Earlier this year I joined a group called About Face. I was invited to join the group by a mutual connection I had on Facebook. They thought it would be perfect for me because of what I was doing. I was concentrating on my face. My art at that moment, was all focused on within. I was looking within, I was looking within the darkness to find joy.
That was my starting point to where I am today. Now, I’ve not spoken much about the project, mainly because the exhibition was halted by Covid restrictions. You see the Exhibition The Orangery in Staffordshire. Staffordshire is currently in Tier 3 restrictions. All is not lost. The exhibition is still active. You can go on a virtual tour via their website. It’s available for everybody.
The Orangery, Staffordshire Virtual Tour
You can’t physically go and see it, at the moment which is frustrating for the organisers and the artists involved. But the virtual tour is a fabulous alternative.
I find the project fascinating. The amount of people that are involved in this project. Each artist creating very different pieces centred around the face. It was amazing seeing he different mediums that are included in the project. Not only paintings on canvas. I was creating face paintings. There were people doing videos, sculptures, poems, it was amazing how much people focused on this subject and it makes you wonder about what the human face actually means to people. The emotions and the expressions people outlay to the world around them.
The face paints that I’ve done on canvas, the transfer of energy, I’ve recently completed. They are powerful, you can see the power, the confidence, the joy, the darkness and then the light. It is very fascinating how as human beings, we are able to see and process our troubles, relate to others, digest it, make sense of it, go through some sort of healing and come out the other side.
My artwork, along with a variety of different artists are at this show, which you can take a virtual tour around. I should have been shouting about the exhibition, telling you all about it because it’s an achievement. An achievement that I overlooked. Overlooked because the place isn’t open and people cannot physically go to see it. It doesn’t matter. It definitely doesn’t matter because there is another exhibition that is being pulled together and it just happens to be called Transition which again fits in perfectly with my transition from face to canvas. My transition from darkness to light…. I bloody love art.
Angel Burns 