Little Deaths - Diagram 1 - CORDELIA OPHELIA

Introducing the first diagram in the series

Little Deaths

Cordelia Ophelia

You know that thing that people say when you are going away, 

'can you hide me in your suitcase?'

Well with Cordelia, I do that for real. I made her in 2010 and she has generously transformed in every space and way I show her, she is a constantly evolving person as we all are. I take a sincere pleasure in treating her like a real person, she has sat in chairs, hung from the ceiling, she wept tears of chandeliers, she has hung out and conversed with my other embroidered loves, she has flown like a kite, grown wings and most recently she has had a bath.

In Mexico she became covered in black smoke from the oil lamps.

It was mournful for a moment, until, as in our lives, tragedies become opportunities....


...........and again, like art imitating life, the images look as though she is drowning in smoke....

      

Gem & Bolt - Chemistry in Mexico

I was honoured to be part of the launch of the mystical lifestyle brand Gem & Bolt.

Its founders are a trilogy of women, Adrinadrina, Elliott Coon and Pamala Bishop. All with whom I have worked alongside, collaborated with and generally rubbed and plaited souls with. 

Together they united a whole team of creators and let me tell you, I felt like I was surrounded by 

hi-brid humans. So much inspiration, each person with a unique field that had been plowed and seeds sewn over many years, to make ideas so solid and formed yet still evolving and growing fast, so you could almost feel the force of the flux. 

I took my tulle pieces and  placed them in the natural stretchers of palm trees in the jungle , it was always my intention that these pieces would collaborate with their surroundings and being outside at the mercy of the sun and the moon and the ever whirling wind meant that they were consistently animated. 

Working around these people in those surroundings was mind-blowingly ideal, sewing was such an effortless joy, working was the best thing I could be doing and that was not all, there was the glitterbomb arrival of Mariaflora with a sack of ΣΟΜΦ spilling out to all and every, making everyone feel the edge of fancy. 
Some serious singing and sunsplashed thigh slapping going on in the back of the truck with our hair flapping around like happy puppy ears, it was in that same truck bed that Pamala Bishop got kissed by a frenchman sitting on the plinth of the spare tire, much to the delighted screams of us all. Booty bounce classes by the fabulous in- house DJ  monsieur Frank, aiming to hear your buttcheeks clap. 
Technicolour talks at papaya playa, wind so strong that our flesh was going all g-forcey making everything feel like it was happening doublspeed, my skirt, more often than not, in the air. 
Seeing an old man being pulled along on a skateboard by a dog. 
Getting massaged constantly by strangers. Snuggling up with P and M  to slumber who somehow bridged the gap between my sweet little soft Nova and my nice warm boyfriend and quelled the longing of their absense. 
Morning breakfasts made by our sweet ladyboy, Umberto, dinners at Hartwood! Ceviche! Scorpion Tequila! Pre-meal meditation by the sea! 
Reflexology under the intense white light of the sad-lady moon and after Jessica Lutz ran her fingers through my hair and cracked my head like and egg, out flowed the congealed yoke of unfertilised discontent. 
With this renewal, I feel so incredibly refreshed and focused and ready and actively making some changes as I admit I have been lonely in my worklife for too long now.

I want to go again, since I have returned I keep thinking of different ways I could have worked with the space, maybe my embracement of it was still a little shy, considering the wily contrast to the gallery setting I delight to escape, but am inherently more familliar with. 

I feel quite sure I will get my chance.

Work Shots

Some Post Show Doodles

Show at Fred & Fran - Art for the Eye and Art for the Belly

I have some work up at my favourite cafe!

Fred & Fran

55 Kynaston Road

N16 0EB

Demelza Donohoo is my favourite chef in the world, I always feel healed and loved after eating her creations.

So come for some art for the eye and art for the belly!

xxxxx

Ps It is closed on tuesday, but open every other day

The Wedding Invitation of Lauren Hart and Paul Lamey

So I eagerly waved my hand in the air when Lauren and Paul suggested I might do something creative for their wedding and suggested that I do a picture for their invitations.

I realised that it has never been more vital than this moment that I do a distinct likeness, to be honest I have always given myself artistic leaway and it usually works out ok and I get a close enough likeness, but it would have been pretty weird if they just looked like a couple of randoms. 

To be honest I felt the pressure and I fannied around until there was no time left to fanny around anymore and then i just sewed and sewed until my eyes went crossed.

I thought i might share some of the process with you since it wasn't smooth riding, (I started Pauls face three times!) but in the end the solution seemed like a perfect journeys end and I think everyone was smiling and pleased.

(PS. I have just discovered animated gifs an think you may be seeing alot of them from now on) 

Drawings and First Stages

aka toe-dipping

The many Harts of Lauren

Some for Fun

Lauren as a tortoiseshell cat, Lauren and Paul dreaming of a nice council flat, good Lauren and naughty Lauren whispering in Pauls ear.

and the

Grande Finale

And as if things hadn't already gotten silly enough,

I was compelled to make this!

Artlessness and Quickfixation

This is a some footage I made in California in the summer as part of the Meta Residency and have just put together on youtube video editor, it is the first time I have used it and it is ok. I would like to be able to play with the timing more and work with the audio a lot more elaborately (I had to pick from their library of music, I couldn't even select silence!)

But... I think it is Ok so far and at least I can share it.

So here is the first video diagram in the manual I am compiling : 

'Quick Fixes'

And like so often, I need to take my own advice....

I have been a bit artless, let things landslide off the table, 

spending so much time navigating through the invisible world of possibility and impossibility.

Let loves down by being invisible.

But the friction of boredom and fast sprouting energy

and the intangible and the tangible start to merge, my sketches and plans appear in the everyday.

layered like a lovely projection on the real, arrows pointing excitedly and bowed lines connecting things

circles surrounding things to say 'ohhhh Yes'. Alliterative Titles next to things in Bold capitals, in Bold boxes. 

Don't get me wrong, I have been laughing, I have been cooking, I have been mothering, I have been lovering,

I have been singing and dancing and swimming in the sea and giving shoulder rides and cebebrating.

But I have also been a little hidden, slothy and blurred.

Time to wake up.

Pass the Glitter....

 

OPEN HOUSE

 

Dear Art lover!

After the show at the Hospital club, I now have a house full of art! So I thought I would make the most of it and show it off a bit.

So drop in!
There will be mulled wine flowing and filling the air with its hypnotic flavour.
Nibbles, until all nibbled.
A few spontaneous singsongs.
Walls filled with my work
all within the comfort of my lovely little home.

All welcome.

Look forward to seeing you!

x Louise Riley

ps. there are lots of fun things to do close by also so make a day of it!:

There is The Lee Valley Icerink 10 minutes down the road.
A lovely walk can be had at Wathamstow Marshes and along the River Lee.
There is the famous Chatsworth Road Saturday Market and there is a Santas Grotto and Christmas market a short bus ride away at St John-at-Hackney Church Gardens London E5 0PD.

ps. I will be selling prints and there will be an option to buy the more major works in installments as low as £40 a month! so you could have one of my mega embroideries in your home! yahooo!

The Culmination of Creation- Last chance people!

Hey Loves!

This show is coming down on Saturday!

If you want to see it this is your last chance!

24 Endell St, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9HQ

The Triptych I created in the window over the last month, 

Spacescape, Landscape, Cellscape. 

Altogether they make up:

'A Diorama of Creation From Scale 1-∞'

I feel quite emotional seeing them altogether, it has been quite the sewing marathon and stretching them up for the last part of the exhibition where the are displayed as a diorama was joyful, peaceful, liberating and sad all at the same time. I feel most drawn to the mountain, I just want to dive in that lake, feel the cool slippery water pass over me, swim to the otherside, walk through the forest and smell that damp piney smell and then climb that mountain. I want in. 

They are each 94" x 72", 

they can collaborate with the world and eachother, with light and shadow. 

When I lay the landscape over the spacescape it is instantly a nightscape:

 

I LOVE THAT

Below are the pieces in the other windows, you can see the difference by night and by day, 

ever evolving in a slightly wonky cycle.

This is the best shot I got by night, there will be better ones when I take it all out, the window is so reflective it is challenging to photograph. 

 Over and out. xx