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kshields.bsky.social
K Shields
@kshields.bsky.social
77 followers 71 following 190 posts
Artist / Queer
kateshields.co.uk / kateshields.substack.com
Any pronouns
Chronically ill and #ActuallyAutistic
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kshields.bsky.social
If you’re a freelancer/creative/run a non-profit/small business and find it hard to manage your socials, I’ve only gone and started a monthly email offering tips, hacks & resources to try and help make things a bit easier (it’s my day job!)
Sign up here: eepurl.com/jfADZk
A smashed iPhone laying on a concrete floor. The screen is white and black and yellow hols text ‘I hate social media’
May 26, 2025 at 10:48 PM
kshields.bsky.social
A very cute site visit ahead of Camp Kindred, a non-profit, brand-free queer gathering I’m involved in coming up this July, somewhere in East Sussex.
It can’t happen without you, so book a camping ticket now if you want to be part of the inaugural event! campkindred.uk
A woodland nook in a sunny field. Looking out over a wooden fence, there is a small treehouse stage in the distance amongst the trees. A small nuclear standing stone in an expanse of grass. To the right two people are walking across the grass and smiling Two people stand on the steps of a small wooden stage in a woodland clearing.
May 24, 2025 at 4:04 PM
kshields.bsky.social
Fun with stone and glass textures in Blender
An abstract, composite digital shape on a bright yellow background. The shape consists of 4 merged jagged objects with jagged edges, one of stone, 2 are almost like glass. They are earthy tones, blues, greys and dusty pink
May 20, 2025 at 12:46 PM
kshields.bsky.social
A little reminder that I send out a monthly substack feat. upcoming projects, ideas & research plus news from my biome (friends + connections!)
If youre into my work but, like me, trying to limit social media usage, sign up here: kateshields.substack.com
A bright greenish yellow background with black digital meshes of stones forming a section of a stone circle A portrait of me, an artist with dark short hair wearing a black vest top and red lipstick, standing infront of a projection of my work ‘organsongs’. A pink hazy organic shape is projected across my face and body as I turn my head slightly to the right of the scene. A selection of experimental life drawings on brown paper. 3 large figures drawn with charcoal and pale skin-toned chalk. The lines are smudged and smeared giving the appearance of movement.
May 19, 2025 at 8:43 AM
kshields.bsky.social
A cool workshop yesterday: we played TTRPG worldbuilding game A Quiet Year, then some speculative writing about the worlds we’d created at the Art Research Garden organised by Hildegard’s Garden Society (hildegardsgardeningcompanions.cargo.site)
A piece of paper featuring brightly coloured hand drawn maps laying on a dark green blanket. There are legs of 2 people just visible around it. The cover of the TTRPG ‘a quiet year’ held in my hand, with green grass, wildflowers and bushes in the background
May 19, 2025 at 8:31 AM
kshields.bsky.social
Saw this edited chalk board at a gallery and now all I can think about is what it’s like to be hugged by eels.
May 13, 2025 at 5:30 PM
kshields.bsky.social
Slowly getting over my 2nd covid infection, which means I finally put the finishing touches to my May substack about my Fabrica residency and sent it out into the world. Do have a read! This was such a joyful project:
kateshields.substack.com/p/future-sto...
An image of a yellow sand circle full of small stones in a large empty church space. Text overlaid reads: ‘FUTURE STONES a look back at my week-long residency at Fabrica Gallery + other stuff’ Part 1 of a wide digital artwork. A bright yellow/green background with a selection of stones seen as black meshes. Part 2 of the image, showing the other side of the image.
May 9, 2025 at 11:27 AM
kshields.bsky.social
Spent most of my 2nd time with COVID playing #DiscoElysium
I’m just really sad I couldn’t get Lieutenant Kim to trust me.
Screenshot from Disco Elysium. A run down street with ‘UN JOUR JE SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI’ painted in red letters.
May 8, 2025 at 9:05 AM
kshields.bsky.social
Fab time at PlayOffice in Portsmouth this weekend learning projection mapping in TouchDesigner alongside a fun & diverse group of creatives. PlayOffice is an accessible creative tech studio. Love to see places like this!: www.play-office.com
A laptop showing a bright orange and pink pattern sits on a white desk surrounded by cables and projectors. Projections cover the walls from different sources.
May 4, 2025 at 3:25 PM
kshields.bsky.social
In Portsmouth for a workshop, and I stumbled across the ‘Pique stone’, which apparently saved a ship from sinking in 1835 by plugging a hole following damage when it ran ashore? @stoneclub.bsky.social
A plague on a brick wall reads ‘This stone was found wedges in a hole in the bottom of the Frigate HMS PiQUE C. Captain the Hon H.J Rous R.ND when the ship was docked in Portsmouth in Oct 1835. The PIQUE had run ashore in the Belle Isle Straits, Labrador, in Sept of that year. After refloating herself she sailed across the Atlantic without a rudder & with pumps continuously manned to control her leaks. But for this stone, acting as a plug to one of the larger holes, she would certainly have foundered. A splendid feat of seamanship.’
May 3, 2025 at 4:20 PM
kshields.bsky.social
‘Drawing with stones’- an experimental life drawing session ran as a collaboration with the brilliant Jane Fordham as part of my Making Space residency at fabrica gallery last week. Stones! Drawing!
May 2, 2025 at 3:45 PM
kshields.bsky.social
….caught the stone circle in this gorgeous morning light at Fabrica on the final day of my residency here.
The stones are on their way back to their owners, the sand swept away with a big broom. This residency has been such a joy!
A large church hall, with soft morning light through tall windows illuminating a circle of stones on the wooden floor. An empty church hall with a wooden floor and tall stained glass windows at one end
April 25, 2025 at 9:38 PM
kshields.bsky.social
The final day of my Making Space residency culminated with a closing ritual, featuring a spoken word piece created from the words, memories and feelings gathered in stone sharing workshops. ✨
A close up of a hand anointing a stone with oil. A hand holds a slip of paper that reads “the symbolic aspect of lots of special stones making their way to another point of connection.” A long table covered with cut outs of words on white paper being organised into a different order A ceremonial metal bowl in the centre of a yellow circle of sand filled with water and yellow rose petals. Next to it is a paper scroll tied with a yellow ribbon. Smoke drifts in from the top right of the image.
April 24, 2025 at 7:48 PM
kshields.bsky.social
Each stone was washed, anointed and finally 3D scanned before being adding to the circle. Loved the autistic synchronicity of late night stone circle scan editing whilst listening to the latest @blindboyboatclub.bsky.social- stone circles/Irish mythology/fairy forts & anthrax in the soil. ☢️
A digital 3D scan of a selection of stones, viewed as black mesh files over a bright nuclear yellow/green background
April 23, 2025 at 10:09 PM
kshields.bsky.social
Day 3 of my residency FUTURE STONES at Fabrica.
Ran 2 stone & story sharing group workshops today, where we talked, drew and listened, before building a collaborative stone circle within the space.
Such a lovely day of community warmth & creativity (& a love of stones!)✨
@stoneclub.bsky.social
A group of people within an old church engaged in a series of tasks. Some are around a square table covered in paper and materials. Some are standing near a large yellow circle made of sand. A close up of a miniature standing stone, black and white patterned, stands on a wooden floor covered in yellow sand. In the background is a line of other stones, just out of focus. A person wearing a black skirt and top bends over placing a stone within a large yellow circle on a wooden floor. A sketch of a hagstone with a poem written around it by someone named Jem Verse. 01/04/25
April 23, 2025 at 10:02 PM
kshields.bsky.social
A brilliant day drawings with stones with Jane Fordham and her experimental life drawing group at Fabrica gallery.

I’ve modelled for Jane’s sessions myself for over 10 years now, and so as part of my residency I invited Jane to collaborate on this session.

Such a great day drawing & talking STONES
An old wooden floor, illuminated by a strip of sunlight. There are markings on the floor made using bright yellow sand. Hands holding out a large flat piece of quartz stone, which glistens in the light A piece of paper with a list of words written in charcoal: ‘heart earth smooth closed secret black back’ The name ‘Jane’ appears at the top. A continuous line drawing on white paper of two intertwined figures walking
April 22, 2025 at 7:58 PM
kshields.bsky.social
Peaceful first day of my Making Space residency at Fabrica: ‘Future Stones’.
Making circles, scanning stones and setting up for workshops.
(And a tarot reading to start ofc)
A Celtic tarot spread on a wooden church floor An old church with a grey concrete floor: in the centre of the floor is a stone circle made of yellow and silver paper stones, bright yellow sand, and flowers. A long wooden table up against a white wall. On the table is a selection of books. Hanging on the wall is a ordnance survey map of Brighton. A screen shot from a phone showing a 3D digital scan of a rainbow-tinged stone.
April 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
kshields.bsky.social
If you’re headed to Ed Fringe, Emma will be doing a solo version of this show there this year. I might be a bit biased but it’s a beautiful, moving, funny show about identity, 90s nostalgia, queerness, transness…and ofc Nirvana. More here: www.emmafrankland.co.uk/work/no-apol...
April 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
kshields.bsky.social
It’s been a shitty few days. Choosing to remember we performed a full-length theatre show about Kurt Cobain being trans with a full live trans+nb band on the day the UK reached peak trans-panic. 🎶“What else can I say? Everyone is gay!”#TransRightsAreHumanRights
A theatre stage lit in dim blue lighting, showing a replica of the Nirvana Unplugged in NY stage set. A chandelier hovers high above, before the musicians walk on stage. The finale of NO APOLOGIES, a brightly lit yellow stage full of musicians surrounding a performer standing on flight cases dressed as Kurt Cobain in a yellow gown that represents the sun. She is singing to the gathered audience. Six musicians stand in a final curtain call, smiling with their arms around eachother.
April 18, 2025 at 4:50 PM
kshields.bsky.social
In our final rehearsals for this amazing show I’m part of happening on Weds eve at ACCA in #Brighton

So excited/nervous to get back onstage on guitar, but couldn’t imagine a better way to do it!
www.attenboroughcentre.com/events/5362/...
A pile of pink black and white punk flyers, with an image of Emma Frankland in a gown, snarling whilst holding a guitar. Text on the flyer reads ‘Emma Frankland’s NO APOLOGIES performed with a live band, 8pm 16/4/25, Attenborough centre for the creative arts.’
April 13, 2025 at 10:09 PM
kshields.bsky.social
This weekend my body firmly and viscerally rejected the new meds I’ve been put on, resulting in a Sunday a&e visit (and yet more drugs).
So…here’s a pic of my weird little film installation ‘a stone circle for the future’ on show at ‘FOLKLORE’ for one more weekend in #Newhaven. Worth a visit!
A large gallery space filled with bright artworks. In the foreground is a circle of bright yellow/green papier-mâché rocks surrounding a flat tv screen in the centre.
April 8, 2025 at 11:55 AM
kshields.bsky.social
‘INFLAMED: Deep medicine and the anatomy of injustice’ by Rupa Marya & Raj Patel. Each chapter uses a bodily system as an analogy to describe how our collaborative health is interlinked with systems of oppression and inequality: eg the breakdown in biodiversity and our gut health….
April 5, 2025 at 11:00 AM
kshields.bsky.social
Enjoying @atomfall.com which is extremely relevant to my interests (Folklore! Nuclear stuff! Druids!)
I still find first-person gaming *so* hard. Glad for the accessibility options to help with motion sickness but still find myself getting confused and dying a lot during combat #atomfall
A still from a game showing a view of large standing stones in a forest. There are trees all around as well as colourful bunting, and a blue light emanates from the centre.
April 5, 2025 at 10:22 AM
kshields.bsky.social
Happy world autism day or whatever- in entirely related news today I bought some moss.
A big bowl of lovely moss in a bowl in a kitchen.
April 2, 2025 at 9:45 PM
kshields.bsky.social
So chuffed to show ‘a stone circle for the future’ as part of this diverse and exciting show in Newhaven: FOLKLORE curated by Toadlickers Collective.
Open until 12 April!

www.toadlickers.co.uk/folklore-new...
A white wall with the words FOLKLORE written in dark pink lettering. Underneath are the open dates 27.03.25 - 12.04.25 A circle of small bright lime-yellow coloured stone-shaped sculptures around a black flat TV laying on its back showing a film. A wooden shelf of organic objects, such as clay smiley faces, weaved bags and herbs. Hanging above from pink string are 4 pink hag stones with a series of abstract Polaroids above them on the wall. A folk-esque sculpture of a black hobby horse wearing a patchwork gown of black, white and pink.
March 29, 2025 at 10:44 AM