Conversations With Artists: Thomas Keyes

Join us for a new series of EcoCreatives ‘Conversations With Artists’. Every month for five months we will invite an artist/practitioner from a different part of the world to share their creative practice and exchange viewpoints in an informal online talk. All artists use locally sourced natural materials and natural dye techniques for their practice. By exchanging knowledge and experience, we aim to weave a wider network of practitioners and practices with our own community here on the West Coast.

Our first conversation in this series is with Scotland based artist Thomas Keyes, one of our lead artists on the EcoCreatives 2022 programme. Thomas grew up in Northern Ireland, beginning letter arts as a graffiti writer in the 1990’s. Now based on the Black Isle, he uses the materials and techniques of early medieval insular scribes to create contemporary manuscript art on parchment that takes inspiration from the Gaelic origin legends and a range of contemporary themes.

In this artist talk, Thomas will discuss his practice which involves the traditional production of parchments made from waste deer skin and pigments made with locally found natural materials.

Naoko Mabon (curator) and Deborah Gray (lead artist) on the project will also give an introductory summary to our Conversations With Artists series and the other exciting workshops we have coming up this year as part of the EcoCreatives: Nurturing Creativity, Piece by Piece project. There will be time for a live Q&A session at the end of the talk.

This session is held via Zoom. An invitation link will be shared via email ahead of the event with all registered attendees.

https://scribalstyles.net https://www.instagram.com/thomaskeyesartist/

EcoCreatives: Series 1 Playlist

You can also watch all episodes from Series 1 of ‘Eco Creatives: Conversations With Artists’ on our YouTube channel.

Series 1 Artists:

1. Deborah Gray, Oban

2. Monica Haddock, Mull

3. Fernanda Mascarenhas, Brazil

4. Nanoko Suzuki, Japan

5. Boubacar Doumbia, Mali

EcoCreatives 2022: Lead Artists

Naoko Mabon - Curator

Naoko Mabon is a freelance curator in contemporary visual art, currently based in Oban. She was born and raised in Fukuoka in Japan and has lived in Scotland since 2011. Naoko works with people from different backgrounds, professions and cultures to make various forms of art projects. Her own lived experience as an immigrant and ethnic minority in Scotland motivates Naoko to weave relationships among differences beyond common ground.

Ongoing and recent work include: Ilana Halperin: The Rock Cycle (Yamaguchi), a cross-disciplinary project between Yamaguchi and Scotland (2019–ongoing); Kyojitsu-Hiniku: Between the Skin and the Flesh of Japan, an exhibition as part of the 110 Years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil, Pavilhão Japonês, São Paulo, Brazil (2018); Leaves Without Routes, an exhibition at a Japanese-style house originally built during the Japanese colonial period in Taipei Botanical Garden, Taipei, Taiwan (2016); among others.

https://wagonart.org

Deborah Gray - Lead Artist

Deborah is a textile artist based in Oban. Deborah’s recent work examines the links between land(scape), the natural materials (fibre, plants) which grow there, and the work created from those materials which reflects elements of the land(scape). Techniques include spinning, natural dyeing, knitting, botanical printing and stitch, with photographic documentation. She is Lead Practitioner for the EcoCreative Cluster dye garden project at The Rockfield Centre 2021, developing a dye garden and programme of natural dyeing workshops (with co-Lead Naoko Mabon) as well as building a network of local and international practitioners focusing on the use of natural dyes and related practices.

Deborah is an experienced teacher of spinning, natural dyeing and knitting techniques and has been Artist-in-Residence at The Icelandic Textile Centre, Blönduós, NorthWest Iceland in 2018, 2019 and 2021.

www.deborahgraytextiles.co.uk