Western Mail feature : April 2020 Artist Katherine Jones should have been exhibiting her work on a stall at the RHS show in Bute Park this weekend.
When it was cancelled due to the coronavirus lockdown, she came up with a novel solution: She will set up the stall in her house and share pictures of it via Instagram, where all the work will be for sale. Katherine is a Cardiff-based artist and architect whose work ranges from finely detailed drawings to fascinating three-dimensional art made with found objects. She studied architecture at Cardiff University and, after qualifying, worked in London for several years before returning to Cardiff. Along the way she started making object art - initially just as gifts for family and friends - and then rediscovered her passion for drawing on a trip to Central America and Mexico. Now fully self employed both as an architect and an artist, she faces a significant challenge in the face of the lockdown. 'A large part of my income usually comes through festivals and events where I have a stall to sell my work. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, these have all obviously been cancelled," she says. "I decided not to let that stop me!" Her virtual stall opens at 11am tomorrow and will continue throughout the weekend on her Instagram @katherinejonesartist. "The products will also be on my story highlights after the weekend," she says. "The items will include one-off bespoke object art pieces as well as original drawings and a range of my usual prints."
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One of the last things I did before lockdown commenced was a talk and memory box workshop with years 5 and 6 at Radnor Road Primary School. They had carried out a mass litter pick with Cardiff Rivers Group and then spent the day with me turning all their rubbish into huge pieces of art. Each class had a huge box and the children did an amazing job of creating dividers for all their objects and sticking their objects in. There were still spaces in the boxes for more rubbish to be collected and added to the box throughout the remaining term - a project to be continued when they go back to school. I can't wait to see them completed! The school also asked me to give a talk to the pupils about plastic pollution, the environment and what we can do to help the planet.
Here's what their teacher had to say: "Katherine came to our school to make giant versions of her memory boxes - inspired by one of her pieces about Cardiff Barrage rubbish. The pupils wanted to create something that mirrored this, but from a Canton perspective because that's their neighbourhood. The pupils worked in small groups; each group was given a time slot, and together about 100 pupils created 3 giant installations. We displayed them in our classes and they further inspired our writing that term. We still have the giant frames within frames which we plan to repurpose for next term's topic. All in all our workshops with Katherine were a wonderful journey through our community's relationship with the discarded or unwanted. The experience was transformational, thought provoking and tangible. " If you're looking for workshops with schools, please get in touch. I'd love to hear your ideas. |
Katherine JonesI’m an artist who creates beautiful memory boxes and intricate ink drawings to help you connect with the people and places you love. Archives
May 2024
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