Today, we’ll be sharing our next artist spotlight! In this series of blog posts, we’ll get to know an artist in the community and learn a little more about them and their work.
For our second post, we will be featuring Carrie Ravenscroft. Take it away, Carrie!
Artist Bio:
I’m Carrie Ravenscroft, a watercolour illustrator and mental health advocate from London. I am cisgender, female, queer, white and living with a chronic disability.
More recently, I consider myself neurodivergent, as I have gone through a therapeutic journey that has enabled me to use my experience to support others. I aim to address discrimination, stigmatisation and ignorance in my work, in a way that is tolerable through colourful, whimsical and nonsensical paintings. As part of my recovery, and to help others feel less alone, I intentionally talk openly about mental health.
As I believe creativity can be a powerful tool for wellbeing, I encourage people to engage in artmaking; I’m dedicated to this socially engaged work, such as facilitating Creative LGBTQI+ and Women’s Spaces voluntarily at a charity. I am also a mental health support worker at a mental health charity.
My most recent illustrations have been for Disability Arts Online and Wellcome Collection. With a background in Fine Art and Care Work, I am now moving towards graduating as an Art Therapist. My professional life and personal art are kept separate, however my illustrations often draw from life experience.
Oh and I absolutely LOVE blending pretty, shiny colours, painting on pieces of cardboard, breaking art rules and mixing media in ridiculous ways!
Thanks, Carrie! Below is a piece she is currently working on. Several of Carrie’s other projects can be seen on her website at carrieraven.com. You can also follow Carrie on Instagram at the handle @ravenscroftcarrie
Work in progress – Arts council funded project ‘The Bigger Picture’, on individualism & connection as a neurodivergent person. Iridescent watercolour, ink, acrylic + marker pens on found cardboard. Each piece is 55 x 35cm
Today, we’ll be sharing our very first artist spotlight! In this series of blog posts, we’ll get to know an artist in the community and learn a little more about them and their work.
For our first post, we will be featuring John F. Gerrard. John is sharing his artist statement and a little bit more about him. Take it away, John!
Photo by Emma Palm
I am a multidisciplinary artist, with a focus on visual art. In my teens and 20s I was active creatively as a musician, touring across North America and playing locally. During this time I got my feet wet with visual art, doing graphic design work for bands and small businesses. I went to ACAD with the intention to pursue a design degree, but became obsessed with creating with charcoal and paint. I majored in drawing at ACAD and then went to work at a commercial sign company. In 2016 I left to pursue art full-time.
In 2018 I was trained by the Canadian Mental Health Association as a peer support worker. Since then I’ve been developing my art practice with mental health advocacy work.
A highlight for me has been working with Branch Out Neurological Foundation, making images based on interactions with neuroscientists, and taking part in their charity events for three years in a row now.
In 2019 I had my first international show in Chicago as a part of the SomePeople Everybody exhibition. This multidisciplinary project examines the ethics, people, processes, and systems that constitute the maintenance of, and barriers to, health for human beings.
Here is John’s Artist Statement:
As a visual artist I’m currently focused on making drawings that are text based and speculative. The work is meant to be enjoyed for its form and aesthetic quality, but also invites investigations into the strands of literal meaning. The text is readable in linear and non linear ways, and is themed on subjects such as the mind, free will and how that relates to whether we discover or create identities.
Formally, the work usually consists of compositions of multiple panels. I draw each panel by hand and then invert the black and white digitally. After they are inverted and in a grid, I mirror the piece both vertically and horizontally. This symmetry gives order to the disorderly nature of the vast and varied text. It holds the tension of a middle zone. The finished work is presented as an image that is playful with the rational and the chaotic. There is structure and randomness coexisting with design.
I’m influenced by other artists who approach their work without direct representation of the physical world, as well as makers who could be classified as “outsider” artists. I find myself coming back to the work of Jean Michel Basquiat, Hilma af Klint, and Agnes Martin, and I’m inspired by the way they make images. When I was at art college, I was exposed to the beatniks, as well as the godfather of beatniks, William Burroughs. His non-traditional use of text as well as those of the Dadaists motivate me to create in the way I do.
Being introspective, it is a very personal project. I think externalizing our inner worlds in this way can be very rewarding, and that so often our thoughts and our guesses at their implications swirl through our heads in an awful repetition. A lot of it I don’t think we’re aware of. By making this work, I continue to learn about myself, making conscious the issues and ideas I’m encountering.
These drawings are so natural and exciting to make. Working on each panel, I feel connected to something beyond, and that my language to do so is developing further with each image. There is a story being built between and within each piece, and it’s an exercise of rationality and intuition to find or make those next steps with it.
I’m often faced with conflicts that force me to rethink things and consider and reconsider possible end games, of what I could be suggesting or not suggesting inadvertently. I do my best to record that process on the page, as I want to reflect the realities of being conflicted or of not knowing. There is this back and forth, between doubt and feeling sure.
Art is a great space for us to experiment with hard topics. The drawings serve as a way for me to explore my own beliefs and values, by examining my thoughts through a physical process on the page.
You can check out more about John and his work by visiting his website www.johnfgerrard.com. Here’s a preview of some of John’s work:
The Layered Onion has had the opportunity to work with University of Wisconsin Law School’s Law & Entrepreneurship (L&E) Clinic since June of 2021. The Layered Onion would encourage any early-stage entrepreneur to learn more about the L&E Clinic. We are glad that we did!
About the L&E Clinic
The L&E Clinic provides free legal services to nascent entrepreneurs and early-stage companies through the work of law students supervised by faculty and private sector attorneys.
The work of the L&E Clinic closely traces the dynamic evolution of the Madison startup community. Since the creation of the L&E Clinic, they have helped thousands of founders, creators and inventors start innovative businesses. Those businesses have grown along with us.
Today, they are known throughout the entrepreneurial ecosystems of Madison and beyond for ushering promising, innovative companies through the early stages of their business life cycle.
The L&E Clinic Mission
The L&E Clinic provides free legal services to nascent entrepreneurs and early stage companies through the work of law students supervised by faculty and private sector attorneys.
They have three primary goals:
train law students in the practical aspects of transactional law while providing a challenging academic experience,
provide high quality legal services to entrepreneurs and startup companies, and
impact the Wisconsin economy by helping local businesses launch and grow.
Who are Services Available to?
The L&E Clinic is designed to help entrepreneurs develop businesses that create a positive economic impact for the state of Wisconsin.
They select applicants with a connection to Wisconsin who would otherwise be unlikely to obtain qualified legal advice. This usually means the applicant has not received a significant round of outside funding or financing from investors. They are also interested in whether the work requested presents an interesting educational opportunity for our students.
In the Artwork Spotlight series of blog posts, the Layered Onion highlights a specific work by an artist in the community. These works could range from short stories to visual art to music and more!
Today, Linda is sharing her poem entitled “Stuck.”
Stuck
The gale force holds
My hair up defiant
To gravity.
My feet covered
Completely in debris,
Weeds and trash.
Battered and beaten by
Raindrops unleashed from
Angry clouds.
Morning unfurls a murk,
Dense mist pondering the
Frost soon here.
Waiting after many
Attempts to let the story
Flow once more.
In the Artwork Spotlight series of blog posts, the Layered Onion highlights a specific work by an artist in the community. These works could range from short stories to visual art to music and more!
Today, Linda is sharing her poem entitle “Falling.”
Morning light slow to join
The birds and mammals whose
Day began.
Clouds of charcoal tell them
Time has come for gathering
Before too late.
Welcomed rain jostles
nuts and berries resistant to fall
before.
Cool breezes spur action
After long, warm days
Allow rest.
Join us @thelayeredonion. Everyone has a story to tell.
Have you ever picked up a brochure about counseling services and wondered who those people are in the photo? They look a bit too staged. Can you see the depth of their angst? Can you see the mask they are wearing? We can’t. They look like photos that could be used advertising an upcoming festival or on a website promoting college.
Have you ever looked at a drawing that captured the overwhelming anxiety you feel every time you leave your home? Has a song spoken to you in a way that you were sure they experienced depression so deep that getting out of bed was too much? Or a poem that permeated your mind and gave you hope that manic moments could lead to beauty not chaos?
If creative content is used in all the areas where emotional and mental health is discussed, it can change the dynamics: draw in those that are the audience, provide a financial living for many that find typical employment challenging and provide authenticity to the supporters’ efforts. For this reason, we have created a supporter category that provides access to a set amount of creative content monthly. Our hope is when our supporters use our content we will be seen by all in an accepting manner.
In the Artwork Spotlight series of blog posts, the Layered Onion highlights a specific work by an artist in the community. These works could range from short stories to visual art to music and more!
Today, Eva is sharing her the process behind creating her knitting pattern “Crownlet.”
I’ve been knitting for over a decade now. I like to define my knitting career in terms of milestones (first scarf, first time knitting in the round, first project with cabling, etc.). One such milestone was designing my own pattern. I was new to pattern design, so I first started this project with a lot of research. And I mean a lot. I think I still have a huge folder of bookmarks in my browser that originate from this project.
Eventually, I decided to center my design around the S2KPO decrease. For those familiar with knitting, this involves slipping two stitches together knitwise, knitting one, and then passing the two slipped stitches over the knit stitch. This results in a centered double decrease. I decided to use this decrease to create a cute little crown pattern.
Due to a math snafu, this first iteration of the pattern did not turn out as I hoped. But that’s OK. I needed to keep reminding myself that commercial patterns are test knit by dozens of folks before being published. In the meantime, I’ll unravel and start again.
Here, this image shows the crownlet (iteration 1 in orange) as modeled by a stuffed animal. I took the opportunity to try designing the front page of the digital pattern. I added some fun text to encourage folks to try it out.
“We also have to focus on ourselves, because at the end of the day, we’re human, too. So, we have to protect our mind and our body, rather than just go out there and do what the world wants us to do.” – Simone Biles
For many people, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics feel like they occurred ages ago. However, among the stories of victory and defeat, one thread must not fade with time—the focus on mental health. In honor of World Mental Health Day, we would like to share the thoughts one of our founders wrote down around the time.
Listening to Simone Biles and Michael Phelps during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics bluntly talk about mental health made me so hopeful. Both athletes have a platform to launch this difficult conversation. Simone and Michael have achieved the highest levels within their sports, enduring the highs and lows that come with their success. Their courage will make a difference. All of us have been touched personally by emotional and mental health, but few of us have the ability to truly change the dialogue.
The Layered Onion plans to augment the efforts of those coming forward to talk about mental and emotional health by supporting artists with a marketplace that meets us where we are at. Eliminating barriers that make sharing paintings, dance, stories, music, photography, graphic art, and mixed media, examples of our collective creative expression, will also draw back the curtains.
Additionally, we encourage all those that control creative content that discusses mental and emotional health to use content from those in our marketplace with lived experience. A stock photo, a graphic element or a photograph originated by an artist with mental and emotional health understanding will lend credibility and respect to our artists. Please contact us at [email protected] if you want to support our work.
In the Artwork Spotlight series of blog posts, the Layered Onion highlights a specific work by an artist in the community. These works could range from short stories to visual art to music and more!
Today, Emma is sharing her poem “Knot.”
Knot
What is a knot
But a spot that stands
Out. Apart.
It can be in your back,
On your neck, in your stomach
It can govern you,
Own you, Envelop you
Until you are a swirl of feeling,
A canvas stretched thin,
Laying on the ground.
Join us @thelayeredonion.com. Everyone has a story to tell.
Sometimes stories flow through my brain but I wonder if they are unique. When I share verbally, folks will tell me: that “sounds fascinating.”
“Can I read it?” they ask.
Then I panic. I have some of my stories written down, but sharing them means peeling back another layer for others to see. What will they think of the story? Am I ready for the critiques? Who do I trust to edit? How do I protect my story?
I researched many online publishing sites and became intimidated. What do the legal agreements mean? Will I still have a say if I want to take down my story? What if I want to publish in a hard copy format? Can I afford it? Is it worth it?
Thousands of questions flow through my head and then I just become stymied…
Maybe I won’t share.
Maybe it is just too hard.
If you have ever felt like this, you will understand why we are launching The Layered Onion—To protect and help people like me whose anxiety is getting in the way of sharing. We will be looking out for your interests and protecting you. Making the legal documents understandable and safeguarding your rights.
And that’s why we want to hear from YOU. Please share your ideas with us as we develop our publishing site at [email protected]. What is getting in the way for you? What could we help with?
