“The six towns of Stoke-On-Trent lie close the beating heart of dear old England. Amongst the chimneys and the kilns, on the street of Grayshot Road, lived a woman called Aunt Smoke. Aunt Smoke was bullied throughout her life because she was different, both in appearance and in the way she thought, and because of this, she never left her house. Aunt Smoke collected mementos that arrived through her letter box, which she lovingly arranged in a series of scrapbook’s, in a bid to capture and understand the precious yet brutal world that she hid from so desperately. The stories she collected were from news articles or word of mouth stories from Bigg, about real people and real moments. A recluse for her entire life, she died in the very house in which she was born into. Upon clearing the house these books were discovered. An excavation of treasure in which entailed the stories of local folk. These stories showed you the humour of the people at that time, the idea of what was news worthy and also the attitudes to work, each other and the status qou.
My Key Words
Revive, Narrative, People, Human Connection and Communication, Pottery, Stoke, Capsule, Method.
Brief Key Words.
Originate:
From stories of my own family, to the people around the local culture, our third year brief states that we must originate an idea in which we must develop. Aunt Smoke is such a personal project to me and one i believe is quite original in its nature. With stories hidden for many years, and a unique find of northern culture, i believe basing this project upon my Aunt and her process will have great foundations for mass development and motivation upon my illustration repertoire.
Motivation
The motivation comes from the passion of my heritage of pottery and its working class culture. The revival of the stories will not only motivate me, as with each drawing i will learn more about the culture thus myself, but as doing so will revive the stories of people i believe should be told, as there is an interesting personal connection between the potteries and every UK house hold (With the majority of pottery being made in Stoke, yet owners of that pottery not knowing of its origins existence.)
Methodology
Aunt Smoke collected these stories for a reason. Due to her reclusive behaviour, there is something quite interesting with the means of her choice of story. There is a methodology there similar to artist Maude Lewis. Maude Lewis due to her arthritis and abusive husband stayed in doors to paint. Her motivation came from what she could see outside her window . “A window. I love a window. A bird, whizzing by. Bumblebee. Its always different. The whole of life. The whole of life already framed. Right there .”- Maude Lewis. The idea that an artist was successful using a similar process to my Aunt motivated the thought that Aunt Smokes collection of stories could be used is a similar way. Maude used her window, my Aunt used her letterbox, the only difference being my Aunt did not paint. This is where i could adapt another artists methodology to suit a personal motivation with means of success.
Artist Beryl Cooke also uses a similar methodology. Starting to paint in her later life, she used her friends humour, stories and memories as fuel to her painted images. The personal approach is something quite prominent in this project. Aunt Smoke’s book contains similar content of those that are visible in the works of Cooke. Humour, ways of life, points of view. The news articles do this with a point of view, but one she must have agreed with to add to the scrap book. There is more methodology here that will allow me to play with scope and this will give me great material to develop and experiment with.
Development
Due to the strong background of research for this project, there are many scopes for possible development of methodology and medium. With already two examples of successful and similar artist methodology as a basis for project direction, I believe there are many routes to develop and experiment with.
Aunt Smoke herself could inspire a children’s book, with the stories and characters of the people she collected along with her own character, it would be a great idea to play with the stories as a means of inspiration of fictional characters. This would be something I could experiment with in general, however i believe there is more scope for development and experimentation in this field of methodology.
I could possibly adapt her methodology and use local news from my university home of London, illustrating them and scrapbooking them to see if it collects a similar view of the area, and a means of a possible illustrative inspiration.
There is also the possible development of methodology in which Aunt Smoke wanted people to see these stories. With the idea that Stoke is a forgotten town yet its pottery sits in most households, there are avenues for the experimentation of illustrating those stories of Stoke and sending them to random address’s to revive the word Stoke and representing those plates as capsules of these stories as a reminder of its existence.
Drawings may be only the start, with the idea of these stories happening over the craftsmanship of most plates and mugs, there may be scope for the capsule of the drawings, and playing with how the over all representation could support my goal of finding a relationship with reviving narratives, changing opinions and utilising the right medium to support my methodology and original idea. Grayson Perry would be a great artist as inspiration for this, as he himself uses pottery as a means to talk about narrative. There are options of using mugs and plates to discuss narrative of stoke folk to show the anecdotes that lie behind the craft.
All in all my brief for self directed study is mainly focusing on a means of method, and how experimenting with and developing the foundation of already existing and inspiring narrative could bring a successful end result.
Aunt Smoke 
Leave a comment