Hello and welcome to Shieldfield Art Work’s first Take Over online gallery. Take Over is SAW’s annual open call exhibition which champions the work of Emerging Artists. Usually, Take Over would grace SAW’s gallery space for two months and feature a programme of discussion, feasting and celebration of our talented artists. However, this year we’ve compacted some excellent art into both an online exhibition and a letterbox-friendly exhibition zine, which is available on Etsy.

Take Over is part of SAW’s commitment to holistically support, build confidence and provide opportunities for Emerging artists, who we define as artists within the first ten years of their arts practice (regardless of education, age or artistic exposure). At SAW, we celebrate and encourage all forms of artistic endeavor. We believe that art, and the celebration of creation, should be part of everyday life for everyone, not a reserved luxury for a few. I hope that you will find this year’s art uplifting and refreshing.

This year’s artists are Chloe Myers and Colin Morrison. Their works feature in three exhibition spaces: a zine, SAW’s online gallery and SAW’s PROCESS gallery – a billboard space on the outside of SAW’s building.

Chloe’s delicate images combine poetry, patterns and nostalgic objects to explore grief, semtimetality and touch. The images feel intimate, domestic and familiar by including objects which remind us of grandparent’s sitting rooms, heirlooms or prized charity shop finds. Overlaid poetry gives further solidity to both the words and the objects – a hand embroidered hankie becomes a ‘comforting song’. This layering of poetry and objects feels reassuring, yet questions also litter the images – asking questions to the reader, hinting at a larger story which we can only imagine. “When are you coming to see us again?” strikes a particular chord.

Colin’s drawings also engage with the personal, and are created through a desire to invoke calm and wellbeing through the process of drawing. Colin often begins his drawing by asking a single question: ‘what is going on in the world?’, ‘what is energy and consciousness?’ in order to clear the mind and bring focus to the drawing process. The meditative process results in kaleidoscopic drawings, with patterns and connections which jump out at the individual viewer in different ways. Colin invites the viewer to become an artist alongside him, sharing his drawing technique and encouraging others to do the same. In the future, he plans on transforming these drawings by different artists into a collaborative kaleidoscopic, multilayered video.

Both artists celebrate the act of drawing, making and creating in order to explore the world further and to bring a sense of calm. I hope you enjoy this artistic intervention in your day, and feel compelled to seek out, think about and foster creativity in your everyday life.

To purchase a zine please head to our Etsy page.

Chloe Myers

Chloe Myers

I make work with the intent of keeping my hands busy, finding the time to perform a ritual for those lost in little moments throughout the day. I like to look back at techniques and traditions of northern heritage and push them forward into the modern day, singing a lament for someone ghostly and hoping they’ll hear it. Found objects can hold whispers of the past within them and it is down to us to nurture them to make them speak louder: I do this through my work and make sure I do these materials justice.

Lately I’ve been writing lots of letters, splitting myself up into different bodies and spilling out of them. Sentimental for a person I can only hope to begin to encapsulate through texture. This feeling is best documented through caressing motions, smoothing clay out, stroking the creases out of shirt collars, keeping shoulders up straight and mending everything I can get my hands on. I think of you quite often, all my love, Chloe.

Chloe Myers Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/user116855383

Colin Morrison

I began drawing random patterns on a daily basis 7 years ago with nothing in mind except filling the page and repeating the process of filling the page. This allowed me to explore how my health and wellbeing could be managed via this very simple process. It is meditative allowing time and space for reflection and reconnection to self; a transformative space for potential growth. 

Focusing on our own creations also has benefits regarding how we perceive the world around us. I suggest that the more defragmenting we do the better we feel. This can be for something specific or just using the time and space as a wellbeing tonic that if it is repeated we will tune into something potentially transformative.

Join me in drawing random patterns; draw a continual line, add colour and repeat. As part of the SAW takeover my focus has been on unity in these unique times, sharing simple creative processes as a way to potentially create more unity.

Opportunity: add your drawing to a collective Kaleidoscopic video

I would like to create a collective kaleidoscopic video, again with a focus on unity, by using drawings by readers of this zine – either colouring in the blank drawing in the zine or draw your own abstract patterns. The drawings will be mirrored to give a kaleidoscopic effect to create a collective video as a celebration of shared creativity.

Email any drawings for inclusion in the video and/or our online gallery to gemma@saw-newcastle.org. Please include your first name and initial so we can credit your work.