Our last Kick-About together was a seasonal affair, with the figure of Father Christmas as its muse. Now that Christmas is done and dusted, we’re likely reflecting on the mountains of cardboard and paper produced by Santa’s insistence on ‘more, more, more’. With that surplus of paper in mind, Maud Vantours is our inspiration this week for these new works made in a short time. If you want to peruse all previous editions of The Kick-About you find them gathered here – and finally, to all the KA-ers, and to supporters of The Kick-About… ‘Happy New Year!’
Francesca Maxwell
“Paper, paper… I use it so much in my work I don’t know where to start. But I have chosen this one for the beginning of the year. A calm seascape made of tissue paper and ink: the sun is not out yet and the sea is still unsettled from the windy night, but there is hope for a calm and sunny day… Wishing you all the year you hope to have.“
Kerfe Roig
“Circles again. Or holes. I took a bunch of felt squares and cut circles out of them and then layered the circles up and the spaces where the circles had been down. It doesn’t show up that well in the photos, but in real life it’s an interesting juxtaposition. And a poem, somewhat related. Happy New Year!”
Filling the Holes
No location is fixed except
in memory. Where I am
migrates endlessly in time,
teetering on the edge of
a space that leaps, vanishing,
erasing its boundaries until
it becomes something else
entirely. The future is a knot
that can never be untied
or examined until it is over.
What we have planted
is constantly uprooted
and tossed away into
the abyss of the past. All
that is left is fragments,
disassociated from context,
passages with too many
crossroads to count. I am
submerged in images
that have no anchorage.
They sail, inverted, on a sea
of star-filled skies. Constellations
that might guide me remain
indecipherable. I am blinded
by the fullness of the moon,
by too much cosmic light.
kblog.blog / methodtwomadness.wordpress.com
James Randall
“Maud’s work is very slick design. I began by imitating one of her colour schemes and applying it to photos of torn up watercolour paper in layers. Over this I applied more paper photos but in white. Amongst this I layered some sharp line-work and sketchy line work. Finally I layered in some blended shapes, also in white.“
Charly Skilling
“When I started collecting paper, cards, etc. for this KA, I realised just how much ephemera and paper-based debris accumulated around the place over Christmas and the preceding year. So my image is made up of last year’s calendar, Christmas and birthday cards, old party napkins and assorted dross. So often we hear ourselves saying things like, “Thank goodness that year’s over – it was a horrible year!” Swiftly followed by a call to friends and loved ones of “Happy New Year!” and cheers and celebrations as the bells ring in the next year! This is surely the ultimate Triumph of Hope over Experience, for when we pause to look back down the years, so many of them ended up a disappointment. But Hope was the last thing out of Pandora’s Box and the salvation of humanity, so we hang on to that hope that this next year will be different. And maybe, just maybe, 2024 is gonna be The Year It All Came Right! Wishing all you lovely KA-ers a very happy new year and I hope your experience of 2024 is everything you are hoping for yourselves and for your loved ones!”
Gary Thorne
“Having sadly missed KA’s Christmas HoHoHo, I have combined 95 & 96 to produce this seasonal coffee-table centre-piece, reminiscent of KA of two years ago. This time with recycled Christmas cards from last year, now chopped and reassembled using freshly-cut local lake grass or reed stalk. The glasses are out… so pop in for a drink! Happy New Year to all KA-ers. It’s been a joyous year sharing such earthly delights so stunningly presented by our star host Phil Gomm! Here’s to new discoveries across 2024.”
Phil Gomm
“With Vantours’ work putting me in mind of geography – contour maps and geological strata – I wondered how I could fold or concertina as much landscape as possible into one composition. My images this week were created by taking a great big wodge of ordinance survey maps and tourist guides from the bookshelf next to my desk and scanning their spines and sandwiched terrains. By lifting the block of maps off the glass mid-scan, I was able to produce all these interesting gaps, breaks and smears. It proved to be an addictive process!”
Marion Raper
“The thought of working with paper is very appealing to me. However to use it in the style of Maud Vantours I find very difficult. Her art is so precise and symmetrical and she uses beautiful, clear and bright colours which blend together perfectly. I do have quite a stash of papers but although I tried to mimic the Vantours’ style, I’m afraid the accuracy and sharpness just wasn’t there. So instead here are two of my recent portraits, which incorporate paper collage and acrylic paint.“
Vanessa Clegg
“I painted the back of a charcoal drawing and then cut into it, folding and slipping cyanotypes into gaps. Sort of based on an advent calendar, as still in the slipstream of Christmas, but looking from 2024 now, so wishing you all a happy new year!”
And as we contemplate the passing of time at the beginning of this brand new year (in houses filled with brand new stuff and bellies full from feasting) a single word as our creative food-for-thought: Vanitas – “A still life artwork which includes various symbolic objects designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the worthlessness of worldly goods and pleasures…”
Red's Kingdom 
Leave a comment