My project ‘Active Matter ‘ was inspired by physics, the science of matter and energy. These works arose from research into Karen Barad’s philosophy of ‘Agential Realism’. She proposes that all bodies, including the human body, are indeterminate, without boundaries, constantly exchanging particles and energy with our surroundings.

https://www.stevecussons.co.uk/

Instagram:@stevecussons

Plant blindness is our inability to see or notice the plants around us, yet plants provide us with the food we eat and the oxygen that we breathe, within my work I try to graphically convey some of the threats faced by plants and give them a voice.

Website www.floremis.com

My now concluded Stage 3 work exists in the expanded field of drawing, engaging a wide range of methods which include photographic and digital processes. It also employs instructional methods to solicit participation. With it, I explore ideas of closeness, distance and contact while questioning what form the archive of a site might take.

IG: @draw___lena

https://close-open.net/

• Title: 'Hong Kong Tram' Hong Kong is a dynamic and energetic urban jungle and the Hong Kong Tram (Ding Ding) is an iconic figure on the island’s city streets. The trams started running in 1904 and they connect the East side of Hong Kong Island to the West side, a 13km route. Today there are 165 tramcars in operation and watching one go by always puts a smile on my face.

• Title: ’The Body as Place’ This fabric torso forms part of my Level 3 exploration of place, and my belonging within it. The body is our archive of memories and experiences, and becomes a place of its own. Using photo transfers, mono printing, and stitching, I make intuitive marks exploring this unique place. 

• What would happen if humanity got whipped out due to nuclear war. Would nature reclaim? This video was made for Creative arts 2.1. It was inspired by the short story Growth by William Meikle, with a flowery twist. 

“I’m enjoying expanding the range of materials and styles that I use as part of my illustration practice and these three works are some of my more successful attempts at responding to the briefs set by the course.”

Walking along the periphery of my local area it struck me how the omnipresent security fences and cameras give the place a distinct hostile feel.

An unwelcoming space that made me feel fenced in and shut out simultaneously.

It screamed metaphors of the current socio-political state of the UK, for those marginalised, especially immigrants.

Title: ‘Interface’. This Zine explores my relationship to digital culture, which remains uneasy and unresolved. Whilst viewing an image of myself on an iPad, I became intrigued by the pattern of fingerprints on the screen and the strange sensation this evoked of existing simultaneously on both sides of the glass. 

Interface Zine view here 

I made this website for my first degree unit, Creative Arts 1.1.  The archive consists of an alphabet of creative responses to the domestic space of the kitchen, along with information, trivia and my own personal musings. Find the archive at https://kitchenarchive.webador.co.uk 

For unit 2.1 I have been working with the themes 'networks' and 'environment' studying the networks and systems that run both above my head and below my feet. I have researched the pollution caused by the textile industry, networks and communication and the mycorrhizal network underground and considered the possibility that fungi may be able to fix the environmental damage caused by the textile industry. My work is interdisciplinary, and these three pieces provide a good overview of the range of my work for this unit. youtu.be/1NLEk29XvjY 

I am interested in mundane features in the urban landscape and I started experimenting with clay and plaster casts. This sculpture is made from fired clay impressions of Chinese manhole covers. The clay was rolled over the manhole, left to dry in the studio a little then cut to shape and draped over moulds to create undulation. The components were then fired in a kiln. The circle design is intended to suggest the Chinese circle/symbol of eternity and centre of the earth, while the framed wooden background is painted to suggest an urban street. 

Koala in charcoal - filled page full with charcoal then just using a rubber rubbed out the marks to form a koala bear

Cassowary Bird - Using pastels on black paper and white pen to add extra light details

Flamingos - Paper art creating a scene of mother and baby in a hidden lagoon

my website: www.paperpawtraits.co.uk

Difficulty putting words to feelings is a common trait. Caring for my dad, handstitch became my practice. The imaginary figures, how I feel in my body, that I try to put words to, are transformed in stitch.

'The Fragile Oak Archive' was created as a response to the accidental importing of the Oak Processionary Moth in 2006.  The caterpillars of this moth pose a threat to the survival of oak trees in the UK and the installation aims to archive the history of how man has interacted with the oak tree through history.

When I recorded this I was contemplating my sister who was dying after a long hard battle with cancer...and when I listen to the music I feel something of the awful inevitability of that. When you press play the die is cast. It is already written. I call it "Ode to Kate" and it was inspired by the 1958 poem "Like Attracts Like" by Emmett Williams.

Layers of Place A reaction to Place and Time.

Background collaged location studies and textural rubbing, layered together creating a disjointed abstraction which captures my personal experience of place with ADHD and sensory overwhelm. 

Layered ontop is a selection of words relating to the history of the location including the Gin Pit explosion, historical names and current use.

From Project 03 of Unit 1.1-Experimenting with Text and Image: I took a picture of this pineapple when I was travelling in Brazil. I like how adding text can create different contexts. This is a modified version of the one posted on my blog. Many people struggled to identify why I called it "lovers," as pineapples surrounded the pineapple, so I did some collage and some digital editing to make the pineapple(s) stand out.

Piercing eyes- [Watercolour and pens] -Diana Ali Workshop-Using time practically

I have been playing with portraits and have been struggling to draw eyes. I chose this work because the session was really fun and it helped me engage with my work in a different way while working with others. I am very happy with the end result. 

The Frog [photograph]  Unit 1.1 Project 8-Creative Archive

Part of a collection of images depicting found objects in Walthamstow. These objects represent Walthamstow and are part of my archive questioning what creates a sense of place and belonging as a foreigner. 

Maira Mariani, BA Creative Arts 1 

My Sciatica Picnic Installation combines six sculptures and a performance piece. It explores my experience with a chronic back condition, and the medication, restriction, necessary adaptation and opportunity this has brought into my life. Created from my waste medication packaging and household items.

Sarah Toraven 2022

My derive of my home town from Project 2 took me back to the coal mining days where our streets were cleaner, our doors could be left open with no fear of drug addicts breaking in desperate to get some pennies for their next fix.  I agree that coal mining was not good for our environment, but I now think drug addiction and problems with mental health are a bigger killer in today’s world which I am now moving on to.  

A selection from my monprinting sessions in my printmaking course.

Drawing for inspiration, exploring stitching on fabric and paper, experimenting with yarn and many other discoveries and eye-openers in A Textiles Vocabulary (Stage 1) that has given me plenty of ideas to apply to my art quilts that I hope to be working on in the next stage of the OCA course. 

The paintings I am presenting here are part of a series of works created for the Practice of Painting unit in BA (Hons) Creative Arts in 2022. I focus on our relationship with nature as indissociable co-creators of life. I bring elements of nature into my work and offer an intimate point of view as a reminder of the critical role of nature for life in all its forms.

1. Landscape of the Mind II (2022), mixed media on canvas 100cm x 60cm

2. Landscape of the Mind IV (2022), mixed media on canvas 75cm x 60cm 

2. Book of Land (2022), mixed media on paper 59.4cm x 42cm

I'm currently studying on the Illustration BA pathway just starting Level II, having done level 1 core concepts, printmaking and sketchbooks.

captions : 

SB_01.png (Illustration Sketchbooks, storyboard sequence exercise from a movie : They Live.

SB_02.png (Illustration level II : Mixing and Matching process, digital colouring of a sketch)

SB_03.png (Illustration level II : Developing your drawing, pen and ink study)

My archive for Unit 1.1 Experience Creative Arts “Why can’t you have your cake AND eat it?!!”

Pethullis, Y. External Journeying (2022) Plastic and Acrylic. 35cm x 35cm x 17cm

Details - This piece is taken from Part 3 and is part of my '28 Series' 

My Body of Work project was centred on the 28 days of the second lockdown. As the world was in turmoil and our lives were disrupted our everyday became smaller and more insular. Without outside influences we repeated our daily routines in a restricted environment, for me this brought a mundane routine that motivated me to find the interesting within the everyday. 

As we were encouraged to stay in our own environment, we had feelings of entrapment and being boxed in. This work maps the external journey I took each day of lockdown, the 28 plastic pieces reference the routes and are encased in an acrylic box to replicate the containment felt during lockdown. 

This is the final drawing in a series I produced over a 10 hour session in which I drew the moon phases backwards from the day of drawing (02/05/2022). I wanted to see what effects this meditative repetition had on my sense of time, thought process and how I represented information.