Agora Mentoring Session 1

FIRST SESSION November 2025

Well, the first session has arrived, a bit like a first day at school… a whole new group of artists to work with, although there are five of us who completed studio practice last year… this is a new program and there are 21 of us, painters, textiles, sculptors all mediums really and i am pleased to say a mixture of ages too.. located in Newlyn School of Art.

AGORA, an important meeting place for exchange of ideas. credited as the birthplace of democracy, where philosophers first debated and discussed those concepts

The three days consists of each of us having one to one tutorials, group crits and a think tank session

The tutors involved with this session and who gave the crits, tutorials and general discourse, apart from the lead tutors are

Marie Claire Hamon @marieclairehamon

Andrew Litten @andrew_litten_artist

Laura Porter @laurakporter @studio.kind

Jessica Cooper @jessicacooperdesign

Jonathan Michael Ray @jonathanmichaelray

Dan Pyne @danpyneartist

First evening a public event, ticketed but free.. each of us hung a small display of our current work. then in the evening there were three lectures/conversations led by Jesse, with the visiting audience

The artists in conversation were

Chelsey Pettyjohn @hideousthings

Todd @atodd.art

Jonathan Michael Ray @jonathanmichaelray

My tutorial with Laura Porter. Laura very quickly understood my focus for my work.

She gave me some very helpful suggestions, mainy to bring my celtic heritage into the work with my ancestors, even though i dont know the people in my family albums, I do know that they were either Welsh or Scottish…. imagery? text?… lots to consider

To be more considerd with my colour palette, particularly with my textile pieces

We also talked about my quest for more residencies, and she gave me lots of websites to look at… I would think I should start with Wales and Scotland to immerse myself in my cultural background, and re-acquaint myself with my childhood memories

Group Crit with Marie Claire Hamon

The group was invited to comment about my work and what they thought I had in mind

Interesting comments from the group, and quite astute observations

I think the comments were typical of a first session , and hopefully the group understanding will increase as the year progresses

Most people picked up on the sentiment in my current work, but were surprisedit was about my own ancestors.

I talked about my work , and how I got to where I am currently, but didnt get to talk about my intentions for taking the work further

Kate Jones lead the think tank sessions, discussing where or work will go after this year, plans, aspirations, future projects, residencies etc, this will continue throughout the year.. and provide continuity going forward

I must admit I didn’t quite understand the intention of the think tank .. this first session was a lot of finding out about each other, and more of a discussion about the program

Looking forward to seeing how this part of the program develops. Currently my intention is to work with some transparency, given that i am trying to use photos of people who are no longer here, possibly move into 3 dimensions, and possibly some animation to bring my ancestors to life, and create my own stories about how their lives might have been.