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rope bound with natural sheep's fleece

Kristina Veasey

Visual Artist

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Hoarding genes

My great aunt was a hoarder.

When she sadly died, we moved more than two hundred and fifty black bags of papers out of her house.

I’m aware I have these genes and I fight them all the time.


Filed in: Dirty Phone Calls, MDS - Hallway, My Dirty Secret, My Dirty Secret Virtual Experience

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Cultural differences
After the Curry

Interested in holding a workshop?

Find out more about Walk the Line and other workshops Kristina has facilitated here.
Beyond the Torch Run workshop by Kristina Veasey

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Contact Kristina

Email Kristina here.

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Another of the fabrics designed for upholstery in Another of the fabrics designed for upholstery in the forthcoming Sound Lounge @bristol_beacon

Drawn from early 20th century archive materials, this is an introduction to organist George Riseley, whose performance of The Storm, was reported to be so dramatic and evocative that the audience could almost see the lightening crashing overhead.

#fabricdesign
#materials #surfacepatterndesign
#history #archive
#bristol #beacon #TheStorm
#music
#organist
#printdesign
#upholstery
#musicvenue #artist
Love drawing on history and a sense of place for m Love drawing on history and a sense of place for my artwork. A recent commission from producer @cathymagerprojects based at @bristol_beacon led me down the rabbit holes within the Beacons music archives. Looking at the archive materials and stories surrounding performers from the early 20th century I developed fabric designs which will be used for seating and panels in a new feature at the music venue.

In this one I have pulled together a musician, the organ, and the suffragettes.

Alfred Hollins, a blind composer and organist. Newspaper clippings from the time talk of him breaking into a rendition of 3 Blind Mice during one recital.

The organ at the Beacon is huge. It is over 3 stories high and has more than 5000 pipes. 

'On 1 May 1909 a political meeting at Colston Hall, as the venue was then known, was disrupted by suffragettes Elsie Howey and Vera Holme, who hid in the organ overnight and shouted “votes for women” from the organ when local MP Augustine Birrell was making his speech.'

#fabricdesign #surfacepattern #upholstery #music #archives #bristol #bristolbeacon #colstonhall #women #suffragette #organ #artist #artistresearch #textiles
Revisiting the images I took of Meander at the sta Revisiting the images I took of Meander at the start of the summer. Looking forward to seeing how the Oak weathers over time, changing colour to become more silvery, and making itself at home in its setting on the trail. Will it become smooth and worn from visitors' bottoms perching on it? I hope so. A shared imprint of  interaction; audience on art/art on audience.

Images show curving, twisting, steambent sculptural form, from different angles, in a forest setting. 

#meander #UnlimitedCommissions #artist #forest #sculpture #forestofdean #oak #steambending #OutdoorArt #furniture #bench #beechenhurst #artscouncilengland #sculpturetrail
Drawing from the earth. Playing with clay and text Drawing from the earth. Playing with clay and textures from the Forest.
Loving the looseness and free-form sculptural elements to this kurinuki style of working.

Images show roughly hewn clay with crudely carved surface textures evocative of peeling bark, fern patterns, and imprints from wild grasses; photographs of bark, and ferns. 

#kurinuki #clay #ceramics #pottery #forest #capturingtheforest #artist #research #textures #nature #CreativeBathing #SlowArt #craft
Forest immersion at a point of season change. Aft Forest immersion at a point of season change.

After a week of painting, I'm hyper aware of colour, and the swathes of golden, hazy light bathing the clearings I trundle through on my scooter. I am drawn to the last of the summer hedgerow flowers, and remaining seed heads. I pick a few to press. An attempt to capture some small essence of this time, this particular moment, between summer and autumn. I will send them to my project partner in Brazil. I wonder what is growing in the rainforests...

The forest has offered a welcome cool during this last week's heatwave. But now the weather is changing, and it's time to move on. The leaves are starting to change colour. The sun is lower. Autumn is arriving. 

#capturingtheforest #forest #wildspaces #colour #painting #trees #countryside #Sussex #FristonForest #wildflowers #UnlimitedCommissions #artist #research #seasons #colour
Studio time! Great weekend just switching off and Studio time!
Great weekend just switching off and painting, with no agenda or project in mind.
Keeping it loose with some abstracts, and being mindful of my processes and decisions along the way. Thought I'd experiment, and pursue a looser feel to my work: less perfectionist and tightly detailed, more light touch, evocative, and with a sense of space. So, I'm challenging myself to go against my natural inclinations, open my mind, let it flow, and see what happens... 

Update:
So far I have about 45 very busy, chaotic, brain dumps in acrylic... I might need to take a different tack! 

#painting #artist #SlowArt #mindfulness #CreativeBathing #againstthegrain #artiststudio #neurodivergent #lessismore
A Slow Art enquiry: Delighted to have met a fellow A Slow Art enquiry:
Delighted to have met a fellow Slow Art creative and weaver, @trinafurre during a recent visit to Buckfast Abbey (visit her page to see her beautiful rugs and incredibly soft hats). We spoke a little of the journey sheep make before we receive their wool, and how their story is pieced together from the bracken, seeds, and small twigs we find tangled in the fibres of their fleece. We talked about spinning and weaving and the time it takes to create and craft. 
It was interesting to see the Slow Art approach taking centre stage in her marketing of 'Slow Rugs' too.

It is perhaps obvious to see how Slow Art is an integral part of crafting. Artisan weaving is a slow process in itself, and the price that work is sold at, should reflect the work put in by the creator. There is a joy in buying something carefully made, and a feel good factor that comes from knowing the labour that was involved in crafting the item. Especially with traditional crafts, we feel the value of heritage. We pay for a link with the past, and attempt to pocket a little part of it. We understand this comes at a greater cost than a factory woven rug, mass produced o  an automated loom. The slowness of the creative process, adds value.

It is harder to illustrate the creative processes involved in other types of artwork, say in installation, sound, or video work, or other conceptual visual arts. Particularly where the R&D is cerebral, or unrecorded, these processes can often be invisible, yet sometimes they are building essential foundations to an impactful piece of work. How do we record this in terms of artist days/fees? After all, there is no clocking in and out of thinking time, during Creative Bathing. Can a Slow Art approach be quantified and appropriately remunerated? 

#SlowArt #CreativeBathing #craft #weaving #artist #CreativeProcess #RawWool #rugs #value #time
Cock on a chair, and other plates by Hylton Nel! Cock on a chair, and other plates by Hylton Nel!

More Creative Bathing explorations. Sometimes holding your creative ideas with you, as you pass through your every day activities, brings new angles, and ways to approach your work. 

Visited the Hylton Nel exhibition @charlestontrust this weekend. 
Lots of cats, willys, political landscapes, strange hybrid creatures, and diary entries, all on plates. 

It was less about ceramics and more the capturing of a lifetime. Snippets of both poignant and ordinary moments served up on individual platters, there for the tasting. A loose and candid sharing of all the small parts that make up the whole, giving a flavourful insight into Nel's journey through the decades, and introducing us to people, events, influences, and emotional expression.

This exhibition was just what I needed. With my own foray into ceramics, I had felt a self imposed pressure to create 'good art' and to focus on form, process, and to find a theme. I disappeared down Pinterest rabbit holes, only to find my own ideas reflected back at me, and to become overwhelmed, and a bit stuck.

But this exhibition has freed me up to stick with my gut, and follow my natural path, from my own starting point, and just 'do', rather than do what I'm meant to do (whatever that is). 

There is a quote from Nel on the wall in the gallery. He talks of making lots of plates, without any particular focus on them as pieces of art, but just getting them made so he can move on to the bit that excites him; the decorating. This completely echoes my feelings and was such a relief to hear.

I feel like I've been given licence to just have fun with it all, and not to have an agenda. That is OK to be excited about the decorating, and just use the clay form as a vehicle for a message, or a carrier for an idea. Suddenly, I know exactly what I want to make, and how all the pieces will look.

Thanks Hylton!

#ceramics #pottery #clay #HyltonNel Charleston #artist #art #plates #creativeprocess #SlowArt #CreativeBathing
As part of my Creative Bathing explorations, I hav As part of my Creative Bathing explorations, I have enrolled in a course of pottery sessions. My hope is that a dedicated time for weekly creative stimming will relieve some of the mental overload coming from caring responsibilities, top-up my artistic battery, release emotional blockages and allow the building of new neural pathways.

My artwork is not usually material-led, so it's a different way to work and I always initially feel a bit lost and clunky with this approach. But I know that ideas will naturally start to flow once I'm immersed in the processes and more at one with the materials. At the moment though I just need to get on and make something. Anything. And see where it takes me.

Just having the time out of the house, and away from demands and responsibilities, and meeting new people, is so precious. Ring fencing time for creative activity is hard when you work from home, even if it's the main thrust of your job. If there were accessible artist studios near me, it would make a huge difference, but sadly there aren't, and that really sucks. So this is a compromise and an experiment. Reducing isolation, developing new skills,  exploring different materials, increasing well-being, and maybe producing new work. I'm three sessions in and am still finding my feet, but I'm enjoying it. And meeting those needs is having a knock-on effect, stimulating growth in other areas.
Sometimes it pays to spend your time being a little lost.

#SlowArt #CreativeBathing #artist #pottery #ceramics #carer #disabled
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