Email: joycecoulton@hotmail.co.uk

Statement

As an artist I feel constantly bombarded with visual and auditory impressions which have to be filtered before I can focus on beginning new work. This seems to be the most difficult step to take. The work then proceeds through peaks and troughs before gaining its own momentum, then has to be brought to completion.

Subject matter and process are equally important to me. I am constantly experimenting with techniques such as tapestry weaving, crochet and origami. Observation of the mathematical construction of pattern in natural forms, children's drawings and overheard phrases can all contribute to the start of a new piece of work.

Colour is all-important. I have recently discovered that the choices I make in its use actually derive in part from *synaesthesia. I have always identified certain words with specific colours or textures. Numbers and days of the week, for example - 'Monday' is Naples yellow; 'Tuesday', pea-green; 'Thursday' is burgundy (incidentally, 'burgundy' has a velvet texture). 'Friday' is crimson and '13' is tomato red so 'Friday 13th' appears in my mind's eye as incandescent.

Making art has always been a part of my life. It provides the impetus to take risks and the safety-net to break falls. I couldn't live without it.

*'synaesthesia' - 'The production of a mental sense-impression relating to one sense by the stimulation of another sense.'

Joyce Coulton