Bounce! workshop: Monotype Printing with Alice Burns

I love the Bounce! arts festival, look forward to it every year and go to as many events as is possible. Plus, I really enjoy the free workshops. 

When printmaker Alice Burns was giving a workshop on Monotype Printing I got excited. At art college I did a week in printmaking learning to etch a plate and make a print I, unlike my sister who loved to etch, got so exasperated with the intricate process. I irritated the hell out of my tutor after putting the plate into the resin box and then turning the handle (other way round prevents the plate getting stuck in the bottom of the powdered resin) twice. 

For me the almost painterly process of monoprinting is faster and freer. 

We used water based printing ink, sheets of thick acetate as ink boards, hand rollers and because of the heat in the room Alice added a medium to keep the ink from drying too quickly. Smaller sheets of acetate became our plates upon which we placed a sheet of paper and traced/drew onto with a pencil. I found the eraser at the end was useful to create softer lines.

There was some guesswork as I frequently forgot, when tracing over a drawing, to remember which lines I'd traced. Some prints ended up missing an eye or a leg!

After the initial print a ghost print could be made, a 'negative' by placing a second sheet of paper over the plate and using a clean roller with a lot of pressure. Results are apparently better using a press. 

The lurcher image I chose was one Alice had drawn, among a selection provided for us to use. It was a friend's birthday today and she has a whippet called Breeze. I used this image to trace and added various marks as shadow and background. 

I'll be buying some inks, some acetate and digging out the lino-printing rollers I've held onto over the years. Knew they'd come in handy.

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ADF Bounce! festival 2016 - sunday

The last day of the festival !!!

I signed up for Jacqueline Wylie's drawing workshop. I'd already been to a similar workshop in May at the ADF Gallery and had got a lot out of that morning. Of all the events in Bounce! 2016 I was most looking forward to this. Pencils, chalk, charcoal, erasers and lots of paper. The instrumental music Jacqueline chose for us to draw to was a mixture of gentle treble and resonating bass.

We began by using the different hardness and softness of pencils and following exercises to explore their use, holding pencils by the very tip, using our non-dominant hand, using variations of pressure. When we had completed a few pages of preparation work we moved onto larger pieces of paper made from taping A3 sheets together.

The dynamics of the group were different to the previous as this time there were 2 families with children. All three kids settled into the tasks set and produced some lovely pencil and charcoal work. There was also more informal discussion during the 20 min tasks which I found contra-indicative to meditative drawing. Perhaps the previous workshop, being set in a gallery with artwork on show, was more conducive to the tasks. 

Some lovely work was created, my favourite being fine lines overlapping in an almost organic form, by a woman who had only recently begun to draw after a long period. Each drawn line was delicate yet the finished piece was robust. We had the opportunity to view each other's work. I feel my work this time was too contrived, I didn't allow myself the freedom of a new process that I'd experienced at the previous workshop. But I will work further on the techniques I used today.

Missed this trio of performances as I was invigilating at the ADF Gallery. I was delighted that Nikki McLaughlin was performing - I saw her few years ago and her theatrical piece was both strong and moving. 

Spoke to Michelle, a parent who had attended this workshop with her daughter and both had enjoyed it. Helen Hall had facilitated a dance workshop for the ADF's Art & Biscuits group earlier this year and I liked the gentleness with which she worked. 

Nye's performance was a mix of dark humour and excruciating discomfort. How many times has someone felt like finishing the sentence spoken by a person with a stammer. How many people have heard the minutes tick by as a person with a stammer completes what they seek to say. The discomfort Nye portrayed on stage was echoed by the listener, the experiences of his stammering empathised by the greater audience. A powerful piece of theatre. 

Although Nye has developed an ability to speak without stammering he is able to 'switch on' the part of him which does stammer in order to perform. Hugh from ADF had talked to Nye and learned that at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015 the performer had delivered 18 performances. After repetitive 'switching on' of his stammer Nye was finding he had to re-learn his ability to speak without doing so. The stammer appears always to lie beneath.

www.stammermouth.co.uk

Looking forward to Bounce! 2017...

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ADF Bounce! festival 2016 - saturday

image from ADF programme

A masterclass workshop on connecting people with dementia to their creative selves. This workshop by the Lawson sisters followed on from an exhibition at ADF Gallery earlier this year where their father's art was exhibited. 'Presently Absent' was curated by Bronagh Lawson.

image from ADF programme

Aaron Williamson, an adept performance artist, was present outside the Castlecourt shopping centre. In a booth he demonstrated step-by-step instructions on how to execute everyday movements and use common objects. 

I am a visual artist and have always found performance art 'difficult' to comprehend. But once I decided to break each performance I viewed into a series of happenings I discovered that I could appreciate some of those parts. When Aaron touched the overhanging heart that said 'It's a wonderful world' I found humour. When he manipulated the selfie mirror on a stick I felt innuendo. When he read short statements from a placard I agreed with each statement and yet had the same feeling rise in me that I might have had when attending school and enduring repetition. Perhaps these have nothing to do with Aaron's performance but they are what I drew from it.

images from ADF programme

With a performance and a workshop Streetwise Community Circus provided something in the festival especially for families. This year's Bounce! production told the story of Robin Hood entering an archery competition. The workshop taught basic circus skills including stilt walking for beginners.

Early evening saw the Sing For Life choir gather on the steps. All singers have either survived cancer or have a connection to cancer through family or friend. Laid back music, lovely harmonies that filled the space.

image from ADF programme

This evening's performance was a double bill from poet Alice McCullough and singer songwriter Pat Dam Smyth. The theme of the show was the darkness some of us experience in our lives. To call it 'Mental Health' would be to medicalise the emotions spoken and sung of. Instead the artists took us on journeys of themselves. And there was humour dotted between each song and poem among the grief and sadness which hung in the air. It was a very personal sharing of emotions felt within real lives.

Maybe it's the Irish blood in me that allows me to appreciate a good lament. I loved each phrase spoken, each word sung and didn't want either performance to end.

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ADF Bounce! festival 2016 - friday

image from Bounce! programme

Friday afternoon ran from 2-3pm offering a choice of Javanese Gamelan Workshop from Open Arts or Poetry Reading from Monica Corish.

image from Bounce! programme

The Spectrum Centre on the Shankill Road hosted the sizeable Gamelan, a collection of Indonesian percussion instruments. Feedback from Grainne of KIC described the experience as more than sound, involving dance-like movement in the playing. By the end of the workshop the group was able to perform a piece of music. 

image from Bounce! programme

Monica Corish, a poet based in Leitrim, has published a collection of poems entitled 'A Dying Language' and read from the collection at the Lyric Theatre.

'In 2013 I received a Mentoring Award from the Arts and Disability Forum which allowed me to work intensively with Greagoir O'Duill, developing a collection inspired by the experience of nursing my mother when she was dying of cancer.'

Monica Corish from her website

'It has an authenticity to it that I responded to immediately.'

Chris Ledger CEO at ADF

image from Bounce! programme

In the bar area of the Lyric festival goers enjoyed live music from Alan Sheeran, The Hideaways and Andrea Begley. Easy listening and poignant words over a mix of genres. 

image from Bounce! programme

The evening's presentation was by Zet6 from De Zeyp. Both dance performances were DaDaesque conjuring a surrealist quality. The first series of dances by Sophie de Breuck used Algerian music and a folk printed shawl. Sometimes the dancer seemed to drift between worlds, returning to dance with renewed focus and energy. The Unicorn, performed by Michail Weselow and Jeroen Beyens, had a determined beauty to it, incorporating ballet moves with more relaxed movements with images changing on an overhead screen. Each dancer performed separately, coming together towards the end before Jeroen played piano.

ATTIC LING video - inclusive art workshop ZET6 by Caroline Rottier

ATTIC LING video - inclusive representation of ZET6 by Caroline Rottier

image from Bounce! programme

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