ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [23 March 2008]

I have a love/hate, high/low, agony/ecstasy  type relationship to making mosaics.

Its a fantastic medium.

It gives you callouses. So much so that one hand resembles a dogs foot.

It has a high impact and engages people easily as they can see the patience and skill required.

It does your brain in.

It is surprisingly versitile and I have made lots of them.

Today is a public holiday, but tommorrow I will have to carry on with it. I think I will finish the blue water around the boat.  The black lettering in the boarder needs doing.  Mosaic has that funny way of stopping you doing the bit you want to do, as I want to do more of the water but I can't as I need to know where the boarder stops and the water starts. I don't know where the boarder stops untill I have done the lettering.

Probably going to have to order black tiles at some point, as I think I only have about two sheets left.

# 2 [27 March 2008]

I really got stuck into the mosaic map today. The ironic thing is I have a couple of tasks that I have to do tommorrow, one is called 'some  modest sketches'. It is not often I feel so keen about making mosaics, so that swaping to another job is a shame as I want to get as much done as possible before the 'dark times' arrive!

Mosaic is a task where the hands are occupied constantly, but the mind is rarely used...kind of auto pilot for hours upon hours upon hours .

I made a couple of descisions today; A) To do the letters before the swans. B) The green I chose for the grass was fine and not worry about it. That took a total of about 15 seconds.

Shirley Collins was featured on the radio though, A folk singer who sounds like you were listening to a woman who had been asked to sing a song for friends or relatives in the front living room. Something formal and austere a kind of recietal for a select few on Aunt Maries birthday say! It turns out she is very famous, and I have one song by her on a compilation CD. A song warning young girls to beware of boys, especially one called Ramble Away.

I was envious of Shirley Collins as she was part of a tradition. She was clearly a figurehead for some kind wider group. She had direction and meaningfulness in her life, it was from the past, it might have even been the past itself.

Oh well...lets hope I have time to continue with my map tommorrow.

# 3 [31 March 2008]

So Easter out of the way and other interuptions mostly sorted, my 'modest sketches' took me the best part of two days! How was that?

The great news is we booked a holiday at the weekend, a week in Vienna, late July, the children as well. I will be able to see several Hundertwasser buildings while I am there. This is really the main reason for the trip.

So full steam ahead and get stuck into the mosaic again next week. I will be changing from grass and water, to buildings and solid ground. Crucial colour choices to make, as the balance overal is important. Its looking good and I am keen to progress.

Listening to Mark Thomas (comedian and activist) on a radio interview chating with a reporter as they walked along the Ridgeway from Waylands Smithy to the White Horse. Now......the mosaic I have just completed and installed is called 'The Ridgeway Map' and the very same walk inspired it. How much of a coincidence is that? So I was very interested to hear the description of what I knew through the eyes of someone else? One thing he said made me smile, was that he saw someone walking along with their ipod and head phones on. He thought the natural sounds of the wind, the trees and the birds etc, was the soundtrack for the walk. I have to agree with him, my 15 year old son probably would'nt though, as looking at a hill might not be stimulating enough? Looking at buildings in Vienna may also require audio technology?

# 4 [1 April 2008]

Just finished for today, midnight. Really tried to get as much of the background done as I could. I definately made the right decision not to go darker with the green of the grass. The ground is quite light and the lighter grass helps, makes the buildings show up more. My concern is the ground colour is too close to the white of the road!

But basically I will have to live with that. The roads a very bold, wide and straight and will hold their own as I am relying on them to 'hold it all together'.

See with painting its so easy just mix the colours to the one you need, or if you get it wrong, ...repaint....simple.

I really know from todays work just how slow these buildings will be. The impact of this is a controlled resolve to absorb the news and keep it steady as if it was insignificant.

The good news is it will look fab. The house I did looks great and bodes well for the long terraces to come.

Tommorrow I will do a little bit of cement casting. Sounds good but only small flat squares. I hope they dont snap too easy... only 12mm thick! see what happens.

today's picture is how much of the mosaic I had completed before I started this blog.

# 5 [4 April 2008]

Feeling fine with the mosaic. I will cut off the lower section tommorrow. So I am almost half way through.

The 'madness' has not yet arrived. The work has been interupted by other things and broken up the mind numbing hours of  torture. So I am not going to talk about it.

What I really want to do is work with much larger material on a much larger scale. Something I would need  to do to achieve this, would be to become part of a design team working with professional designers and architects to integrate a variety of materials into a floor scape for example, a town square. I find acres of mono block paving or flag stones rather sterile. I know  they are everywhere but the blank empty hollow feeling they give could be avoided. They are quanityfiable, easy to work with, how many required, units, maths, time schedules, simple labour and materials all easily worked out and deliverd to the client no hass.

Result: flat floor on time within budget. Sounds great: Just that they are at best dull. We expect that and take them as the only way to deal with floors. Anything else does not compute. 

I would like to see if this norm for surface treatment is a penatrable, not just floors, buildings more generally and whether BS standard building regs have closed off any kind of life.

Architects, designers, developers, contractors and clients might realise something less monotonous is possible if they broke free from units, prefabrication, time, deliverables and costs. People have to live and work and use these places, they all look the same, 'but the people  provide the colour and life'. Just that they have gone mad and lost the plot.

But it was on shedule and budget.

Oh........ Thats OK Then.

Sorry.... for ranting  and spouting nonsence I expect it wont be the last time.

# 6 [8 April 2008]

So where does the Zen come in then?

Well, hours and hours of cracking rocks day in day out is a pretty boring task and the mind is needed only in very limited descision making so a higher mind set is often reached, Nivarna, sacred and spiritual places are where this level takes us. Where is it? I can't remember but I've been there all day, I dont realise the CD's finished thirty five minutes ago, its only when the CD  gets stuck that you realise there is life in your body.

Zen like levels dude,

Monks used to copy the bible by hand as there was no printing in those days.

How many times did a scribey type monk write the bible in a life time?

Prehaps it started as a great job, lovely illustrations, calligraphy Lombardic capitals, uncials super work if you can get it. But by the 3rd or 4th copy of the bible the gloss has worn off and the realisation that the next 3 months till the book is finished will be more of this Nivarna, this needs a zen like acceptance to reach the end of the task. Then, when it is finished there is the next one to do. This is also the exact same head space for mosaic making.

# 7 [10 April 2008]

So that's it then the nice bits all done and what's left is just mechanical. Brain damage will no dought ensue.

I am very very pleased with it though. Its like looking at one of those architectural models the ones with streets, cars, buildings with windows, trees and stuff. like looking into a micro world. Its the first time I think I've made a mosaic like that, though they are all micro worlds in their own way.

I will post a photo of the really good bits soon but today, I'll post what I have.

My batteries are low and the rest of it will be like a hard climb in the Tour de France; long, hard and painful. But I am strong and riden in these mountains many times before. I will huff and puff may even find a sprint finish at the end. I might have to find a fast finish as Halcrows 'are going to contact me' which really means when will you be ready to install, as we will be off site in a week or two!

I fixed me bike today, brakes needed attention and I've got a free lunch on Thurs next week.

# 8 [11 April 2008]

The bun fight is tommorrow at 10.30

I will drive off early start... to Wantage where the commissioners (of my last project) Persimmons Homes and The Vale of the White Horse Dist. Co. are providing drinks and cakes so the residents can use this celebration to meet each other and get to know their neighbours. This is what should happen more often, after all the point of these projects is to strengthen communities and build social capital.

The best one was when an aquantance sent me a photo of celebrations at a project I had done ages before. It turned out to be an asian wedding and they used an urban stone circle I created, which they sang, danced and waved coloured material around and stuff.

Now for me, that makes a successfull project.

Lets hope tommorrow is as fun?

As for this project, its too boring to talk about, but it looks fab. check out the photos.

# 9 [15 April 2008]

So the madness hoverd around the fringe of my mind on this project. It is nearly over now.

I had a conversation today and I found out that the site wont be ready for five weeks or so! I expected to hear five days. True, some time after easter was bandied about, I thought I was well behind the contractor. Thats great news, I will not need to force myself kicking and screaming into the workshop. I have no time preasure. That's when mosaic is really cruel that fight to complete on time.

So I'll have to find something else to say instead.

'The straight line leads to the downfall of our civilization' Hundertwasser. 1953.

# 10 [28 April 2008]

A walk in the Woods

So I doubt wether I will say too much till I install this mosaic, I have only got to cut it up and store it till the installation.

Now I have a little time on my hands I made a small path in the front garden. I might make another one tommorrow.

I think I will read Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance....... I find reading for pleasure a difficult thing and miss out on so much. Attention Disorder, lazy, always think that something else is more important, why is this? prehaps the answers lie in the book. Outside stimulas is such a good thing, so why do I find it so hard to leave my little insular world?

The blue bells are out, and I took my dog Cosmo out for a walk it was amazing, like blue water over the forest floor.

He was so happy charging through the woods, mud, smells, squirrels, stagnent water and leaves and grass to roll in. Just dog stuff I will  never really understand. He was so happy it made me happy in a sad sort of way?