Book Review: Rosie James - Stitch Draw

Figurative stitch has taken great strides in the last few years. It has taken on both a popularity and a much needed contemporary feel. Embroidery in general today is much more relevant, much more topical, much more strident – stitch has become a home for protest, examination, observation, and for solutions. There seems no better time to release a book of where we are regarding contemporary figurative stitching, and how to help produce the drawing of stitch, than now.

Stitch Draw by Rosie James is a comprehensive guide to figurative stitching, giving techniques and tips regarding free style stitch – drawing with stitch.

Rosie guides the reader through a whole series of techniques and working methods, from setting up a sewing machine, through to drawing exercises that take you from pencil to stitch. This is a book that liberates the artist. There is no tight framework of the ‘right’ way of doing things, this is very much a book that expects the artist to liberate, to literally run with the stitch.

From the background of tradition to the forefront of contemporary art, stitch has made an extraordinary run through the last few years, in no small part due to the high profile artists who have pushed the limits of what can and should be achieved by stitch. These artists have taken stitch and placed it at the cutting edge of contemporary life, and often of contemporary protest. Artists who examine the world that we find ourselves in, and find aspects of that world wanting, are now firmly ensconced within the techniques of stitch, and particularly figurative stitching.

Rosie James gives voice to that element of contemporary figurative stitch in Stitch Draw. She celebrates the extraordinary depth of her own work, which liberally illustrates Stitch Draw, but also highlights the work of some of the best contemporary artists that are using stitch today. Artists such as: mags James, Maria Wigley, Hinke Schreuders, Nike Schroeder, Tucker Schwarz, Leigh Bowser, Sophie Strong and more.

This isn’t a book limited to textile artists, or those wanting to enter the textile art field. This is a book for artists – of any discipline, it is a book for artists who want to explore another way of expressing themselves. That is the important message of contemporary stitch, stitch is a drawing technique and can be experimented on and by any artist. It is a message stated loud and clear in Stitch Draw.

Rosie James is a textile artist with a fine art background. She studied textiles at Goldsmiths College London and runs workshops on her stitch-drawing techniques throughout the UK. Her works are exhibited in museums around the world.

Stitch Draw: Design and Techniques for Figurative Stitching by Rosie James, is published by Batsford and is available from October 4 2018.

Book Review: Cas Holmes 'Textile Landscapes'

We live in a world dominated by landscape, landscape of our own making – the human variety, but more obviously, the landscape of the natural world. Landscape also dominates the visual arts, and has done so for millennia. How the landscape that surrounds us is interpreted by the artist depends on the perception of that artist, but also depends on the tools and working methods that that artist has at their disposal.

Cas Holmes new book: Textile Landscape is an inspirational guide to the observation of the landscape, the practical application of that observation, and of the methods of creativity that can be brought together under the banner of ‘textiles’. This is a book whereby landscape is interpreted by textile art – through stitch, mixed media, and paint.

The book is comprehensive without being dictatorial. It is a guide to artists, students and teachers in how to truly and individually interpret the world around us. Drawing on the book as a source for self-discovery, self-creation, Cas encourages confidence in the art of observation, the art of practical making, the art of interpretation of your own unique view of the world.

Cas covers a whole range of thoughts and ideas in her new book. From keeping a sketchbook, generating ideas, painting and dyeing cloth, how to observe a range of landscapes both large and small, how to interpret the details of those landscapes through paint, ink and stitch. How to make your interpretation as unique and singular as it should be.

Cas has liberally filled Textile Landscape with interpretations of landscape through her own work, but also through a selection of contemporary textile artists from around the planet. Artists range from: Sue Hotchkis, Sue Stone, Richard McVetis, Ian Berry, to Grayson Perry, Joan Schulze, Sandra Meech and many more.

Textile Landscape builds on and continues from Cas earlier book, also published by Batsford Stitch Stories (reviewed in Inspirational 6). This new book reinforces Cas passion for the natural landscape in all its forms, from urban scrubland to secret glades, from the wild untamed to studied farmland.

Above all, Textile Landscape is about the utter uniqueness of perspective, what you see as an individual within the landscape. That is the beauty of Cas book, the projection of your vision, of your creative endeavor. Cas may show you examples of her vision and of the vision of other contemporary artists, but she is always aware that you the reader are the ultimate subject. It is your interpretation that ultimately counts, not hers, and not any number of contemporary artists around the planet. The textile interpretation of landscape through your hands and through your eyes is her ultimate goal, and with this book that goal should be well within your grasp.

Textile Landscape: Painting with Cloth in Mixed Media by Cas Holmes, is published by Batsford.

Book Review: Claire Wellesley-Smith 'Slow Stitch'

This is a book that has the expansion of time as its essence. Not the creation of time, as in there is never enough, but in the understanding that time has personal boundaries, as much as it does impersonal boundaries.

To take moments of your day in order to not contemplate what you didn’t achieve yesterday, and what you will have to try and achieve tomorrow, to let the moment of ‘now’ wash over you as the only moment, to worry less, and smile more at simple procedures of contentment, this is at the core of Slow Stitch.

Slow Stitch, or to give it its full title Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art, is a newly published book by the textile artist Claire Wellesley-Smith. Claire teaches extensively, working in adult education, schools, community-based projects, museums, and galleries. She runs workshops that involve the ideas of sustainable stitch, repurposed cloth, and traditional techniques of hand production.

It is no surprise therefore, that her new book Slow Stitch, should concentrate on the self-same ideas of sustainability, repurposing, and the techniques of hand production that can be brought into the world of textile art.

To understand Slow Stitch is to understand calmness, contemplation, and mindfulness. To understand these, and more importantly, to integrate them into our lives, is to understand that it is OK to unwind a little, that it is OK to place the demands of the twenty-first century to one side, at least for part of your day.

Stitch, and the art of hand stitch is a great and simple means in which to enter the world of the momentary, of the mindful and contemplative world of calmness. The repetitive rhythm of stitch, producing single moments one after the other, can be likened to listening to the ocean waves, to taking note of slow and steady breathing, the beat of the planet.

It is an exercise in purposeful motions, of creating moments, rather than being led by them. Creating stitch, is creating a path, creating a set of elements that can remove you from the world of the twenty first century.

It is measured time, whether self-measured, or measured by the task, it becomes the same thing in the end. Through a range of parts and chapters Claire shows us how so many aspects of textile art can easily be slowed down, treated with respect and calmness.

She shows us how taking note of time, energy, the place that you inhabit while working, can all have an effect on the process, and the result of the process.

Whether working with local materials, repurposing old textiles, natural dyeing, the use of hand stitch and other traditional techniques, all add and accumulate, all move the maker and artist in a direction that has purpose, has meaning.

Claire includes in her book a range of practical projects such as stitch journals, mapping local walks in stitch and found objects, and working with other artists, all part of an attempt to seriously encourage textile artists, or those artists who choose to integrate an element of textile art into their work, to make reconnections with their love of textiles, with their local culture and their local environment, all for the betterment of creativity.

Book Review: Alice Fox 'Natural Processes in Textile Art'

The embroiderer and textile artist Alice Fox has produced an excellent new book entitled Natural Processes in Textile Art. To give some idea of the field of exploration that Alice’s new book covers, its sub-heading is From Rust Dyeing to Found Objects.

Working within natural processes, and projecting those processes through the discipline of textile art, Alice shows how to work creatively with your immediate environment, whether by using raw materials that have been gathered from seashore or garden, woodland, or city street.

Alice encourages by example, her book shows through simple explanations, how to work in time with natural processes, bringing together the rhythms, complexity, as well as the simplicity of nature into textile art.

The book covers such processes as eco dyeing with garden fruits, seaweed and other easily gathered raw materials. Alice shows how using embroidery as a natural process can become an integral part of the work rather than an imposed embellishment, she shows that weaving with beachcombed fibres can add integrity and provenance to a composition, and how printing with found objects can add a depth and direction to the working process.

Alice encourages the fostering of a real connection with nature in order to help the creative process. The integration of nature as a driving force in the process of making has become an increasingly important part of the contemporary creative world, and no more so than in textile art.

With the textile industry and its subsidiary industries still being one of the planets largest polluters and degraders of the natural environment, it has become a particularly pressing concern for designers, as well as artists who involve themselves with textiles, to start looking for alternatives to the norm.

Of particular concern is the use of chemical dyes, their strength, reliability, and endurance once seen as a positive step forward in the world of textiles,  is now being seen as a liability at best, a contribution to ecological degradation at worst.

The rise in local dyeing, in personal dyeing development, particularly amongst textile artists, has produced a whole movement of experimentation in materials, from leaves and flowers, to fruit and vegetables, from metals, to teas and coffees.

Experimentation seems to be the order of the day and Alice encourages, through examples, the fostering of a theme of exploration, of taking a personal journey through the realm of raw materials.

All traditional textile processes, whether dyeing, sewing, weaving, and others, can be supplemented or even replaced by materials both ordinary, and indeed extraordinary, that can be found in the natural environment, from fibre for weaving and sewing that can be harvested from the natural world, from grasses, leaves, and plants, to fishing line washed up on a shoreline, all can be used as material, for use in the process and composition of work. All that is ever really needed is imagination, and of course that is an endless and always renewable resource for the artist.

To scavenge and forage is part of the human condition, it was a large part of our lives for much of our human history. Hunters and gatherers combed the environment for the useful as well as the intriguing, and the ornamental, and although we may seem to be far removed from our early ancestors, we are not as far removed as we sometimes believe ourselves to be.

There is much to be foraged and collected both in the natural and urban environments that can be used as a stimulus for artwork, as well as being integral to the working process. So for example, Alice encourages the collection of leaves, nuts, seeds, lichens, and feathers from woodland, shells, seaweed, plastic twine, and pebbles from the seashore, as well as bottle tops, screws, rubber bands, squashed cans, train tickets and more from the urban environment.

Alice is keen for us to not dismiss what could be used as potential, merely because we have never before considered it. To use your imagination, to think about how you could perhaps incorporate the environment around you within your work, is to express that environment, to see its potential, and to celebrate its life.

Of course, Alice does make it clear that gathering within the natural environment in particular, has to be done with caution and with understanding. To be in harmony with the environment, to use the gifts of nature, does not mean denuding that same environment. Some plants now have legal protection against random harvesting, and when you are free to collect and harvest, Alice encourages you to show moderation, with nuts and berries for example, you are often sharing a crop with the wildlife who depend on what you are harvesting to sustain them, either immediately, or through the long winter.

It is all a matter of empathy and understanding. If you are going to use the environment around you then it is a good idea to try and make sense of that environment, to see it as a complicated interaction between countless species, of which you are one. By all means gather raw materials for your work, but remember that you are only one of the creatures in the complexity, so show compassion to your fellow spirits, be generous, and the environment will be generous back.

Natural Processes in Textile Art includes examples of the work of a number of leading artists who are well known within the field of eco textile processes, whether that be through dyeing, construction, printing, stitching.

Although this book is aimed at textile artists, and those wanting to pursue or expand their repertoire within the textile field, it is also an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to include and incorporate an element of textiles within their own work, so would be ideal for those working in some of the connected disciplines such as mixed media, basketry, jewellery, ceramics, and as far afield as 3D sculpture and fine art painting.

A great book to own, and a great resource in which to look for other means of approaching the world of making.

Book Review: Cas Holmes Stitch Stories

Where do ideas come from? Where can interesting source material be found? What is inspiration and how can it be developed? How can you sustain interest in your work from source material to finished piece? How do you tread your own authentic and unique creative path? What can you add to the world of creativity that is a definition of you? Who are you as an artist, and where are you going?

These are just some of the questions that are answered in Cas Holmes new book Stitch Stories. It is a book full of headings, sub-headings, lists of intent, ideas, prompts, and helping hands. Each segment of the book goes into great detail on its particular method, expanding to incorporate a wealth of tried and tested, as well as novel ideas, in how to approach a level of uniqueness that is the role of the artist in us all.

Stitch Stories is aimed at a textile and mixed media audience and is therefore geared towards artists who work, or intend to work, in those fields. The book is full of rich colour photos of Cas own work, as well as the inspiring work of many other artists as well. There are full colour photos of completed works, as well as many works in progress, and most importantly photos of sketch books, one of the areas of work in progress that so many either get stuck on, or are unclear as to what they should contain.

To run through the different chapters of the book in order, will probably give you a good inkling as to why this book is such a valuable addition to the artist. It is often a difficult task looking for rich and useful inspirational starting points in which to pursue a series of work, the journey that those inspirational points should take in order to produce work that is both a reflection of those starting points, as well as being an important part of who you are as both an individual, is perhaps the hardest of all.

Places, Spaces, and Traces - deals with the recording of your experiences, your observations, your feelings of the world that you observe around you. This segment deals with creating a journal, sketchbook, or other form of recording, such as photography. Collecting information is always the starting point of any form of creative development, and choosing what appeals to you personally is a large part of whether your work will develop or not.

Seizing Inspiration - explores a range of potentials for inspiration and exploration, and includes such ideas as using memory and history as reference points, using drawing and simple collage as valuable exercises in focused or unfocused inspiration, allowing the mind to wander, allowing it to draw inspiration from a line, a colour, a texture, all vital elements in the creative journey.

The Natural World - gives a number of starting points, with the idea of nature being their source. Nature is all around and within us, so it is equally relevant and a ready source of inspiration, whether you live in a rural or urban environment.

Studying and observing the natural world, whether it be in a woodland, or a backyard, is connecting with that natural world. It can be observing, identifying, and recording the differing elements to be found in a canopy of trees, reeds along a riverbank, or indeed tough weeds growing out of an urban wall, all are relevant and all have value to the environment as they do to the artist.

Cas also makes it clear how important the cycle of seasons is to anyone interested in using the natural world as a source of inspiration. To observe the same environment through the change in seasons is to understand the layers of change and meaning that can be found within that framework.

All in the Detail - deals with the details that are so much a part of any piece of artwork, those details often come from source material themselves, or indeed from the ambience in which those materials are found.

The world is a complexity of meaning, and we are part of that complexity. Cas gives us a range of artists work that deals in those details of intricacy that they find in inspirational source material, and that they then project out through their work.

Off the Beaten Track - looks at the artist and their responses, through work, of personal themes and interests, rather than generic. A number of artists show their self-expression through an interest in personal family history, social history, comments on historical or contemporary society. Cas gives us a range of artists who have used textiles, both specifically and generally to make a point.

Telling Stories - the last segment continues from the previous, but gives examples of how you can tell your own story, how you can express what you need and want to say, through a range of helpful examples and that is what it is all about, giving you a range of tools in order to effectively express yourself.

It is so important that self-expression be encouraged. Your own story, your own viewpoint, your own perspective on the world, is a constantly unique one. There may well be seven billion people on the planet, but there is only ever one of you. Cas is fully aware of this and has spent a large proportion of her art career guiding and encouraging others to express themselves through creative paths that only belong to them.

If you have the tools and you have the vocabulary then how you use them is up to you. This book is not a book that wants to show you how to work like Cas, how to produce work that copies where Cas has been and where she is going artistically and creatively, it is a book that shows you how to work like yourself, to find your own centre, your own creative strength, to be able to express yourself as your own true self, and not like another, and for that reason, amongst many, I highly recommend Stitch Stories.

INSPIRATIONAL 20: Released!

Inspirational 20 is now released for instant download and instant access. Pick up a copy at: https://payhip.com/b/OX4M

Over 100 pages in interviews and imagery from contemporary artists around the globe - from textiles to collage, from painting to photography.

All previous issues of Inspirational are available from: https://payhip.com/johnhopper

or why not take out a subscription to Inspirational, delivered monthly to your email. It's as easy as following the link: https://payhip.com/b/MNp6

Inspirational...celebrating creativity

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Reouth Erez: Ekphrasis Textile

The Israeli textile and illustration designer Reouth Erez, who is based in Tel Aviv, has a passion for combining literature, philosophy and art, along with a practical design vision. This creative combination is clearly seen in Reouth's Ekphrasis project.

Ekphrasis or ecphrasis, comes from the Greek for the description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical exercise, often used in the adjectival form ekphrastic is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. In ancient times, it referred to a description of any thing, person, or experience. The work comes from the Greek 'ek' and 'phrasis', 'out' and 'speak' respectively, and the verb 'ekphrazein' "to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name."

In her Ekphrasis textile project Reouth wanted to actually 'revive' classical texts (poetry) from different places and times (eg: Edgar Allen Poe, Pushkin, the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai).

The common denominator between the songs is the subject of man and his urges. The written texts are very visual/sensory - the prints she has created speak the words of the poem as a source of inspiration, or texts, not just a description of words.

The choice to create clothing comes from the desire to expose the audience to those who will be tempted by a "desirable object" as it were.

Each garment print is made from a particular poem. Each piece is accompanied by a pocket booklet with lyrics and other illustrations.

The person purchasing the item of clothing acquires a booklet. They can choose to be exposed to the ministers and be intrigued, and of course, to create a personal library for them. The intention is to operate the format of a rotating capsule collection.

Practical description of the project: Ekphrasis is a fashion and poetry brand. Five printed outfits and supplementary items - scarves, t-shirts, and poetry booklets.

Materials: cotton, velvet, silk, chiffon, faux leather, foil, flock.

Technique: manual drawing, digital drawing, digital printing, screen printing.

To find out more about the Ekphrasis textile project, follow the the link: https://ereouthe.wixsite.com/ekphrasis

To find out more about the artist and illustrator Reouth Erez, follow the link to her website: https://reoutherez.wixsite.com/reouth-erez/home

INSPIRATIONAL 17: Now on Sale

Welcome to the 17th issue of Inspirational magazine. In this issue inspirational features interviews with four new artists, as well as one previous featured artist with new work, a community article, a project article, a book review, and events pages highlighting exhibitions and art events from around the world.

Feature artist: Akiko Suzuki is the internationally renowned Japanese textile/fiber artist. She has worked in a range of disciplines and collaborated creatively and highly successfully with fellow creative artists on an international stage. Akiko gives an in-depth interview and shows a range of her work in this Inspirational feature.  

      

Feature artist: Amy Oliver is a profound British conceptual artist that works with her own experiences regarding among other subjects – mental health, women’s rights, abuse and identity. Amy gives an in-depth interview and shows a range of her work in this Inspirational feature.    

           

Feature artist: Emanuela Cau is an Italian photographic artist who produces the most extraordinary emotional, theatrical, magical work, rich in texture and meaning. Emanuela gives an in-depth interview and shows a range of her work in this Inspirational feature.      

 

Feature artist: Leonard Greco Jr is an American painter and textile artist. Leonard is one of those rare artists, one that has an acute sense of history, sense of spirit, sense of wonder, sense of epic and intimate. Leonard gives an in-depth interview and shows a range of his work in this Inspirational feature.   

    

New work: The British textile artist Stewart Kelly was originally featured in Inspirational 8. Nine issues on Stewart is again being featured, he gives an in-depth interview, and we see what he has been up to since first being featured in Inspirational, showing a range of his work in this Inspirational feature.       

Community: PEG (Profanity Embroidery Group) is a British textile/fiber community, one that meets regularly to embroider profane statements, but they are so much more. PEG is a community that supports, shares and genuinely engages with its members. Members of PEG are interviewed and they show a range of work produced by PEG in this Inspirational feature.     

  

Project: World Wide Weave 2018 is a project organised by British textile/fiber artist Maria Clarke-Wilson. It is a planetary wide project that involves eco dyeing of fiber by artists around the globe, and then the pulling together of the results by Maria so that she can freestyle weave a unified result. Maria gives an in-depth interview about this planetary project for this Inspirational feature.   

    

Review: Points of Juncture is a book about an exhibition. Points of Juncture was a ground-breaking exhibition held at the Forty Hall Estate, London in 2017 by the textile/fiber artist Cos Ahmet. It proved so successful that a book has just been published by Forty Hall Estate and the Arts Council England in celebration. Cos gives an in-depth interview and shows a range of his work for the Points of Juncture exhibition in this Inspirational feature.     

  

Events: pages that are global in nature. All continents are covered, highlighting a range of art events and opportunities across the planet.

It’s a full and varied selection of contemporary talent for this issue of Inspirational. Please enjoy.

Inspirational 17 is an interactive downloadable contemporary art magazine, which can be purchased for instant download from the following link: https://payhip.com/b/BsR4

ARTIST: Deborah Kruger

Deborah Kruger: Kansai (screen printing on fused plastic bags, sewing), 2018 (69" x 72" x 1")

The artist Deborah Kruger uses her creativity to understand the world around her, specifically the natural world, its problems in trying to adapt to enforced changes by humans, and ultimately the shifts that are forced on ourselves through those changes. Her work is about movement, migration, change, uprooting. In the following interview Deborah helps explain her view of the world, her perspective, her creative understanding.

Migration is a big part of the Plumage series. At first it seems that the theme is purely devoted to bird migration, but you have expanded the definition to mean so much more. What else does it include?

DEK: Like most artists, I learn about the world through making art. Initially, the work was purely about birds and their migration. Over time, I realized that the interruptions to bird migration due to habitat destruction were parallel to the migrations of humans, who are also forced to adapt to loss of homeland due to climate change and political and natural disasters. Now I see birds as a metaphor for all species whose natural patterns change due to circumstances outside of their control and must move in order to survive.

The potential, and many would say, imminent collapse of the complex structure of life on this planet is an issue for a range of artists around the world and across disciplines. How do you personalise that concern in your work? 

DEK: Artists have the opportunity to use our visual voices to bear witness to the momentous changes that are happening ecologically and politically. Finding a way to express our despair, our thinking, and our hope in ways that are evocative rather than literal is the challenge for artists with conscience. For me, the most powerful art is a fusion of beauty and discourse.

Why did you focus in on plastic bags specifically as a symbolic material to use in your work?

DEK: I chose plastic bags as my medium because they have a silent and insidious presence that negatively impacts birds and most other life forms. Our persistent consumption of plastic drives this industry. In choosing plastic as an art material, I am embedding a subliminal message in my work: consumerism is killing our birds and our planet.

Deborah Kruger: Turbulence (screen-printing on fused plastic bags, sewing), 2018 (64" x 100.5" x 1)

Deborah Kruger: Abandon (screen-printing on fused plastic bags, sewing), 2018 (66" x 56" x 1")

How important is contact with the natural environment in your daily life?

DEK: Since I was a young child, I have always gravitated to nature. I grew up in a city but managed to find a boulder to climb on or wetlands to explore. As an adult, I have spent much of my life in the woods. Now I live on the largest lake in Mexico and spending time on her shores continues to feed and inspire me.

The simple notion of the interconnectedness of all life on the planet seems ungraspable to so many humans. Why do you think that is?

DEK: Indigenous cultures are closely tied to the land. Our industrialized/civilized society has lost that connection and therefore the understanding of how land is essential to life. Without sacred respect for land, we have no compunction about destroying it. The same holds true for birds and other vulnerable species. We need to re-integrate natural studies into our educational systems so that the next generation learns to find joy and wonder in nature rather than on a screen.

There seems a singularity and connectedness to your work, single feathers being integrated into a larger whole. Do you see singularly and connectedness as part of your message as an artist?

DEK: Everything we are and everywhere we go is composed of invisible and constantly moving molecules. This awareness permeates all of my work, which is singular and connected because it mirrors our complex world. I want the feathers to be beautiful components within a larger piece that operates on many levels visually and intellectually. I want the movement of the feathers to echo the movement of migration. I want the images of endangered birds and endangered languages that are printed on the feathers to dawn on us, to trouble us and to inspire us. Channeling a viewer’s growing awareness into action would be deeply satisfying for me as an artist.

Deborah Kruger: Cambodia (screen-printing on fused plastic bags, sewing), 2018 (43.5" x 52" x 1")

Deborah Kruger: Flourish (screen-printing on fused plastic bags, sewing, wax linen thread, metal thread), 2017 (36" x 27" x 3")

With plastic fast clogging up the planet’s natural environmental cycle, wouldn’t it be more apt to use ‘disposable’ plastic in your work? Will you bring in any further man-made single-use materials to your work?

DEK: Hopefully my artwork will not end up in a landfill. I like to think that by using plastic bags, I am diverting them from poisoning our environment. I worked with fabric for many years and know that even disposing textiles has become an environmental nightmare. There are many new technologies on the horizon being designed to address this disposal problem. Unless we do ephemeral art, artists have to address our personal footprint.

Where do you think your creative work will go from here?

DEK: I have just written a proposal to fund several new projects that will continue to use the bird imagery in new and inventive ways. On the drawing board is a neon installation with the names of endangered birds that are illuminated and then fade out. I am also planning a large-scale public sculpture shaped like a bird-cage and built from water-jet cut metal shapes of endangered birds.

Deborah Kruger: Harbinger (screen-printing on fused plastic bags, sewing). 2018 (42" x 53" x 1")

Deborah Kruger: Missing (screen-printing on fused plastic bags, sewing), 2018 (46.5" x 52" x 1")

Do you have any upcoming events for 2018 that you would like to share?

DEK: I will be debuting a new collection of the plastic-feathered pieces at a solo show titled Turbulence: Birds, Beauty, Language & Loss at the Chapala Cultural Center here in Mexico. The exhibition will run from August 4 – September 15, 2018.

One of my new pieces titled “Harbinger” is based on the map of Cambodia because it is the last habitat for the 400 remaining Bengal Floricans. This piece will be included in the Climate show curated by Laura Kruger (no relation) for the Hebrew Union College Museum in New York City on view from September 6, 2018 – June 30, 2019.

Website: www.deborahkruger.com

Facebook: @deborahkrugerartist

Instagram: @deborahkrugerstudio

Deborah Kruger: Nest (screen-printing on fused plastic bags, sewing, black plastic zip ties, paint), 2017 (26" x 27" x 3.5")

INSPIRATIONAL 16: Now on Sale

Welcome to the 16^th issue of Inspirational magazine. In this issue inspirational features interviews with four new artists, one previous featured artist with new work, a talent spot artist, a book review, and events pages highlighting exhibitions and art events from around the world.

Aline Brant is a Brazilian-based artist that produces embellished and embroidered work over and through photographs, connecting the figures in the photographs to a larger, expansive reality, one that rejoices in colour and nature.

Debra Fritts is a US-based sculptor that produces amazingly haunting figurative work, images that are part of narratives that are magical, otherworldly, but at the same time rooted in our own experiences.

Rita Summers is an Australian-based artist, designer and passionate eco dyer, and upcycler. Her work in awareness of who we are, where we are, and the impact our lives have on everything and everyone around us is an example of how creativity can help change attitudes and perspectives towards a better world.

Sahaya Sharma is an Indian-based abstract artist that works with dynamic colour, with energy, with music, with self. An amazing expression of the artist as experimenter and as experiencer.

Terry Jarrard-Dimond, the US-based abstract artist was originally featured in Inspirational 6. Ten issues on Terry is again being featured with both an interview and a whole range of new work.

Tom Abbiss Smith is a UK-based artist that produces bold, colourful imagery that is based on digital collage, printmaking and painting. Tom is the first artist to be featured in the new regular ‘Talent’ spot in the magazine.

Mark Sheeky, the UK-based artist, writer, musician, and presenter has just published 21st Century Surrealism and Inspirational is lucky enough to be able to feature the book in its new ‘Review’ section, which will become a regular feature in the magazine from this issue onward.

The ‘Events’ pages are full and highlight a range of art events and opportunities across the planet.

Inspirational 16 is an interactive downloadable contemporary art magazine, which can be purchased for instant download from the following link: https://payhip.com/b/084G

Inspirational - is an interactive downloadable contemporary art magazine, which now has a dedicated site for all news regarding the magazine: https://inspirational-magazine.blogspot.co.uk/