News – Jennifer Weston

Space to pause and ruminate

The Stephen Joseph Theatre Artists Bursary News

Artist’s Bursary Jul. 21

I am delighted to be the recipient of one of six artists awarded a cash bursary by The Stephen Joseph Theatre. Scarborough, North Yorkshire, UK.

The SJT Artist Bursaries were offered through the Scarborough Creatives group to allow artists to spend time creating, learning, planning or developing . The scheme is a partnership initiated by the SJT, in association with Scarborough Creatives, and supported and administered by SJT Associate Company, ARCADE.

The money means I can pay for the many costs associated with having an arts practise. The bursary will allow me to develop a new body of work and scale up images to exhibit in larger gallery spaces.

Geli Plate December 21

I have purchased a lovely new geli plate. I’ve not used one before but am looking forward to transferring photographs to print. And of course playing with some mono printing. However, that is on hold at the moment as there is some other big news. I am excited to say I am moving studios. So this moment is taken in packing the useful, re-purposing the unused and acquiring storage furniture. All of my studio furniture is second hand and upcycled. Currently mid-grey and teal chalk paint has been favoured as a way of covering the chips, stains and ink marks. I found some ‘Tuff Stuff’ by Frenchchic chalk paint range. It is an environmentally friendly water based sealant and works a treat.

New Screen prints September 21

The very talented Yorkshire artist Adam King invited me back to his studio for round two of printmaking. This time, with the screens coated each side and thoroughly dry, we exposed the image and carefully washed the screen making sure the medium did not peel away as it did last time. I mixed printing medium with acrylic paint to an Old Navy colour and carefully applied to the screen. This time we had a good success with the first two images. The other two images included more grey scale which translated poorly on the screen.

The next step is to manipulate the image to gain deeper contrast of hue. once accomplished then back to further printing.

Adventures in Screen Printing August 21

I have enlisted the help of prolific Yorkshire artist and University Lecturer Adam King. Adam is a local art force, he has been painting for over thirty years with many exhibitions and residencies throughout Yorkshire. As were both students at Harrogate College of Arts many years ago, we have many shared memories and friends from those fun filled times.

I planned a few days with him in his studio to screen print some new images.

Adam and I had our first attempt at screen printing. Photo transfer for screen printing is a series of processes from which there is a large margin for error. I think this morning we made all the errors we could in the first stages of this process.

Not enough medium on the screen, not leaving it long enough to dry, not exposing the image for long enough. Needless to say, we made a good old mess and I left with no images. However. we did learn what not to do and Adam had the foresight to call the manufacturer and ask for more precise instruction. So, the screen needed to be coated both front and back… who knew? This was news to both of us; new chemical new process, but Adam persevered to create a positive result with one of his iconic face images.

A visit to Artisan Frames

Part of the bursary money will be spent on enlarging some digital images. So, my fist task is to visit Maria Bennett at her shop Artisan Frames in Thornton le Dale. I have known Maria for many years now and we have collaborated on a number of occasions. She has an eye for colour and I admire Maria’s ability to enhance an image with her precision framing and attention to detail. It seemed only right to ask her to enlarge and frame my first digital image. It was gratifying to see that in reproducing the digital image on paper none of the marks were lost and it did not descend into a dribbley, pixely mess.

The De Mowbray Songbook Exhibition at Rural Arts August 21

The digital image shown below was produced in a repose to an artists call out by Benjamin Ellin. It is part of a fascinating collaborative project between Yorkshire artists and conductor/composer Benjamin Ellin. Ben composed a series of musical tracks and then asked for an artistic response from visual artists.
The De Mowbray Song book exhibition will be held at the Courthouse Gallery Rural Arts, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, between 10th-15th August 2021.

The exhibition went very well and the accompanying book is delicious.

I asked for track no 1 and was presented with a entirely unique sound that I did not expect. It was fascinating and after a couple of listens to the 6+ minutes of sound track I decided digital and abstract was the way to express my feelings about the music. The image created (see below) is called ‘The Dreaming’, and is a spontaneous response to Ben’s composition.

Writing and musings

By Jennifer Weston from December 2020

This opening blog post is the last essay for the excellent Edx course Writing for Social Justice. As I live in a farming area, this topic is close to my heart.

A big thank you to Maggie Sokolik, Director of Writing at the University of California, Berkeley for your calm and informative instruction.

Food production and waste

Food is a fundamental to everyone’s life. Healthy food is a human right not everyone has access to. We know that the world is facing a food crisis that threatens lives and livelihoods around the globe. The population has risen in the past 10 years but the area of arable land use has only risen by 2%. This has been managed by the 30% increase of pesticides globally (Statistical year book, 2020). Spraying the crops with pesticides obviously increase yields, but is this the best way to farm? If land use has not increased but yields have then obviously, we need to use more land in the future to feed a growing population. Then there will be the tipping point; the classic ‘tragedy of the commons’ where we have more mouths to feed than land to grow food. Something will have to be done. Either curb the population growth or find sustainable ways of producing more food.

Perhaps we can open our minds to what items constitute food. We eat a lot of the same foods. 50% of the global crops are rice, wheat, maize and sugar cane (Statistical year book, 2020). A lot of our food producing land is designated for animal pasture. Some of this acreage could be converted into arable farm land. Consequently, if less animals were farmed then more people would choose to eat vegetable-based meals more often. However, changing our habits further and eating a vegan diet could be the single biggest way to reduce our environmental impact on the earth as recommended by an Oxford University study (World Economic Forum 2020).

If the world’s population expands to 10 billion by 2050 as projected, the world will need to produce 70% more food. The necessary upturn in agriculture and deforestation would result in a catastrophic increase in greenhouse gas pollution.

However, cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by up to 73% due to the methane produced by cattle.

To feed more than 10 billion people within our planetary boundaries by 2050, while ending hunger and tackling unhealthy diets, we will have to fundamentally change the food system, requiring co-ordinated and large-scale action by all stakeholders across multiple axes (World Economic Forum 2020).

I would like to suggest small steps that lead to wide-spread change that can be implemented in the following ways:

Eating a vegan diet as previously mentioned. Any changes to a more plant-based diet can help here. Eating meat free 3 time a week is a reasonable start.

Why not try widening your palate to enjoy different edible plants that have been ingested throughout history. Many people have been embracing foraging the hedgerows for nutritious edible plants that are usually overlooked as ‘weeds.’ The obvious plants are blackberries and quince, which have been used for centuries to make delicious preserves. With a bit of local knowledge and a good guide book, wild edible plants can be a great addition to the menu (Foraged Foods 2020).

Experts have been exploring new foods to reduce the environmental impact of intensive farming. 50 new plant-based foods have been identified including algae and cacti. There are also new initiatives based on farming insects (The Insect Farm 2020). I hear they are delicious!

Some urban spaces have been transformed into community vegetable gardens by green fingered locals, who grow herbs and plant fruit trees for everyone to pick and enjoy. This radical act of sharing ensures both the land and people are cared for.

Much has been said about food waste and it’s contribution to global hunger. It links again to the tragedy of the commons model. Food that is thoughtlessly thrown away could be a sustaining meal for someone else.

We must change out behaviours and see all food as important. If you have an excess then sell or share it. We can longer let food rot in the ground whilst others starve. Arable land shortage is very real in areas of growing population. We should no longer buy more food than we eat and have it wasted. Be the change you want to see.

Reference:

Statistical Yearbook World Food and Agriculture 2020 (fao.org)

In Focus | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)

Wild Plants & Herbs | Foraged Foods

Home | The Insect Farm