Welcome my digital pinboard and creative archive.

In development: Iechyd Dada, one man theatre show; projections for Life and the Other Thing a one-act introduction to Dylan Thomas’ Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, adapted and directed by Geoff Lake.

15 Oct - 17 Nov 2024
BRASLUN/SKETCH group show by resident artists at Oriel Canfas. Sketchbooks and framed work. Photo: Inga Monika.

Painting on a large scale. Haunted Forest backdrop for local pantomime Sleeping Beauty and the Kingdom of Dreams. PODS Christmas panto 2024.

Aug-Sep 2024.
- TV acting debut with It's My Shout on a short film Milodfa (Menagerie) to be screened on S4C in November. Signed up with acting agency Creative Talent.
- Resident at Oriel Canfas, Cardiff, developing new work. Two of my sculptures were in an exhibition of work made at the gallery with tutor Alun Hemming.

Recent projects: Reflections, violin and piano recitals with Marc Elton in Chepstow, Cardiff and Penarth. Music from Pärt to Piazzola and my own pieces. Photos: Luca Paci.

Rock Paper Scissors | Siswrn Papur Carreg. Pop up exhibition of drawings at The Talking Shop, Blackwood. May 2024.

Nov 2023 launched: The Questioner, a song by Franz Schubert, performed by Tom Guthrie of Music and Theatre for All to promote bicentennial collaborations. London. See the finished piece here.

Poetry on Show. Pop-up event at Turner House Gallery with Serendiptea poetry group, responding to Karl Blossfeldt through music with Marc Elton, March 2024. Photos: David Sinden.

2024: Mentoring artists under Arts Council Wales ‘Creative Steps’ programme.

Scribing Data Governance in Medical Research event at Cardiff University, Dec 2023.

Window for The Talking Shop in Blackwood, Caerphilly, opened March 2024. Omidaze Productions. Image: Jordan Forse, Development Officer.

Characters for An Inside Story,a mentoring service by Fiona Macbeth using personal narratives to envision change.

Self Help Show residency with Luca Paci at Poesia Presente Lab in Monza, Italy, May 2023 and exhibition at Turner House gallery, Feb-Mar 2023.

Review of Self Help Show in Penarth View, Spring 2023.

”What extraordinary lecture notes… the most enticing I’ve seen.” - Robert MacFarlane

Recording your event. Drawing as active listening, in person and online. Sketched live and developed afterwards.

First still from a Zoom with David W Gray of School of the Possible around silences and making space, including lessons learned from a clowning workshop which used points of stillness to allow the audience in. I elaborated upon David’s notes on Procreate.

’Data Governance in Medical Research’ event, Cardiff University and Cardiff and Vale NHS, Dec 2023.

”The images you produced for us are still in high rotation. They really resonate with the audience whenever we use them in presentations, and we’ve received great feedback each time.”

Liz Merrifield, Information Governance Lead, Department of Cancer and Genetics, Cardiff University. Oct 2024.

’Food, With Care’ online conference, Cambridge University Jan 2022:

”You really did a great job of listening and drawing at the same time… It was a long day and to keep up the momentum, without losing any of the quality, is representative of your skill and dedication to your craft.”

Anna Todd, Communications and Engagement Manager (Cambridge Children’s Hospital project)

>Cambridge University Hospitals: online patient and carer engagement conversations about the design of a new children’s hospital, April-Sept 2021 with architects Hawkins Brown; also Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital Staff and Patient Advisory groups, visualising conversations about new spaces and ways of working.

Images aim to make sense of complexity through everyday metaphors and expressive schema.

”What a brilliant set of illustrations! You’ve captured so much here – each vignette representing an important point of conversation in a way that is so human, and so immediate.”

Natalie Ellis, Head of Arts, Cambridge University Hospitals

”The illustrations have really helped draw out themes and get wide feedback which is exactly what we need!”

Andrea Grosbois, Head of Communications and Engagement, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Trust

Greensand One-Day Residency at Found Outdoors in Wiltshire, with Natasha Mayo. Day led by Claire Loder.

Senior Leadership Team Meeting at University of Namibia, July 22. chaired by Pro. Judith Hall. Fellowship work for Cardiff University/Phoenix.

Represented by Creative Talent.
Spotlight profile.

Head shots copyright Nikola Jurčaková, 2024.

Currently attending Cardiff Meisner acting classes with Michael Gilhooly at Chapter.

Lawyer Jones in 'Milodfa' (Menagerie) for It's My Shout. BBC Cymru/S4C, for broadcast Nov 2024. With cast members Iestyn Churchill, Hannah Novello Bianchi-Jones, Scott Knighton. Photos: Gareth Rees Rowlands.

With my partner Ruth Glynn as a dodgy power couple. Photo: David Sinden. March 2024.

Mr Frees in Shakespeare in Love with PODS, Dec 2023.

Stepping in as Falstaff at half a day's notice. Merry Wives with White Cat Theatre, Dec 2023. Photo: Flora Freeman.

Racing pundit Jim McCormack in Ladies Day, PODS, Oct 2023.

Prince John in Sherwood outdoors at Carew Castle with Red Herring Theatre, Summer 2023. Photo: Alex Wilson.

Blind Pew in Treasure Island, PODS, March 2023.

Performances from Self Help Show, with Luca Paci at Turner House, Penarth, 2023 and Oriel Canfas 2022. Photos: David Sinden.

Inspector Barrow photo series, Avebury, 2022.

From A Mermaid’s Myth, 2020, with geomythologist Erin Kavanagh. The work features in Jean Bonnin’s book Surrealism in Wales (Black Egg, 2020). Photo: Gwydion Kavanagh.

See also: Carnival and Music.

Drawing performers live. A supplementary way to appreciate and record processes, events and experiences as they happen.

Much Ado About Nothing. Wildflower Actors Society in rehearsal, Aug 2024.

An alternative to cameras and phones in MINCE for Good Cop Bad Cop at Experimentica 2024 with interpreter Cathryn McShane Kouyaté at Chapter Arts;

Drawing from Cardiff Meisner classes in Spring 2024 led by Michael Gilhooly for a book of reflections;

Thomas Guthrie and Barokksolistene Alehouse Sessions at Middle Temple Hall and Balham Bowls Club in 2023;

Fragments by Actors’ Workshop in Cardiff; Harry Christophers conducting The Sixteen; Connor Fogel and Louis Williamson, RCWMD;

Making space for conversation and creative exchange, Paci & Glynn’s Self Help Show toured as a residency to Poesia Presente Lab in Monza, Italy in May 2023, based on exhibitions with live presentations and workshops at The Turner House in Penarth, March 2023 and Oriel Canfas, Cardiff in May 2022.

Project website: www.selfhelpisland.com

The show asks where to seek help in challenging times, reflecting upon themes of loss, isolation and how to read, taking a sideways look at some pros and cons of self-help books. 

An illustrated script follows a pair of characters shipwrecked on a strange island, based partly on Shakespeare's The Tempest, accompanied by poems and live music.

Aiuto! SELF HELP SHOW
L'illustratore Chris Glynn e il poeta Luca Paci espongono la loro mostra itinerante fatta di testi e immagini, manipolazioni di libri e musica. Due personaggi naufragati su un'isola incrociano figure tratte dall'opera da La Tempesta di Shakespeare ed i loro stessi sogni da svegli. La rappresentazione rispecchia la situazione degli ultimi tre anni lanciando uno sguardo obliquo e surrealista ai pro e ai contro dell’industria e della cultura dell'auto-aiuto.

The show launched at Oriel Canfas, Cardiff in May 2022 with an Antemasque performed by RM Parry & Son and Ivor Davies filmed by Steffan Szczelkun (you can watch it here) For our opening at Turner House we were joined by Mary-Anne Roberts and Domestic Violins String Band.

“It’s an education just walking through.”
- Chris Griffin, visual artist

”I LOVE this space. The beginning of a conversation that has to be had. Objects, memory, living literature. Thank you!”
- Dick Johns, actor

“Great happening event. Every town needs one.”
– Inga Burrows, senior lecturer in film, USW

”…an incredible depiction of the troubles of lockdown and the effect it had on us all. But also a reminder of how important it is to keep going and to find familiarity and connection in the people and places around us.”
- Katherine Peach, Penarth View

“thank you again for providing such a wonderful opportunity for my students to see your show. One of them told me afterwards that it was the most fun they’ve ever had in a gallery!”
- Prof. Meredith Gattis, Cardiff University

Review of Self Help Show by Megan Farr: Wales Arts Review
Page on Arts Council Wales website.

See also: Hadron Press

Photos of Chris Glynn as self-help guru and Self Help Show events: David Sinden

2019-23: work on An Inside Story with Fiona Macbeth, designing characters and scenarios for therapeutic storytelling. Fiona uses images and metaphor to facilitate change and create new personal narratives.

”Highly recommended to anyone wanting to gain insight into the depths of their own psyche through the power of stories.”
Selena, client

”Absolutely brilliant. Makes you think about your life from a unique and inspiring angle. I’d recommend it to anyone.”
Emily, client

”…you have connected with and given form to something as old as humanity. I felt I was entering a territory that was both unknown and very familiar, something like visiting one's roots… Oh and I must mention those watercolour figures…so enticing and alive, beautiful and moving, having the chance to spend time with them is also one of the reason I will book another session in the future.”
Paola, client

“I love the way your illustrations capture ambiguity and mystery. They are absolute genius and work so well with what I am doing. Perfect!” Fiona Macbeth, creator of An Inside Story

Further info: here

Google reviews: here

Bringing your event alive in 3D, recording key scenarios and insights, helping teams communicate creatively.

1. Making it personal - a revolution in healthcare. Pop-up of showcase to MPs at Westminster by Cambridge Children’s Hospital, CCRH /CUH Arts Nov 2022. 

2. Cardiff University staff research workshop in AHSS Special Collections and Archives Oct 2022. 3D capture with Dr. Emily Cock, Early Modern History.

3. Anatomical Epiphanies. Cardiff University/Phoenix. See also: International Health & Wellbeing. Blog account here.

July 2022: Facilitating visual conversations at University of Namibia Faculty of Health Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Windhoek, with Professors Judith Hall and Quenton Wessels, staff teams and students, reflecting on leadership and personal development.

“Really eye opening... reminds me how visuals can play an important role to facilitate change at a self level and within the spaces we find ourselves. Indeed we all have a story to tell if we are given a platform and you did just that for me. Looking forward to having more conversations and learning opportunities. “

Dr. Arthur Chigova, Lecturer, Dept. of Community Dentistry, UNAM.

4. Climate challenge conversations at Cardiff Animation Festival April 2022, working with Ian Cooke and Rachel Smith for a screening and discussion event organised by Clwstwr/CAF/AHRC Research In Film Awards

5. Paper Forest. First Minister Mark Drakeford, pre-pandemic, with head teacher Martin Hulland and pupils at Cardiff West Community High School tree-planting event with Cardiff University’s Phoenix Project, 2020, led by Prof. Judith Hall.

6. Snape Creative Think Tank on the benefits of singing across the lifespan. Feb 2019. 5-day 'MOT' for creative practitioners, 2018. Drawing, mapping, pop-up conversations, creative writing, walking, music, movement and physical work, with Stephen Langridge and Fiona Macbeth.

"A great team who worked really well together… a masterclass in collaborative leadership.” ”hugely inspiring” “

…an incredible few days by all accounts and has surpassed my expectations.”   - Phillipa Reive, Director, Creative Campus, Snape Maltings.

7. Altered Ego identity re-invention project led by David Sinden, funded by Disability Arts Wales, hosted by Cardiff Met and Bath Spa Universities, 2018-20.

8. Faith Garden for Cardiff Met SU/Chaplaincy Inter-faith Week 2020.

9. Carnival of Seeing marquee animated by Steffan Glynn, based on ‘ideas marketplace’ from Cardiff Met’s annual conference 2017, ‘Learning Together.’

10. 360 Data Communications Seminar, Cardiff University July 2019, with delegates from the University of Namibia, in presence of Her Excellency Ms Linda Scott, High Commissioner of Namibia to the UK & NI, and Prof Kenneth Matengu, Vice-Chancellor, UNAM.

11. Royal Geographical Society annual conference Cardiff University Aug 2018 - illustrating papers on ‘Landscape, Becoming and Time’.

”What extraordinary lecture notes… the most enticing I’ve seen.” - Robert MacFarlane

12. Early Career Academics summit at Cardiff University Nov 2018 with keynote Stefan Collini.

I create short animations for larger projects.

4-minute animation of Der Neugierige/The Questioner, a song by Schubert, performed and arranged by Tom Guthrie of Music and Theatre for All for a new album and bicentennial celebrations of song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin. London, launched Nov 2023. A collaboration with Barokksolistene ensemble. See the piece on Vimeo here.

Woodbird and Ravens animation with set designer Alison Chitty for Goteborg Opera’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle directed by Stephen Langridge. Siegfried live streamed March 2021. Götterdämmerung/Ragnarök opened Dec 2021.

Five scenes from ‘It’s Your Move’, W11 youth opera, Nov 2021.

Nature at Work, animated video for Saltbox Training, encouraging organisations to engage more deeply with the natural world. (July 2022)

Test pieces 2020-21: Downing Street Worm, Trump,Rising Dough, How To Eat Your Own Head.

Reflections: from Pärt to Piazzola at St Edwards, Roath, and Chepstow Priory and All Saints, Penarth. With violinist Marc Elton. Photos: Luca Paci. Aug-Sep 2024.

28 Sept 2024: recital of Welsh Piano Music with Benjamin Teague including our own works. St Edward's Roath.

Recent:
Performing with poets Luca Paci, Philip Gross and violinist Marc Elton for Poetry on Show at Turner House Gallery March 2024, responding to Karl Blossfeldt exhibition. Photo: David Sinden.

Playing the organ for Haydn’s Nelson Mass with Cardiff Concert Orchestra and Côr Bro Ogwr, Porthcawl April 2024.

YouTube channel.

I have accompanied Canton Chorus, Cardiff Quaynotes Choir, Côr Bro Ogwr, Criw Canu, and Choir With No Name, Cardiff, and have sung with Cardiff Chamber Choir, Côr Ardwyn and BBC NOW Chorus.

"In art everything is possible, but not everything is necessary." (Arvo Pärt).

Colliding ideas through art, illustration and poetry, Hadron Press is a micro-publisher, which launched at Oriel Canfas in Cardiff as part of Paci & Glynn’s Self Help Show 17-28 May 2022. See Self Help Show

Our first publication, Self Help I(s)land is an illustrated playscript and collection of poems, following a pair of characters shipwrecked on a strange island, based partly on Shakespeare's The Tempest.

The book accompanies Self Help Show , asking where to seek help in challenging times, reflecting upon themes of loss and isolation, and how to read, taking a sideways look at the pros and cons of self-help books.

“One of the most intriguing, dynamic, clever books I have now on my shelf.” Menna Elfyn, on Self-Help (I)sland.

Signed Limited edition of 100, £12:00 + P&P. Second edition (2023) £10.00 + P&P. DM/contact us via email for details.

Founding editors Chris Glynn and Luca Paci.
Twitter: @HadronPress

Why ‘Hadron’? Adopting the image of a large scale particle accelerator, we are going in search of lost and hidden fragments of relationship, social affection and aesthetic in public life.

On beginning
”Writing requires commitment and recklessness. Take a line: it is the architecture of a thought. I sit humbly and wait for the words to come. Sometimes they pass like a fleeting bird. Sometimes I sit and wait for nothing. Yet this nothing is the place where words start. This nothing is where something begins.”

LP April 2022


Artist’s impression: how it will be

This network of disconnections
was issued to me directly
and was
unsolvable in real life.

There was more going on there
with others;
unsolvable issues

and I saw
where an audience begins
that the universe is wide.

CG March 2022


Texts from Self Help I(s)land project.

Reading from Self Help I(s)land and Tempo at
These 3 Streams arts festival, Llantwit Major. Photo: Megan Farr.

Projects in Namibia and Zambia.

July 2022: Facilitated visual conversations at University of Namibia Faculty of Health Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, reflecting on leadership and personal development, with sessions in the Anatomical Resources Centre on campus in Windhoek, with Prof. Quenton Wessels and team. See also 3D Conversations. Illustrated blog account here.

“Really eye opening... reminds me how visuals can play an important role to facilitate change at a self level and within the spaces we find ourselves. Indeed we all have a story to tell if we are given a platform and you did just that for me. Looking forward to having more conversations and learning opportunities. “

Dr. Arthur Chigova, Lecturer, Dept. of Community Dentistry, UNAM.

Summer 2021 and 2022: Working with Dr Job Mwanza, Medical Officer for Chongwe District in Zambia, developing local awareness and information campaigns with rural communities.

July 2021: awarded Honorary Senior Research Fellowship with Cardiff University School of Medicine, applying art and design practices within medical health education, leadership development and public engagement, through Prof Judith Hall.

Images:
July 2022: ‘Anatomical Epiphanies’. Visual facilitation at UNAM, with Prof. Quenton Wessels, Prof. Judith Hall, Maria Hainghumbi and other staff and students. See also: 3D Conversations

Summer 2021 ‘COVID-19 is Real’ poster, leaflet and gif based on drawings and texts by rural communities in Siavonga region, Zambia. Photos by Dr. Job Mwanza.

Sept 2021 - Vaccination icons for a multi-lingual nationwide campaign, placed in The Namibian (circulation c 65,000).

July 2021 Nam Vacc Task Animation Task Force- campaign design, UNAM/Phoenix MedEd.

2020-21 : ‘Leadership for Change’. conversations with staff at the University of Namibia, led by Prof.Judith Hall and UNAM’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Kenneth Matengu amid challenges of responding to the pandemic. UNAM as a garden.

Curvilinear growth: Cardiff University 2021.

”Chris’ process deepens the understanding and experiences of non-experts. The insights shared have been remarkable and I do think that this work alters people's perception and impacts their thinking.”

Professor Judith Hall OBEPhoenix Project Lead for Cardiff University Head Anaesthetics, Intensive Care, Pain Medicine, Cardiff University

”These are brilliant and very powerful. I was blown away.”
David Hain, Transformation Partners UK

"Amazing to see the incredible work. Absolutely beautiful. It's a scary situation in Namibia, so it’s good to see use of doctors' drawings and the handmade element in the digital images. It helps to open up the information in a compassionate way."

Dr. Frauke Stegmann. Department of Visual and Performing Arts, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Namibia.


Call to connect:
Often illustrators operate in isolation, outside institutions or within practice bubbles. And yet, powerful and moving images, deployed in the right contexts, can cross cultural and institutional boundaries: they can connect people in new ways and open up new thinking.

As a very loose tribe, illustrators can - and ought to - get out more and connect beyond the discipline. This research evolves new methods, records and reflects upon impacts, and aims to expand all participants’ horizons through empathic, relational illustration.

Green Lion, April 2024 made at a one-day stone carving course at Wiltshire Museum with Andrew Ziminski, author of The Stone Mason.

Walls Will Have Ears. May 2024. Caen stone.

June 2023 started stone-carving with Alun Hemming at Oriel Canfas in Cardiff: two heads in Bath stone; The Beginner, Portland stone; Ear, Penarth alabaster. Survivor wax figure cast in bronze, March 2024.

These became popular catalysts for conversation at The Talking Shop in Blackwood. Exhibited at Oriel Canfas as part of a show of work made at Oriel Canfas, August 2024.

Penrolio is Penarth’s annual Hen Galan (Old New Year) ritual, rolling the head of Bendigeidfran from the Mabinogi, travelling with the Mari Lwyd. Started 2018 with R M Parry and Ifor Davies. In 2023 a new wicker head was made by Lewis Prosser. In 2024 Luca Paci and I led with musician Marc Elton. lllustrator Sue Shields made a cardboard Mari Lwyd and volunteers read from the ancient Welsh text.. As a coda, the head was burnt on a beach and the ashes will travel on to be buried in London. We trust someone will come forward with a new head for 2024/25.

In 2016-22 I joined Richard Parry as artistic co-director of Coleridge in Wales Ltd. We made a series of public works as the artists Parry & Glynn. These included carnival and festival events, antemasques, song recitals, publications, installations and work for exhibition. Parry and Glynn performed at cultural festivals, conferences, the National Museum of Wales and Senedd Cymru.