ARTISTS TALKING

# 155 [13 October 2008]

MONDAY AFTERNOON

The boards were delivered and we deliberated on how to install them.  Spent a couple of hours painting them black.  More blank spaces in the gallery.

More questions of how to make the dark wallpaper we want - use lining and paint it, or search out some plain paper, or paint it first and then attach it?  Have done some internet research and will telephone some suppliers in the morning.  Depending on the answers, will make a decision tomorrow.  

Washed a pile of roots and they are interleaved in newspaper with weights on for the night to press them dry and flat. 

# 154 [13 October 2008]

For a whole week most of my free time has been dedicated to researching and learning about how to set up a live webcam stream so that we could broadcast direct from our Under Ground residency at Claremont. Today, with great reluctance and frustration, I think I'm going to have to call it a day - because of the most fundamental problem of all - difficulty connecting to the internet!

I am disappointed...but pleased that there will be one more opportunity to try to achieve this at Crate in Margate. I will make it my first priority when we've finished at the Pine to try to get this set up, but for now...I need to get on and make some work!

# 153 [13 October 2008]

BEFORE WE START - MONDAY MORNING

The Pine Gallery is ours for the 11 days of the project.  Took a photo of the empty pale space.  More ghostly than dark, larger than I remember.  How to start?

Get everything down there. 

Test print with the emulsion.

Sketch the bird.  

# 152 [9 October 2008]

MORE STUFF

More gathering of materials today: black paint, white paint, gauze.  Much of this pre-work is collection and organisation.  How much of the art is this, having ideas and collecting stuff and organising it into 'new' arrangements.  Moving stuff around.  It seems to echo what I do at home: use stuff, clean stuff, put it away - pause, get it out again, rearrange it, wash it, move it, put it away.  Maybe I am feeling 'removed' because I have moved house to Hastings four weeks ago.  And I have helped my daughter move from Devon and on to London.  Lifting boxes and taking them somewhere will fill my day and much of the weekend.  

# 151 [8 October 2008]

STUFF

Gloriously sunny today and started pulling up weeds in the garden to gather for next week.  Loaded up the car with stuff already gathered and took it down to the studio in an attempt to get ready for the project.  

Tested wireless connection in basement and was able to join a network which is marvellous as we may be able to work on one of our main ideas for Under Ground.

Do we need a meeting before next week?

Must have a go at drafting out the pattern for my bird tomorrow.

Took some invitations to local stores.  Itsy bitsy things to do.  Excited about next week and concerned at the short time we have to experiment before showing some of the work in progress. 

# 150 [5 October 2008]

IMAGES

Thank goodness it rained today.  I had to stay in and I spent hours pulling together a powerpoint presentation to show the earlier stages of BREAKING GROUND:  the residency on the allotment and ALLOTMENTA Open Day, the University of Brighton Dept. of Fine Art Printmaking Residency, the time we spent at Phoenix Project Space, Brighton and the Open Day and Discussion Event which we called OUTSIDE IN.  I realised we have had 3 stages of the project already.  UNDER GROUND, the residency at Pine Gallery, Hastings which starts on 13 October for 10 days will be stage 4 and our final project space and Open Day/Discussion event which will be in Margate at Crate Project Space in November will be stage 5.  And we will have worked on BREAKING GROUND for 2 years.

# 149 [3 October 2008]

PREPARATIONS

With only 10 days to go until the start of UNDER GROUND in Hastings, Roz & I have been busy making our preparations. We've been sending out invitations to our Open Day, which this time will include a Big Draw event - DRAWING IN THE DARK, and we already have two people booked in for the Discussion Platform at Talk About The Work.

# 148 [30 September 2008]

CRATE PROJECT SPACE, MARGATE

Today was wet and windy, just right for a trip to the English seaside, and Judith and I trained to Margate to see Crate Project Space where we plan to hold our third Breaking Ground experimental residency next month. 

Margate has some interesting buildings and is in regeneration mode. We met Moyra and Chris from Crate who showed us round the Space.  It is great, there is a dark room too with a small hatch through to the large white room. We talked things through and have agreed to be in residence from 21 - 30 November.  Open Day will be on Saturday 29 November from 2-4pm with a Talk and Discussion at 4pm.

The building was formerly a printers and I was struck by the many- paned windows and the outside iron staircases leading to a roofspace. Apparently there is still some printer's ink in the dank cellar.   

We will have to stay overnight in Margate for most of the time and we started our search for handy accommodation.  Also had time to call in at Turner Contemporary Droit House on the harbour and look at the plans for the new gallery.

# 147 [24 September 2008]

DRAWING IN THE DARK - BIG DRAW EVENT

Plans are beginning to form.  Judith printed our first batch of invitations yesterday and we took them to Talk about the Work at Claremont Studio for our first piece of advertising.

I registered BREAKING GROUND as an organisation on the Big Draw website and put details of our Big Draw event: DRAWING IN THE DARK which will be part of our Open Day for UNDER GROUND on Sunday 19 October 2-5pm.  I am starting a collection of chalk and clay to draw on the dark walls of the basement Pine Gallery.  You can draw those underground creatures,  tunnels and chambers.

# 146 [24 September 2008]

GATHERING MOMENTUM

Roz & I are excited this week at the momentum which is gathering as we pick up the threads of our project following the summer break. Yesterday we looked together at the space at the Pine Gallery where we'll be working in just under three weeks time. As always, our ideas and imaginations began to work together as we thought about what we might do during our residency there.

Then, today, we received confirmation from Crate in Margate, that they can offer us the Crate Project Space for the third & final residency in November. We're going to visit Crate next week, and are excited about the prospect of working in a town where we haven't worked before, meeting new artists, taking part in new discussions about art and making new work!