Celebrating apart - my dad was 80years old at the end of January. A fine old age. He is fit & well, has listened to advice, stayed at home majority of the time since last March, and kept himself and my mum safe.
He has even had the first dose of the vaccination a couple of weeks ago.
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The lockdown has disrupted many celebrations - a year ago we would have enjoyed a family lunch out, moaned about who was sitting where and argued over the bill!
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Now it’s door step present and food parcel drop offs, plus zoom bingo - how things have changed!

Celebrating Apart

Re-constructed urbanscapes  I have reshaped the urban streets that I walk by daily. These images identify with my immediate surroundings and focus on the city aesthetics, abstract environment, and discarded items that have been abandoned, lost, or dumped. The compositions are inviting the viewers to look at the world in a slightly different way, familiar yet unbalanced. Reinventing space and forging a new perspective on the physical environment that we inhabit. 
https://www.clairrobins.com/re-constructed-urbanscapes 

Re-Constructed Urbanscapes

Funbox / objet trouvé 
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Observational diptychs, that merge collected discarded items and skatepark 'architecture' curated from my local city park - April 2021
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The skatepark is quite a magnet for the local kids of all ages. Some skate, scoot, ride and others just hang out and gossip...(my daughter generally is the one who likes the ‘tea’ and doesn’t really skate)!
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However, I was drawn to the neglected and discarded ‘treasures’ surrounding the area - small facets that reflect the life the park and human impact on the ramps, curbs and structure. The texture and markings created by the constant daily use are quite beautiful and compelling.
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#skatepark
#objet trouvé
#discarded
#urbanimpact
#parkarchitecture

Funbox / objet trouvé 

A body of work that seems to have inadvertently tracked ‘time’ during lockdown part two - instead of buying flowers, I have been drawn to these quirky bulbs and have managed to keep them constantly flowering as a positive symbol that spring would come and fortunately now is here. It has proved quite popular as they sit on the kitchen window sill, sprouting, over growing, top heavy and drooping all over the place. Not forgetting the lovely fragrance ( natures perfume) and mystery random colours. The bulbs will placed in the garden soon and will pop up next year, not as a negative reminder of the lockdown but a strong reminder that as a family we survived the cold weeks, working from home, and dark nights.

Fifteen Hyacinths Later

I love investigating objects and details of daily items within my home at close range and I have used the traditional process of 'photograms' to explore manmade and natural fibers, textures that we don't see in black and white or at such close range.


Close Range


Lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed lives, disrupted the young & old, and deeply impacted on how we exist.
It has also shown us how resilient and creative, we can be in isolation.
This body of work is a glimpse of my life under lockdown. It embraces my new found love our garden. Being forced to spend more time at home, missed holidays, outdoor schooling and fair weather has resulted in a series of still life creations, almost a contemporary archive slide show for generations to come of what we did in the months between March and August 2020. Catch bugs, crochet rainbow flowers, lots of BBQ's and watch the birds. The garden - my beautiful sanctuary and outdoor space that became the natural extension of our home. 

The Broken Gnome Diaries - 2020 ​ ​

SATs – Tick one box’
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Almost all parents and children in year 6 at primary school will have had many discussions about SATs - Standard Assessment Tests. You will hear mixed opinions about the relevance and if indeed they are important, and if so to whom?
My 11 year-old daughter, has spent much of her time this year devoted to working on Maths, English (grammar, punctuation, spelling and reading) by working though many practice papers. The ‘assessments’ (we used to call them tests) were planned for May 2020. The lockdown CV19 crisis had an unexpected impact on doing the SATs - basically they were abandoned.
Bizarrely enough, I was quite disappointed; on one hand I feel they can put unnecessary stress on young children, on the other I wanted to know what she would have got. I like numbers, scores, and % - I can be a bit competitive. So, we missed out or did we? All that hard work that would have been celebrated with a mass trip to the local bowling alley – do we feel a bit cheated?
So, my house is full of practice papers, scribbles, questions and booklets about Maths calculations and English grammar skills that I honestly struggle to answer.
‘SATs – Tick one box’ is my response and visual tribute to all those children and parents, who feel they lost out this year or maybe dodged a bullet.
 
After conducting a poll from local parents, 42% were fairly indifferent to if their kids took the SATs or not, 37% would have preferred them to take the assessment (yes - I am one of them) and only 8% were glad their their child didn’t have to take part this year.

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Clair Robins