it's beginning to expand into a big ball of hope and joy for everyone involved.
The Elementals Birds show launches on 23rd October.I'd like to share the idea with you in advance.
ELEMENTALS’: Is a very special experiment to see if artists, printmakers and craftspeople can physically embody feelings of peace, harmony and goodwill in their artwork and tangibly affect the environment in which it’s shown.
Definition: ‘Elementals’ - thoughts that once created, become attached to their creator and are fed by further thoughts and actions. Often referred to as an air of positivity or negativity; confidence or its lack; peace or disharmony.
Only professional artists with artistic integrity known and trusted by the creators of the project have been invited to participate, sending artwork from all over the world.
THE EXPERIMENT
Before they begin working on each piece, each and every time, our artists are asked sit quietly for 5 minutes, contemplating the peace, harmony and goodwill that they want to be embodied. Then they imagine those feelings coming down their arms and out of their fingers into the piece as they design and make it, releasing it to reside in the finished article.
DATES AND VENUES
PYRAMID ATLANTIC, Silver Spring, MD. USA. 26th September - 3rd October 2011
‘Elementals’ will kick off with a pre-show printmaking week. Andy (MyTarPit) and Inga (Rockpool Candy) will be artists in residence to work alongside some of the US printmakers taking part in the experiment.
RICHARD F. BRUSH GALLERY, Canton, NY. USA 23rd October – 9th December 2011
Over 200 constructed Elemental birds will be installed in the gallery for the show. Andy and Inga will also each build a giant, scaled-up version of their own ‘Elementals’ sculptures in situ. Students in all areas of study will be invited to create ‘Elementals’ with paper, salt etch, ceramics, and textiles to be left around campus and the local towns. The aim is to creating a sculptural virus of well being around St Lawrence University.
R-SPACE GALLERY, Lisburn, Northern Ireland. UK dates tbc 2012
Currently, restoration work is taking place on this very exciting building. And we are proud to say that ‘Elementals’ will travel to this newly-refurbished, state of the art, 4-storey centre for excellence in crafts and art in 2012.
WHAREPUKE PRINT STUDIO, New Zealand End 2012/Early 2013
Excitedly, it can also be announced that the show will go to NZ. This centre for excellence in nontoxic printing, owned by printmaker Mark Graver has a lovely gallery surrounded by extensive sub-tropical gardens for any pieces that might like to sit outside.
Visit our facebook page to see the wealth of artists taking part.
Shh. Don't tell fibre, but I have a new beau.... ceramics. We meet often, spend time being creative and surprising each other.
It's led me to meet with other ceramics nuts in scrapyards.
The kind that know how to bodge a kiln together out of a shopping trolley and a steel drum.
And fire it to a temperature of 800 degrees C!
And then raku smoked in an old ammunitions box filled with woodchips donated from our woodturner mate's workshop floor.
Mmmmm cherrywood smoke.
It's like Christmas opening the box after half an hour to see what comes out.
The smoke deepens the crackle glaze cracks' colour beautifully.
Not a bad couple of hours' fun. (In case you're wondering what we do whilst we wait, we bbq at the same time - but not in the kiln.) None of the pots are mine. They belong to the throwers - a skill I'm trying to acquire.
But I am working on some porcelain birds for raku firing.
A whole flock in fact. They are for my Elementals Birds project - which I'll tell you all about next week.
I've been lucky enough to be invited to NYC!
The wonderful curator, Brian Kennedy working alongside STUDIOpractice, has gathered together artists and craftspeople from all over the US and Ireland for Dubh, a show at the American Irish Historical Society from 7th October - 14th November. You can read about the amazing Dubh line up.
I've been asked to create a piece to sit, rug-like around The Society's stunning Steinway piano for the event. Now you know me, I'm Mrs Colour, so working just in black was a real challenge. But the more I looked, the more shades of black I came across.
I've embroidered black linen with wool and crocheted cabling into urchins. Dyed yarns and created porcelain scales.
Irish-crocheted ribbon and dyed silk cocoons to encrust astrakan.
Press moulded porcelain bones, grogged them with graffiti ink, and built one of my bone nests.
Crocheted video tape onto leatherette and used vintage haberdashery.
And finally added decadent ostrich feathers, satin and (mock) snake skin. I'm hoping this will reflect the piano's ultra-shiny surface.
Here's the final piece. I hope that it fits under the piano - working to the Steinway plans to create a piece on a different continent, then flying out and hoping it fits two nights before the opening is really rather nerve-wracking!
Also titled - always step back and look at stuff from a distance.
Whitewash III took place recently. It seemed to be going so well.
The rubbed-back textured surface, the spray-painted lace, the handmade paper roses, the ribbon-tied branches, the paper bird. I was happy with the minute details.
but why-oh-why, did I not step back at the first stage?
My spray painting at the start was as ropey as an 80's espadrille. I let myself down badly. And in front of the public too. But I learnt a massive lesson. Don't get caught up in the tiny details without stepping back to take a look the bigger picture.
Luckily MyTarpit and Lee Boyd weren't making the same mistake beside me.
They were both on fire. Everyone was blown away.
To the other side was the amazing Chris Cunningham.
Organising the event was the ultra-talented Dermy. The man has magic art fingers.
For more Whitewash pics check out their facebook page.
And come to their next event!
