Francesca Owen
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.dancingwithdyes.wordpress.com Website: www.dancingwithdyes.co.uk Telephone: 07828703353 Artist Statement
Collect, nurture, heal and deeply appreciate
How can a Deeper Appreciation of the world we live in be found through the practice and research of art making? Centred in environmental issues, my work reflects these concerns and is focused on exploring methods to heal our perception of feeling disconnected from nature. My work involves collecting plant debris, mud and other materials whilst walking, and through this simple action, nurturing and healing a connection to the natural local habitat. Works are made using plant dyes, pigments, installations, film, paintings and sculptures either on location or back at home. Through using these materials and working in this way, another approach to seeing is revealed, prompting a reconsideration and re-evaluation our relationship with our natural world. My home is a small sailing boat in Penryn. Living simply is an integral part of my arts practice, constantly finding ways to live sustainably and within my means, it is about collecting fire wood for heat and using little energy, considering what is needed to live as simply as possible, a reaction against excessive living and consumerism, it connects me directly with the sea, a source of inspiration and on a half-tide mooring, directly to the bay mud I use in my work. I have studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 2005-2009 with the Euan Uglow Memorial Scholarship for Painting and also the Jeremy Cubitt Prize. My concern with painting was to convey and to draw inspiration form foreign places I had travelled to and translate the essential qualities of the beauty and magic of those places. Since completing this degree my practice has taken me to South East Asia and India where I performed a number of self-generated residencies exploring the use of natural colour and plant dyes among the tribal minorities of Laos. On returning to the United Kingdom I have continued this line of research into plant dyes as part of my MA (Art & Environment) at University College Falmouth, part funded by the University College Falmouth Bursary Award. My work explores using this material more directly in my work, of low impact and time related dyeing techniques including participatory workshops, a residency at Trebah Garden, garden planning, and how such organic methodology and space for reflection may promote a sense of connection to the energies of nature. My ongoing project 'A Garden of Dreams' explores the potential of art and creativity as a place of solace and imaginative and meditative inspiration. |
About CMR
__CMR is an artist-led
initiative designed to create a community of artists who will exhibit
and flourish within this three storey building. It is a voluntary-run organisation and project. We aim to be all
inclusive; we aim to encourage adventurous work that will respond and
challenge not only to CMR’s various spaces but also the broader
Contemporary Art landscape of Cornwall.
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Want to be involved?
Membership is open to artists, makers, curators, writers and thinkers at all stages of their careers who are interested in developing a rigorous, critically engaged level of contemporary practice, and who are interested in actively contributing to help promote the overall well-being of the project.
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