ISOBEL LEONARD

I feel so lucky to have spent time at Arcadia this summer. I came away from the experience with little moments of connection that I will be thinking about for a long time: connections with the wonderous surroundings, with all the life inhabiting it, and with Rob and Susan, whom were so generous with their thoughts and experiences.

I went into the week with no other plan than to respond to what I meet and to Make! Something! Like many early career artists, I have had limited resources and space to make work since graduating, and the freedom to be impulsive and playful in Rob’s fully equipped workshop was so needed. I intended to use the week to reconnect with making, flesh out spontaneous ideas and to take the pressure off making something complete.

Initially, I focused on settling in and getting to know the workshop and the materials available. I was very excited about using the welder and plasma cutter and there were lots of interesting scrap pieces of metal lying about.

The next morning, I went for a good explore of Arcadia’s sculpture trail. I spent a long time walking through the woodland trying to identify some of the plants. Susan was very knowledgeable about the native plants and helped me spot some Woundwort, Selfheal and Herb Robert leaves. The forms of these plants got the cogs turning, I thought they looked like strange and elegant beings. Similarly, I spent a lot of time drawing next to the ponds. They encouraged amazing biodiversity and I stood watching the dragon and damselflies, great diving beetles and large white butterflies busy about. I was particularly fixed on the way the Cattails and Alisma Lanceolatum broke the surface of the water and cast reflections on the pond. I thought they looked like magical creatures emerging from a portal. This started my train of thought about ponds and emergent life as well as ideas about mirages, reflections and shadows.

I was lucky to talk to Straiph Wilson who makes work at Arcadia and has a background in evolutionary biology. We had a good chat about the cycle of relationships that exist in pond ecosystems and the delicate balance that must be sustained for biodiversity to thrive. This tied in nicely for me with the Residency’s theme of Emergence, which I had been thinking about in terms of its definition in Systems Theory as a complex entity that exhibits properties that only emerge when individual parts interact as a wider whole. I began to think about ponds like mysterious melting pots conjuring up life below the surface and being made up of lots of tenacious and interconnected life forms organising, growing and communicating.

The next few days in the workshop were spent playing around with possible materials and colours for the wing shape. I played around with steel, grinding, welding and heat treating the surface but eventually settled on painting it black for contrast. The rest of the time was spent, carefully learning to use the plasma cutter and finding an elegant solution to welding the pieces together and giving it support.

I really enjoyed the process of making this simple sketch. On my last day, I took it out for a walk and captured pictures of it next to the ponds that inspired it and messed with the shadows the tree canopies cast. Then, I returned to the workshop to use my scrap pieces of plasma cut mirror. I decided to create a little creature inspired by the scattered light and shadow made by the tree canopy. I liked the idea of a disguised figure made up of dark and light shapes that are plant like, animal like or something more mythical. It was inspired by the tricks the woodland plays on you when you think you catch something moving.

When the day in the workshop was done, I spent my final evening with Rob and Susan who kindly organised some delicious pizzas and a cosy fire. I had a lovely time hearing about their experiences and was very inspired by the story of Arcadia and their plans for it in the future. All in all, a fantastic week of making that I don’t think would have happened anywhere else.

Thank you Arcadia!