*** Art residency @studio459tomar ***
As a part of my ‘time out of time’- a period of time that I’ve created and crafted over a couple of years to restore and nourish my creative practice in the face of burn out- I was honoured to be accepted onto the residency programme at Studio 459 in Portugal, cared for and fed in aaall the ways by Mark and Joao (with even more love supplied by Poppy dog).
As I transform, so does my art work, and this stop along the way is giving me space for the deeply needed reflection and the re-centring of my visual arts practice, within my life.
A huge part of what I do is ‘socially engaged’: it involves care, the creation of community and empowering people through collective creativity and joy.
That work is wonderful, it is demanding- it is also essential (more than ever in these times).
What Mark and João specialise in is ‘holding those that hold’- and I am eternally grateful for their nurture.
The domestic context that they have created is key to the subtle cross pollination and idea sharing that happens.
I’ve been making work that speaks of vessels, journeying, the sacred, navigation and metamorphosis. All very ‘on brand’ for this rich and challenging time in my life.
Having this residency, unobstructed by the usual demands and expectations of life, is an incredible privilege and it is feeding me in so many ways I could not have foreseen.
Along with two other wonderful UK based creatives- the Tomar Massive @clairebeerjeraz and @marcy_rick ,we have visited the Biennale @anozerocoimbra in the beautiful city of Coimbra which blew me away (the art work, the site AND the curation).
We have been taken to markets and into the landscape..we sit and eat together throughout the day, we rest and dream, we make artwork with no attachment to an outcome with the resulting conversations being often rich, often funny, often informative and always inspiring in some way.
It is a generous space that enables and fosters the true exercising of imagination and the act of truly trusting the process.
This is the edit of the story so far.. more to come xxxx
Love and reflection incoming:
Teaching has always been an extension of my art making and love activism, as it is another means to create potent spaces for reflection and emancipation.
Creating these fertile situations enables fellow humans to feel inspired and able to access their imaginations- which is powerful stuff.
I read somewhere that participation and dialogue are forms of emancipation and that conversation is a precondition for community, though Rebecca Solnit (ALWAYS) says it best with “Every day, each of us invents the world and the self who meets that world opens up or closes down space for others within that.”
My teaching at Newlyn School of Art is coming to a close soon, as I gear up for a year out: a time out of time where I feed my solo artmaking in ways as yet unknown to me.
I’ve had to show courage to leave what I know in order to push into the very spaces of reflection that I teach are such an essential part of the creative process. As Trisha Hersey tells us, ‘Rest is Resistance’, in her book of the same name, and I intend to restore myself after 30 years of grind and fetishising production at all times.
I’m re centring the cycles of growth and decay, life-death-life that course through ALL of nature, within my own making and living (same thing). I am, after all, a product of nature.
Capitalism made art a luxury to make it make sense: it has cultivated limiting ideas and mythologies of the ‘lone genius’, pained and mad, living in a garret with limited resources. These tropes underpin ideas of scarcity, and drive art prices up.
Well, I am leaning into the counter narrative of generosity, community, collaboration and art as medicine.
An existence where art, the arts and all forms of creativity are essential and accessible. An existence of creative freedom.
So I thank my students and the school for trusting me enough to cultivate and deliver this culture of powerful care that centres the power of our imaginations to dream of, and therefore create, new worlds.
Because right now, we f*cking need this xxx
#independentartschool #fayedobinsonartist #fayedobinsoncurator #teachingasactivism #healing @newlynartschool@fayedidofficial
Its been a while.... will pop on with an update soon but for now one of the things I have been working on:
I am delighted to announce an upcoming ‘In conversation’ evening at Hypatia Trust on 12th June 7-9pm at Hypatia Trust Penzance. I will be entering into a magical dialogue with dear friend, artist, curator and all round legend, Faye Dobinson; discussing my most recent body of work, 'The Staffordshire Figure,' and the subject of my MA thesis, 'Embodied and Immersive Making; Connecting Audiences with the Sacred Everyday.'
Our title is a bit of a mouthful but we promise to make it as joyful and peppered with humour as it is rigorous in its exploration.
Together Faye and I will travel with a broad variety of thinkers, anthropologists, artists, writers and filmmakers taken from my MA research to dance with the key themes of the conversation that resonate with my practice as an artist.
We will journey with Olafur Eliasson, Mr Benn, Anni Albers, Igshaan Adams, Celia Pym, Roland Barthes, Pallasmaa, Daniel Miller, Ursula Le Guin, Peter Stallybrass, Allan Brown (The Nettle Dress), and ask, 'What is truly of material value in connecting us deeply with our embodied and spiritual selves, our unique stories and identities?'
Tickets are available via link in Bio - proceeds to support Hypatia Trust and pay participating artists. Please scroll past the wait list section to book tickets on the booking page. There will be plenty of chances for Q and A, a showcase of some of the work being discussed.
Copies of my book, ‘The Staffordshire Figure,’ a love letter to my father who lives with Lewy Bodies Dementia, will also be available to purchase. The session will be followed by a full day stitching workshop on Sunday 14th June, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm, entitled, ‘Wrapped in Our Stories the Magic of Our Clothes.’ More details on the workshop in my next post and the link in bio is all set up ready to take bookings for both events.
#embodiedmaking #artistsinconversation #textilesmaking #sacredeveryday #dementiaandcreativity
Brilliant first week with new residency artists Claire @clairebeerjeraz , Marcy @marcy_rick , and Faye @fayedobinsonprojects with trips to Tomar, Fatima, and Coimbra to see the fantastic biennale. So inspiring.
THANK YOU my people in Penzance. I love you crew xxx
Last night at @artistresidencepenzance was incredibly joy filled and joy fuelled..there was a magic in the air that came from feeling loose and free, with the space to leave it all on the floor.
I had a dreamy 4 hours to play what the f*ck I felt- from Eddie Kendricks, through Missy and Roy Ayers to deep house beauty and Gospel heart exploders.
It’s a mega honour to be able to lift energy this way.
Love WINS xxxx
Thank you darling @sophiedennettart76 for the footage and photos xxx
***FAYELOVE at The Shack***
Hello beautiful crew❤️🔥
Come join me this Sunday 3rd May at the launch of Summer at The Shack @artistresidencepenzance where I will be playing a 4 hour set of beautiful musical vibrations, from funk to soul, reggae to disco, house to bruk and moooore- from 5.30-9.30pm.
Wonderful food from The Smoke Shack 2.30- 7.30pm and cocktails all day and night!
On Friday 7-9pm it’s ALL IN DISCO with myself and @kyra_norman_ at The Union Ballroom on Chapel Street: pay on the door or ticket link via @thisis_allin
Let’s do this.
Love to you all xxxx
**ALL IN DISCO: BRINGING THE BELTANE**
Come move with us, dance with us, leave it all on the floor as we celebrate the fiery fizz of the festival of Beltane, the lushness of Spring, the love of community and the power of the dancefloor!
Impeccable tunes plucked from genres ranging from soul to house, through funk to delicious disco, we will ensure you move from the start (7pm) to the finish (9pm).
ALL IN together, from the start.
Come join us in our beloved ballroom at The Union on Chapel Street.
Tickets in link tree link and bring cash to splurge on the door- both are welcome.
Spread the word, bring your people, and let’s venerate and generate powerful JOY… because we need it more than ever xxx
***ALL IN DISCO***
Beltane... Full moon... Rising energies...
How could we not?
✨ The next ALL IN DISCO is go ✨
Friday 1st May 2026
7-9pm (doors 6.45pm)
** Arrive for 7pm if you possibly can, so we all begin together - ALL IN from the start **
At our beloved Union Ballroom, Chapel St, Penzance
£12/£10/£8 🔗 ticket link in @thisis_allin bio
See you on the dancefloor - let’s do this ⚡⚡⚡
—
Hosted by ALL IN DJs @fayedobinsonprojects and @kyra_norman_ as ALL IN
We are reclaiming the idea of ‘DISCO’ as a music-led, energised, radical, heartfelt space where difference is celebrated, freedom is felt and your style is your own
Shrugging our shoulders at conventional thinking (and moving), together we create a dancefloor that feels like a new kind of home - with an incredible soundtrack and impeccable attitude
Come get involved... arrive however you’re feeling, leave feeling more connected, and more alive
#allin
#allindisco
#danceparty
#dressforjoy
dancefloorcommunity
***SAVE THE DATE***
Save this date my lovers, my dancers, my shape shakers, shape makers.
Let’s get our Mayday vibrations on at a free party on Sunday 3rd May, 5.30- 9.30pm at The Artists Residence on Chapel Street, PZ, hosted by me, Fayelove..
I cannot wait to play you a luscious set full of love, soul, dirty bass lines, stunning soulful vocals, beautiful bruk, disco drivers, gospel house lifters, and moooore.
Spread the word and let’s DANCE TOGETHER xxxx
***The Ostara Series ***
These presences on paper I made around this Dark Moon and today they are given light in celebration of Ostara, the turn of the pagan wheel of the year that honours and celebrates the coming of the light.
You know me- I love to mark a threshold with Love😊🌱
‘As I take some time out of time, I get the chance to be with my inner shifts and callings.
And in these spaces, forces and faces appear, and find form..’
They are here to have a conversation.
They are medicine.
They are all 17x 19 cm and all made here in Thailand.
They are watercolour on found paper.
They are £90 each.
DM me my loves xxx
Please read on for more background..
I encountered some beautiful paper with squares of gold foil on them, here in a market in Thailand.
It is a paper used for Buddhist offerings in Temple: prayers for thanks and acts of devotion (and I checked it was appropriate to use).
I also observed the act of applying small pieces of gold leaf onto statues, which resulted in the delicate squares then being activated by the breeze of the fan.
The gold obscured the statues forms and details, but activated a potent vibration.
I often use gold leaf in my artwork to represent light and hope.
In ‘Transition’, I used gold leaf to speak of ceremony, ritual ritual and the light of growth.
Ostara is the spring fertility celebration that welcomes the return of the Sun‘s warmth and life after the dark,cold months of winter.
Today day and night are balanced and of equal length..a reminder of the delicate balance of opposing forces in our lives, and of our capacity to embrace change with openness and hope.
Love to you aaaaaall this blessed threshold day xxx
***The Ostara Series ***
These presences on paper I made around this Dark Moon and today they are given light in celebration of Ostara, the turn of the pagan wheel of the year that honours and celebrates the coming of the light.
You know me- I love to mark a threshold with Love😊🌱
‘As I take some time out of time, I get the chance to be with my inner shifts and callings.
And in these spaces, forces and faces appear, and find form..’
They are here to have a conversation.
They are medicine.
They are all 17x 19 cm and all made here in Thailand.
They are watercolour on found paper.
They are £90 each.
DM me my loves xxx
Please read on for more background..
I encountered some beautiful paper with squares of gold foil on them, here in a market in Thailand.
It is a paper used for Buddhist offerings in Temple: prayers for thanks and acts of devotion (and I checked it was appropriate to use).
I also observed the act of applying small pieces of gold leaf onto statues, which resulted in the delicate squares then being activated by the breeze of the fan.
The gold obscured the statues forms and details, but activated a potent vibration.
I often use gold leaf in my artwork to represent light and hope.
In ‘Transition’, I used gold leaf to speak of ceremony, ritual ritual and the light of growth.
Ostara is the spring fertility celebration that welcomes the return of the Sun‘s warmth and life after the dark,cold months of winter.
Today day and night are balanced and of equal length..a reminder of the delicate balance of opposing forces in our lives, and of our capacity to embrace change with openness and hope.
Love to you aaaaaall this blessed threshold day xxx
