![\"\"](\"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.files.wordpress.com\/2020\/02\/insights-banner-e1584383989901.jpg?resize=783%2C277\")
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As artists we spend quite a bit of time observing the world around us and responding to these events. <\/span>We have to look no further than the current situations we are faced with ; racial injustice, a pandemic and climate change just to mention a few. <\/span>What ever your subject, it is an opportunity <\/span>to engage with creative solutions to raise awareness, create change and even trigger action. This week Shelley talks about her continued <\/span>investigation and response to problems encountered <\/span>by the world\u2019s coral reefs.<\/p>\n What is your favourite part of the creative process? Generally, my work tends to be two dimensional but this new body of work involves little three-dimensional assemblages, so I am very much learning as I go along. <\/span>I have been using porcelain, paper clay, slip, plaster, paint, wax, varnish and wire. As I discover some things that work and some that don\u2019t, I am reminded of a favourite quote of mine,<\/p>\n \u2018Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It’s crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it?\u2019 <\/i> <\/i><\/b>Frank Gehry<\/i><\/p>\n As artists we spend quite a bit of time observing the world around us and responding to these events. We have to look no further<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/files\/2020\/08\/shelley-tsg-blog-image-copy1.jpg?resize=783%2C165&ssl=1\")
\nShelley Rhodes
\nAre the ideas\/themes for this project ongoing or are they new?
\n<\/em><\/strong>Having previously made work in response to coral bleaching due to rising sea temperatures, I have continued to investigate and respond to problems encountered with by the world\u2019s coral reefs. Having been overwhelmed by the amount of discarded plastic I came across while beach combing, I began to wonder if it affects coral and of course it does. <\/span>It contributes to disease and it can become entangled around the delicate coral fingers causing them to break off. I gathered the discarded beach plastic and laid out my new collection. Some of the plastic resembled little sea creatures or vessels to contain tiny pieces of broken coral. As I arranged the fragments, they reminded me of extinct exhibits in a museum. How sad if our coral reefs become extinct and the only way to see coral in the future is displayed in boxes in a museum.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/em>I love sampling, testing, trying things out and experimenting. I like to mix different media – asking myself \u2018what would happen if\u2026?\u2019 <\/span>In fact, once I have figured it all out and know where I am going, I quite often lose interest in completing the finished piece. This is why increasingly I work in small units – almost little test pieces, which I build together to create a new piece of work.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/textilestudygroup.co.uk\/news\/files\/2020\/08\/shelley-tsg-blog-image.jpg?resize=783%2C587&ssl=1\")