April 2017 at Blaze, Bristol -- art by me and Lucy Roberts

One of the collages I've made specially for the show

If you're in Bristol in April 2017, please try to go and see my small art exhibition with Lucy Roberts. It's 'small' both in the size of the exhibition space and in the size of the pieces themselves, but it's embedded within a lovely art shop, Blaze, in Colston Street, and I hope it'll be worth a visit.

My work intermingled with Lucy's

Lucy got in touch with me via Instagram. My account is @foundandchosen. If you don't already use Instagram, I'd really recommend it -- it's obviously completely visual, which I love, and in my experience it's very friendly and positive. I feel as though I have lots of friends on there now and it's a great place to 'show and tell'. Lucy's Instagram account is @madebylucyroberts and she often showcases the beautiful memory boxes and other delightful things that she makes.

For my part, I've made some quirky collages, bright prints (including lots of alphabet prints), cards and one-offs. There's a Bristol theme to some of them, including a mixed-media picture of the park in the centre of Bristol in a blossom-filled spring and a vintage image of Rosie the Elephant at the Zoo.
     This is the 'calling card' we made to go in the shop window during the show:

I really enjoyed the afternoon I spent at Blaze with Lucy hanging the pictures. With David wielding the hammer (in a disappointingly traditional gender role), we soon got our 'hang' hung.Then there was just time for the two of us to get completely lost in the city centre, looking for our hotel, before we had to return to Blaze for drinks to celebrate the start of the month-long show. So if you're within hailing distance of Bristol, please do try to go.

'Killing with cake' -- my rather unsettling feminist collage...

Rosie the Elephant, alphabet prints and cards -- all for very reasonable prices!

Some of my work is also for sale in the Found and Chosen Etsy shop, and, after the show, there'll be more. You can also see some photos of my studio in a four-page article in the new edition of Uppercase magazine (no.33):

A family brought together again

Tony's original photos

When we were doing our Found and Chosen stall in Letchworth the other weekend, the best thing that happened (on what was a rather low-key rainy day, as it turned out), was that a gentleman called Tony stopped on the way past. He said he was just on the way to Prontoprint to see if they could do something with some old photos he had, but maybe I'd like to do it? He had seven photos in an envelope in his pocket.
     I said yes straight away without thinking about it too much and then I took down the details of what he wanted. The people in the photos were all siblings from the same family and one of them was coming up to a big birthday, so it was a question of putting them all into one picture to make a gift. He had clear ideas about what he wanted, which always helps.
     It was very satisfying using Photoshop to balance the pictures and then cut them out and piece them together. I'd love to do more work like this. And Tony seemed happy when I took his picture round to him.

I have his permission to blog about this but I don't want to put too many pictures up as it's his own affair, really. But I was delighted that the opportunity came up and glad I was in the right place at the right time.