1. What’s your name and where do you come from?
My name is Joe Orton and I live in northeast London.

2. Tell us about the pieces you’ll be putting on display…
It’s an animation inspired by the life of the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming, who renounced his life as a civil servant and ran away to the mountains to grow vegetables. Basically it’s about enjoying simplicity: a medieval version of The Good Life. Also, it’s my first narrative animation, so quite a challenge really.

3. How long have you been doing this for?
Not long! I started re-exploring my creative side after finishing my degree in Chinese, which then led me to China to study Chinese inks, which then led me to illustration and animation… Very bizarre, how things turn out.

4. How do you make them – any special techniques?
I work a lot with Chinese inks, which I’ve used for the backgrounds in this animation. The motions are all hand-drawn and then rendered in Photoshop.

5. Who, what or where do you find inspiration for your work?
Well, aside from Tao Yuanming… I’m a Daoist at heart and like to find inspiration in simple things, just by sitting, looking, listening, waiting, shutting up. There’s so much happening around us, so many stories. It’s a shame we blank most of it out.

1.What’s your name and where do you come from?
I’m Janet Carter and live in West Sussex.

2. Tell us about the pieces you’ll be putting on display…
The pieces I am displaying come from a Three dimensional drawing that I made…6x 7 feet of a headless figure ( I have sent you an image of this ).They are thoughts of internal places, Stuck or held in, release, burst etc..all within that ever present external edge or limitation of the frame.

3. How long have you been doing this for?
I’ve been producing works since I was 13.

4. How do you make them - any special techniques?
The three dimensional drawing was made from canvas folded, bent, and torn to form the lines or marks of the figure. Other media such as rope , metal canes create further drawing marks.The smaller images on show were created by photographing the drawing…sectionally.  Paint was then added.

5.Who, what or where do you find inspiration for your work?
The inspiration for my work comes from other artists,( eg. Rembrant, Francis Bacon. Picasso, Joan Mitchell.)..but largely from personal experiences.

1.What’s your name and where do you come from?
I’m a French guy called Alexis Arragon

2. Tell us about the pieces you’ll be putting on display…
Those pieces come from two projects: an urban safari organized in a post-industrial belgian city, rated as the most ugly in the world by dutchmen, and nightlife portraits. In small Charleroi factories neighbour coal piles, the subway network is a neverending story and you can have lunch in a real airliner. The portraits show the sheer emotions of dansers and performers for whom the night is when everything can happen.

3. How long have you been doing this for?
I have been doing photography since 8 years, mostly b&w shots. My curiosity has asked me to experiment as much as possible, and trying something new with a camera in hand is always a thrill.

4. How do you make them - any special techniques?
I’m not a huge fan of post-processing, so I try to do as less as possible.

5.Who, what or where do you find inspiration for your work?
The reasons why I still do take shots are very different from the ones which make me pick it up. There is some momentum now which helps me keeping moving forward, and I found a way where most of my work is based on observation and acceptance.

Links:

For Charleroi:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexisarragon/sets/72157618002198477/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexisarragon/sets/72157618090414854/

For portraits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexisarragon/sets/72157614081356735/
http://alexis-a.fr/http://flickr.com/photos/alexisarragon