Claire Platt of Calm Air All Ice

Good Morning! Today I wanted to start with some artists interviews to bring you a little closer to the minds behind the new exhibition at Room 212 in Bristol, UK called "52". I have four pieces which will be in the exhibit and am so proud to be in the company of the other 51 artists and the two master minds: Claire Platt and Camilla Stacey. They have a blog for Calm Air All Ice which houses some of the artists interviews, so you should also pop over there

Now, without further ado - here are Claire's answers to my questions!

All photos of Claire Platt's work were provided by Claire Platt. Enjoy!

1.What brought you and Camilla together?

When I first moved to Bristol, I found out there was a knitting group in Bristol so I sent the organiser (one Camilla Stacey) and email and following that I went along to the stitch and bitch group at the Here shop/gallery! (psst. Camilla also co-founded Here) I also did a craft fair (or two? I can’t remember) and took part in the Knit One, Build One exhibition. So knitting brought us together! Yay!

2. What are each of your favourite media to work with and why?

Oh! That’s a tough one for me as I’ve flitted a little between embroidery and knitting over the last few years. At the moment though I would say knitting – particularly with natural wools, and at the moment I am completely in love with some Black Hills yarn. It is beautiful to knit with.

3. What does a good art day look like for each of you?

Hmmm. For me it depends what I’m working on, if I’m making a designated amount of pieces for a show, for example, a good day for me means one in which vast quantities of knitting are completed!

If I’m not working to any deadlines a good day can be something small like one sketch in which an idea is realised, and sometimes a good day is just knitting something non ‘work’ related. I was most excited by the jumper tangent I embarked on a few weeks ago. Those were good days.

4. What artists inspire you?

I admire a lot of artists to be honest – especially those who have paved a career or continue to create alongside various other jobs as I’m still trying to find my feet in that respect. Obviously all the wonderful people taking part in the show are in inspiration to me so outside of those; Kiki Smith, Rachel Denny and Jeffrey Milstein

5. What other inspirations to you each have?

Aeroplanes (how shocking!) particularly WWII aircraft, although I love living under various flight paths – I see lots of commercial airliners everyday. I love going to air shows – not just to see planes but to see the other people who watch the planes. Knitting, old knitting books, other people who knit, visiting the IWM, travel.

6. What is your vision for this exhibition?

Camilla thought it would be easier to invite others to join us, I think I may have escalated the scale of this slightly… One of the first shows Camilla invited me to exhibit in, Abracadabra was inspired by the fact that we had all initially met online. I like that this exhibition has that aspect still – a lot of the artists/designers/makers selected are people whose work I have only ever seen on the internet and the entire thing (including mine and Camilla’s own organising) has happened via email. The vision is basically to bring together a whole bunch of people whose work we love. I think the mixture of different medias is going to make this a really vibrant show! There’s a little bit of everything for everyone and hopefully it will all go off smoothly and perhaps the 52 show will become a regular occurrence!