MIND THE GAP!

New works by Jane Geore

When our dreams and reality part company how does hope prevail? Getting lost in the gap between the real and the imagined, how can new dreams form? This work makes a personal exploration through the heart aching journeys that life presents. It explores grief, loss, chaos, love and hope, arriving eventually at a brave new world.  Where is your gap and what magic still exists within your own darkest dread?

In October 2008 my family’s life changed forever when we received the shock news that my eldest daughter has an incredibly rare genetic syndrome called Smith Magenis Syndrome. I can only equate it to a bomb going off within our home! This exhibition charts the journey of these first 12 months since diagnosis.

It began as a search to find some peace within lost dreams and shattered hearts but ultimately it has brought me to a place of hope, new dreams and a clearer realisation of the true power of love.

Along the way I have been compelled to question my controlling spirit that so expected my dreamed of life to become my reality. How sure I was that those dreams would hold fast and my path would be unswerving! With eyes now opened, I have a continued realisation that we all receive some form of separation from our dreams, we all have to deal with a gap, no matter what that may be!

My new place of being is now built on a much firmer understanding of what really matters in life. Above all else it has been love that has pulled me through some terrible times.  My beautiful Tilly held onto my heart when all else crumbled around. Held together by a single thread of love we have found each other again within the darkness and we are reinventing a bright new normal together! Love is our song to sing on good days and our rock to cling to on tough days.

This exhibition is dedicated to Tilly, who is the magic and light in all our lives. I would take on SMS a million times over for my angel who remains always our inspiration, joy and sunshine. Secondly I would like to dedicate this work to my wonderful and eternally missed Dad, whose voice this year has returned to my heart many times, pulling me through the bleakest moments. And finally to my family and friends who have carried me when I fell and Poppy and Joe for daily blessings, laughter and spare calm for me to borrow!

“George & Grant” is a collaborative partnership between two

West Midlands based Textile Artists,

Jane George and Rachel Grant.

The work they create together explores their parallel journeys

of motherhood and how, through creative dialogue and support,

they can make sense of the issues facing them in relation to their

sense of self. Juggling desires, guilt, drama and passion in equal

measure, George and Grant have found common ground on which

they both stand as mothers.

To contact the artists:

GeorgeandGrant@groups.msn.com

The sisterhood image was drawn onto large scale textile panels and then text from mums and non mums were added to the relevant panels.

Mixed media drawing was added to symbolise various aspects of life with embryo details on the ‘Now’ mums panel.

 This is the front of the ‘Then’ panel featuring text from non mums. The gentle undulating rhythms of this panel eventually get sucked through the piece as do the female forms that twist and loose their shape as they travel towards the motherhood panel.

 This is the back of the ‘then’ panel. The line emerges as a washing line onto which the viewers hung their own responses to the original questionnaire.

Much of the text from the ‘Now’ panel was rich with emotion.

 Here are some images of the ‘now’ panel. The blue lines represent connecting lines that mothers have to their children.

 This is the back of the ‘Now’ panel as the impact of motherhood explodes through the panel.

This is my original proposal for this piece and goes some way to explain my thought process with more clarity.

Jane George. 

Cloth is My Canvas

Then and Now

At this present time, the commission opportunity ‘Cloth is My Canvas’ resonates with deep emotion for me.  The imagery of tenterframes across a landscape spoke immediately to me of a lost community of women. I am one of these women, stretched to my limits as the cloth. Likewise I too remain exposed, stretched and desperately trying to hold onto my own outline, my own shape, my own sense of self.  

This lost community is that of invisible mothers. Why ‘invisible’? In my experience the role is so traditional and natural it is at best overlooked by a society that holds mothers in very low esteem. To become mummy has meant at times becoming forgotten and floundering with no new sense of self.

With the birth of my much-loved daughters in 2006/7 I have been stretched to extremes in many ways. Physically, as a stomach rippled with stretch marks gives testimony to, but also emotionally as I have searched for a way to hold onto myself within the passions I feel for my children. I have found myself feeling buried in the mundane and at the same time overcome with protective obsessions and love so strong it scares! Is this state of anxiety and uneasiness normal, are we all quite literally living ‘on tenterhooks’?

The 2 panel piece I propose, entitled, ‘Then and Now’ will explore these issues. What experiences do other women have of being stretched to their limits? Where do women find support within today’s society? How do women hold onto a sense of who they are within their particular role in society?  It will aim to research, represent and contrast experiences from each side of the mothering divide providing a greater understanding for all and allowing those haunted by isolation to find a unified voice.

Sewn outlines of paper dolls, in rows, holding hands will form the basis of the piece. A traditional image that conjures combined memories of childhood craft activities, gingerbread family baking and also an adult sisterhood. These female forms will take both 2d and 3d form as the calm marks of ‘then’ morph into the crazier 3d scribble maze of ‘now’. This contrast in marks represents my memories of the calm pre-child days where I had time to think a thought as apposed to the whirlwind of the toddler days I find myself in now as children scribble like maniacs on every surface they can find!

Within this mass of female forms attached text will depict the varying experiences and realities of being stretched. The final piece will allow the audience to search for their own timeline as they scan text for pre and post baby experiences that resonate with familiarity. I hope the final piece will help validate my own and other women’s experiences and allow both myself and the audience to find solidarity and in turn a deeper and more secure sense of self.

If practicalities allow I would also love to include an element of audience participation to truly create a 2-way conversation. If the 2 panels could be placed close enough I would like the embroidery from 1 panel to travel through the air to the second panel creating a wired embroidery link. This would create in essence an umbilical cord washing line between the two halves!  Below a washing basket and pegs will allow viewers to add their own experiences to the piece. Pegging up experiences being the most apt final element of a piece created in a world where escaping the mundane has been the hugest challenge of all. Thank goodness I have amazing opportunities like this to explore and am not just left with the thought, ‘Just where did all this washing come from?

Here is my proposal for the piece Then and Now. A huge thank you to all the people helping me with my research I hope you find this of interest. If you are reading this, are female and would like to take part in the research for this piece then please contact me for a simple questionnaire.

Jane George. 

Cloth is My Canvas

Then and Now

At this present time, the commission opportunity ‘Cloth is My Canvas’ resonates with deep emotion for me.  The imagery of tenterframes across a landscape spoke immediately to me of a lost community of women. I am one of these women, stretched to my limits as the cloth. Likewise I too remain exposed, stretched and desperately trying to hold onto my own outline, my own shape, my own sense of self.  

This lost community is that of invisible mothers. Why ‘invisible’? In my experience the role is so traditional and natural it is at best overlooked by a society that holds mothers in very low esteem. To become mummy has meant at times becoming forgotten and floundering with no new sense of self.

With the birth of my much-loved daughters in 2006/7 I have been stretched to extremes in many ways. Physically, as a stomach rippled with stretch marks gives testimony to, but also emotionally as I have searched for a way to hold onto myself within the passions I feel for my children. I have found myself feeling buried in the mundane and at the same time overcome with protective obsessions and love so strong it scares! Is this state of anxiety and uneasiness normal, are we all quite literally living ‘on tenterhooks’?

The 2 panel piece I propose, entitled, ‘Then and Now’ will explore these issues. What experiences do other women have of being stretched to their limits? Where do women find support within today’s society? How do women hold onto a sense of who they are within their particular role in society?  It will aim to research, represent and contrast experiences from each side of the mothering divide providing a greater understanding for all and allowing those haunted by isolation to find a unified voice.

Sewn outlines of paper dolls, in rows, holding hands will form the basis of the piece. A traditional image that conjures combined memories of childhood craft activities, gingerbread family baking and also an adult sisterhood. These female forms will take both 2d and 3d form as the calm marks of ‘then’ morph into the crazier 3d scribble maze of ‘now’. This contrast in marks represents my memories of the calm pre-child days where I had time to think a thought as apposed to the whirlwind of the toddler days I find myself in now as children scribble like maniacs on every surface they can find!

Within this mass of female forms attached text will depict the varying experiences and realities of being stretched. The final piece will allow the audience to search for their own timeline as they scan text for pre and post baby experiences that resonate with familiarity. I hope the final piece will help validate my own and other women’s experiences and allow both myself and the audience to find solidarity and in turn a deeper and more secure sense of self.

If practicalities allow I would also love to include an element of audience participation to truly create a 2-way conversation. If the 2 panels could be placed close enough I would like the embroidery from 1 panel to travel through the air to the second panel creating a wired embroidery link. This would create in essence an umbilical cord washing line between the two halves!  Below a washing basket and pegs will allow viewers to add their own experiences to the piece. Pegging up experiences being the most apt final element of a piece created in a world where escaping the mundane has been the hugest challenge of all. Thank goodness I have amazing opportunities like this to explore and am not just left with the thought, ‘Just where did all this washing come from?’

 ’Making Sense’ at Bilston craft gallery  www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/bilston   is getting closer and my work for that is now becoming more and more intrigued with taking embroidery 3d, mark making in thread and a mixture of textiles and drawing. Am looking forward to this show with great anticipation, not least as it is a joint show with a great friend and fellow artist Rachel Grant . www.rachel-grant.com

A fun day where myself and 3 other Bvacians took part in a flash Mob exhibition in Birmingham. The date..16th August 2008, the 5 viewing stations…1.Birmingham High Street. 2. St Philips Grounds, 3. Victoria Square, 4. Centenary Square, 5. Oozels Square.

Reactions ranged from genuine interest, British embarrassment, bemused interest and drunken abuse! A great day though, thanks to all who said hello and came along to support us. Thanks also to Antonio Roberts, Nick Duxbury and Jo Mills, my partners in crime for the day. 

I had been commissioned by excellence in cities to participate in the cluster schools creativity week. the theme for the week was music and i was the only visual artist working alongside a number of musicians. My brief was a visual art piece about music that also combined all the schools artwork to create collaborative work. Oh and the challenge…each school needed a final piece to keep, meaning anything produced needed to be made 8 times, one for each school!

It just had to be a piece about disco music as for me this is a very visual musical era, with fashion and glitz playing as important a part as the music itself. prior to me going into the schools the students explored disco music and imagery, they designed disco outfits and gave individual responses to the music itself. This resulting text and their fashion drawings were printed onto acetate ready for inclusion in  the final pieces.

During the week itself i taught the students how to make mixed media paper. They created windows in paper which they filled with disco inspired sparkly elements, each school did a different colour. The very youngest children drew with disco coloured pulp to create multi-coloured disco paper and the older children created their own window shapes. All the resulting paper was combined to create a disco dance floor complete with disco ball, text and disco dancers.