electric angel /design for life

northerly – you’re invited

we’ve had some exhibitions that have meant a lot to us in our tiny gallery since opening in february 2010. but even by our standards, this one is going to be rather special…

if you’re reading this, please do feel invited to come along. the exhibition will continue through to november and is part of the arts programme put together by coastival for the UK pro surf tour which comes to scarborough next month.

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the writing’s on the wall

this year’s beverley literature festival brochure. front cover image, beverley images and children’s photography all by james. and it’s all real bar the ’2011′ sticker – no photoshoppery here, thank you.

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as with last year’s we’ve used a flip-over approach so the single piece of print can work as both full and children’s festival brochure according to how it’s displayed.

little acrobats

our tiny gallery is currently playing host to these little acrobats, the result of a workshop led at st martins primary school by rebecca and artist rachel welford. they were inspired by the three sculptures by bob tuffin we’re continuing to exhibit in the trees outside our studio. more little acrobat pics over on the gallery website.

the little acrobats will be around for about another week before we prepare for an exhibition as part of the uk pro surf tour which hits scarborough in october. more on that rather special exhibition very soon…

cathedral of steam

you’ve maybe noticed the odd railway reference on this blog, or the enthusiasm for working on railway-related artwork. another such opportunity pulled into platform 1 recently when we were commissioned to create public artwork as part of the derby city of invention project.

our contribution to a series of 12 works displayed in the city was this image inspired by derby’s railway heritage, and in particular, the world’s first purpose-built roundhouse (a building housing a turntable and circular arranged tracks to fix and house locomotives). you can read more about the project and our musings on the importance and sheer impressiveness of this building on the projects website. original photograph by andrew cowell.

typobike

if you’ve taken the most cursory glance at james’ blog, tweets or photography portfolio you’ll know about him and bikes… i know about james’ ability to use a mouse and keyboard with one arm in a sling. so whilst it’s unlikely i’ll also be flinging myself down mountains on two wheels anytime soon, i was recently given a long discarded rusty old gal which prompted this repaint and spur-of-the-moment typography job (you’ll see i didn’t really bother tackling too much of the rust).

having a bike again has prompted something of an affair with the cinder track (site of the wayfinding artwork we created with rachel welford) which i’d only walked various sections of before. having tasted the scarborough end of the route on bike and loving the ravenscar stretch on foot i’m rather tempted to attempt the whole scarborough-whitby in one go. but should this sound all rather athletic, no fear – there are plentiful opportunities for ice creams, cream teas and pub lunches on route.

settled

we (me on typography, james on photography) created this as an offshoot to the creative coast windows project (first fruits of the project here). it uses words from retirees in scarborough. writer dina murphy had conversations with older folks on benches around the town, which given the hilly nature of scarborough get regular use – she then selected phrases from those conversations as the source material for one of the windows.

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we borrowed some of the phrases to create a few temporary text interventions around town of which this is one. it’s exploring a potential approach to future public art projects – a small part of an idea we first had about 5 years ago and which has been stewing away since then. we’ll be revisiting this on different scales as we grab a bit of spare time here and there.

as for the windows project, we’re just chasing permission for our preferred building in the town centre. the window design will also feature illustrations by rachel welford alongside some wonderfully evocative text created/curated by dina. there’s also a design by another local writer-artist-designer team that will shortly appear on the former scarborough music shop opposite boyes department store.

creative coast : creative post

a new series of creative coast events start tomorrow night (thursday10th). responding to calls for a return to the pub, we’re gone really casual and developed a new format whereby we’ll meet in public bars rather than booked rooms and people can use the night however they like.

if you’re wanting to engage with the theme (this month it’s opportunity to suggest practical ideas on what kind of support for creatives local government and organisations could offer) then there’ll be postcards on tables for you to fill in and pass around. if you just want the networking or a good old chinwag, then that’s cool too. we won’t be having speakers or announcements but feel free to bring along flyers to distribute.

meet in the lower bar of the merchant, eastborough, scarborough from 8pm onwards.

bubbles

continuing the branding work with the future ferens group in hull.

and then there were four

bob tuffin’s three acrobat sculptures which we’re currently exhibiting outside our studio/gallery have been joined by an interloper. hanging from the fourth arch of the spa footbridge, this chirpy fellow, apparently made from plastic milk containers appeared overnight. we rather like him.

RSVP

we spent today working in the studio with pupils from scalby school as part of scarborough museums trust’s ‘RSVP’ day.

pupils from 4 local schools started the day at scarborough art gallery with a quick introduction to ‘bathers in sunlight’, a painting by zdzislaw ruszkowski. they then split into groups to work with a creative of their choice to produce work in response. rather than get bogged down with computers, we took a hands-on approach and created a design in our gallery windows hand-cut from vinyl. well done to john, adam, michael, nathan, james and luke who had no idea what they’d be doing until they arrived and took in their stride a breakneck journey from fine art via design processes to cutting and applying vinyl all within a tight timescale.

we’re hoping to be having a similarly enjoyable time working st. martin’s school pupils next week, responding to bob tuffin’s wire sculptures that we’re currently exhibiting in the trees outside our studio.