Inspiration
Inspiration can come from anywhere and strike at any time!
My current source of inspiration hit quite a long time ago whilst helping my parents investigate our family tree.
How the rich and famous in the past lived and worked is well documented but it’s the lives of the poor ‘ordinary’ people that interested me, especially those struggling to survive and living in the shadow of the workhouse.
The workhouse was the precursor to the welfare state system. The workhouses of the mid-nineteenth century were both a place to fear and a place of hope and safety at the same time. To discourage people from being lazy workhouses were made to be harsh, austere environments and yet for those whose only other alternative was starvation and death, they gave food and shelter.
This concept of fear, shame and despair juxtaposed against hope and safety is what I’m trying to depict through my weaving.
To do this I’m using
colour theory; using colours to represent the emotions of the people
affected by the workhouse,
the architecture of surviving workhouse buildings;
giving both colours, shapes and textures,
Southwell Workhouse, Nottinghamshire
Birch Hill (Dearnley) Workhouse, Rochdale
words associated with living conditions and emotions of the poor
and those who ended up in the workhouse.
POVERTY SANCTUARY PAUPER RELIEF
SEPARATION HOPE INMATE FAMILY
All these elements are coming together in my sketchbook
Artwork showing how the emotions associated with the workhouse (represented by various colours)
filters through to all aspects of life
The clock tower at Northwich Workhouse
The slats in the clock tower inspired these paper pleats, the colours come from the palette picked from the image above
This in turn is feeding into my weaving
Doubleweave pleats and colour blocks on stone coloured background inpsired by the slats in the clocktower at Northwich Workhouse. The blue has been used to both represent the colour of the clock face and the emotions of sadness and depression.
Funny where inspiration can come from and where it takes you!
