Shirley Bell

Project Title	Transcendence and the Spiritual
Venue	Fydell House, Lincolnshire, UK
Date	October 2023

About my Project: Transcendence and the Spiritual

I use different media to depict the transcendent and spiritual, from a feminist perspective. I use photography and drawing to mine into these ideas, which are expressed in light-filled mixed media canvases and smaller mosaics which relate to my practice through my work in the Boston School of Mosaic.

The key concepts in my work are how to express my ideas, create engaging material, and create a gateway into my pieces.

My work has been regularly exhibited in the South Holland Arts Exhibition, and Arts Coritani, a local gallery. I had an exhibition in Room 1, in Boston and in 2023 I had a three week long solo exhibition of my MA work in the gallery at Fydell House at South Street where the Boston School of Mosaic studio is housed.

My mosaic work is in the Boston Dolphin Lane Installation Boston, and further work
on endangered species, plus other installations are well underway. I enjoy the collaborative practice with my fellow artists and we gain inspiration and skills from one another.

My project, Transcendance and the Spiritual, aims to show that an aspect of self can step outside the constraints of history, science, and temporality, and this aspect experiences the transcendent, wherever it is found, in my case in the natural world and in feminist mythology.

My current practice represents colourful, light-filled landscapes which also show the Christian Madonna, drenched in colour, in the mythological and liminal space inhabited by iconic mother goddesses of history and pre-history and informed by feminist principles. This has presented many challenges because I am attempting to express things that cannot be expressed -it is difficult to capture the power of light through trees and in reflections, and to express aspects of the spiritual while avoiding sentimentality.

I am also concerned with issues of sustainability and the environment. I live next to a small nature reserve but it is an oasis in miles of reclaimed marsh land which is expressed in this video from 2022.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/900923847/privacy

Artist Statement

I use different media to depict the transcendent and spiritual, from a feminist perspective. I use photography and drawing to mine into these ideas, which are expressed in light-filled mixed media canvases and also in small mosaics which relate to my practice through my work in the Boston School of Mosaic.

The key concepts in my work are how to show my ideas successfully , create engaging material, and create a gateway into my pieces. I feel that the materials themselves create interactions and there is a conversation between us as my pieces develop with the adding and subtracting of layers.

I live in Lincolnshire. My work has been regularly exhibited in the South Holland Arts Exhibition, and Arts Coritani, a local gallery. I also had a Room 1 exhibition in Boston. My mosaic work is in the Boston Dolphin Lane Installation in Boston, and further work on endangered species, plus other installations are well underway.

I have tried to present my ideas as widely as possible.
I was selected for the LICC competition in 2021:-

In July 2023 I had a scholarship to a 2 week course at the European Cultural Academy in Venice.

In October 2023 I had a 3 week exhibition in Fydell House, which showcased my MA work over the two years of the course. I had a Private View and also produced a book which is on sale at Fydell House.

I made a short video of the installation.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvmT3Rw3e-8r4iaoYYd8MIA

At the end of 2023 I was featured in Art Seen Magazine

I am looking forward to the future and to the continuing the development of my project.

GALLERIES
1. Transcendent landcape

DETAILS OF THE IMAGES ABOVE:

top left: REFLECTIONS 40x60x1cm Acrylic paint on canvas, bottom left: TRANSCENDENCE IN TREES 100x30x3cm Mixed media on canvas
middle top: LIGHT IN THE TREES 60x50x1cm Mixed media on canvas
middle middle: TRANSCENDENT WATER 50x50x1cm Acrylic paint on canvas
middle bottom :SKY AND WATER Canvas and mixed fibres. 12x18cm
right: TRANSCENDENCE IN TREES -2 61×30.5 cm x 600mm Mosaic on Board

MOSAICS AND WATER IN VENICE

In my scholarship to Venice July 2023 I became interested in the light in the water, especially on boat wakes. It is a different light in the dazzling 40 degree heat. The above show two 10 cm experimental pieces, and two 20 cm square pieces one, top right, looking at greens, and the bottom piece looking at colours in the water.

2. Introducing narrative content into landscape

Above: LADY IN THE LAKE 70x60x1cm Mixed media on canvas

Above: MADONNA IN THE TREES* 60x30x1cm Mixed media on canvas .*with a reduced copy of my watercolour after ‘Madonna in Rose Garden,’ 1473 by Martin Schongauer with the red dress replaced by the more traditional blue gown

3. Iconography of the Spiritual

I am interested in expressing the spiritual through the ancient mother goddesses to the Madonna and through the iconography of Christianity. However, the oringinal doctrine of love became embroiled in the power relationships and hierarchical outcomes of the Church which sidelined the role of women despite their importance in the original text.

DETAILS OF THE IMAGES ABOVE:

Top left :The Annunciation  materials: collage papers, acrylic paint, pens, ink on canvas board. H 30cm x W 40cm
Bottom left. Nativity ~ materials: collage papers, acrylic paint, pens, ink on canvas board. H 30cm x W 40cm. Mary is after Leonardo da Vinci’s joyful Benois MadonnaIn these two pieces Mary is accompanied by strong women: her mother Saint Anne and a female angel Gabriel

Middle top: CHRISTIANITY UNDER THE CROSS 60x30x1cmMixed media on canvas. The cross is paper mosaic.Inspired by Byzantine paintings.
Middle bottom: MARY AND THE GODDESSES 25x25x1cm – paint and paper mosaic with some 3- dimensional collage Inspired by The Judgement of Paris, by Rubens, 1636. I have borrowed his goddesses Aphrodite, Athena and Hera, who now accompany the pregnant Mary and share one another’s attributes. Here I want to place Mary in a mythological space where the ancient mother goddesses still feed through her.
Top right: WOMEN IN THE GARDEN 35x35x1cm Acrylic paint and collage on canvas. This is deliberately ambiguous. Ostensibly it shows the two women celebrating their discovery of the risen Christ. The shroud is abandoned by the open tomb on the left. Yet they could also by laughing with disbelief. This painting invites the viewer in to examine this iconic account
Bottom right: Bastet 20x20x1cm Mixed media on canvas
Bastet evolved from a fierce lion-headed Egyptian goddess to a benevolent cat-headed mother goddess.

I was also inspired to create my own little goddesses in air dried clay as a daily project on the MA course – Gaia, and two cat goddesses on the right, about 7cm high. I am attached to the one below with her pregnant belly and stripy tail and an Egyptian costume.

4. ICONS :

Clockwise from the left. These are experiments with tiny icons in paper mosaic with watercolour figures. Icons 1 and 2 on the right are 14x10x2cm paint and paper mosaic on canvas
Icons 3 and 4 above are 15x10x1cm:paint and paper mosaic on board.

These tiny pieces are designed as icons, small devotional images, soaked in gold. They are paper mosaic, prototypes for other pieces in mosaic. I wanted to show ambivalence in the figures. They are inspired by the strange wooden poses of the icons in Byzantine art, but these Madonnas are alive and naturalistic. They are understandably surprised and discontented at their lot. In 1 and 4 the babies share this consternation.I was influenced by the nativity pieces of Paula Rego, where Mary is a schoolgirl in uniform. In Icon 4 my Mary is conspicuously very young with freckles. In biblical times, girls were married when they were as young as 12.

5. Experiments – Man of Sorrows

I am continuing to develop my ideas. I recently created the piece below in painted and torn silks which express the savagery of Christ’s crucifixion.

Man of Sorrows: W43xH75xD1cm canvas, silk, netting.

The Man of Sorrows is important in Christian iconography as this image shows the wounded, bloodied and battered Christ, after he descended from the Cross.

Top left, this is how the piece appears when it is hung. The close up on the right shows the bloody figure on white silk, in acrylic inks. It is in red and sepia tones with a crown of thorns. When the drawing of Christ on silk is folded away, there is a glimpse and then a full view of the original numinous abstract. This is a piece on rolled paper with the amorphous figure shown in alcohol inks sealed with matt medium.

This piece is a paradigm of my conversations with materiality. The silks seem to vibrate with life and energy, and the initial image of christ references the Turin shroud. The layers actively reveal themselves. This piece is full of energy and vibrates with the spirituality of the underlying ideas.

I see this piece as pivotal in my practice.

Collaboration and thanks

My overwhelming thanks are to Fydell House, South Street, Boston, PE21 6HT

Fydell House is a listed Queen Anne Mansion built around 1700.

Boston School of Mosaic has a wonderful, light-filled studio on the first floor. On the ground floor there are two exhibition rooms which have professional hanging systems to display work to its best.

I have to thank Jane Kay, my collaborator on mosiac projects including public commissions, who helped with the hanging.

I also have to thank all the staff at Fydell House for their help in hanging the exhibition, dealing with members of the public and passing on their comments and also for the catering for my private view.

The staff are volunteers so I only had to pay for food, and I made a voluntary 10% donation from my sales.

I also want to thank them for hosting our mosaic studio at such a fair rental.