Finding your artistic mojo - from music to collage and papier mâché to photography
Towards the end of 2022, Simon and I talked at length about what we were going to do next. We wanted a new challenge, to spread our wings and not be constrained by any discipline. We found our mojo.
My art teacher Mr Johnson made me confess to my mother during a school parent’s evening that I was not working to my full potential. I was thirteen.
Admittedly, it was after a time of upheaval with the closing of Ross Grammar School which I had attended for a couple of years. The two local high schools had amalgamated to form John Kyrle High School, where I found myself in a completely different world.
Mr Johnson was a very unusual teacher with sparkling eyes and a big scraggy beard who was a bit like my Robin Williams in the Dead Poets Society. He showed me how to embrace imperfection when I had made a mistake in a drawing and to embrace it as an opportunity to explore a different direction to see where it took me.
He challenged me with questions that made me dig deep and really look at things in a different way; always trying to get me to think and experiment past the pedestrian and mundane… a true inspiration.
Our school motto also happened to be ‘Carpe Diem’. Seize the day - perfect!
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Papier maché
From woodwork to painting, collages to papier mâché sculptures - I love making things that don’t require words.
My best friend in the sixth form at school was Charlotte James (now Brown) who was such a beautiful artist. She made her own clothes, showed me great techniques for shopping in charity shops and went on to study art at Hereford Art College.
Charlotte (Charlie) lived right out in the sticks (aka countryside) where she had her workshop in a shed at the end of her parent’s garden. I spent many wonderful evenings there chatting away as you do, listening to music or playing my guitar, working on my own projects or ripping up shed loads of newspaper for her paper mâché sculptures which she exhibited in prestigious galleries across the UK including The Royal Exchange in Manchester.
We never knew how long we could work at night as their cottage was not on the main grid and her father was in charge of the generator!
For my twenty-first birthday present, my parents bought me a handmade pottery Gandalf wizard which I chose from an intriguing gallery called Falcon that used to be at the top of the High Street, near what is now Gallery 54 in Ross-on-Wye.
I wanted to transport him in time and place and give him a mystical context. Besotted by The Lord of the Rings, I made Gandalf a mini papier mâché Treebeard for companionship.
Photography
My interest and love of photography started as a child with my first Kodak Instamatic camera.
I took hundreds, more like thousands of photographs in the hope of capturing that special moment in the mystic haze, in search of the honesty of that still small voice that revealed its presence with a glint of the eye or the unconscious touch. The ethereal intimacy of being human.
I also felt it important to take photographs of older people, to document their existence, in case it was the last time I saw them.
My first Saturday job as a teenager was mounting slides in a photographic processing lab run by my really cool brother-in-law, Nick Stephens.
We started a photographic course at school during lunchtimes where I experimented with the school’s 35mm SLR film camera and learned how to develop and print black and white photographs in a makeshift dark room.
One of my first subjects was Betty Higgs who also happened to be my Nana. I used to visit every day and we were very close so it was a very relaxed and natural exchange.
I was taking rather a long time setting up the shot as I was trying to work out how the split lens focus worked. It’s not always comfortable standing in front of a camera for too long and the moment I pressed the button she decided to play the comedic fool and stuck two fingers up at me!! Ha!!!
Betty features on the front cover of our award-nominated debut Starlite Campbell Band album ‘Blueberry Pie’ - my rebel grandma as she is affectionately known - voted album cover of the week on WFRG radio in Atlanta, USA.
Starlite & Campbell
My husband, Simon Campbell, is a hugely collaborative, creative inspiration and I love working with him. He has a real passion and wide-ranging appreciation for culture in all its diverse magnificence that stretches beyond music. His artistic heartbeat is also turned on by great conversation and inventive design from architecture to graphics and recently bought a selection of books including The Movie Art of Virtual Futurist Syd Mead and Typeset for the Future. Totally brilliant!!
Towards the end of 2022, we talked at length about what we were going to do next. We wanted a new challenge, to spread our wings and not be constrained by any discipline. It was decided that 2023 was the time for wider creative adventures, so…
Welcome to Starlite.One
This is our new multimedia project that is unbound by expectations or musical genres, where the only limitation is your imagination.
Contemporary stories of our shared human experience are expressed through the mediums of collage, prose, books, art installations & exhibitions, apparel, musical recordings, multi-media performances, theatre, video and cuisine.
Starlite.One is a postcard of hope.
Starlite.One is you.
Gallery
I am delighted to introduce you to our art gallery, presenting a new series of collage artwork that I have been working on over the past few months.
All our artwork is available to buy as a high-quality print (framed or un-framed) direct from our online shop. They make unique presents and the originals are also for sale.
Buying from our website truly makes a difference as you know you are supporting our work directly.
Here I don’t want to use words… this experience is all yours. Let’s start at the very beginning….
Staying Alive!
Klangers
DIY Pharma
And finally…
Please write me a message below - I’d love to know what thoughts and feelings the collages evoke… I’ve had some interesting and encouraging feedback already.
Have a great Easter break - next up it’s Simon.