Tonight we started off with a bit of housekeeping and discussed the outcomes of a meeting I had with one of the directors of MadLab about potentially arranging an exhibition of the Creative Whispers work. As expected, cost is going to be the main factor in deciding how long for and when we want to do anything but aside from sending me back with a new list of questions it seems we are still looking likely for getting something organised in the near future. Once we have agreed dates (and how we will pay for it!) then we can start discussing the finer details of organisation. We were also pleased to welcome back Jo Scorah who shared her textiles work with us last October. 

We were of course keen to get on to sharing the second round of responses for the Creative Whispers project and started with James Sharp, volunteered to go first in his absence! James had taken my photographic responses to Irena’s starting point and had interspersed prints of the images with prints of his journal pages in to a bound, textile covered book.

We also looked at photograms from Irena, rubbings from Kevin, manipulated photographs from Shirley, Japanese additions to a found haiku book-come-photo album from David, Illustrations on canvas from Christine, a developed conceptual ‘object’ from Renate and finally a mixed media drawing from myself. Jo took away some prints that Shirley had made in response to Renate’s original acrylic on canvas starting point and will join in with the project in a ‘branched’ thread!

This is really just an overview and you will be able to see more of these over the coming weeks as I get sent images with which to update the Creative Whispers project pages. We finished the discussion on the project with many agreeing that they have found the opportunity to take some risks and be a bit experimental very refreshing. While we may not all have produced work that we are necessarily happy with in a way that we would normally associate with producing work, we have certainly appreciated the stretch of being kicked from our respective ‘comfort zones’!

As we managed to finish with a bit of time spare, we were delighted to hear more from David Hammond, a mature student now in his third year of a BA(Hons) in 3D Design at MMU, who shared some of his recent work with us. We discussed some photos of his work in glass; sculptural pieces that make use of ceramic transfer techniques to involve 2D drawings, photographs and collages of modern urban architecture in a spatial exploration. We discussed the link between the materials and the subject matter being closely related to David’s inspirations; the interaction between the buildings and the environmental features around them such as reflections and negative spaces. The glass, it was agreed, is a medium that naturally lends itself to play with light as well as reflecting (no pun intended!) the actual building materials of the architecture.

We are now looking forward to March, when we will be sharing the second ‘layer’ of responses as it gets increasingly complicated to pass on a piece without it going back to someone who has already worked on it! In addition, Christine Wilcox-Baker will be giving a much anticipated talk on her sculptural work relating to food plants and gardens! This seems particularly appropriate as we move into Spring; there’s certainly a lot of new creative growth sprouting about us; check back next month to see if it’s started blossoming!

This evening’s session was the much anticipated sharing of responses for stage one of our first collaborative project; Creative
Whispers. We were also delighted to welcome two new faces, who briefly introduced themselves as Vikki Cutts (teacher, freelance art director, and playful crafter) and Amy Leak (recently graduated graphic designer, especially interested in developing brands using opportunities for digital interaction). We were also pleased to welcome back Irena and Renate who
joined us for the first time in December; we obviously didn’t scare them off with our CRITmas antics!

We were keen to get on to sharing our work on the initial Creative Whispers starting points so we quickly moved on to circulating the results whilst the responding artist gave an overview of their approach. Photographs of these responses will soon be shared on a new page which will begin charting the evolution of the project but in the meantime, an overview can be found below.

This 'flow chart' will also form part of our group submission to a new book compiled by Alban Low titled Patternotion. Alban runs a variety of projects which he opens up to a growing fleet of artists, designers, illustrators and general creatives. This current venture looks to draw on approaches that such people format to achieve goals. He says ‘Our minds visualise the improvements and adventures of the future. To achieve these we must put a new system in place to achieve what we want.’ As Creative Whispers seemed a very clear example of a ‘self imposed schedule and idiosyncratic method’ of achieving an outcome, we have a few pages kindly reserved for us. If you’ve read this post you can consider yourself lucky enough to have glimpsed a sneak preview!

So what is our outcome? Well, we have now agreed that Creative Whispers will have a ‘shelf life’ of up until a final swap in April. We will then continue talks with MadLab about arranging an exhibition of the work sometime after May.

Next Month we are looking forward to sharing the second response from the group project but as ever, we will also aim to make room for anyone who wishes to bounce any ideas or request any feedback. Until then… the old art-cogs are turning and I’d better get on with Whispering Creatively!

It wasn’t just the Christmas spirit that gave us cause to celebrate this evening as we marked CRITgroup’s first birthday with a (gentle mid-week) knees-up. We also got the ball rolling on our plans for collaboration through 2013 and welcomed along a couple of new faces to the crowd. We began the evening with social chat and nibbling; amongst other offerings, I subjected the group to home-made parsnip not-very-crisps and a choice of chilli or sage and onion houmous! A re-visitation of the more seasonally shaped ginger biscuits I first provided at Hallowe’en were then only slightly overshadowed by the selection of mince pies; ginger, cranberry or chocolate nonetheless!

However, it wasn’t an entirely food themed evening (although the spread did seem to go down rather well!) and so we did eventually move on to business and got our first collaboration ‘Creative Whispers’ off to a festive start (You can read more about our project here). The contributions were pooled and shared out by our very own ‘Santa Crafts’, James Sharp, and we then opened the gifts to see what we had been challenged with. There were a range of offerings from drawn and painted starting points to the more conceptual. One of the first things we have agreed to do is document the initial item photographically and it is hoped that with each individual producing this separately, even these will contain idiosyncrasies which will give us an opportunity to reflect on the nature of creative practice.
Next month we will pass on our responses and over the coming weeks I shall upload the documented starting points.
Just after 8pm GMT we took a call via Skype from James Pashley, one of our original members who moved to Japan in the summer to teach English. James selflessly got up at 04.30 to be able to join us at the meeting and told us all about his experiences helping out on an orange plantation, partying with his colleagues, developing creative methods of introducing practical tasks to the English Language classroom and the slightly disturbing lack of cheese.

We wrapped up with a quick whip round the group to briefly introduce our respective practices for those only just joining us (this should probably have been done at the beginning but we were too busy with far more important things like crudités). This month we welcomed photographer Irena Siwiak Atamewan who has a particular interest in domestic spaces and abstract painter Renate Wendel who, coming from a background as a classical musician, is especially inspired by sound. I then gave an overview of the collaborative project plan for those who weren’t part of the original discussion.

Before we knew it, time had flown and all that remained was to share our last seasonal greetings and bid each other farewell until 2013… and I shall now do the same!

The first meeting of next year will take place on January 23rd and all details can be found on the main home page. Hope to see you there!