August 2024
Community and Butterflies
I am a member of Dorisarty – an all-female art collective, which is named after the Greek Sea Goddess, Doris, Goddess of the Estuaries. There are currently two other members, Anne Pettenuzzo and Christine Hayhurst. Anne and I are also Artists in Residents of Leigh Community Centre, a position we will hold with Judith Lyall until April next year. You can follow Dorisarty on Instagram: dorisarty_art
During our two-year period in the centre, there has been turmoil in the Town Council. This can be read about in the local papers and even the national press! Subsequently it has been a challenge to know what to accomplish with the residency, so Anne and I have decided upon leaving a community engagement project, with an environmental theme as our legacy. We are keen to create something positive, inclusive, and fun, and wanted to use the colour of Love Leigh– purple, to show our support to the neighbourhood. Anne’s idea of the theme of the Purple Emperor butterfly fitted perfectly. Promoting butterfly conservation, dear to our hearts, I drafted a proposal and gave a short presentation at the Community and Culture Committee Meeting on the 11th of June. You can read the Proposal with our ideas here:
In developing my own art practice, The Purple Emperor Butterfly Legacy Project has been analogous to Fox Tiles, but also inspiration for this art piece has been taken from artist Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck, a French born artist living in England, after seeing Edge Effects at Whitechapel Gallery, and from Tracey Pica Pica, an English born artist living in France – famous for reusing and repurposing objects. I recommend you check these two artists out, Hoffbeck on Instagram: johannatagada and Tracey Pica Pica on Instagram: traceypicapicastuff
Socially Engaged Practice
In Dorisarty’s Butterfly Ephemeral Installation Legacy Project the ‘Art’ is in the engagement and making. It is fantastic and an honour to have community support creating the butterflies. One participant spoke about it being relaxing to make the butterfly sculptures and that one can take a break from everything else going on in life. Another participant made remarks about friendly chatting with others helps one to craft subconsciously and that the results can be surprisingly wonderful.
Some of the children took their creations home and others left them keen to find out about the Installation in September, and looking forward to the display in December in Leigh Community Centre Café.
I would like to thank, Cornerstone Church Toddlers Group, Holy Trinity Church Southchurch, Avenue Baptist Church Westcliff, St Marks Church Southend, and Leigh-On-Sea Community Centre for giving us space to hold workshops. Each workshop was fabulous and unique, and I am extremely excited about the installation in September. Creativity was encouraged but interestingly participants liked using templates, which happily will help with the final installation. As most of the materials are recycled, this included old rags, papers, and free leaflets cut up, cost for this project was low and I used money from the Hannah Miller award I received this year. This was an honour, and I wanted to use it to promote wellbeing in art – promoting that creating is inclusive and fun!
We have two more butterfly workshops left, one being an over60s club.
28th August 2024.