results of sophie's work to be on display at the artcafe.......not sure what this says about me!

The last day of the workshop, head down for six hours.  What a luxury to be able to concentrate this long on a project.  We learnt simple box constructions, pop ups from one piece of paper and how to embellish the former. As if that wasn't enough Paul's wisdom on life is refreshing; 'make the most of your time, follow your heart and work hard'! For someone at the top of their tree, who turns work down, he's one of the most modest and generous artists' I've met.  

box construction

my house side based on the box construction

start of the 'build'

finished house which folds down flat

paul with his ongoing sketchbook

latest entry, his hotel room in southsea 

paul johnston's pop up book course

It's been depressingly dark and soggy for what feels like months, but today the sun actually came out and stayed out all day, i think. What did i do? Stay indoors, all day! But it was worth it.  I attended a workshop with Paul Johnston via Dot to Dot. Paul is really a paper magician. He makes pop up books and spent 6 hours being extremely generous with his time and knowledge.  results thus far. It continues tomorrow.

sophie Allen's photo shoot

Today was a different start to my usual Sunday morning as well as a very unusual coffee date. Kate Raines and I had arranged to meet Sophie Allen, for the next stage of her photographic project dealing with identity.  We'd agreed to  have our photos taken in our local Caffe Nero,  this is where we'd usually meet as well as being a place we like to go to meet our other friends.  We decided to also play around with the concept of mistaken identities, ours, by wearing similar clothes, jewellery and shoes.  Sophie glued our masks on for the shoot, which was disconcerting as well as quite threatening as we couldn't see.  The next stage will be down to Sophie editing her final choice of image before the show in May. 

Sophie Allen is a fine artist preparing for a show at The new Art Cafe in Winchester. She has chosen to cast the faces of some of Winchesters' residents which she will be translating into photographs for a show in June. She creates her portraits by first making an alabaster cast of her subject's face and from this moulds a latex mask to which she applies make-up to

reflect the subject’s chosen ‘inner character’. It was my turn last week to sit in her studio and have a cast taken of my face. Not having done this before I wasn't sure what to expect, pleasant in some ways to sit still and just listen, but in other ways an anxious claustrophobic half hour! Recommend vaseline as a facial treatment though.

                  

Pop Up Design Shop opening 29th November - 24th December 2011 in Unit 12 The Brooks Shopping Centre, Central Winchester. There are lots of items made by artists and designers from the city. I'll be showing some of my framed papercuts and prints and will be there in person on the 2nd and 6th if you fancy a chat. 

part of the winacc workshop series that i did at the end of last year.