Appologies for not being on this blog for a long time.
I have had a wee bit of a nightmare with sign in/out account names deciding to change themselves.

I have because of this begun an alternative Blog to replace this (which I thought was only ever now going to act as a past archive).

Start to follow the new blog and allow yourself to have more of an open discussion about art as well as invite me to answer questions about my own work and exchange insight.
www.artgratrix.wordpress.com.

There will also be a new and complete website coming soon to help along generating awareness for the work I do.

BRUCE ZINE NEW ISSUE

Not long to wait now for the next installment of BRUCE. Bigger and better than ever with more reviews, critical opinion, arts promotion and more.
This issues front cover artist is Manchester based artist David Mackintosh and with art works from many more North West based artists.

A now bi-monthly zine BRUCE has seen great success in Preston over the last 10 months, which is continuing to offer opportunity for independant artists and event to gain a level of recognition. The zine is now going regional with distribution not just in Preston anymore. New venues will include A Foundation Liverpool and Castlefield Gallery, Manchester.
We are very excited about the future of BRUCE and offer to any creative to send us imagery or articles of events and activites happening near you and or beyond.

Send these to brucezine@hotmail.co.uk and you could feature in an upcoming issue of the zine and have your work seen by an ecclectic and widespread audience.

MELA Festival

Here are some images taken from my commissioned art project "Collapsing the Boundaries" as part of the arts strategy for MELA Festival 2010. With half my family being Australian and the project requiring interaction and engagement with South Asian communities I combined Native Australian compositions and art with traditional Rangoli and Mandala design.

The result was a collection of 5 large scale collapsible colour boards. Each board had designs created by each community group which I worked with. The designs were then 'filled' in and decorated with adhesive coloured dots which coat the surface of the boards.

The boards then housed a silhouette of Preston based landmarks and were folded into reclaimed vintage leather suitcases (Have Art Can Travel) in order to travel to the main festival event and unveil the communities art work.

The dots themselves were acting as geographical pin points as a celebration and enquiry as to where people originate from and travel to. Each person inevitably was pin pointing themselves in the artwork and marking their part in a bigger picture. This was complimented by the travelling nature of my 'Have Art Can Travel' project.

I was really pleased with the overall sculpture/structure as it was unique for the Festival and reached a huge and diverse culturally different groups and individuals. My oldest participant was named Fred who was 99 and an amazing sport.

Thank you to all who took part and the opportunity to create an outdoor public art piece in my place of residence.

An experiment with the previously seen

"Its all been layed out ready for you", red carpet, household paints, pins, 2010

Once again I have taken previously exhibited exhibition elements and tampered further with there identity and meaning.

This red carpet formed part of a plaster cast artwork displayed in Preston, 2009.

Using the carpet in its traditional sense and gloryification as a glamourous entrance to a exhibition opening.

This carpet has now been bastardised and stained for life- as indeed a red carpet would if left long enough. Deliberate marks referencial to a Rauschengerg were flicked, dripped and smeared into the carpets weave. Slicing the carpet and altering its state alongside hanging as apposed to laying were final display considerations for the work.

Twisting and almost torturing the carpet to test its boudaries and its function.

Dorothy Returns

"My My My De Liza (is she isnt she)", reclaimed shoes, red glitter, glass, 2010

This is imagery taken from my latest installation at The Space Gallery, Preston.

The piece is a reworking of previously existing artwork made for 'Antifreeze', 2009.

For 'The Space' I have placed the shoes precariously on a slither of glass bedded into the wall. With familiar narrative of the glass ceiling the shoes interact with the audience as they are forced to step underneath the work and either offer a safety net in which dorothy can jump or perhaps encouragement to help her step back from the edge.

How the world can effect our character is also apparent in this piece as discarded objects are tampered with to provide a new personna or identity. Character is also something expressed through costume and recognised in media, therefore we can associate with these shoes for what we have been previously presented.

Is she or isnt she is something invoked in this piece as we stare at the potential movement of a static object.

"rewiring the system"

"Rewiring the System"- teabags, cork and laundry basket wire, 2010

These wall hung installations take into account elements of time and
process within my work. Looking at the emalgamation and construction of material
in relation to both itself and also the environment in which it is presented.
The work adorns the adjacent wall to my studio in which countless 'teabreaks'
take place.

The used bags reference the consumption of a single product within a single
day.

The fresh bags explore the relationship between old and new alongside
creating narratives concerned with inevitability of change.

The metal has been taken from laundry baskets to further make oblique
references to the home/work space and the notion of cleanliness and throw away
culture being on our doorstep.

The addition of matching saved corks suggest a cotinuation of a story as
perhaps day moves to night and aspirations change from one consumeable product
to another.

JM2010 PAINTING PRIZE SUBMISSION

Full composition

"CONSTANTCHANGIMORON",2010

'A surrealist development of a sub conscious illustration. These works are created in the aftermath of an installation or scultputural experiment using reclaimed objects and household memorabillia. Taking a single brush and paynes gray I apply directly onto a surface without preconceived compositional considerations. The empty space between objects is then filled with repeated flowing contours which manouver their way around the drawing, inhabiting and creating identifiable imagery out of negative space. A token colour is included as to suggest what is constant in our society and what is ever evolving. The constants are uncontrollable aspects of the world such as a rainbow. Designs and decoration of furnishings and objects are left as outlines, as shapes and forms-as there identity and place in the world is inherently decided by the individual. This emptiness of colour is an invitation to apply ones own creative imagination to the piece allowing it to become your world, your space, your dream or reality.'

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