Gigi Salomon

Day 30
Keep drawing -Alabaster sculpture in the making
The 30:30 initiative has given my practice the opportunity to try new media and to enjoy making quicker responses to the daily brief often rootling through my trove of found objects and making new associations and juxtapositions. I am sad not to have been able to be part of any crit and would welcome the opportunity beyond April. This drawing is for an alabaster carving which will be my largest yet on the theme of Cylinder Circle. I will make many more drawings of a more 3D nature to visulaise it in the round.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 29
Xylem Phloem on a Spring Walk
I went to see how the young trees are doing on the farm. Planted in the cold Spring and quite late, there are so many Roe deer and rabbits, that each tree needs a bio degradable tree guard to protect it. Here was a bin full of left over guards. I like pattern and illusion and wanted to transform these everyday materials into another realm.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 28
Interconnected
I am very interested in the visual illusions created by the plasticity of very small objects. In this case the sculptural quality and grace of something very everyday.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 27
Cylinder Circle
I am working on the theme of finding the positives and negatives within these two interlocking shapes. Using tracing paper from my grandmother's old A5 pad, this is a visual version of the alabaster sculptures I am making.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 26
Interlude with packaging
I have a store of interesting shapes made by packaging which I might use for sculpture, printmaking or drawing - so I experimented with layering the four lobes to make 8 and the single in the middle, like a plant.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 25
Orange Conglomerate
These almost unimaginable oranges have an intensity and richness. The geological process that created these colours is extraordinary and special. I have never seen colours and textures like these before.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 24
It piles up
Stacks of all kind pile up or way lay us on a daily basis. When big enough they become indecipherable mass until taken apart piece by piece. Only then can one manage each task. Here it is a bridge built by just such layers and stacks and offer a way over from one state or place to another. It is a physical representation however it could also be mental.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 23
Broken Africa
I found this piece of pavement in Duddingston - stone weathered thousands of millenia ago. This stone had broken into the shape of the African continent worn out by years of extraction of its precious assets.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 22
Fern left in Duddingston
The temperatures dropped dramatically this morning as I walked to the top of the crags overlooking Duddingston Loch. All around me were buds of Magnolia, young primrose and old teasels. Then I saw the elegant spores of the young ferns and decided to place the drawing into the dry red sandstone walls in the lane.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 21
Jute Mill Meghalaya
I took this image of one of the largest factories of jute in Northern India. The workers in this Mill come from the whole of the surrounding area and it provides the families with the wherewithal with which to live. Most of us in Great Britain no longer live with the world of production and can only read of the living and working conditions which were commonplace during the last century. This photograph makes this world more accessible.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 20
Rythmn
Work By: Gigi Salomon
Rythmn

Day 19
Draw more and draw your dog
This is the first time I have drawn my 3 year old bitch labrador since my old dog died 5 years ago. it will definitely set me on the path to experiment and do really quick poses with all media.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 18
Slugs mating
I watched this scene of two large black slugs, the largest in the world, start to mate. They are hermaphrodite and they intertwine their penises together and leave a large sack of semen hanging on a branch.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 17
Dorset Barn
I have always wanted to sit quietly and draw this fascinating barn. It is covered in lichen and has a strong presence in the country here. I look on it daily and watch swallows, pigeon and many other birds perform precarious landings in high winds.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 16
Had a party
This old hostess book is full of the details that made for a good party. Gowns, jewels worn, the wine and the menus and of course the characters invited. I love to invite people to meet one another, make friends and connections, exchange ideas and laugh. Although this book speaks of another time, looking back on what happened and with whom and when is invaluable.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 15
Appeal to all ages
When I saw this little person make a b-line for my sculpture at an exhibition, the idea of the mutual interdependence between humans and their religion, (the Cross) into a puzzle seemed to work. I like play and I like people to touch my work as much as possible.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 14
Order, Tools and beloved Alabaster
I like to record what tools I have used to carve that day and how the shape is changing. It seems slow however when I look back to the beginning only four days ago, it gives me courage and fortitude.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 13
Quicker than the Postie
Being given a plant or bulb is so special as is seeing the face of the Postie who is the glue of our community. What comes by bicycle with the weather adding to the spectacle is something to behold.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 12
By Western Union with love
I used Maeve's lovely Easter card to us all and thanking us for sending her a bunch of flowers. Her writing is quite spindly and wriggly now at the age of 90 and she even apologises for it. What kindness she has. She is the last of that generation to send us a card.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 11
Who am I kidding?
I have always had a fascination for shadows and love catching them when I can. Could I have created these without asking for the help from the sun? This is a bit of a cheat.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 10
Collaboration with Alabaster
The large piece of alabaster in front of me suggests much of how I am to approach carving it. What to leave and what to shape. The stone does speak to one and I collaborate with it respectfully. I think over the concept of the interlocking cylinder circle with which I have been fascinated for the last two years and this piece will be a development in both size and exploration of apertures in the stone.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 9
I'm only just beginning
This is an 80kgs piece of white alabaster scaled up to work on my present theme of interlocking shapes - those of a cylinder and a circle. I may keep some of the rough texture as the stone was taken out of the ground and lose as little as possible of this stone. Should this piece in its raw state never be carved by me, I hope someone will inherit the project.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 8
Calvary was only a piece of it
This is from a poem by Helen Waddell who describes the part of the tree used for Christ's Cross. It bears humanity's pain. However the dark rings travel the length of the tree. The pain continues.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 7
The Sybil's secret - Good Friday message
The Sybil would traditionally write her prophecy about the birth of Jesus Christ on oak leaves, however in Guercino's Cumean Sybil with a Putto, she changes her message to reveal Christ's crucifixion on the Cross on Good Friday. I have used a special oak leaf which I found with two oak galls attached onto which I transcribed the Sybil's message. Oak galls were used to make ink.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 6
Cutting Edge
I decided to be Michael Craig Martin for Day 6. His clean lines and spare treatment of everyday objects fascinates me. His drawing is witty and elegant. I often like to juxtapose objects and materials in my sculpting practice and I am presently carving a flat-headed axe out of Moolham stone. So today I have drawn, on graph paper, this ergonomically designed and subtle implement used by ancient peoples overlaid with my contemporary filleting knife.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 5
Budding in Spring
I found it difficult to work the printing inks to create this mono print image of a vibrant yellow bud emerging from a twig. The surface of the inks pulled against the paper and produced exciting layers and tonal mixes as well as textures that can be found at this time of year in nature.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 4
Antenna
On my walk this clear sharp morning, I found these perfectly-shaped cups created to hold acorns. Smooth on the inside like a chalice, rough marked and whorled on the outside with stalks like poles or posts. My approach to making sculpture or prints, has been formed by a delight in finding objects; often discarded, at a disjuncture. The transformation, the metamorphosis occurring when I juxtapose the pieces with other materials, out of context. I am free to play by altering the scale, keeping the essence and value of what I have found.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 3
Sysiphus
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus or Sisyphos was the founder and king of Ephyra. Hades punished him for cheating death twice by forcing him to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. I have simplified this myth and focussed on the boulder as a symbol of what we carry around with us unnecessarily.
Work By: Gigi Salomon

Day 1
Come Sirens come, voyage the sea with me
This drawing is using chinagraph and conté crayons on old paper belonging to my grandmother. It is about what I can take with me which _ thoughts and histories that have made impressions on me. Neither storms nor strange surroundings can take those away from me and they give me resilience. It is based on an object I saw at the Science Museum. Gigi Salomon
Work By: Gigi Salomon