"The colours I use are always muted and aged; each piece has the look of something from a time gone by"
I have been making curious tiny jointed characters with dwelling places, long-limbed marionettes and melancholy souls with rabbit ears and wildflower gardens illustrated over their hearts. I love the process of making, the way a face appears from clay that is completely unique from the last character. The colours I use are always muted and aged; each piece has the look of something from a time gone by.
The majority of the week I am creating in my studio, either painting, drawing or sculpting - working towards exhibitions, craft fairs or gallery work but I also work a couple of days week co-coordinating a reminiscence project called Memories are made of this… where I visit care homes, day centres and community groups with groups of older people. This has also been an inspiration to my present work through the stories of childhood and play and also in that throughout our lives we have memories of places, people, objects and spaces that are particularly important to us and become such a strong part of our character. This is central to my artwork and each character, whether in a painting or a sculpture has a motif, a dwelling place or an image of nature that is a symbol of what is precious to them.
For the future I would love to look at ways of bringing my costume design skills into creating larger scale works that continue to explore the themes that are present in my current work – possibly for exhibitions or site specific work. I also have an ambition to be a resident artist somewhere/somehow and as a member of Design Factory based in the Midlands I hope that the perfect opportunity will present itself in the future. Although most often I am a hermit, working away in my studio in my own wee world I am always amazed at the wonderful opportunities that I am able to take part in as an artist and it is always interesting to go out into the world on occasion and chat to people about my work and see their response to it.
Gillian Lee Smith will be exhibiting Lustre at the Djanogly Gallery, 5-6 November
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