Biography

Marianne, the Facts

 I was born in a former workhouse at the top of a Welsh mountain during a blizzard. Although I suspect that you don't need to know that, apart from its effect on my character. I started school (Earl St Juniors) at the age of 4 - and progressed to Tredegar Comprehensive School when I was 11. This was in the time of the Beatles (I said it was a long time ago!) and John Lennon had gone to ART SCHOOL. More importantly, John who-lived-up-the-road and was rather cool had just gone to ART SCHOOL. I wanted to go to Art School. So I worked hard at Art. 

Slum clearance, new flats,
 Church St Tredegar 1970's

"0" level and "A" level art safely passed, I started a foundation course at Cardiff College of Art (1973, I think). It was a great year - no exams, but lots of new experiences, like photography, graphic design, installation art, making big things out of brown paper, painting and weaving. And many lectures on Art History and contemporary artists. I took away two positives, I loved weaving and I could paint feathers rather well. The negative was "Graphic Design? you? Haa Haa Haa" from the graphic design tutor. 

I was accepted at Leicester Poly (now De Montford University) to do a Diploma of Art and Design in  Textiles to find out when I got there that the course had been approved for a Bachelor of Arts degree (with honours).  Bit of a surprise, but hey, go with the flow. I had three years of learning contour fashion, embroidery, shoe design, marketing, colour theory, screen printing, resist printing, and lots of weaving - theory, desgn and the technology of looms. And History of  Fashion, Contempory Arts (including drama and poetry) and other acedemic sort of stuff. 

The major difference between a diploma and a Degree appeared to be that we had to write a Thesis in out final year. Mine was "The Well Dressed Welshman", a first hand exploration into the history of Welsh Costume. It included a lot of sketches. I got a respectable 2/2 (It was entirely the norm at the time). and then life came to a phschological cliff edge. It was the goal I had been striving for 10 years, Where on earth would I go from there?

Life does this strange sort of thing with you, it changes and turns corners so it doesn't come out quite like you planned it. I applied, but wasn't accepted for, a Master's in Woven Textiles at the Royal College of Art. The project was to produce woven tapestries of landscapes, using colour, texture and a variety of weaving techniques.  I tried to get on a course about Textile restoration - but failed. I ended up married and working in a petrol station - this led me to career number1, in retail. 

After one child I set up my own craft business, designing jumpers and knitting patterns, going around craft fairs. After two children I taught textiles to adults in a remand centre and evening classes. Career number 2 was in Education. I loved teaching so much, I decided to train as and Art teacher, but couldn't find a course so ended up becoming a qualified design and technology teacher.  The third child was one too many to juggle with a career, and I took bits and pieces of teaching work until the husband became reduntant. Well, his job was, not him personally, he is still around.

Now this is when life certainly deviated from the plan, I ended up in Libraries, became a librarian, and took a PhD in Library and Information Science ( hence the alter ego Dr Marianne Bamkin ). Art and Textiles became the thing I did on holiday. By the time I retired I was a Research Fellow. Painting was an infrequent activity and my looms had not been touched for decades. I lost the fluency of paint handling and skills of observation - each watercolour was hard work. 

I had a plan for my retirement ( dangerous thing, having another plan ) which was to garden and paint the things I grew. I acheived this with my botanical certificate - see more about that in Botanicals. I wanted to learn more formal painting techniques and the skill of oil painting, so in 2021 - 2022 I studied Landscape painting at Leith School of Art. I never had such an intensly creative 9 months, producing painiting after painting. I also joined the Tweed Guild of Spinners Weavers and Dyers and I am back on track with the landscape tapestries, one loom has come out of mothballs and I know that I am an all round visual artist.