Extensive enrichment in the arts adds significantly to students' enjoymnet of school.
Ofsted, 2009

Artist in Residence for March-May 2009 is Vanessa Rolf

Textile artist Vanessa Rolf will be artist in residence at Cornelius Vermuyden School until the middle of May. The main focus for Vanessa’s work is the journeys, maps and the physical exploration of a landscape. Her textiles relate stitch, texture and composition to maps and documentary photographs but also aim to capture the essence of a place.

She looks to the relationship between the geography, mapping of movement and the recorded experience of a place. Vanessa's work uses hand embroidery, machine and digital stitch, appliqué and screen print. Vanessa lives and works in North East London. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2004 with an MA in Mixed Media Textiles. Postcards from Canvey Island using the school as a base to explore the Island Vanessa will be navigating the local environment, delving into the past and talking to residents about their stories of the area.

She is also interested in the estuary, the creeks and salt marshes and Canvey Wick nature reserve and the abundance of life there. Vanessa will be working with students from the Cornelius Vermuyden as well as local primary school pupils and other community groups to explore the landscape, shared history and personal memories. The project will culminate in a giant textile map of Canvey Island. If you are interested in finding out more about the artist's project please visit her blog

Below is a great photograph of Vanessa Rolf our new Artist In Residence.

A profile of past Artists In Residence can be found below. Please use the links below to access other pages:

Photographs are available for the projects at the bottom of the page. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.




Profile of Artist in Residence - Michael Khumalo







My carving starts from the natural and creative. My imaginations breathe life and energy into hard and brittle stone from the mystique environment of the natural Zimbabwean landscape and life.

Each sculpture captures different context of nature one from the other, each entirely different from the other.







I started carving influenced by the creations of beautiful images chiseled out by my friends who were local sculptors using basic hand made tools like a hammer and chisel etc. I gradually learned all my skills through them since stone sculptures need dedication, patience, time and the love of the art, they helped me shape realistic and challenging figures that look futuristic in art.


Photographs

Click on the thumbnail for a larger image.