Robin Paris - Recent News and Events

August 2007

Indigo has been the theme of this month... in a two-day workshop with Vivien Prideaux at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, then a week later in a day-long session with Isabella Whitworth, both followed by half a day rinsing out the pieces. And then a day cleaning the bathroom. More about my indigo ventures on my blog Sustainable Batik. Alongside and separately I've been testing a range of organic cottons to see how suitable they might be for batik - findings are also on my blog.

March 2007

2007 is becoming something of a sabbatical year from teaching while I research sustainability within my practice. Following publication of the cotton production research I have considered how to organise musings and findings. Inspired by friends bloggings I set up Sustainable Batik, as blog technology is so ideal for cross-referencing and much easier for a dinosaur like me who still hand-writes html.

February 2007

In my final PGCE assignment I was researching relations between theory and practice. Following the theme of the rest of my studies I looked into education for sustainable development (ESD), and ecoliteracy, to see how my teaching and I were doing. Much as I dislike academic writing it was informative to find that despite contributing in some contexts and not really in others, my position was definitely not tenable until and unless my practice itself became sustainable. It was pretty depressing finding my research had destroyed my very direction in life by showing me up as inconsistent with my own teachings! I vowed to stop teaching until I had my working practice properly and sustainably organised again.

This is not to say I haven't considered the sources and outcomes of my materials, equipment and processes in the past, nor that my practice was wholly unsustainable. There are some "bad things" I will not do, or only as a very last resort; there are others I deliberately use knowing them to be environmentally safe and/or preferable. There are some I am uncomfortable with, knowing them to have "issues". But now I am researching in order to rationalise my choices. I have started a Towards Sustainability section on my website to include all my findings and research.

Late last year I looked into wax removal processes and my findings were published in the Batik Guild magazine. In January I looked again into the issues surrounding cotton - agricultural, environmental, social and political. The last time I'd researched it was 2003 but the organic cottons I'd sourced seemed unsuitable for my needs, and with apparent dye take-up problems. The extra cost then (£13-15 per metre) seemed acceptable considering the selling price of my work, but buying 50-100 metres in one go (as I usually do) was impossible! Prices now seem lower - I hope due to a larger market for organics rather than recent historically low global cotton prices. I have a handful of new samples to test, with the ambition of using organic fair trade cotton for all my future work. There is also further research I hope to do into cotton but the current article has been accepted for publication in the Batik Guild's March 2007 magazine.

The PGCE certificate arrived a few days ago, although I already had been told I'd passed. I'm not planning to buy a cheap frame from Tesco's and put it on the wall, as a fellow course student and artist advised, not being a big believer in qualifications per se. I learned this in my third year of graphic design at Ealing College from tutor Doug Allsop, who (also) told us that certificates were for putting in a frame on the wall but, he asserted, only to keep your mother happy; otherwise they are pointless. For me learning is about what is learned, what is discovered, what is gained and what is and can be contributed rather than fulfilling today's tickbox culture. Because I was able to branch out from the (then) mainstream by studying sustainability in education, ecoliteracy and traditional ecological knowledge in relation to the arts, I feel I have learned an enormous amount and despite all the stress of endless, absolutely endless, reading and writing, planning and reflection, it was really worth it. But I would not want to go through it again. It took away too much creative energy and time especially outdoor time... these are too precious to lose.

News 2006

News 2005