Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

MiscellanyLeave a comment

The deep space potato peeler

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Introducing Eric Geusz, a sci fi fanatic who finds interstellariness in everything. Looking at his work and the sources of his inspiration is a little like having a window created in a wall that didn’t have one before. Suddenly it’s possible to see what drawing can be if you both look very carefully at your model and also see what it could be if it weren’t a mundane thing from your kitchen drawer. It’s as if he’s found the alter egos of these implements, their secret lives, what they do when we’re not paying attention. It’s playful but not disrespectful … Continue reading The deep space potato peeler

MiscellanyLeave a comment

Post craft-fair analysis

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’m going to assume this is relevant as all of us will be looking at some point to be slapping a monetary value on our work and presenting it to the public and not all of us will be getting straight into a gallery or having any sort of longevity in one. I decided to try out our village Christmas fair for the experience, knowing what the layout is like, the crammed-in table arrangements, and the tendency of our locals to do a circuit, nod, and leave [yep, that’s been me]. You’ll see from the picture that I was covering … Continue reading Post craft-fair analysis

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Doing craft fairs

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Up till now, I’ve only ever cruised round our village hall craft fairs, nodding at stall-holders and measuring their gaze in terms of potential engagement. If I look too long, will they think I want to buy and start demonstrating the quality of something I’m not interested in? Maybe they’re bored and fancy a natter? Sometimes they’re neighbours so there’s that unspoken contract whereby the value of our conversation will plummet should a punter with cash show up and appear interested in making a purchase. This year I was that stall holder; balancing the welcoming beam against the desperate appeal … Continue reading Doing craft fairs

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Beeding Christmas Craft Fair

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is looming fast and denial of the whole business of merchandising is no longer a viable option. If stuff is going to be sold, then stuff is going need costing and pricing, particularly as a friend has offered to come and help out and obviously needs to have an idea of what’s going for what price. Cue flat-out panic with only one resolution – a spreadsheet. Luckily, I quite like fiddling with spreadsheets so I already have one with entries for everything bought, made up (frames, mounts and the like), and re-purposed as items such as snow globes and … Continue reading Beeding Christmas Craft Fair

exercisesLeave a comment

Temporary patterns

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Somewhere back in recent history – at least a fortnight anyway – there was an exercise about temporary patterns. I was stumped and resorted to documenting my breakfast but if I’d only spilled some of it on my oven … … and got the Hob Brite out. At least one of these is not as abstract or formless as the exercise demanded but I can at least claim that they’re expressive reactions to prevailing national events. What’s interesting to me about this is the freedom of shoving fluid across that shiny black surface, something not easily (or at all) replicated … Continue reading Temporary patterns

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As the internal conflict ramps up …

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Today I’m simultaneously fretting over a still life on my OCA blog and sorting pieces for my first venture into commerce due to happen at the village hall on November 24th. Admittedly, the first involves an Alien sculpted out of scrap metal that behaves like an Escher when I try to draw it, a hatchling dragon still in its egg, and a pot cat with a cataract so, y’know. But it’s still the exposure of wildly differing assumptions of competence that makes for an interesting experience of what psychological integrity is all about. Nevertheless, fresh from the studio [and note … Continue reading As the internal conflict ramps up …

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Assignment 1 Still life

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

1st November 2018. I have innumerable dragons and other beasts in my house. This Alien sculpture is made of bolts and fuses and other bits of scrap metal. Each one is unique. This one seems to have too many limbs but who’s going to argue with it! The book is full of Giger’s extraordinary illustrations for the film, Alien; all of them architectural, Gothic and sculptural and full of menace. No wonder the film’s sets were so evocative of ancient echoes and hostile life. The cat survived. Everyone I know, including me, was less concerned about Sigourney Weaver than that … Continue reading Assignment 1 Still life

Art from wordsLeave a comment

Categories and where things go

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I don’t want to think about how long I’ve been using WordPress without a clue how it really works. I still don’t but I’m learning and via the quite unexpected route of the art course. Apparently, if I allocate a category (and who knew how those conducted themselves!), the post, instead of sitting in a little blog-post silo, will funnel readers to a whole page-worth of stuff they might never visit. At least I think that’s how it works. I’m going to tag this Art from words because I’ve just posted some more word-based art there. Update: 1. It didn’t … Continue reading Categories and where things go

Project 2Leave a comment

Part 1 Basic shapes & fundamental form

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Project 2 Exercise 1 Groups of objects. It’s a very long time since I worked with anything this size and it’s both exhilarating and alarming – the second because I feel I have much less control over what happens at the end of my arm, and the first precisely because of the second. I was trying to be tight in this first drawing, replicating my approach to smaller sized paper and so not exactly (but unintentionally, not) following the brief. Oddly, most of the items seem better drawn in the photo than they do in real life and I wonder … Continue reading Part 1 Basic shapes & fundamental form

MiscellanyLeave a comment

Routines and self preservation

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This is mine: Domestic admin. This includes cat requirements, breakfast, and checking to see what world-grade awfulness I might be required to comment on via Facebook or Twitter. Go for a run or, if the weather is a bit feisty, a walk. [I draw the line at anything approaching apocalyptic horizontal rain or Zeus in a bad mood] Pick up the trail of social media biscuit crumbs I left earlier and that someone’s turned into explosively prevaricatory material. Lunch. Dwell on prevaricatory material. Prevaricate further by making lists. Put lists into a spreadsheet and maybe also OneNote. Add pictures because … Continue reading Routines and self preservation