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Robin Paris - Recent News and Events
2009 roundup
2009 was a year well worth forgetting. Everything was going stunningly until mid-March when a notice to quit my work storage unit by the end of June ruined all my well managed plans for the year. Even when I'd downsized to a smaller space (and all that implies) another problem came along, followed by another. And every time I thought, OK that's sorted, lift off again... something else happened! Wow, a bad karma year or what? The penultimate was having another seizure, again out of the blue, and thus going through another twelve months with no car (ending September 2010).
But some brilliant things happened too. One was meeting Rushyan Yen, an American student on a Thomas J Watson travelling scholarship. On these scholarships students can study anything of their choice so long as it takes them to many countries around the world and they interact with local people. Rushyan had chosen to study batik in parts of Asia, Europe and Africa - her blog Paths of Molten Wax on Volatile Cloth makes for fascinating and humbling reading. She stayed here for ten days of which we worked together on eight. Unfortunately for her some of that time was probably desperately boring, as I was already looking for new storage space and needed to catalogue and size up everything piled into the old place. There were other admin jobs needing doing... but on the creative side we harvested woad grown by my friend Helen and processed it, and made up an indigo vat and dyed from it. Pure magic! My first ever vat! It is still in my kitchen and I get to dye from time to time but its location isn't brilliant. I lose a functioning kitchen when I'm dyeing!
Rushyan was an ideal student – so motivated, eager to learn, and not worried by anything she was asked to do! As she had been learning already with Japanese rozome masters I felt something of an amateur. But she has a remarkable talent for making you feel you have something relevant and worthwhile to give, yet shared equally her own thoughts and findings and concerns all of which were considered and mature. I think it was my move towards sustainability in my practice that Rushyan especially was interested in. It was nice to be able to introduce her to other artists to visit, such as batikkers Isabella Whitworth in Devon, Antoinette Ablordey in Ghana, and fellow American Jim Barry who coincidentally was on one of his regular visits to Mali when she was there, and dyer Helen Melvin in Wales. Rushyan has published a book of her travels and journey which I have just ordered - 'Paths of Molten Wax - a textile odyssey'.
Rushyan has gone on to study architecture at Yale, which is great. The world needs people like her!
In June I ran a two day workshop for a textiles group near Liskeard, themed around repeat prints using hand-made wire stamps. Being the first workshop I'd run for a few years I was apprehensive I'd organised it well enough but I think it ran successfully. Certainly I enjoyed it and hope to run some more workshops once I can drive again.
Continuing my interest in bees and beeswax (and honey!) production I went out with the Launceston Beekeepers group in May to look at some recently opened beehives and learn more first hand. It was fascinating, and (like anything) helped make sense of my earlier text book learning. One of the beekeepers kindly invited me to see his hives and set up – thankfully at a slower pace enabling me to ask more questions. I also learned that it's quite expensive to set yourself up with a hive and all the equipment – however it remains a longer term ambition. I take more notice now of both honey and bumble bees in my garden and which plants they are visiting and when. Perhaps I should record all this...
In September I attended the Making Futures conference at Mount Edgcumbe in Cornwall. Organised by Plymouth College of Art, it was intended to address the future of craft. After decades of putting craft down as inferior, art schools are attempting to bring it back into mainstream! Some of the conference took that theme, another part took the view that if sustainability of materials, resources and practice weren't considered then there was no future for craft (or anything!). That also was my take – but being just a few days after my seizure and on medication for the first time I can't recall much of what happened. Which is frustrating, as it was excessively expensive to attend!
Over last autumn and into this year my batik 'Beech Season, South Penquite' toured around four venues in a Cornwall Wildlife Trust exhibition – at the organisation's headquarters, Lobb's Farm Shop at Heligan, the Cornish Studies Library in Redruth and Geevor Tin Mine near Pendeen. All non-traditional venues for exhibitions (which I think appropriate for the 'wildlife' theme). Unfortunately I didn't see the show up anywhere because of timing, distance and I couldn't drive anyway and no one else around here wanted to go (and no public transport going there).
In the early part of the year fellow batikkers Jonathan Evans and Beth McCoy were staying across the border in Devon and we met up a few times for walks, meals, chats and putting the world to rights. I do miss not having other batikkers close by though we didn't talk much about batik! They kindly gave me a big box of their batik materials and equipment they couldn't take with them before returning to the US.
In November I met up with Devon based batikkers Isabella Whitworth, Valerie Beardsworth and Gwen Jackson to celebrate Gwen's 90th birthday. If ever there was someone to inspire you for your later years it is Gwen! Always chuckling, interested and demonstrably still creative, absolutely how I'd like to be when I'm 90!
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