Living through my values

An arts organisation that will serve as a platform for emerging artists through events and short documentaries got in touch. They said “We want our work to be about people and socially relevant”. The questions they asked are as follows;-

• What do you care about in the world (this could be related to ideas of politics/ art/ culture or any social topic)

• Why do you make art

I was delighted to respond as this is core to my soul purpose in the life and always has  been, however my approach has changed in recent years. I have always cared about this planet especially environmental and social issues. It was my specialism as in both my professional roles as a Consultant and as Lecturer/Professor in the Universities where I taught along with International Liaison Group. These two roles go hand in hand as it is only through Global communication, discussion and sharing of ideas that we can evolve new ideas and inspire ourselves into a new way of living,

 When I started my life as a Designer/Artist I would not believe that what i’m doing now is right, as I thought protest and agitation was the path to change, now I see that creates more of the same energy.  ‘Yes’ my work is socially engaged in that the core of my work is about soul conscious awareness, my own journey and the other aspect is the fact that I work with others on the path as co-creation allows me to work on projects bigger than an individual ever could to achieve more awareness….change.

London Design Festival

 

Now, I believe the change within the individual affects their the outer journey ,we actually send out a frequency of energy. (Like attracts like). Wherever my soul is now is a magnet of attraction , as pure energy it creates. Therefore,  high vibrational practices in my life, my beliefs and thoughts will manifest into my life meeting likeminded souls each one raising the collective vibration manifesting for the highest good of ourselves, our families, communities and this world it is here we can create a real lasting impact. Following my soul purpose is not easy, however being off the path is harder and in the end leaves me feeling lost and isolated from my self.

Truth and integrity is woven into my art and design through my practice and that work is with all kinds of creative souls , including my sister Jennifer Dutton and Angie Brew who Co Founded Sky Lark Arts (Wellbeing through the Arts) collaborating with other organisations like Lyndons Arts Trust and University of the Arts London and Thinking Through Drawing  .  I have set up a number of  Social Enterprises because I believe that social change needs to reflect our core values, soul by soul through inner work and co-creating with others: believing in our own unique talents and qualities as individuals. Its time for us to show up in the world.  There are times when I would rather hide…yet, that is not really an option the gift of a physical life and the choices I make each day, are always creating the next step. So I ask ? What to manifest? How to face difficult situations? Do I heal or harm this planet other the other souls on it?

Exhibition ‘Angels’, Art Installation ‘Wings’ and projects including the IMAGINE Workshops from last summer, Oxford 2016 at Peace in the Park, Global Retreat Centre… also showed some of this work at London Design Festival, Oxo Tower on the Southbank.

 ‘Angels’ with Ginger Gilmore (Wife of Pink Floyd’s Guitarist David Gilmore) , who is an artist making sculptures of angels and  writer of the ‘Light side of the moon‘. My work was about the fact that we can all be Angels, through Random Acts of Kindness to ourselves and others…we can be powerful agents for transformation.

Peace in the Park…Imagine,Big Love, meditation

wings Instalation and Paintinfs by Kathleen Dutton and sculpture by Ginger Gilmore

Wings Dragon fly and Angel wings in a field This was the Installation i created 2 sets of wings each with approx 9 ft wing span and people did selfies in front of them.

(Watch my You Tube Video if you feel you’d like to hear more, why I changed the tone of my work from a negative to positive mindset, especially with projects directly related to social change. Clients: Friends of the Earth and other Eco Businesses charities and organisations in the 80’s and 90’s). 

Teaching and learning is integral to my the work I do, and the companies and organisations I work with too, with a focus on Creativity, Wellbeing and Environmental Issues, from Campaigns for Friends of the Earth,  Pollution in HK, also Research and some International projects that bring different people and ideas together around the globe:- UK, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan.  Whether at Conran Design Group or as Independent Artist/Creative Director and all through my life I always found third sector work and integrated it with corporate life with from Annual Reports for at a discounted rate or free, to Corporate Social Responsibility expressed through the 4 c’s;-  Creativity, Compassion, Catalyst and Consultancy all go together in my world.  I have some Guest Lecturing spots coming up in Malaysia and China for 2018 that focus on bringing this vision together.

My sister and I have done something since the first Women of the World Event a UK-based festival that celebrates the achievements of women and girls as well as looking at the obstacles they face across the world. It seeks to inspire new generations of young women and girls.The festival was founded in 2010 by Jude Kelly and contains arts and science programmes and has now spread internationally. It takes place in early March around International Women’s Day. This year we were at the Southbank talking rubout sisterhood, social change and soul consciousness.

IMAGINE – Illustrated cards with questions and some fun ideas for  interactive workshops that explore and share ideas  …What is your Utopian vision? Do you want Star Trek Style Utopian, values based future or are we as a planet going to be  more like Star Wars with fighting and the survival of the fittest. We have a choice…we are the change we want to make in the world. Art is social engaged whether we are passive or not…we creative the collective consciousness.

I did words and image for the IMAGINE workshops

We are them. Ha ha … One of the female artists interviewed by Sky TV and on BBC about ART World Sexism with Artfinder at the beginning of this year a cheerful gathering despite the rain and got some publicity a dialogue going about some of these issues.

 

Last night before i went to bed in my mediation I asked for guidance for my next project to expand this idea of awareness through a mindful creative campaign and that night I dreamt some lively dreams of working with some of the people i worked with over the years to expand the ‘Angels on the tube idea’. In less than 12 hours I was at an Event Points of Light talking to Jeremy Sinclair  at the seeds from Advertising Agency M & C Saatchi  about creating a brief, luckily he is interested in the idea at least, so that is the seed, today he talked about his creative work and creating something out of nothing it was very interesting at the as a teaches of Philosophy at the London School of Economics this poses an interesting idea of creating a campaign around our collective consciousness, it is not selling anything physical. Time for some deep silent reflection to see what emerges. I really liked hearing Salina Ahmed from Inspirited Minds talking about soul purpose in such a clear and wonderful way.

 

SISTERHOOD Women of the World

The DUTTON SISTERS 20th February -12th March

Talk 12th March at 5pm Skylark Galleries in the Oxo Tower.

Skylark Galleries “The Dutton Sisters celebrate WOW Women of the World Festival alongside South Bank Centre that brings empowerment to the voice of women. Sharing, participating and creating together. Sisterhood : Our story united and individually in our roles: as artists, mothers partners, friends, members of our community. Sharing, co-creation, storytelling supporting and having fun whenever we can”. This is our fifth year doing an event of one kind or another at the  Women of the World Festival. It takes place in early March around International Women’s Day. WOW sponsors lectures, debates and performance on a range of themes and topics. This Upcoming Feature with my sister Jennifer Dutton and talk Southbank has crept up very fast this year, we normally spend time preparing and this time we haven’t really had a chance to think about it before its suddenly come around. Busy days for us in our “Daughter role” for our family sorting out lots of interesting new information discovered after the death of our ‘Uncle Jack’ relating to our family history and stories connected with many generations and lots of very laborious stuff to go through too, However feels like light at the end of the tunnel is starting to shine. The women have an interesting history in our family. One of the first women to go to go to Cambridge University 1920’s and another in publishing at the turn of the last century, dancers, singers. Interesting. Didn’t know until we started this journey together The Dutton Sisters. Perfect time to talk about sisterhood as part of the WOW Women of the World Festival

Finding Balance & Following My Heart

 

I was asked to do this ‘Bio’…it is going to be on some books created with the Global Retreat Centre in Oxford, so I found myself called to sit and write this;-I realise my history is kind extreme in some of it’s lurching but it has always followed the path of ‘Doing what I love’ Balancing my natural energy that catches the wind of emotions easily.

I love this Earth and its diversity and for me that has meant getting out into the world and exploring and living in other places and working and experiencing life within the globe as well as the social cultures of the Corporate, Academia and Third Sector (Charities and Social Enterprise) …always running my own creative practice alongside that is based on learning who I am in a spiritual context because for many years i struggled with that . My life theme, “swimming both ways at once in this world “…it was always a challenge to cool my mind and realy focus on my own wellbeing poping up with ideas and ideas of new places to go and things to do, finally family life and continued practice of mediation helped me be able to create pause’s for thought and change and see things differently. Staying in one place was hard, it still is at times, the urge for me travel and live in other places is in my DNA. I now appreciate where I am and accept this chapter of life.

Illustrations for Peace in the Park 2016:-Artist Run Project to Create Vision for the Future

“I have been practicing meditation for 30 years and give talks on meditation and how it relates to themes in my artwork. Each day I share an illustration on my daily blog and meditation page. The blog has led to three animation commissions from Vodafone on visualisation, holding a vision and body language, as well as illustrations for: an online 6 week Mindfulness course, Breathsync iphone App, Global Retreat Centre: guided meditations and book cover designs for various publishers and independent writers.I currently am one of 24 artists at Skylark Galleries who are on the Southbank of London. Galleries I also do Marketing and social media for Skylark Galleries . I have exhibited and am in collections internationally, the focus of my painting is grounded in my meditation practice and I do events at the gallery that focus on this as well as exhibitions and talks
at the British Library. Created a programme of events that ran over 4 years that made artist’s limited edition books as part of a CSR Corporate Social Responsibility volunteering programme for employees of various Corporate Banking companies in the City. Received bursaries for Community arts projects and went on to be awarded a Fellowship at The Kings Fund and UnLtd and Honarary bursary at CAN Community Action Network and went on to mentor others to work on community projects.
Prior to that, I was Creative Director for Conran Design Group for over 8 years working with clients like Conran shop, Bhs and M&S. This involved developing a brief with the client, overseeing each project, working with other creative professionals like architects, designers, illustrators and guiding the production process from start to finish.
Lecturer then Later a Professor at The University of Westminster and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Created published research on:- Environmental issues and Cross-cultural design. I also ran my own consultancy whilst at the University.
Received a fellowship for Distinction of Work from the Chartered Society for Designers”