Details

First Name

Alison

Last Name

Bell

Username

alisonbell

Website

alisonbell.co.uk

Region

Ayrshire & Arran

Disciplines

Applied Arts and Craft, Sculpture

Themes

Abstract, Environment

Statement

Statement

I have been a fibre artist with a studio practice since 1977, focusing on aspects of creative process which foreground sensory knowing and thinking through making. Recently , I completed a practice based PhD, examining the ways in which creative practice informs our understanding of the ageing process and how we navigate being in and of the world. Developing this research, I am exploring issues within my own ageing, specifically those challenges I understand as being integral to the process of transitioning, relinquishing, and becoming an older woman. Through creative process and interacting with materials, I reflect on ways in which this impacts on our thinking and seek to offer insights into how a process of re-representing and reconceptualising the self might evolve. As a mature artist/maker, this is an iterative navigation of (creative) process informing (ageing) process.

Biography

Biography

Alison is a textile artist/researcher and studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in the 70s. In 2018 she gained a PhD in Creative Practice from the University of the West of Scotland, where she also lectured in Critical Theory from 2007-18. Prior to this she lived and had her studio on the Isle of Arran for over 25 years. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, has published in academic journals, won many awards and has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. She served on the Board of Craft Scotland, was a Specialist Advisor (Crafts) with the Scottish Arts Council, was Chair of Arran Visual Arts and is currently an Advisor with Applied Arts Scotland. Her CV is available on her website: https://alisonbell.co.uk.