NAME: Brenda Oakes PROFILE: After more than 25 years of collaborating with commissioners and communities I have decided that the time has come to pursue a more personal, research based approach to my art practice. A recent Creative Wales Award from Arts Council Wales has enabled me to spend time in my studio in the Neath Valley investigating possible connections between the activities of drawing and dowsing, processes which involve similar cognitive abilities within the brain. No particular outcome from this course of action is envisaged; a welcome and necessary change from the constant process and results based expectations placed upon the ‘public’ artist. Anything or nothing might happen as a result of this enquiry, a novelty in itself after such a long outcome-based way of working. Invaluable time for thought and reflection is currently providing a hiatus and no fixed abode for plans for a future of any predetermined nature. Creative coasting is deemed necessary for the time being. Award winning artist Brenda Oakes obtained an MA in Fine Art (Sculpture) in 1990. Whilst a student, one of her sculptures was purchased from The Northern Young Contemporaries exhibition in 1981 by the Loughborough Schools Collection and her first commission was from her bank manager for a large painting for his Midland Bank branch. A public art commission awarded by the Welsh Arts Council in 1984 set Brenda on the road to working in the public realm and since then she has worked in Britain and abroad creating work of increasing diversity in numerous commissions, workshops, symposia and exhibitions. CONTACT: Tel: (0044)1639 710850 Web: |
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