I am very excited to be taking part in a collaborative art challenge with my fellow artists at the Thursday Art Club.

Together we are filling a collaborative sketchbook. The process is that an artist (in this case me) starts the sketch book with a two page spread, the book is then passed on to another artist who has to create a spread reacting to the previous artists work and then this in turn gets passed on to further artists until the book is finished. I can’t wait to see what we all create together.

The intention of the sketchbook is to create connections between all of our work and show how we are inspired and influenced by each others talent and ideas.

In the provided pictures you can see my addition to the sketchbook. It was quite a challenge coming up with the first two pages as I didn’t have anybody’s work to respond to but I relished the opportunity to play and share with my fellow artists.

My sketchbook pages are based on the idea of connections. Connection – with nature, and with my inner self- is one of my personal values and has become something very important to me particularly over the past year.

I have been working on creating a symbolic visual language in my art that expresses different parts of my inner world and my personal values. I chose to create pages with Blackbirds on as these birds have become particularly meaningful to me:

• The female blackbird, scrabbling through the dark, fertile soil, represents the part of me that digs beneath the surface, searching for meaning and truth — Depth being one of my other Core Values.
• The male blackbird represents the part of my psyche that keeps watch over this process — alert and protective — reminding me when it’s time to press on and alerting me when it’s time to step back and rest.

To make these pages, I printed onto vintage papers from gardening, music, and sewing books using my gel plate. I used thread on the plate to create intertwining marks — they look like tangled threads or earthworms beneath the soil, ready to be pulled up by my blackbirds. I added slow stitching as another form of mark-making, creating a literal thread for my Blackbirds to pull on.

The birds themselves are drawn in coloured pencil. I used the negative shapes left behind after cutting them out as stencils, layering their silhouettes across the pages — a hint at the many parts of myself I’ve yet to meet.

I really enjoyed creating these pages and can’t wait to see what connections the next artist makes through their addition to the book.