journeywoman
jour·ney·wo·man | \ ˈjər-nē-wʊ-mən \
Starting in June 2018 and finishing in 2021, artist Alex Jakob-Whitworth started this project as an exploration and travel through the different aspects of her Art practice and motivations.
JourneyWoman is an umbrella venture for some of Alex’s individual projects, such as “Being Dorothy”, part of which was climbing Scafell Pike dressed as Dorothy Wordsworth and singing in caves and and the resulting paintings.
A Journeyman is an apprentice who, in medieval times, travelled from place to place in order to learn and hone their craft. At the end of three years and a day they presented their “masterwork” to guilds in order to become a master craftsman.
Alex is undertaking her own creative journey as a JourneyWoman for the three years and a day; finish date will be 12th July 2021.
There will be a variety of documenting, both digital and “in the real world”.
I have always found it difficult to describe myself as “an artist” when people ask me what I do – I simply “do” things that I love and I use different ways of expressing both myself, and how I see the world. To me, singing is as natural as drawing, and as natural as writing, as is walking and being with my horses. I find it difficult to separate my interests out, and have spent many years learning, developing, discovering, reflecting, trialling until 2017 when an idea I had was taken up by The Wordsworth Trust. This was “Being Dorothy”, and in starting this, I realised that what I really wanted to do was gather together the different disciplines, in an attempt to weave a new garment.
Likewise, on a personal level, as well as professional, I don’t see my activities as separate, nor discrete – to me they are all part of one.
Enjoying colour is the same as enjoying melody, struggling with composition is the same whether it is with flat spaces, or musical harmony, or wrestling with words. Using marks to express an emotional response to being within landscape, is the same as finding a piece of music that tells the same story, or some writing that makes sounds and shapes in our mouths.
Please browse through to see some of the imaginative spaces that I have visited.