The Travelling Art Tutor

Have you ever wondered what the life of a traveling art tutor is like, our very own Alysn Midgelow-Marsden writes about her current travels throughout the United Kingdom tutoring to textile artist students and exhibiting in the variety of shows available.00:0000:39

As the UK moves into autumn with glorious multi-coloured treescapes, glowing berries and dewy cool mornings I have begun a 9-week teaching, exhibiting, and talking ‘tour’. The first outing was the Knitting and Stitching Show held at Alexandra Palace in London. The Palace is a wonderful Victorian edifice set high and overlooking the city. Built in 1873 and intended as "The People's Palace" serving as a public centre of recreation, education, and entertainment, it has had a varied history. During the Knitting and Stitching Show, the Palm Court, the Great Hall, and the West Hall were filled with over 20,000 visitors all enjoying their joint passion for all things textile related. I especially enjoyed being able to get to the shows as they always host a great array of exhibitions by established artists, textile art collectives, community displays and recent graduates. This year some of the highlights were: Archana Pathak https://www.archanapathak.com/. Archana creates re-imagined landscapes made from a mix of collected old maps of places we know, lived in, travelled to, displaced from, or longed for. She creates a mélange of threads made from these collected old maps to ‘slow-stitch’ into harmonious representations of co-existence, multiplicity, and connectedness. Aran Illingworth https://www.aran-i.com/ Aran says of herself: My work focuses on women and their social situation - particularly on predicaments associated with poverty. I aspire to find a mode of expression in which my appliqué textile panels convey the character and circumstance the women themselves. Just like me, my work is not overtly or obviously political, but instead of anger, I tend to utilize a subtle, dark and wry humour, drawing viewers into a world where thoughts are as visible as "reality", and where the protagonists live and metamorphose by the logic of that world. My work marks by poverty stricken, sickly women are barely able to care for or nourish their children. I want my art to resound with compassion as I make the appeal on behalf of the poor destitute women. I want my work serve as indictment of the social condition in India in the 21st century. Each piece of my work tells a story which is intended to provoke both thoughts and an emotional reaction from the viewer.

I will vouch that being in the presence of Aran’s work is a moving, almost traumatic experience, rendered with quiet force. The graduates’ showcases were varied, from bright digitally embroidered work, delicate prints, bejewelled glorious evening wear and more. The 62 Group was celebrating its 60th year and with no signs of becoming dated, and new members being added regularly, the group explores the diversity, skill, and creativity of textile art. One of the artists, Ann Goddard is close to my heart as I bought two works from her graduate collection. She now has a lovely book, which I also had to buy called Mixed Media Textile Art. Despite the hours and hours of intense work getting ready for the show, once I was there, I remembered why I love it! Catching up with old friends, having conversations with others all excited about the textile arts. As you in Aotearoa warm up, I am gradually buying more jumpers in the UK! Hmmm … however, it is a joy to be amongst so many enthusiastic people who love experimenting with textile and mixed media ideas and are willing to have a go with my suggestions, often taking them to another level by combining the starting points I give them with their own experience. In Jersey I had the pleasure of not only working with adults, but also the next generation of creatives in schools. It was fabulous to find that an island which is only 15 km wide, and 8 km long has three senior schools offering textiles as an exam subject. It is rare enough to find textiles in the art curriculum in schools, let alone to have full programmes – so, “Go Jersey”!!! So far on my UK tutoring travels, I have now delivered multi-day workshops in Sheffield, Leicester, Derby and Harwich. The groups I have been working with have covered techniques including metal as a textile, wires as threads, wire basketry, gilding, antiquing papers, making silk and flax fibre papers, machine and hand stitch (not all in the same workshops I hasten to add – that would be mental!). Balancing teaching time with making my own work can be a bit of a balancing act, and preparing takes a fair amount of time, but feedback such as this from Cath Tyler make it more than worthwhile: “I’ve been working with Alysn for many years now and she never fails to inspire me, to encourage me, to push me out of my comfort zone and to expand my practice in a very special way. She is a kind and patient teacher, who shares her considerable experience in her own wonderful work freely but it is a testament to her skill that the work we produce with her is so varied and most definitely not a copy of hers. I’m not the only one who regularly goes off at a tangent. I’m already looking forward to next year and I haven’t even unpacked the car yet! It was amazing as always – thank you, Alysn!” Of course, it is not all frantically driving around the country and working. I also make sure I get the opportunity to catch up with old friends and get out to a few events. Whilst in Jersey I was able to soak in a little of the history and natural environment of the island during a 23km coastal cliff walk and after writing this I am heading off to Lavenham, one of the oldest market towns in Britain with lots of wobbly houses. The timing gods have aligned themselves very well this year and I have seen comedian Jon Richardson (from TV’s 8 out of 10 Cats), the Russell Maliphant Dance Company performing ‘Vortex’ (which was just fabulous and a real highlight) and next week I get to see ‘This is Going to Hurt’ with Adam Kay (about the trials and tribulations of a doctor in the UK NHS. If you have any interest in the life of a hospital doctor do get this book from Auckland online library).