Feature Artist - SHIRLEY GREER

Shirley Greer is a printmaker and book artist living

and working in Pasadena, Newfoundland, Canada.

Shirley received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual) from Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2003, and was the recipient of the University Gold Medal for Academic Excellence. In 2009 she received a Master ofArts Degree from the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland, where her research focused on book arts.

  

Shirley's prints and books have been exhibited in juried and

invitational shows in Canada, the US, Lithuania, Denmark,Germany, Sweden, 

South Korea and Italy. She has completed residencies at Memorial University

of Newfoundland, at St Michael's Printshop in St John's, NL and

at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, Italy where she also taught workshops.  

Most recently Shirley has taught printmaking and drawing in the Visual Arts Program at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland.  

Shirley has received supporting grants for her work from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.  Her work is held in teaching, public and private  collections throughout Canada, and has been published in journals.

all images copyright of the artist

My art always reflects my life in one way or another, and is frequently related to notions of home - home as house, as place, as country, as comfort/discomfort. I try (but am not always successful) to avoid nostalgia.

I have inherited many letters, photographs and documents from both known and unknown ancestors which I combine with contemporary practices to make work that is time-based, intimate and relevant. Although deeply personal, I strive to make the work universal. My media of choice are printmaking and book arts, but it is the latter that offers the most satisfying means of expression - the options are vast and inevitably the right format will emerge for a particular piece of work.

Shirley Greer - 2013

New Website

I have started a website for this project - you can find it at:

Personal Histories Artist Book Exhibition

My aim is to put images and links for all participating

artists who have a web presence and

images of works for those who don't.

I have only just started building the site 

and to date I have put images and links 

for myself and the artists I have asked so far

for the Feature Artist posts on this blog.

Please let me know if you don't want me putting

references to you, images of your works or links to your sites

on the new website.

I respect everybody's right to control

how and where their information and images are used.

Your feedback is very welcome.

Feature Artist - ROSE RIGLEY

I am very excited to begin featuring some of the 

talented artists involving themselves with this project: 

The first Feature Artist I would like to introduce is

Rose Rigley

Rose is based in Far North Queensland (East Coast - Australia) 

and is fully engaged with her community 

through the Artist-Run-Initiative 

Knock-Knock

Below are words and images Rose kindly forwarded to share with you.

Memory cluster 2012
mixed media installation
Photography - Michael Marzik

Sense trigger I 2012
mixed media and perspex
Photography - Michael Marzik

Sense trigger I 2012 (detail)
mixed media and perspex
Photography - Michael Marzik

all images copyright of the artist

Rose Rigley is a far north Queensland visual artist whose practice investigates both two dimensional and three dimensional platforms. She explores the human condition with a particular emphasis on memory, investigating patterns of intergenerational behavior and finding a narrative in the ordinary and mundane.  In recent works, Rose considers the inextricable links between past experiences and the current individual perceptions; using books as the material in her process, deconstructing and reassembling these objects, to create new forms for the conveyance and storage of memories.

With her Artist-run-initiative, Knock Knock, Rose has established an ongoing program of curated group exhibitions and community engagement events, as well as participating in numerous group exhibitions, both regionally and nationally, and holding four solo exhibitions.  In 2013, Rose was shortlisted for a number of artist opportunities including the 2013 Libris Awards, the 2013 EGAG Books Beyond Words Awards, the Lethbridge 1000 Art Awards, the Queensland Regional Art Awards, along with participation in the 4th Sheffield International Artist’s Book Prize, UK. In 2014, she will exhibit a major body of works at Cairns Regional Gallery as part of their Emerging Artist Program.

Rose's Mum in the "Book Room"

I cannot remember a time when books did not feature in my life, so there is an almost inevitability to the use of them in my art practice.  My father, now dead more than 20 years, was an avid reader and, as a library technician, a great book lover.  My mother, an unrepentant hoarder, has kept his collection & added  to it. For me, there is great comfort in going home to my mother's house and being in the "book room" - a room of three walls of floor to ceiling books - as it connects me back to my father and to the  hours I spent reading quietly alongside him as a child.

(Rigley 2013).

A Curious Thing

Is it just me, 

or do others find the symbiosis of 

traditional format and digital technology

we book artists rely upon a curious thing?

Thank You

Thank you to the generous souls who have forwarded

 images and information 

 to include in the gallery exhibition proposals I am putting together.

The diversity and standard of work looks amazing.

I have had many artists enquiring about the project.
So far interest has been shown from

Australia

Canada

England

Germany

Iceland

Scotland

United States of America

So it looks set to be a truly international collaboration.

One of my intentions is to highlight participating artists 

through blog posts, 

so I will be making contact with all of you 

in due course to try and tee this up.

Stay tuned for some exciting profiles ........