1. Art

Fabelists

Tinsel Edwards

Luke Thompson

Nikki Schiro

Darren MacPherson

Katie Edwards

Matthew Lewis

Tamsin Relly

Nikki Pinder

Tahnee Lonsdale

Sophie Bancroft

Twinkle Troughton

Nina Winters

I Wish

By

Tinsel Edwards

‘I Wish’

THE EPITOME OF ECLECTIC - FABELIST TINSEL EDWARDS is an artist living and

working in East London. Since graduating from Art College her life has been measured

in a succession of artistic ventures, based from a range of studio spaces- a former

cinema in Hackney being one. She has exhibited in many different shows across the UK

and Europe, often in collaboration with her childhood friend and fellow Fabelist Twinkle

Troughton who, she also founded a record label with. In addition her CV boasts the

titles: sandwich maker, account manager in a publishing company, receptionist at a

hairdressers, waitress and, hamburger deliverer. Most recently she has added ‘mum’ to

this exstensive list as, she juggles her time spent working on a new series of paintings,

teaching, and doing creative workshops in schools, around caring for her little boy Elvi.

Here we give her the space to simply ‘Imagine’ and explore her hopes and fears as she

questions both herself and her new line of artistic practice.

…

“The image is a piece called: ‘I Wish’ which I finished in March of this year. It’s a motto

or mission statement outlining all of the things I want my artwork to be - and perhaps

the impossibility of that. For my first article for the Fabelist I wanted simply to

introduce myself, giving a background of who I am and what my work is about, ‘I wish’

sums it up quite concisely.

My most recent paintings explore the human condition. They are a series of portraits

that reveal the inner thoughts, fears and hopes of individuals, illustrating a snapshot of

our everyday concerns as a generation. The paintings use visual reference to generations

past, highlighting the transience and fragility of life. The aim is to reveal our current

concerns as individuals and show them in a context of the bigger picture of space and

time, to produce a collection of paintings that will be insightful and empowering.

When you consider your own day to day worries and fears in relation to the fears of

every person alive on this planet today, and every member of the human race past and

future, they really start to seem small. When your fears seem small it seems easier to go

and do the things that you want to do but were too scared to try. As individuals, we are

all in our own private internal worlds and can only connect with each other on a certain

level, the paintings attempt to transcend this.

The series started as a vague idea… I started out by taking to the streets with my camera,

taking snapshots of passers by, and trying to collect some of their thoughts by asking for

a hope and a fear, quickly scribbling it down in a notebook.

This wasn’t easy and felt quite intrusive! Plus I’m not sure how honest people can be in

that situation. Also, I did feel more than a bit daft. However, after a few trips out with

my camera I had a handful of images that I felt could possibly translate into paintings,

and some interesting quotes:

‘My biggest fear is failure, and my biggest hope is not to fail’

‘I AM a writer, but I binge drink and that gets in the way’

‘My biggest ambition is to be a writer, but I fear I will lose my sense of self’

‘I really hope for a nice wife, I fear the end of the world’

Parallel to the new ideas and development of this series on the conceptual side, I have

been massively changing and developing my painting technique. I had been using a

straight forward and illustrative style of painting which suited my ideas, but this had

started to feel limiting. I craved to develop a new style of painting. I am fascinated by the

materiality of the paint and its endless possibilities, and I wanted to explore this in my

work. So two years ago I packed away my acrylic and started using oils, it felt like

starting from the absolute beginning again!

I’ve been experimenting with the application of the paint, I’m exploring different ways

to make the paint convey the passage of time, mixing detailed and static brush work

with more contemporary loose and gestural marks. This series seems like a massive

leap from some of my previous paintings, it feels like a philosophical enquiry somehow,

emotive and even spiritual, and thus lends itself to a more painterly approach.

The portraits will be on display in the big duo show that myself and Twinkle Troughton

are planning. After two years of experimentation and about 10 paintings later (most of

which have been painted over or gone in the bin!) I still don’t feel that I have one

portrait that is ready to exhibit. I’ve got lots of worries about the series- ‘Is it too

obscure? There’s no humour? No one will know what I am on about! My work needs to

be more obvious, more concise and simple….What the hell am I doing?’ Nevertheless,

amongst all of this, I am holding on to the hope that these paintings will not only

communicate a thoughtful and valuable message, but will be the best I have ever done.

Notes from an ‘Exhibition’

By

Luke Thompson

MY NAME’S LUKE THOMPSON, recently graduated from Margaret Street University in Birmingham. Like many other cosily cocooned art students I’ve also just realized that I’m a real person. So these are the facts. What I have- a house in Birmingham. What I don’t have- money to pay the rent. What I might soon have to have- a bed back in with my parents. Not a great inventory as they go. So, this is the genuine article. A month in the life of an impoverished arts graduate and,

unfortunately, this isn’t a nostalgic memoir.

It was a promising start- doing designs for my own clothing company ‘2six Clothing’.

For our first line of T-shirts we’re collaborating with DJ’s such as ‘Harvest- an up and

coming drum and bass DJ. It’s been a challenge designing for a more commercial style,

but I’ve learnt loads from the experience. So far so good.

Then it came.

July 16th: My first post-grad ‘exhibition’. It was a market kind of affair with vintage

clothes, crafts and the like. The pub that was housing my work definitely had potential- I

could see some really nice Shepard Fairey, Blek Le Rat, Fail and Banksy- prints that is-

dotted about. Unfortunately, amongst all these, there wasn’t really anywhere to hang my

own work so, I had prop it round the bar. At least it wasn’t propping it up.

July 29th: Second ‘exhibition’ . A guerilla art event called ‘Preclusion’, set in The

Derelict Whitmarley Factory, Stirchley. This time I had no idea what to expect. I arrived

Friday morning with my friend and fellow artist, Mat Hunt. I hadn’t been in the ‘gallery’

before and, it turned out that it was basically a derelict warehouse. Harry the organizer

told me he’d had his eye on it for a while, so it must have had some curb appeal. In other

words, he’d noticed some squatters had moved in so, he thought he’d make use of the

space. It was one of the these hospitable squatters that, showed me around the place.

They’d really fixed it up a treat. They even had heating.

So, we started putting up our work, the warehouse looked like it used to be a factory

before its recent colonization, full of pipes and scaffolding. The work I’d brought down

was all oddly shaped, so I seized a spot for that had loads of angular corners and

intersecting metal bars. People kept asking me if I’d made it that shape to fit there, I

could have boasted intentional craftsmanship but, it was just one of those things.

I had to drill in the screws fixing the pieces to the wall myself. All the time I was drilling

I was wondering if there could be asbestos in the walls but, I’m still alive, so I guess not.

I found the edge of the painting lined up nicely with the scaffolding and, I left

a pipe running over one of the pieces to make it a bit more sculptural. Looks like it

wasn’t just DIY I was learning on this job though, in retrospect, that might have been

more of a money- spinner.

As it is, I haven’t found a job yet and, I may be losing my house and, I didn’t sell any

work at the shows. Not exactly your fairy tale ending. But then, I’m not in it to make a

quick million. At some point what I enjoy might make me something but -for now- I’m

content for my pockets to stay full of picture hooks, you never know when they might

come in handy.

Nostalgic Fruit

By

Nikki Schiro

‘Sick Home Quality’

‘Nostalgic Fruit’

’Lecherous’

August So Soon Comes Around

By

Darren MacPherson

‘No Art, No Money’

AUGUST SO SOON COMES AROUND. A month that conjures images of hazy sun-blest

evenings, holidays, children’s laughter; the part of summer that everything is fulsome

and whole. A beginning and an end.

August holds particular significance for me. My second daughter was gifted to us 3 years

ago this month. Her joviality and energy remind me of what it is to be a child, to be

carefree and full of life. Her birthday is on the 12th, on that same day in 1988 a young,

talented artist in Manhattan left this earth. That artist was Jean-Michel Basquiat.

This year has been a busy year for me. Exhibition has followed exhibition, from East

London to West, even to the London Underground. The remainder of the year is looking

equally as active. In September I’ll be jetting off to LA to take part in the FLAG STOP Art

Event with a number of my fellow artists from Debut Contemporary.

Crossing the pond for the first time (my artwork, not me) is a huge step and one I don’t

take lightly. When I learned I’d been selected by the FLAG STOP curators I gathered my

thoughts to focus on what to send. Two pieces, but which ones? A range of choices

sprang forth from my current series of female figurative works, yet I wanted to send

something fresh and new.

I had a canvas in my studio, a background I’d been working on and building up over the

last weeks but I hadn’t been able to find a satisfactory pose to lay over the background to

complete the piece. To guide me in my work, the walls of my studio host an array of

images - photos, sketches, magazine covers, newspaper clippings; that afternoon one in

particular stood out. A timeworn image from the cover of The New York Times

magazine, February 1988. From it, a besuited young artist stares confidently, defiantly

down at me. I knew this was the image to send to LA, Basquait.

Although I take inspiration from Basquiat the style and content is very different,

however there seems to be some symmetry in painting an interpretation of one of my

painting heroes, an iconic image that has pushed and pulled my painting technique and

sending it to represent me and my artwork to the USA.

It’s an amazing feeling to discover a new direction, a new way of looking at the world. As

an artist one must progress and push oneself all the time, you can’t stand still. In my

painting there is no such thing as stillness. So, exciting yet challenging times lie

ahead,.I’m embracing this new direction; taking tentative steps into the unknown like a

child making efforts to fit wooden shapes into their respective holes.

And as I sit and write, the rain falls, a chill in the air, a gloom in the sky seldom seen at

this time of year. Maybe the season has taken a new direction. Oh…and the second piece

I’m sending to LA…one of my favourite figurative works. Title? ’August So Soon Comes

Around’.

‘Autumn So Soon Comes Around’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haiku  By  

 

Katie  Edwards  

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pillow  on  the  wall  

Noah's  ark  in  pop-­sock  gauze  

 an  ovary  smiles.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quite The Coop

By

Matthew Lewis

‘Chicken Study’

I DECIDED TO LAUNCH my maiden voyage into the world of solo exhibitions by applying for

a scheme called ‘The Local’, at the newly renovated Fish Market Gallery in Northampton. The

opening season has seen many artists take over a space which, is dedicated to showing local art

by local people.

Having been successfully picked out of the hat, in the random selection process for the scheme,

the first thing I did was to investigate the space I had been allocated. I can’t deny I wasn’t

slightly daunted, although my gallery space was in an anteroom it faced out onto the huge

expanse of the main gallery. It’s a fantastically characterful building but, the work itself, can

very easily be overwhelmed as the eye is distracted by the impressive architecture.

I decided the best plan of action was to see how other artists had tackled the challenge. This

research definitely had an influence on the way I used the space. I realized that, since it was not

a conventional purpose built gallery space, I had to really make a statement in order to make it

uniquely my own.

I had already decided upon the pieces I would exhibit and so, it was a question of creating a real

sense of atmosphere to compliment the pervading theme. Since the paintings I had selected

were from my chicken series that, questions the boundaries between the human and animal

kingdoms and plays with the observer’s perspective. I wanted to create a sense of both observing

and, being within a chicken coop.

I covered the floor in straw and set up some crates and scaffolding poles, so that I could make

the space work with my exhibits. I wanted to draw the viewer’s eye through the display window,

at the front of the space, into a vibrant world of energetic colour within. I aimed to create a real

visual feast, for all the senses and to emphasize the transition of work from stand- alone pieces

into an installation piece.

It was a fantastic experience since, I was able follow through the whole creative process from the

first brushstroke to the packing up of the crates and straw-bales at the end of the exhibition’s

run- definitely in keeping with a rather unconventional start to my artistic career. All I can say is

watch this space….

The Centre Cannot Hold

By

Tamsin Relly

My Illustrated Mind

By

Nikki Pinder

Haruki Murakami:

A Journey From Book To Painting

By

Tahnee Lonsdale

‘The Kiss’

‘THEN THE SOUNDS CAME AGAIN. IT SOUNDED LIKE SOMEONE WINDING A

HUGE SPRING. WHO COULD BE WINDING A HUGE SPRING IN THE MIDDLE OF

THE NIGHT? NO, WAIT. IT WAS THE CRY OF A BIRD’.

I lie awake at night listening out for this cry. The hum of a passing bus echoes like the

sound of a spring through a forest. Night time revellers imitate the hard-edged sound of

the bird. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles has lured me in. I have fallen down Murakami’s

well and into his world I am stuck.

My story began in my second year of art school when I first started to paint. Intrigued by

the notion of ‘automatic drawing’ coined by the Surrealists, I allowed myself to work

spontaneously, charcoal lines forming text and strange characters. A story began to take

shape, and from here the journey had begun. These characters travelled from one painting

to the next, the same thread of narrative linking each painting to the one that followed. I

still have these same strange characters with me today.

So came my latest project...it all started with a commission from a gallery to take a piece of

literature that inspired me and create a visual artwork. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles was

an instant choice. I was drawn in by the poetry of his writing. His ability to take the

mundane and embroider the surreal into it, so delicately, that you never question its right

to be there.

Beginning this commission was exciting and refreshing. A clear mind, new material, an

impulsive urge to enter Murakami’s exquisite compositions.

Murakami gets into your mind, his characters seeps into your every being.

His Kafkaesque worlds are alarmingly sinister, and his characters are vessels in a surreal,

futuristic world, alienated and stricken to struggle through his convoluted narratives.

His stories are compelling, enchanting and intriguing.

When I had completed Wind-Up Bird (part 1 + 2) I moved onto another of his novels,

‘Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End Of The World’, a ‘science fiction, detective story

and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one’. The story splits into two, following one

man’s descent into a metaphysical underworld, whilst also living an existence in his own

seemingly idyllic mind. I created two pieces from this novel, ‘Bear Is My Only Comfort’,

took a mere three weeks, whereas

‘The Pool’ I am still struggling through. This is often the case with a series of paintings.

I didn’t set out to create a series of sinister works, but Murakami’s novels lend themselves

to the darker side. ‘I closed my eyes. The darkness behind my closed eyes was like the

cloud covered sky, but the grey was somewhat deeper’. As a result I use a lot of colour to

reset the balance. Colour is intrinsic to me, it is where a painting begins and from what I

build my worlds. Sometimes a palette will come naturally to me, but often I borrow from

others. Cy Twombly and Diebenkorn have been very useful to me in this respect.

When I start a painting I lose myself in creating a world that has never existed before, even

in my mind. It comes purely form something abstract and is then moulded into

existence.

If Murakami uncovers the surreal in the everyday, then I am creating the surreal in the

abstract. I am not sure how others would predict a Murakami novel to translate into

canvas, I wasn’t even sure how things would unfold myself when I started this project. It

appears the result has had as much as an effect on me as it has my canvas. Murakami’s

‘dislocated realities’ seem to have weaved themselves into the layers of my reality, and I

am somewhere between the top of a tree with a wind-up bird and the bottom of a starless

well.

‘Bear Is My Only Comfort’

‘Wind- Up Bird (part 1+2)’

‘The Pool’

A Degree Of Excessiveness

By

Sophie Bancroft

IMAGINATION. WE ALL HAVE ONE. Somewhere within the crevices of our minds and

the wells of our souls lies our greatest creative tool, force, weapon if you will. We might

not all utilise our own but we do all have one.

I use my imagination. In fact, often, I overuse mine. I feel like it’s constantly on the

move; whirring away like some demented hamster on a never ceasing wheel. The thing

just doesn’t stop. And I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing. It’s not, really it’s not. Most

of time it’s an incredible thing, an amazing thing, a thing that takes me to places I would

never have thought possible, a thing that I truly treasure. But sometimes, and just

sometimes, it can get me into a fair amount of trouble.

The trouble I refer to is simply interpreted as stubbornness. It could also be called far

stronger things (and has been) but I’d rather not reveal all my faults just yet.

In order to further the activity of my beloved imagination I chose to do a Fine Art

degree. I was there to learn and I was paying for it. Despite this, whenever an idea I felt

strongly about was pushed aside by a tutor, I fought it. More out of defensiveness than a

stand-offish nature.

As if to encourage this defensive stubbornness, I’ve had some bad luck when it comes to

art teachers. As a seven year old I was told by my class teacher not to decorate the titles

in my diary, whilst he seemed to wholly ignore the spelling mistake of every other word I

wrote: no to Art, yes to illiteracy. At 16 my GCSE art teacher was also my IT teacher:

strange for a school as large as mine and even weirder when he repeatedly attempted to

teach us basic sketching techniques with PowerPoint presentations. Despite this I still

did Art at college and my tutor was a delightful woman who told me repeatedly I’d never

get onto an Art degree straight from my A Levels: I got onto three. And so by the time I

reached university I was more than hoping my luck would change.

In the three years of my course I’ve had three main tutors. In my first year I was

experimenting with paints- my tutor was a sculpture and installation specialist. This was

no one’s intentional fault; he was simply assigned the top ten names on an

alphabetically ordered sheet. I still had hope my luck had changed. I would go to each of

my tutorials full of this hope and then find in each that most of this wispily quiffed

man’s opinions seriously differed from mine. At the time I would come out confused,

laughing with friends later that his dislike of my work must be due to his small man

syndrome. As an 18 year old I couldn’t help but feel I was always right, yet once the year

was over I could see the benefit this very talented man had actually had upon my

practice. I think he helped encourage me to think beyond just the flat canvas, to thin far

beyond just applying a flat mark to a flat surface. The influence of a mind that thinks in

3D was greatly beneficial to my work.

I view my second year as my epiphany. It was absolutely glorious. I feel that year to be

the most important artistically I’ve so far had. My incredible tutor stopped my attempts

at literal landscape painting in their tracks and told me I had to loosen up. From average

sized starter abstractions she made me leap to total wall encompassing canvases. This

wonderful small woman forced me at my ridiculous height to realise that I couldn’t be

afraid of scale; that, if anything, I should embrace it. I leapt artistically forward in such a

huge way and I am 100 per cent positive I could not have done so without my second

year tutor. So much so that, I begged for her to be my third year tutor. However, it was

not be. Instead, I was assigned my secondary tutor. This tall and slightly awkward man

knew my practice and, he had a vision for where it would go during my final year. The

problem was that as the year progressed it became more and more apparent that the

direction he saw for my work was not the same as the one my imagination saw. My

stubbornness was back off its sabbatical.

I paint large scale; colour filled, and naturally influenced abstractions. I have come to

term the work process ‘inspired abstraction’. I don’t see myself as a pure abstract or

pure process painter but take inspiration from both concepts whilst retaining a

landscape imagery undertone. My entire artistic education has led to these works and

for me the most important part of my practice is my work upon these images. For my

third year tutor however it was small, unintentional details that were the most engaging:

splatters upon the wall and floor that had been born from the paint excesses of my

canvases or the drips down the edge of my quarter pipe canvas stretcher that had seeped

from my intentional marks. I have always appreciated these elements of my work,

constantly focusing upon them when photographing my work, but I see them as part of

the whole rather than stand alone artistic imagery. My tutor thought the opposite.

Relations deteriorated to the point that, my last tutorial left me in floods. I felt as though

I had wasted three years. I felt as though my artistic free will was void because the

monstrous ‘he’ that ‘suggested’ ideas so contrary to my own was the same ‘he’ that would

form a third of the team marking my degree show.

However, after a wonderful emergency meeting with my second year tutor and the very

best Margy St has to offer, my imagination fired up. I thought back on three years of

artistic theory and a concept that had been repeatedly brought up in lectures: anything

is plausible in art if only you can suitably justify it. I had a chance to justify every single

decision I had made within my show in my final piece of theory.

And so I defended. I defended with several thousand words- more than double the

amount most other students had put into theirs. I reasoned why every piece in the show

was there and exactly why they were in the positions they were. I explained my every

motive. And yet,

in my feedback, I was told I needed to have considered my arrangements further, more

thoughtfully deleted the excess marks upon my back wall and removed my purely wall

based piece, the three paragraphs explaining why that piece was there seemingly

entirely overlooked.

I got a good degree and I’m very happy with it. But was I wrong to stick to my guns? Was

I wrong to believe in my imagination? After all was I not paying for the advice and

opinions of the tutor I repeatedly argued against? If I had followed his every whim and

teaching would I have got an even better degree?

I hold my imagination in very high esteem and, I hope it will take me far. It’s just right

now I just can’t decide whether its stubbornness is something to embrace or something I

really need to tame. To be continued...

‘Installation’- Sophie Dawkins

On The Surface Of Time Everything

Changes Underneath, Nothing Much Changes At All

By

Twinkle Troughton

Birgit with Sir Harry Nuttall

THE TITLE OF THIS PIECE OF WRITING is one of the main threads of thought that

runs through my work. The Human condition is at the heart of it; examining how

everyone can be dressed up in modern clothing and technology, but that internally we

are dealing with the same spiritual paths as those who walked this earth hundreds of

years ago.

For me, this explains the enduring popularity of the period novel and the reason that

authors such as Charles Dickens created work, which is now as poignant as ever. You

may not personally enjoy reading Dickens or indulging in a period drama on a Sunday

evening, but the fact that millions do, and that Dickens remains so talked about today,

means there is something within these tales that still strikes a chord with us now.

At the heart of many of these stories are love, the pursuit of happiness, ambition,

personal transformation, war, class and social constraints, and greed. My newest piece,

which I have been working on for the last few weeks, centres on an example of this idea

that grips me particularly strongly.

The subject of my new piece is Birgit Cunningham, an ex 'it' girl, and now a political

activist who is fighting a rather complex battle for justice for her eight year old son,

who's wealthy father won’t pay any interest in him emotionally or financially. Jack's

father is Sir Harry Nuttall (he became the third Baronet in 2007 when his father Sir

Nicholas Nuttall died) a man of wealth and blue blood heritage. Harry won’t see his son

and won’t pay any maintenance despite living in very plush surroundings in West

London with an expensive car on the drive, with the CSA managing to summon only

£5.40 a week in child maintenance from him for two years.

This £5.40 was then cut to £0.00 a week as neither Sir Harry's income or reported

£4million minimum inheritance could be traced by the CSA. Meanwhile Birgit and her

son Jack were housed in a modest-sized council flat, living on benefits.

Birgit, an intelligent and eloquent woman who I first heard on James O'Brien's show on

LBC Radio, has gained much notoriety in her own right, but at the heart of it lies a very

serious and heartfelt passionate motive to try and change the injustices of absent

parents, and their lack of responsibility towards their offspring. Including setting up

Babies for Justice, and with the CSA being one of her main focal points, Birgit has used

many means to tackle MPs (including an incident with an eclair), one of which led to

a fling with married Tory MP Lord Strathclyde.

However your opinions and thoughts on the fling lie, one thing was very clear to me

upon researching her story. Take away the modern day facade and you are left with a

story which has repeated itself through centuries and even has a whole room based on

'Royalty, Celebrity and Scandal' in the Regency section of the National Portrait Gallery.

One painting in the gallery that seems particularly relevant is that of Emma Hamilton.

Emma became Lady Hamilton through marriage, but during her marriage fell in love

with Lord Nelson and an affair followed. They had a baby and returned to England, and

the affair enhanced Nelson’s reputation as a romantic hero. However at Nelson’s death

he asked for the nation to help care for Emma and their daughter, but this was ignored

by the government and Emma died a pauper in France.

Whatever becomes of the male (normally the hounding is never as severe as the female

is subject to) the women nearly always get tarnished with the 'Scarlet lady' brush. Birgit

herself referred to 'feeling like a Dickensian girl, a dirty hooker who had lost self respect

after he had taken advantage' after the Strathclyde event. The very nature of our culture

here in Britain demonstrates a hunger to read about other people's sex lives, mistakes

made, and the scandal these cause, which, although fed by the media, is very real.

I did, however, want to give a platform to Birgit's colourful and pro-active life and to the

incredible perseverance that she has shown. I believe in Birgit’s cause, and so if there is

any further exposure I can give to this along the way, it will be a more than positive

outcome from the painting. There is so much more than the media will ever tell you

about these people and their stories and there is always so much more than our own

judgement will allow us to see. I found through her story I could create a scene which

embodies what it is I am so compelled by within my own work.

I am creating a piece on her which is going to combine imagery of her modern day

council flat with very strong references to the paintings I had seen from the 1800s on the

walls of the NPG. Birgit who is friends with designer Elizabeth Emanuel (designer of

Princess Di's wedding dress) was able to borrow an incredible costume piece for the

photo shoot for the painting and son Jack also donned a highway man's hat which is a

nod to his absent biological father and his very present godfather Adam Ant.

I don't think at any point I have wanted to try and victimise Birgit or take any stance on

the scandal which saw her fling flung all over the papers, as this wasn’t where my

interest lay, but what I did become fascinated in, as I do with so much of my work, was

the repetition through time; history repeating itself and injustices of a very similar

nature which are still being played out today. There is a lot of other symbolism used and

many layers also placed within the image but I am not going to give too much more

away here. Not just yet anyway!

And I also just wanted to give Jack one mention before this blog was finished, as he

himself it a very bright, intelligent and sensitive human being who was a joy to work

with. He was a true professional and worked really hard during this shoot!

Above And Beyond

By

Nina Winters

‘I WANT MY WORK TO MAKE PEOPLE DREAM, THINK, REALISE AND

HOPE. I WANT MY SCULPTURES TO MAKE PEOPLE REMEMBER

WHEN THEY FELT THEY COULD FLY, AND KNOW THAT THEY STILL

CAN’

I. REACH

"Reach" is a sculpture about never giving up - a dancer, reaching for the stars, reaching

for her dreams. (My inspiration for this piece was the need to discover and create a

symbol that would speak to many people about what we, as individuals need to

overcome to achieve greatness and fulfil our spirituality. I used an artist (a dancer) to

express the aesthetics of creativity and fulfilment. I usually finish off my pieces with a

smooth finish, but here I felt the loser method would be most appropriate.

II. ONE MO’ TIME

One Mo' Time is a sculpture about the passion and joy of a singer. She moves beyond

her body, sending her song into the world. My daughter is a singer and I wanted to

capture the passion that she exudes when she is performing.

III. EARTH PROTECTOR

Earth Protector is one of the trinity of Galactic Heroes. She moves quietly, the Earth

protected in her hand. She is a reminder that the problems of the world are not as big as

they seem. I wanted to tell people that "something can be done about it". We do not

need to be the effect of governments and media. We can be galactic in size and scope.

The influence for this piece came from Zuñiga, a Costa Rican artist who worked in

Mexico. I met him in NYC and he showed me his then work in progress of three

monumental women, young, middle aged and older, each carrying herself with

direction, dignity and purpose.