To start with I have to say that I’ve not met Cara Macwilliam or Candice Swallow. But I look forward to doing so at the joint exhibition organised by the Jennifer Lauren Gallery at the beginning of November. The exhibition – at Marple’s Mura Ma Gallery - showcases work by two women who have channelled their own challenges into visual expressions of their inner beings. 

 

Now I know that inner being is the basis of all art, but both of these women have lost what we all take for granted. In the case of Cara that is a severe energy limiting illness. In the case of Candice that is her sight. 

 

The show is titled ‘Instinctive Energies’ and that encapsulates in two words the beautiful and ethereal work created despite -  and maybe even because of - their own struggles. Struggles which they have embraced for their art, rather than yielding to. Manchester based Cara began her creative output as recently as 2018. Before that time she had led a full and colourful life, living and working all over the world. I am sure that those experiences, before the onset of her ME, are poured out in her intricate constructions of line and colour. Layer upon layer of watercolour pencil and pen are, Cara says, outpourings of emotions that are brought to the fore largely by meditation. When she starts to make marks on paper she does not know what direction the work will take, where the patterns will evolve to. Her inner being takes over. 

 

Small ceramic sculptures in polymer clay add a third dimension to expressing her inner being. These are crafted in layers, fired and ‘stacked up’ to create microcosms of the world she absorbed before her illness took hold. 

 

Candice lost her sight very suddenly over twenty years ago. I questioned Jennifer Gilbert of the Jennifer Lauren Gallery how an artist, any artist, could produce works of such energy and colour. “Candice spends time at a day centre in Blackpool for learning disabled adults, where an art studio has been created called the pARTnership. Practically she draws on an A4 paper block, so that she can feel the edges of the block physically and turn it around in her finger tips. Staff at the day centre sit with her and ask what colour she wants to work with. Because she was sighted until she was thirty-one she has memory of colour. Staff contribute with their commentary, offering advice about when a work is finished.”

 

Jennifer told me how chatty Candice is, curious about the people she meets. What other people are up to. And how subliminally her initial ‘C’ often materialises through her drawing and turning the paper block. “Candice is covered in pastel when she works, often touching her face, chatting as she draws.” 

 

The show will have audio description by an expert who works with and for the blind and visually impaired. “His descriptions are beautiful and skilled,” Jennifer told me. “He will describe the energy of orange, the juicyness of lemon yellow or the coolness of a sea breeze, along with the content and structure of a work. Candice will be able to experience her own work through the medium of audio description.”

 

Jennifer Gilbert – through her Jennifer Lauren Gallery – works with disabled and neurodivergent, self-taught and overlooked artists. The gallery was launched in 2017 to showcase these artists internationally. As she states, “Allowing true artistic language to shine.”

 

The show will run from the 2nd to 11th of November at Mura Ma, with other associated events, including a talk about automatic drawing with College of Psychic Studies Curator Vivienne Roberts who will, I’m sure, throw greater light on the instinct and energies of Cara and Candice. 

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