Hello! As you may or may not know, my day job is being a super-wonder art technician at Waltham Forest College School of Arts. We’ve got a few end of year shows coming up, kicking off with ‘Spectrum’, for Adult Learners Week. Information below…

“Members of the public are invited to bring along unwanted items to be placed in colour-order to create a three-dimensional spectrum installation. Each object should be of one colour only and can include discarded items and ’found objects’ such as broken toys and products, plastic pieces, bottles, pots, packaging, clothing, shoes etc., anything that is non-valuable. Items should be donated during the open hours of the exhibition (10am-4pm), and so the installation will grow bigger each day.

This event will also showcase the creative talents of emerging artists and fashion designers – adult learners who are studying at Waltham Forest College on the Higher National Certificate (HNC) and BTEC Foundation & NCFE Portfolio Preparation Art and Design programmes as well as those on the HNC/HND Fashion and Textiles course.”

For more information please visit Waltham Forest College online.

News slice number one is I’m currently working on an illustration for Videogram TV, a collaboration which will eventually see my illustration animated and used in a music video for singer/songwriter Simon Lord (formerly of Simian, currently touring with Robyn Hitchcock). Here’s Simon’s newly released single, ‘Better’, filmed and directed by Jon Shore of Videogram. Love the grade on this video, sensitive and beautiful!

Next up, I’m bringing two exhibitions to The Winns Gallery in Lloyds Park, Walthamstow, running back-to-back in the first two weeks of July 2013. First up is Once Upon Again, an exhibition brought to you by the Pack of Wolves collective (I’m a wolf!), curated by Layla Holzer and Spike Dennis. The show debuted at Milkwood Gallery in Cardiff at the end of February this year. The exhibition takes inspiration from folk and fairy tales, retelling them in their original style, dark, sexy and cautionary, as they were originally intended, before being sanitised for mass-production.

Busy times at Milkwood Gallery for Once Upon Again private view

The second exhibition is one you’ll be familiar with – my travelling Mail Art collection! Yep, it’s back, having travelled around the country, picking up tons more art on its way. This will be the last time you can see the collection in the UK as I will be sending it far, far away to another land in the not-too-distant future. I’m super excited to have the mail art collection back with all the new additions. I intend to catalogue it all online before I send it away.

Check back here soon for more news of the upcoming exhibitions.

Once Upon Again

27 February – 9 March 2013

Exhibition Launch: 2 March 2013

Join us at Milkwood Gallery on Saturday the 2 March 2013 for an evening of live music and puppet shows. Entertainment will include shadow puppetry and a Punch and Judy show.

The Pack of Wolves‘ next exhibition opens at Milkwood Gallery on the 27 February and features new work by our artists inspired by folk and fairy tales. As the title suggests the exhibition will be focussed upon the idea of re-imagined narratives – taking existing fairy and folk tales and retelling them. This follows the tradition of stories being passed from generation to generation over centuries, through cultures and societies, books, art and film.

The Pack of Wolves will retell fairy tales, as they should be – as they once were, bringing back old values and themes… Once Upon Again. The artists will take inspiration from existing fairy and folk stories and either reinvent them or present new stories using visual narratives. Fairy tales should not only enchant and entertain the audience but also illuminate and inform.

Milkwood Gallery
41 Lochaber Street
Cardiff
CF24 3RU

www.spikeworld.co.uk
www.packofwolves.org
www.milkwoodgallery.com 

Here’s a couple of pictures from the trail, a couple of mentions/links to other blogs and work, and thank-you’s to others.

Undersea Wonders by Anna Shorten
“Partly fish, partly porpoise, partly baby sperm whale. Inspired by the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project, and a trip to the Great Barrier Reef, crocheted sea creatures from reality and imagination play together in a magical underwater landscape.”

What Still Lies Beneath by Martin Greaves
“Award-winning underwater photographer Martin Greaves returns with an array of stunning shots from beneath the waves, including shipwrecks, sharks and amazing scenery from such far-flung locations as Iceland, Egypt, Scotland and England. The final weekend of the trail will also feature shots from an expedition to the Southern Red Sea I’m joining in early September. As well as capturing the wonder of life underwater I’ll also endeavour to show what it’s like living on board ship as we voyage between some of the remotest reef systems in the Red Sea.”

Check out more of Martin’s work on his Flickr account.

Other exhibitions of note were The Veg Chapel of Love, a marriage of the vegetables of Walthamstow, to promote a love of vegetables and sustainable living (Idea conceived by Simon La Roche, brought to you by Simon and Krystyna La Roche, OrganicLea, Original Army, Marie Louise Plum and Animaux Circus) and Dolores Rocket, a collection of evidence by artist Julia Spicer.

Huge thanks go to Walthamstow Wine, who offered me exhibition space and provided me with gallons of most tantalising wines to help warm up people at my private view. If you’re local to Walthamstow, or ever passing, please do go and check them out. You can follow Walthamstow Wine on Twitter.

Lastly, unending gratitude to Peter Barrett, unofficial manager and organiser of my life, plus great salesman of my art. Thank you!

Hello folks!

Mail Art news: the touring exhibition which kicked off in Walthamstow earlier in the year has now left Bedford and is currently residing in Lincoln.

Helen Dearnley is curating this leg of the magical, travelling Mail Art tour. As ever, we are encouraging anyone and everyone to take part; get stuck into creating some art! The only stipulation is that the art is directly linked to postal items, be it drawn, painted, printed or scribbled on envelopes, brown paper packaging, missed mail cards, stamps, jiffy bags or postable boxes. This is mail art – it should be mailable, accessible for all (to make and enjoy) and, most importantly, relate to post and mail.

If you would like more info about what we’d like to see submitted, and what this touring exhibition is, please check out this post here. Starting off with Mail Art: Walthamstow in January this year, the tour has since stopped off at Cardiff, Bedford and now Lincoln, growing in size as it travels.

Mail Art: Lincoln opens this Friday with a Private View at 12.00p.m. and will run until October 26th 2012. The exhibition venue is an empty shop (much like the Bedford leg of the tour, curated by Anne-Marie Stijelja – see slideshow here!), which is 100% in keeping with the mail art ethos (accessible, non-juried space, open to all).

If you would like to contribute your artwork, please send all submissions to: Helen Dearnley: Mail Art, Lincoln, 18-20 Sincil Street, Lincoln, LN5 7ET

To read more about exactly what mail art is and where it came from, check out the Mail Art wiki page.

The touring mail art exhibition that I set up earlier this year, which kicked off the tour in Walthamstow, London, has now rocked up in Bedford. Anne-Marie Stijelja is curating this leg, taking over from Spike Dennis who curated the show at The PrintHaus in Cardiff.

We need your art! Please read the press release below to find out how you can be involved, and get yourselves down to the pop-up gallery space in Bedford to check out all the new work that has been added to the exhibition on its travels!

“As part of the 24 Mill St Pop Up local artist and all round wonder-woman Anne Marie Stijelja will be curating the Mail Art: Bedford exhibition which will incorporate her own work alongside other travelling Mail Art shows. Anne Marie explains more here:

If you have any questions please contact me on amstijelja@btinternet.com”

All the information you need is below, and here’s a couple of sneak peaks from my exhibition:

“H A P P Y L A N D is a major solo exhibition by Walthamstow artist and illustrator Marie-Louise Plum. Circus themed, it includes illustrations on paper as well as more unconventional art objects. A vast collection of 3D objects, masks, appropriated images, pen & ink portraits and customised museum boxes stuffed full with broken, psychedelic toys stitch together the imaginary world of Happyland. Marie-Louise invites visitors to meet brain-eating slug-men, jolly, headless ballerinas and a schizophrenic jamboree of clown folk with dubious intentions.

Happyland exists in the cracks between dreams and nightmares. A place where north is south of upside down. Best viewed through a child’s eyes! Don’t be frightened, nothing is real.

Marie-Louise loves to create creepy characters and fantastical vignettes full of mischief and humour. She has worked on a varied range of projects including a large-scale wall piece for Forest Hall, Edinburgh, a custom made Moleskine design for Modofly and a wooden puzzle seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Her main interests are folk art, outsiders and freaks and she enjoys nothing more than creating nonsense and mess up in her attic room.”

Venue Details: Walthamstow Wine Club, 56-60 Grove Road, E17 9BN.
Opening times: 1st-16th September, Sat 10.00-17.00 (except 8th), Sun 11.00-16.00 (except 9th), Tue-Fri 14.00-20.00. Closed Mondays.

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Artwork & Contact Information:
All artwork is for sale and is priced individually, prices available on request. If you are interested in pieces please ask the invigilator on duty at the exhibition, or email Marie-Louise directly.”
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This exhibition is part of the 2012 E17 Art Trail. Please see my Facebook event page here.

Hello Folks!

Our magical travelling Mail Art exhibition has now moved on to The Printhaus in Cardiff. This leg of the mail art tour is being curated by the very lovely Spike Dennis of Spikeworld. Check out how to get involved below >>>

“OPEN CALL: MAIL ART CARDIFF -This is an open call for mail art from around the UK and the world.

Mail Art: E17 was the first stop of a touring exhibition of mail art from artists and illustrators across the globe. Following a lengthy and successful exhibition at Walthamstow Wine Club in east London the exhibition has now made its way to The Printhaus in Cardiff, Wales.

Submissions received during the first exhibition period in London will be displayed at The Printhaus from Tuesday 10 July until Sunday 22 July 2012. In addition to this we are now seeking new submissions to add to the exhibition which will be exhibited at the Printhaus when received and added to the collection of mail art to be exhibited at further venues later in the year.

We are seeking art on any subject and in any form with the one stipulation which is that the art relates to a mailable or mailed form. For example, that could be art on jiffy bags, envelopes, brown paper, packages, art using stamps, printed or franked labels, mail stickers, stencils or mail delivery cards. You can draw, paint, cut, stick and glue, cut-out, construct, scribble or print. Anything goes.

If you would like to take part in the exhibition please email mail[at]marielouiseplum.com or send your work directly to:

Spike Dennis
Mail Art: Cardiff
c/o Cardiff School of Art & Design
Howard Gardens
Cardiff CF24 0SP

The deadline for submissions is ongoing, however, please do not post work for this leg of the exhibition any later than the 20 July 2012.

The exhibition opens on Tuesday 10 July 2012. There will be an open evening on Friday 13 July 20102 from 6.00 – 9.00pm at The Printhaus so do please come and join us for a drink.

Read more about the world-wide cultural movement of Mail Art here.”

If you would like to download a handy PDF info sheet of, well, pretty much what I have already written here, then please click this link!

Stoked to announce I have a Billustration in this new book, ‘Thrill Murray’, by the powerhouse that is Belly Kids. What is it? It’s a colouring book rammed full of your top fave actor of all time (of course!), Bill Murray.

I am dead excited to part of BK’s new release as they put out a lot of rad stuff. Below is my image from the book.

BUY IT HERE PLEASE.

As it’s a colouring book, you also get a page to colour in, neat eh!

Hello dudes, here is my made-up band album cover for Murray Somerville’s feature on Middle Boop Mag. Check out the feature here.