ALICE STRANGE.

A temporary gathering of stardust.

PERSPIRATION.

An electrical engineering degree …

… lead to working in the energy industry for twenty years.  Time flies.

Chance meetings …

… with printmakers Thelma Sykes & Eric Martin (I shall be eternally grateful to you both) caused me to take Obi Wan Kanobi’s advice and rethink my life.  I bailed out of the corporate world soon after to study art history at the Open University and make stuff.

Tuition & guidance …

… from many people has added screenprinting, collagraphy, digital printmaking, bookmaking, painting, mosaic & flax weaving to my toolbox.  Heartfelt thanks to Maureen Johnston & Simon Rutherford in Christchurch, Ian Gowdie & Alan Anderson in Oban, Gayle Robinson, Ros Lawless, Scott Campbell, Claire Forsyth, Stuart Duffin, Fiona Watson, Robert McSpadyen, Murray Robertson, Ciara Phillips and Jess Copsey at the Glasgow Print Studio, Claire McVinnie & Scott Hudson at the Dundee Contemporary Arts Print Studio, Bob Burridge in his Magic Studio and Petra Zehner at the Paris Collage Collective

Me now?

I am, I think, I do.

INSPIRATION.

Everything I use to make work is in my life …

… it’s a matter of what I come across, what I look at and what I pay attention to: art, science, music, literature, politics, the earth, the sea, the sky, people, memories, the big questions … I process the input by making stuff, using whatever medium is on hand – relief printing, screen printing, collage (analogue & digital), cyanotype, paint, textile & assemblage.

These are a few of my favourite things …

Picasso’s constant experimentation – Duchamp and the many conceptual & performance artists who redefined art, with humour  & intelligence – Shiko Munakata’s speed & vitality – Goya’s darkness – Beryl Cook’s lightness – the other-worldliness of Byzantine icons – the style & dissolute lifestyle of Modigliani (good example or terrible warning?) – Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present – Gainsborough’s Mrs Siddons – Robert Motherwell – Remedio Varos – the exuberance of Gaudi’s Parc Guell and Josie Martin’s Akaroa garden – the search for knowledge: physics, astronomy, biology, oceanography, philosophy – language: poetry, literature, mathematics – Scotland, New Zealand, the oceans & seas between them and skies above them – feats of engineering: standing stone circles, lighthouses, spacecraft, computers …

And music …

Queen, Kate Bush, Pink Floyd, Yes, Sparks, Dylan, Muse, Lila Downs, Joan Armatrading, Sheryl Crow, Tracy Chapman, Wings, Bob Marley, Dolly Parton, Fleetwood Mac, Alanis Morissette, Robert Plant, Jolie Holland, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Proclaimers, Mozart, Barenaked Ladies, ….

And I enjoy silly cat videos.