Caroline Kirton - October 2016

Caroline Kirton’s talk on Monday was entitled “Telling Tales” and after a while it became clear as to why she had chosen this title.  As a mature student after the birth of her three daughters, Caroline enrolled on an Access to Art course which led to a Degree in Applied Arts.  During the course she researched the feminist artist Mary Kelly and her work influenced Caroline. 

Using her family and their friends Caroline took a series of snapshots of teenagers which explored their emotions, their relationships, their thoughts and behind each picture there is a message and an appropriate title.  

It all started when her daughter’s boyfriend was taken back to the States without saying “good bye” and you can see exerts from an email and see the despair in the posture of the young lad called "Lewis" below. 

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Many teenagers experience traumas in family life and as a result teenagers get a bad press so Caroline wanted to highlight the positive.  "But I need it!", "You are ruining my life", "She is copying me" , "I think this will be OK for 6th form", "Just Chilling" and "My Mum's a proper weirdo"  are amongst the chosen titles.  As parents ourselves, many of us could relate to the topics which had been chosen.

From a practical point Caroline takes photos which she then draws out and enlarges.  She uses bondaweb to position vintage fabrics to the background and screen prints of text often taken from emails.  She amazed us all by saying that she does not use a frame or hoop when free machining and always stretches the finished work herself.

Thank you Caroline for sharing your techniques with us and for giving us a most enjoyable afternoon.

Report by Ros