Jane Mellor
At the moment I am in a state of flux with my work and have been through a time of frustration and confusions with my art practice. Until recently I made drawings by the slow process of layering graphite pencil strokes onto paper, each mark a visual record of the presence and action of the human hand. I made drawings in response to objects, environments and events in the world, using both reading and photography, as well as photos, tracings and life drawing from my own body, as source material. This has been influenced by becoming a founder member of Third Bite Dance, a performance group for over 50’s, whereby my body movements themselves create invisible and fleeting drawings through space.
However I am now working in a completely different way using felt tips, biros, coloured inks and crayons. I am currently drawing in response to reading ‘Otherlands’ by Thomas Halliday, a book on the prehistoric life on earth. I am enjoying the freedom and expressiveness of colour, I am on an unknown but exciting journey.
In contrast my membership of Sheffield based utk, merges my individual identity as an artist, with that of three other artists. We respond to social and political issues with installations in galleries, site specific and public art contexts. Humour is central to our practice and the resultant work generally comes under the collective identity of utk.
