Get Creative: Self-care and the positive powers of portraiture

Now more than ever, we are recognising the the importance of our carers, healthcare staff and all key workers exemplified by the nation’s weekly #ClapForOurCarers, and so the theme for this week’s activity is care.

We’ve been inspired by Oreet Ashery‘s 2016 Fellowship project Revisiting Genesis which through a 12-episode webseries sensitively explores the philosophical, sociopolitical, practical and emotional implications of the processes surrounding death, our online presence and reincarnation, following the journey of two nurses both named Jackie. Episode 9: Our Nurses features a conversation between fictional and practising nurses talking about the close relationships between carers and their patients. Throughout her Stanley Picker Fellowship, Oreet Ashery visited Dorich House Museum and was influenced by the house, Dora Gordine and her work. Gordine’s Guadeloupe Head (1926-8) features throughout Revisiting Genesis and the Museum was used as a location for two of the web episodes, most prominently in Episode 10: Dora, Amy, Genesis, which presents a fictional narrative between Genesis and Gordine, and also briefly features the sculpture Black Orchid (1956). The sculpture’s gold-coloured lips, eyelids and eyebrows were adopted by Ashery as a visual motif for the webseries.

This week we’ve been thinking about care – be it for ourselves, each other or our homes. Our Gallery Assistant Kyle has been on the case too, conceiving his own ideas around self-care and the positive powers of portraiture. Click here for some of his guidance and tips on drawing, and try out your own portraits and cartoon strips of your daily life at home.

Share your results on social media by tagging us on Instagram @stanleypicker or Twitter @pickergallery or by sending us your images to stanleypickergallery@kingston.ac.uk to show us your work.

Kyle Campbell-Pope is an aspiring scriptwriter and 3rd year BA Fine Art student at Kingston School of Art. He is a Museum & Gallery Assistant at Dorich House Museum and Stanley Picker Gallery, as part of which he leads after-school Art Clubs at King Athelstan and St Luke’s Primary Schools in Kingston.