Featured Artists

What does the future hold for Franny Swann, ‘artist aged 56 and a half’?
Ha.Ha. My blog. This has gone rather quiet of late- I began it in a fallow period and then got overloaded when I had to get a painting to Germany and never got it going again. Obviously I will have to do so now!
I began it as a diary for myself to see where I had got to/was going/ a track of my thoughts. When I get busy they seem to sink without trace never to resurface.
Most artists write a blog in the hope that a curator will read it and be interested. I have deliberately titled mine so that I turn this around and hope that it will attract other artists who share my interests and my dialogue will then be with them.

If you could grant yourself a wish for your practice in 2010 what would it be?
To produce a year’s worth of great quality work that hung together conceptually and that excited me. I would love to be in a position at the end of the year to put forward a proposal for a solo exhibition.

What are you currently working on in the studio?   
I have just finished a collaborative artist book with eleven others including a printmaker, poet, gilder and a musician.
I am now working with a wonderful poet on a collaborative work as part of an exhibition called Pistols and Pollinators. Last week we meet for lunch in the British Museum, searched it for ideas and exchanged thoughts. Much coffee was drunk. Central to this project are some beautiful  goose bones that I bought back from a Welsh New Year celebration; they will probably form part of an imaginary museum and the poetry will be the audio tour.
I am also doing a large painting commission which I wish I wasn’t.
In April I am taking part in a collaborative Work Swop with some London artists. All work to be on the theme of the ‘Butterfly Effect’. First we exhibit the work and then swop it. It will be an interesting lesson in respecting and valuing another artists’ work even if you don’t like the piece itself.
In late June I will be exhibiting in Fowle Hall Features again. This is a great contemporary art event run by Accident and Emergence and staged in an orchard and stables in Paddock Wood. This year I shall be exhibiting in the orchard – I am presently working on the theme of nests.
October will see me working on a collaborative proposal that five artists have had accepted for exhibition during December and January.
Add to this a daughter in Scotland, a trip to Turkey, a family boating trip, a lecture to West Kent (about the reality of being an ordinary Kent artist!) - and I feel overcome already.

 What and where is your studio?
For the last five years I have rented a studio space in Hextable near Swanley. The Arts Council funded the local council to change a long, low store into seven studios. Weirdly I have never felt happy working there, maybe because it has no windows, so it is more my art store than the safe creative space it should be.

What inspires you?
Low key colours, the past, memories, loss, melancholia, fragments, text, repetition, boxes and display cases. Often my work has an underlying political theme -injustice, surveillance, torture, diaspora.
 
In my head I always work in projects.
Artistic collaborations have become very important to me. I think more creatively and the final work is stronger when I have the sounding board of another person. I also enjoy sharing the process with someone else even if at times we find ourselves on different paths, as is often the case.

Who was a major influence to your arts practice? And why?
Strangely enough the biggest influence has been my mother’s German Jewish history which resonates through all my work in different ways- sometimes in the overt political sense, sometimes as loss or secrets or as something fragmented and no longer accessible.
After that I would probably cite my BA Fine Art tutor Sandy Farrell whose amazingly serene and painterly still lives I have always admired and who is the most extraordinarily patient, generous and knowledgeable tutor able to push his students to ever more hard work.
Then Susan Hillier for an extraordinarily rich practice that pushed the boundaries at every turn and for work that I can return to again and again.

Favourite historical artist?
It is a close run thing between Vermeer and Rothko. Both have reduced me to tears at retrospective exhibitions. Stylistically poles apart it is their meditative qualities that seduce me. Rothko managed it twice; and 30 years apart. Feckless student and middle aged woman; some feat I would say.

Favourite living artist? Least favourite?
I find this quite impossible. I am fascinated by all contemporary art but then I am as exhilarated studying an ice axe as I am studying a Peter Doig or Marlene Dumas. I have no such thing as a least favourite artist either - all art and artists interest me even when I find their work distasteful.

What are the 5 key relationships that are important to maintain for you and your work? and why? 
1. My husband Michael who for years has put up with endless art clutter, artist meetings, and exhibition dates that clashed with what the family wanted to do. His greatest gift has been to pay my studio rent in order that I can concentrate on work that I want to engage with rather than having to make work to sell.

My artist friends who I rely on to discuss ideas, share opportunities and offer me the unvarnished truth!
3. Accident and Emergence. This is run by two contemporary London artists. It offers bi- monthly critique sessions and a chance to put my work up against those much younger than me and listen to how they view it. Terrifying but necessary.
4. Sandy Farrell.[again]. Last year I didn’t want him to see the work I had done for SEOS. This told me something I knew already but didn’t want to acknowledge. I had overstretched myself and done work specifically for SEOS in too short a time and although technically able it lacked the cohesion and integrity I would have wished it to have. A lesson learnt. 
5. SEOS. This year I shan’t be exhibiting. My doctor daughter only has those dates on which she can introduce her new partner to the family on a family holiday. I shall miss it but I will be back. It is a pivotal part of my year and something I now share with many friends all over Kent.

What does network mean to you?
‘Network’ always sounds such a considered sort of word doesn’t it?
Having said that I am the world’s greatest networker; mostly by default.
 I enjoy people, I love talking and never tire of swopping ideas, chatting and gossiping. I am the one happy just watching a room full of people for an hour or two.
Networking of some sort or the other has bought me into contact with most of the artists I work with and many of my friends. I had to learn that other artists and art professionals invariably respond to an approach with interest and kindness and I no longer hesitate to talk to people I think are interesting.

How do you build good artists relationships?
Take every opportunity that comes your way to offer people something back for their friendship and support.
Be a generous artist. Be generous with your time, support, and especially your willingness to share any opportunities that come your way. You may not want to try for that residency but doubtless you know someone whom would be good at it. Overcome your human side that doesn’t want them to be more successful than you and send it to them. In return you will be remembered when something comes their way.
Start things for others as well as yourself. Last year I started the Sevenoaks Visual Artist Forum as a safe place for us all to meet, network, critique our work, listen to speakers and share ideas. I now know 40 artists in the area I didn’t know before.
At Christmas I was offered the chance of running a Two Week Gallery in an empty shop. It proved the perfect chance to give back something to the people who are my support links and I loved every minute of it.
 
What advice would you give on how to first approach people?
Find others. Use every opportunity. Go to every local art event; promise yourself you will talk to two people. Ask other artists everything you want to know. Everyone likes to be asked their advice, it makes us feel good!
Seek out some of the organisations that will send information to your mailbox. Try your local galleries, museums, funding organisations, Art Jobs and Art News etc.
Join SEOS. Go to all your ACO’s meetings; ask her if she would like help. Ask for her help. SEOS is a readymade local network but you will have to do some work yourself. During SEOS leave time to go round all the local studios and talk to the artists for at least three minutes. Ask questions; tell them what you like about their work. Say that you are pleased to find some local artists to talk to. Their reaction will tell you if they feel the same way.
Don’t be afraid of your local arts officer. They don’t do the same job as they used to sadly, but they are always supportive. You can ask them if they have a list of artists and makers you can add your work to, if they know of any local groups that would suit you and which libraries will accept proposals and how to prepare one.
Write a blog and network that way. Use Facebook to promote your work and send out invites for your exhibitions. It is possible only to use your Facebook account for your art or you can invite others to join your page if you set it up as group. You can also join other artist groups on Facebook
Good Luck.

When and where can we see more of your work? (list any shows/events you are participating in, websites…)
Fowle Hall Features- Paddock Wood, Kent June 26th, 27th and July 2nd, 3rd, 4th 2010.

See website www.re-title.com/artists/franny-swann.asp for further exhibition venues in 2010.