Art Shaped - the story so far

Background

I’ve been working as an artist with children and young people for my entire career, firstly as the head of Art at Ingestre Hall Residential Arts Centre in Staffordshire and then, for the last 20 years, as a freelance artist, working nationwide providing art workshops and projects for children and training for staff and arts educators. This was my life, a constant stream of diverse projects, lots of travel, meeting different people from all walks of life and immersing myself in the creative chaos of each day.

Then, when the first ‘lockdown’ happened at the end of March 2020, like a lot of self-employed people, my work-life altered dramatically. More than six months’ worth of work had been cancelled over the preceding two weeks and at that point there was no evidence that any kind of financial support would be offered. So, I did the only thing I could think to do, I started putting art projects online for children and families to do at home, just using the materials they already had around them, tin foil, cardboard, tape, recycled tubes, and cartons. I did this partly to keep myself busy and to try to help in a small way, but I also did it to try, in effect, to earn ‘future money’. It was the only way I could think of to continue to get my name out there and possibly use the time I had available to promote my business and hopefully secure work when times got easier. In some ways this enforced break offered time for reflection, allowing me to look back at what I’d learnt over the years and by breaking down the skills involved this made me unpick exactly how I’d adapted and refined my techniques over time.

As a result of the success of these online ‘Art Jumpstart’ projects I ended up completing 50 of them, creating and uploading one per day for the first 50 days of Lockdown. Immediately afterwards, I decided to add them to my website as a permanent resource that people could freely dip into, both as the stimulus for school-based projects, or just as a pool of creative ideas for rainy days at home.

‘Egg Box Monkey’ was one of the 50 ArtJumpstart projects I created in March/April 2020

Outcomes

There were many positive outcomes that came about because of these projects. Firstly, it allowed me keep up a connection with the outside world, I received hundreds of messages and photographs from children, parents, and teachers, who were enthusiastic and excited by the projects and wanted to share their own creative versions with me. Secondly, it led to online work, which I wasn’t expecting. I delivered ‘zoom’ based art sessions to schools and other educational establishments all over the country and also to many places overseas including Canada, The USA, France, The UAE and Singapore.

But finally, and unexpectedly, these projects also brought about the opportunity for me to compile a book based on what I had learnt over more than 30 years as an artist.

Art Shaped

From the outset I wanted this book to be more open-ended than the projects I’d already shared online, offering skills, ideas, and tips while at the same time encouraging the reader to be imaginative and to use their own skills to elaborate on the ideas and make them their own.

I began by devising the structure of the book, looking back over countless past projects of my own and also exchanging ideas with many helpful teachers online regarding what might be useful to include. Then I spent a period of about eight months designing, making, and photographing every stage of all of the books 50 projects and gradually building up the bank of images and ideas that I needed to create what was in my head.

A photo of one of the stages from my project ‘One-Fold Animals’.

Extraordinary art from ordinary things

In my opinion, the majority of art and craft books for children have long felt dated and off-message, with page after page of unrelated projects, loosely held together under the banner of ‘creativity’. Many of them use a mountain of different materials, combining plastics, recyclables, and found objects. Wasting resources and potentially making things harder to recycle and more likely to go into landfill, the exact opposite of the message they are attempting to promote. Also, popular online sites like Pinterest and others appear to have wrought all the originality and spontaneity out of ‘making’, promoting the same old tired projects we've seen rehashed and repeated time and again.

I wanted ‘Art Shaped’ to be different. I wanted the projects not to be stand-alone pieces, but to inspire creativity and innovation, showing clearly how each idea could be simplified or extended so that virtually all ages and abilities could adapt and use them. I also chose to limit the resources required to make them, using only the cheapest and most eco-friendly materials, and attempting to make less waste from the projects, being mindful of what was left over, using what I call ‘pure making’. Above all, I wanted to make art more accessible, “you don’t need to be able to draw to be an artist, and you don’t need fancy materials to be creative.”

An example of ‘pure making’ based on one of the books 50 projects - ‘Animal Masks’

I set out to design an eye-catching but workable layout, where projects could be easily found, linked, and referenced and, within the introduction, I included clear explanations of some of my main methods, techniques, and tips.

Most of my work uses a combination of just four simple ‘Key Skills’ and then, alongside that, I use some basic but very effective building, strengthening and finishing techniques, all of which are transferable, not only to the different projects covered in the book, but also to others that you might devise yourself based on these varied blue-prints.

The finished artwork from my project ‘Dragons & Mythical Beasts’.

I’m really excited to see what comes next. I’d love to think that, even in a small way, the projects in the book might unlock some creativity for people working with children and young people. Offering them some simple starting points, a bank of useful skills and hopefully a bit of inspiration.

Most of all I’m looking forward to seeing photos of artwork created by children as a result of the book and the energy I strove to pack into each and every page.

It’s time to imagine, explore and innovate.

‘Art Shaped’, published by Bloomsbury, was released on the 16th of February 2023 and is available through the Bloomsbury Publishing website, through most high street book shops, and online from leading booksellers.