New Website Launched
We’re pleased to announce the launch of our new website! We’ve totally overhauled the old site, and introduced a number of new features:
- You can now book courses online
- You can now purchase select items through our online shop
- The site is responsive which means it adapts and optimises to the device you’re viewing it on
We realise it’s quite a departure and would be interested in your feedback. There is also more content to be added over the coming weeks so please mind our dust!
Debbie Waygood
This is what Debbie has been screenprinting in the studio:
Anna Smithson aka Annie Little
Anna has always had a passion for pattern, colour and texture and studied printed textiles as a degree and this month her work appears in LivingEtc.
SPS Prize Award at RWA Open Photography Exhibition 2011
We were very impressed with the two photographs of London Bridge by Dominic Harris which we found to be a compelling mix of portraiture, drama and humanity. Below, Dominic explains how he arrived at this image which won our award.
SVS#02 London Bridge: Tuesday January 19th, 8.30 am
In early January last year, I placed an ad for people to stand very still for a photograph on London Bridge during morning rush hour. I said it would take 15 minutes and start exactly on time.
Although twice as many people replied, six people turned up on time, and a seventh arrived just as I was packing my camera away.
It was difficult to see them as they stood in the middle of the pavement during the onslaught of commuters going to work from right to left from London Bridge station.
I never spoke to any of them before, during or after the shoot, although I did direct them using signs: my hands to move them slightly left and right and a red scarf as an indication to stand still.
Afterwards we all slipped back into the momentum of the city and our own lives.
Dominic Harris
www.dominicharris.co.uk
SPS at Affordable Art Fair, May 2011
Spike Print Studio had a stand at the AAF this year and ran very popular workshops as well.
In the current highly competitive art market, The Affordable Art Fair has continued to thrive and expand. We were pleased to represent the studio, promote our artists and our course programme. We were also pleased to see many of our members represented by galleries at the the event.
Spike Island opened its doors to the public during the May Bank holiday weekend at the end of April. The event had fierce competition from a late Easter and 3 bank holidays including a Royal Wedding which merged into a long holiday for some! However, the event had a good footfall and the building buzzed with activity, energy and excitement. Spike Print Studio held an auction to raise funds for equipment, hosted an exhibition by UWE MA student Theo Wood and showcased its members’ work. We also ran Print for a Pound workshops where members of the public could turn up and print a small original print for just £1! The event was very popular and we will see if we can do extra ones next year.
We are extremely grateful to Norman Ackroyd for donating 4 original prints created in our studios during his recent demo. There was fierce bidding for his work and we sadly let the prints leave the studio.
The following has been written by Theo Wood about her experience of curating HOME for her MA studies. Spike Print Studio supports students on the UWE MA Multidisciplinary Print Degree through a concessionary membership and free student inductions. We invite a final year student to curate an exhibition at our studios. Theo has also added her thoughts about the auction where she was a keen bidder!
HOME
Thanks to Spike Print Studio I was given the opportunity to curate a small show exploring the concept of HOME as part of my MA professional practice. Putting on a show of other people’s work is a whole new activity and I have learnt that it requires a certain amount of organisational skill as well as the decisive decision making required to ‘edit’ your show into a coherent piece. It’s not easy! Challenging yes – even down to drying white gloves with a hairdryer the morning before the Private View, and an experience I would like to repeat – probably in a collaboration.
The auction
Spike Print Studio’s first print auction took place in the screen printing studio. Auctions are brisk affairs – lots appeared and were bid for with the Norman Ackroyd and Emma Stibbon prints being the ‘stars’ of the show.
Opening the bidding on a item could mean you bought it – there were real bargains. The auctioneer gently nudged up prices when bidding was brisk so that the studio earned over £2,000 for new equipment.
Posted by Irena Czapska Studio Manager 16/05/2011