Part Three of Split opens this Friday, 20th June, 6-10pm, at Candid Arts Trust.
69 Turps + Mass artists will be exhibiting on the final stop of this touring show, which began in Wrexham and has travelled to London via Wigan where the show was well received.
Come along to view a curated exhibition of exciting contemporary artworks, including my painting For You and For Me (2024)
To celebrate International Women’s Day, I would like to thank all the women who were part of the two community outreach projects I have run in the last year – Mother Trees Connect The Forest and Togetherness.
Thank you to the women who partnered and collaborated with me to get the ideas off the ground and bring the projects to life 勺.
And, thank you to the wonderful women who participated in them and who brought positive energy, enthusiasm, and kindness to the project and made them feel meaningful and special 勺.
Here is a picture of the moment participants from Samphire’s Roma Healthy Lifestyles Club, run by Iveta Janova, received their copies of our book publication, Mother Trees Connect the Forest.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Let’s keep working together to make the world a more peaceful and safe place for all women and girls everywhere.
Tracing a tracing today. Such an absorbing process. Once the tracing is finished, I will cut out all the sections filled in blue and attach them to linen. I’ll then cut out the sections in linen.
Today, I have been listening to a song called Ma Lkit by Tunisian singer songwriter Emel Mathlouthi.
It is heartbreaking that the ceasefire was broken this morning, and already 60 civilians are reported to have been killed in Gaza.
This song makes me think about the individual lives lost in this conflict. The loss of each life is a loss to the whole world. It is appalling that civilians are being killed. The ceasefire must be reinstated.
Lyrics sourced from lyricstranslate.com
Ma Lkit/ I didn’t find
I didn’t find a place to walk on with my eyes closed
I didn’t find one friend who knows what to tell me
I didn’t find a sea wave , wave that sails me far away
I didn’t find talk to say my unsure opinion
I didn’t find something to explain, explain the meaning of what is happening
I didn’t find a melody that breaks, breaks human’s anger
I didn’t find my people
I didn’t find my family
I didn’t find rest
I didn’t find happiness
I didn’t find my way
I didn’t find a burning star that would set my feeling on fire
I didn’t find talk to express my unsure opinion
I didn’t find something to explain, explain the meaning of what is happening
I didn’t find a melody that breaks, breaks human’s anger
I didn’t find my people
I didn’t find my family
I didn’t find rest
I didn’t find happiness
I didn’t find my way
Here are the opening lines in Arabic
ما لقيت بلاصا نمشي نغمض فيها عينايا
ما لقيت صاحب و احد يعرف ما يرد علي
ما لقيت مو جة تبحر ، تبحر بي لبعيد
ما لقيت كلام نقو لو ا نعبر به راني حاير
ما لقيت حاخة تفسر ، تفسر معنى إلي صاير
ما لقيت لحن يكسر ، يكسر حقد الإنسان
ما لقيت ناسي
ما لقيت أهلي
ما لقيت راحة
ما لقيت فرحة
ما لقيت طر يقي ، ما لقيت ثنيتي
The translator comments on the difficulty of translating feelings. I’m not an Arabic speaker, but I find the words full of feeling and reading the translated lyrics whilst listening to the music stirs up deep emotions of sadness and frustration in me. As I return to my drawing, I am reminded of Philip Guston’s reflections during the Vietnam War in 1965:
“What kind of man am I sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything – and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue?” Philip Guston
The desperate and horrific situation in Gaza is impacting on my work. How could it not? Day and night, people are being killed and injured by Israeli airstrikes. No civilians should be harmed. The people of Gaza are trapped and without access to food, water, electricity, fuel, and medicine.
There needs to be a ceasefire.
https://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/campaign-with-oxfam/gaza-israel-crisis-sign-petition-call-for-ceasefire-now/ has launched a petition calling for one. Please sign it if you haven’t already.
I’m delighted to be part of @undertheirskin.exhibition Show 1, launching on 2nd September at One Paved Court Gallery in Richmond, London.
Address: 1 Paved Court, Richmond, TW9 1LZ
Opening Times: Wednesday – Sunday 12.00 – 5.00pm
Open until 7pm on Thursdays (Gallery closed Mon + Tues)
About the exhibition:
What lies beneath the skin of an artwork? What makes an artwork get under OUR skin?
This show invites you to consider what goes on beneath. The life of the work in this exhibition lies as much in the viewers’ perception of them as it does in the minds of the artists who created them. As a collective we ask our audience to observe, reflect and allow the works under their skin.
“The painting is not on a surface, but on a plane which is imagined. It moves in a mind. It is not there physically at all. It is an illusion, a piece of magic, so that what you see is not what you see.“
Philip Guston
Participating Artists:
Celebrating migration, the power of friendship, mothering and creativity, the project I have been leading, Mother Trees Connect The Forest, has provided a nurturing opportunity for two community groups, made up of refugee and migrant women and children living in Dover and Thanet to connect, have fun, and explore free expression through painting.
The title, Mother Trees Connect The Forest, is inspired by the work of ecologist Suzanne Simard who discovered how in nature different species of trees rely on each other and on networks of fungi, for nutrients and to communicate. This collaborative relationship helps forests thrive and regenerate, and is essential for creating a healthy ecosystem. Migration is central to human existence, and like humans trees also migrate. We all have a migration story to tell; migration shapes us, enriches our lives, and makes us who we are – as individuals, communities and nations.
The women and children participating in this project support each other through their networks of family and friendship. These networks of love and care not only benefit them in their individual lives as grandmothers, mothers, aunties, daughters and sons, siblings and friends but also their communities. We can add to this network the women who have worked together to deliver this project: Myself, Rosa, Elinor, Jan, Iveta, Pip and Sara– we are all the mother trees connecting the forest.
In just five painting workshops the creativity of the participant artists has blossomed. The subjects of their paintings are unique and varied, and give powerful insights into their makers’ lives. For example, a painting of an Afghan woman on her wedding day, who has had her wedding make-up done at a beauty salon, is made even more poignant with the news at the beginning of July that the Taliban has ordered the closure of beauty salons in Afghanistan. This follows the closure of girls’ secondary schools, the barring of women from universities, baths, gyms and parks and the Taliban’s decree women should dress in a way that only reveals their eyes. Female-run beauty salons in Afghanistan have provided a place for women to meet safely outside of the home and socialize.
Women’s lives matter. Women’s stories matter. All over the world, including in the UK, we can find examples of women’s freedoms being restricted. It is therefore more important than ever we uphold women’s rights and freedoms in the UK, and provide safe places for women from all backgrounds to meet each other, spend time together and assert our right to freedom of expression.
By Joy C Martindale (July 2023)
The project was supported by grant funding from Arts Council England and co-commissioned by Counterpoints Arts.
Project partners: Cliftonville Cultural Space, Beyond The Page ltd, Samphire, Rosamaria Kostic Cisneros.
Photos from Cliftonville Cultural Space and Dover Big Local copyright Joy C. Martindale
📣I am very happy to announce I have been awarded Arts Council England national lottery project grant funding and Counterpoints Arts grant support to launch a brand new participatory art-making project.
It has been a long journey to make it to this point, and I can’t wait to get started.
Mother Trees Connect The Forest will provide a nurturing opportunity for two community groups, made up of refugee and migrant women and children living in Dover and Thanet to connect through engaging in a bespoke participatory project. We will be celebrating migration and mothering, and exploring storytelling through painting, movement and poetry over seven workshops.
🌳Follow our journey on instagram www.instagram.com/joycmartindale: #mothertreesconnecttheforest🌳
Open call for an English speaking Roma arts practitioner, ideally of Slovak or Czech background (not essential), to deliver two storytelling sessions in person as part of a forthcoming community outreach, participatory artmaking project in southeast Kent. Roma storytellers from all backgrounds, including performers, dancers, writers, poets and musicians who use storytelling in their practice, are welcome to apply. This is a paid opportunity.
Mother Trees Connect the Forest will launch in February 2023 (Arts Council England grant funding depending). The participants will be Slovak and Czech Roma mums and their children who attend a community support group in Dover. Through conversation, story and paint, a series of artist-led artmaking workshops will provide an opportunity for participants to reflect on their own lived experiences. We will draw inspiration from Roma literature to explore telling our own stories Roma arts practitioner will join a workshop to deliver a storytelling session, working through their medium. The emphasis will be on promoting wellbeing and opening up a dialogue through spending time being creative together. We will share our discoveries with a public audience through a presentation, in conjunction with a further storytelling session for a community audience, at a public art gallery in Margate.
Mother Trees Connect the Forest is inspired by the work of ecologist, Suzanne Simard, whose work shows mother trees play a critical role in the survival of forests by channeling resources to seedlings. These trees are able to recognise and channel more resources to their own offspring when they are sick. Project outcomes will be shaped by the parallels that can be drawn between the life of the forest and the project’s themes, i.e. motherhood, collaboration between mother and child, harnessing talent, nurturing the creativity of the next generation, and exchanges of knowledge through art, writing and storytelling.
Spring/early summer of 2023 (dates to be confirmed). It is expected that the first session in Dover will take place on a Wednesday afternoon (4-6pm) in March and the second session, in Margate, will be in May or June.
Total Fee for each session: £192 (based on 3 hrs planning + 3hrs workshop delivery at £32 per hour) plus up to £100 contribution to travel expenses.
Interested applicants are invited to submit a 1 page CV (including a personal statement + links to websites/social media/ workshop recordings etc) and a statement of application (300 words max) by 10th February at the latest.
Your statement should include your narrative strategy and show how your ideas for the sessions connect with the project’s themes. Your application should also demonstrate your ability to provide an empowering, engaging and inspiring experience and involve the active participation of the audience groups. If your application is successful, you will be working in collaboration with the lead artist in the project to develop your proposal, and plan and deliver the sessions. Please specify whether you have an enhanced DBS check certificate.
Email contact for submissions and enquiries: joycmartindale@hotmail.com
10/02/2023 11:59pm (UK time) Don’t wait until the deadline to apply!
This is the companion piece to the work I showed in Material Presence Part 1 at Fitzrovia Gallery last week.
It is part of a larger body of work called Birds Are The Opposite of Time – a project I developed whilst listening to Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps (Quartet for The End of Time) by Olivier Messiaen. The work was composed in a prisoner of war camp in 1940 and was inspired by the Apocalypse as it is described in the Book of Revelation. The title, Birds are the Opposite of Time, is taken from Messiaen’s notes on part III of the work – Abyss of the Birds: ‘The Abyss, which is Time, with its sadness and weariness. The birds are the opposite of Time: they represent our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows and for jubilant song.’ Messiaen was a passionate ornithologist and in the same way he saw music and birds as being the opposite of time as it marks out the finiteness of life, I see artmaking as being the opposite. Painting is an expression of my inner life, which feels infinite in its formless constancy to my sense of being.
I am seeking to create a feeling of vitality and performance when I make a painting and I am driven by a sense of compulsion and necessity. Aspiring to develop new language I work in an exploratory way, learning as much from failures and mistakes as discoveries.
The Finissage of Material Presence Part 2 is today, 26th November, 12-5pm at Fitzrovia Gallery and the last day of the exhibition is tomorrow (10am-3pm)
The exhibition features paintings and sculpture by talented artists from the Turps Correspondence Course of 2021-2022
Material Presence
Fitzrovia Gallery
139 Whitfield St,
London
W1T 5EN
Birds Are The Opposite of Time (2022) by Joy C Martindale, Acrylic on paper
DM me for sales and exhibition enquiries
I’m really excited to be exhibiting in Material Presence, which opens today at Fitzrovia Gallery!
The exhibition features contemporary paintings and sculpture by talented artists from the Turps Correspondence Course of 2021-2022.
Fitzrovia Gallery
139 Whitfield St, London W1T 5EN
Part 1: 15th-20th November
Finissage 19th November 12-5pm
Part 2: 22nd-27th November
Finissage 26th November 12-5pm
For more exhibition information: www.instagram.com/materialpresence
Joy martindale 