Theatre & Events

Be INspired - George Bolster

Our second Be INspired interview is with Irish artist George Bolster. He has recorded a special video for you from his home in New York. In the video he talks about how he likes to explore an idea, his interest in film and libraries and how other artists and scientists inspire his artwork.

Watch his video with an adult and you can pause and chat about what he says together. Have your notebook ready, take notes and discuss his thoughts and ideas in your own time. Take a look at the activities we have prepared for you and Be INspired by George’s journey to making art.

VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH GEORGE BOLSTER

‘You Are Made of Stardust’ at Solstice Arts Centre

Earlier this year George had a solo exhibition ‘You Are Made of Stardust’ at Solstice.

Here you can take a virtual tour of the galleries, see his large installation pieces, read information on each of his artworks and learn more about how science, art history and science fiction inspire him.

VIEW EXHIBITION PHOTOS

Doodle Design

George takes inspiration from other artists and scientists, things he has read, or finds interesting. He calls it his creative journey and notes that it is important to keep trying and ‘never be afraid to make mistakes’ as this is often where the best ideas come from.

George is a multidisciplinary artist which means he works with lots of different materials such as fabric and paint and processes such as film, print and sculpture to create his artworks. To begin, he likes creating doodles as they are always a fun way to start. These could be quick sketches, words or phrases, anything that interests him. Here are some quick doodle exercises and ideas for you to try:

You will need your notebook, sheets of paper (the bigger the better), markers, crayons or colouring pencils and some found objects like a stick or ruler. See how to make your own notebook HERE.

Doodle with your other hand

If you are right-handed, draw with your left. If you are left-handed draw with your right. It is not easy!

Doodle with both hands at the same time

Use a large sheet of paper and draw with both hands. You can pick something to draw or just make marks and doodles.

Vertical Doodle

Tape your paper to the wall. Stand as far back as possible or go up really close to the page and be aware of how it feels compared to drawing at a table.

Doodle Stick

Tape a crayon or colouring pencil to something long like a stick or a ruler and draw something you see around you, your cat, a flower, a football, anything!

Text Art – seeing double

‘Reweaving Your Reality: Of something far more deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air…, 2019 (Quote by William Wordsworth from Tintern Abbey). Mohair wool, jacquard and embroidery

Many of George’s artworks include words or phrases on top of his images. Text Art or combining pictures and text together are an important part of his work. If we look around, we can see text art in lots of places; on book covers, food packets, in magazines, and on the TV. George also uses lines and thread to break up his imagery or to highlight a particular part of the artwork.

You will need your notebook, tape, glue stick, markers or crayons, paper, pictures, letters and words cut from magazines or newspapers. See how to ‘COLLECT – start a collection of inspiration’

Seeing Double

Tape two markers or crayons together, making sure they are both the same length. Swirl them around on a page in your notebook to get the hang of it and see how they make double lines and shapes. Write your name, or just play around with letters. Add three, four or five markers and see what patterns you can make in different colours.

Text Collage

Use some of the images you cut out last week or cut out some you like from old magazines or newspaper and stick them down on your page. Make a picture or collage (a collage is a mix of pictures put together to form a new one). Add some cut out letters or words from your ‘collect envelope’ too. For more pattern or to highlight a part you like, use the markers you taped together, adding your own marks and lines, circling areas or crisscrossing with lines.

Experiment with these activities, adding your own ideas and see where it takes you. Add your artworks to your notebook and you can come back and try them again and again.

Moon Museum – research and explore

In his video interview George mentions places he has travelled to such as SETI (Search of Extra-terrestrial intelligence) Institute and NASA, exploring ideas with scientists and astronauts. This inspired the artworks in the exhibition ‘You Are Made of Stardust’ at Solstice. Can you find his film ‘The Moon, Mc Moons, and the Moon Museum, 2016 in our virtual tour? Click here to view photos.

In this artwork George talks about the first art object, the ‘Moon Museum’ to be sent to the moon. It is said that the ‘Moon Museum’, a tiny tile was secretly attached to the leg of the lunar module on the Apollo Twelve mission in 1969.

If you could send something to the moon, what would it be and why?

Would it be something you have made, something for the astronauts, something precious or an item for aliens to find that will tell them more about our life here on earth?

Write your thoughts and ideas down in your notebook or draw a picture of what you would send in a space rocket blasting off to the moon.

Look up more information about SETI, NASA, Apollo Twelve and the Moon Museum. Find out why the moon might be a place to store important artifacts and things of cultural importance in the future?

Go outside tonight and take a look at the moon. What shape is it? What else do you see, stars, planets, satellites?

To understand what you are seeing and for the best night sky events in May check out:

https://www.space.com/16149-night-sky.html

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Let us know how you have been inspired by George Bolster and his artworks. Send us a photo of what you have added to your notebook, drawn or created. You can email a photo to deirdre.rogers@solsticeartscentre.ie with your first name and we can inspire each other on our creative journey.

Next week we will share some creative inspiration from Saramai Leech and Cormac O’Keeffe of Perlee, a Navan band now based in Berlin. Saramai and Cormac are part of Solstice Arts Centre's Associated Artists Programme and use their voices, synthesisers and strangely tuned guitars to make music.

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