Elizabeth Willow (Winner of the Liverpool Art Prize ' The Peoples choice' 2009)

The whole collection of delicately assembled installations by Elizabeth Willow was truly enchanting!  My favourite piece 'It's not all sweetness and light' (see bottom left), combined everything that I love about art and aesthetics.  Using light as the central component, Willow twined branches in a circular construction almost like a nesting light shade.  Draped from the branches were strings of white cotton thread encrusted with crystallised sugar resembling a spiders web jewelled with tiny rain drops.  The warm glow of the yellow naked bulb cast soft shadows and emitted a calming warmth.  

'It's not all sweetness and light'

but some of it is...

  Light and shadow have a subtle, transient beauty that I would love to transcend into my work. Though I'm not sure how these elements connect with my current practice, I don't know that I'm sure of how I even connect with my current practice and so perhaps the exploration of these elements could help to ground me as an artist.  The dappled sunlight flickering through the trees onto my teacup became a new definition for the object.  The tea cup as a surface for projection?
  After taking this photograph I immediately made the connection between the warmth of the glowing light in Elizabeth Willow's piece, the naturally occurring moving shadow from the trees and the same warmth and comfort we find in drinking tea.