Having just returned from several weeks travel I’m in the studio trying to get my head around all the influences swirling around in my brain. A few weeks in Greece, including an artist residency, and a couple of weeks exploring western Turkiye, have filled me with ancient mythical, historical and aesthetic wonder.

My initial reason for travelling was to complete a residency at Eutopia Art Residency in Kavala, on the mainland coast of northern Greece. Extra time in Athens and Thessaloniki, side trips to the ancient sites of Mycenae and Philippi, historic villages and monasteries, the islands of Hydra and Thassos, and a tour of Turkiye rounded it out.

But this post is about the residency. So many details struck me while in Greece, particularly surface patinas; the Greek alphabet and its varied fonts; the abstracted facets of broken/cracked/repaired steles; the exquisitely rendered drapery of the statues; the aged, crumbling and discoloured ceramic and glass ware; the way holes in walls were plugged with piles of rocks; the lustre and translucency of alabaster perfume bottles….. And naturally the light, smells, sounds and food.

My (self imposed) task was to use some of this input to make sense of my experience, and of course bring home many more ideas to continue developing in my studio.

 

EXPERIMENTING

I began by dyeing velvet and cotton with tea and coffee, unsure of what I’d do with it, before recalling the graffitied text I found on a horizontal slab on a lookout at the Acropolis in Athens.

 

After stitching the velvet around the stones I began embroidering some of the graffitied letters on them. It seemed a natural way of combining the engraved graffiti with the idea of the patinas I’ve described above, while acknowledging the importance of stone and marble in Greece’s culture and history. There is certainly no shortage of stone in Greece! Arranging and stacking the stones led to photographing the arrangements, which I presented in the end of residency exhibition.

 

RESOLUTION

The concluding exhibition featured all six artists in residence. I presented three photographs and a small installation, the work referencing drapery, text, surface and structure – facets of many of the things that impressed on me whilst travelling.

 

MORE THOUGHTS

As previously mentioned I was very drawn to the abstraction of the broken steles and the care with which they’d been repaired. After the exhibition there were a few days left for more work so I sketched little diagrams of some of the images I’d taken before collaging them as reference material for paintings. I’m looking forward to starting these very soon.

 

There are a lot of yet-to-be explored details that will no doubt work their way to the surface in their own good time. Ancient mosaics, faded frescoes, crumbling architecture, ornate religious paintings and embroideries….. so much to process.

cloth, collage, creative activity, creative process, exhibitions, Greece, photography, stitching, textile