ARTISTS TALKING

# 17 [15 April 2009]

The Death of Painting?

Will history show us that this is true?

Can it really be so, or just out of fashion for a while. I trained as a painter at St. Martins. Later I  learnt loads of stuff about pigments and binders. I even painted a freso in a museum once. I had to weave willow and make a partition wall then mixed horse hair with my mortor and did all those layers and lime putty. It was a cut away display revealing the layers of construction including the top pigmented layer.

I love painting materials the pigments. I love making images, and painting them is the initial reaction...but oh yeh, paintings dead. I will have to find another medium. This is what I have done for over twenty years now.

But  should I explore it again, but  here's the thing.. An inbuilt guidence system in me says 'Its a waste of time'. 'You had to throw away a skip full of paintings because you had nowhere to keep them'. This is true I did. They are bulky serve no purpose and waste time producing them when efforts could be made doing something to ern money instead.

Painting is still there. It can show and commontate on our world, just like other techno media. What might have really changed is that collectors used to buy them and hide them in collections. That was the destiny of a good painting. Does that still happen or are paintings suposed to be out there for all to see on, or in public buildings, or are they like a pre war collection of personel writings, revealing inner worlds and stored away in dusty places. Painting is a thing with no place, abit like the Palistinian People......... destined to be, but where?

# 16 [13 April 2009]

Recently I found the set of headphones for my mobile phone and these activate the radio in my phone. This has radically changed the nature of dog walking. Before I would to talk to anyone about anything however mundane and enjoyed the trivialness of it.

Now I walk along listening and keep my head down.  Totaly insular and avoid contact at all costs, other people are just a such a drag in my new world.

 Listening about the poet laurette Andrew Motion  talking about writing poetry to commission as part of his duty as poet laurette. The poems he says are no lesser for being commissioned, he is just as sincere about them and they contain as much of him as his non commissioned poems. The only thing being he would not have chosen to write about these things.

This is me and my public art work, exactly the same, only I rarely produce non commisioned work anymore. Well sometimes when I have time I make things which are kind of hybrid map/diagram things. I dont know what they are? All you artists out there probably feel quite comfortable with producing stuff, and develop things with intelect and it moves along ok.

I have this thing where I cant understand what comes out? It is not going to contribute financialy to bringing home the bacon I understand that.

And painting? This is the greatest thing for exploring ones own inner world, but what can paintings do in todays technodigital inter connected  user generated content world of e this and i that. Twittering, Flickering HD blue ray Hooray.

# 15 [30 March 2009]

The Kent Wildlife trust are the new owners of the woodlands where Cosmo goes on dog walks.

Very large areas of pine trees are being chopped down. The plant machinery required are very large. 100's of tones of concrete rubble has been spread over the access tracks to enable veichles to move through more easily. The wood is being stacked and removed on trailers, the arrisings or loose stuff is being burnt, the opperation leaves the woods in a total mess and users of the woods seem shocked.

The long term plan is to plant native trees and plants to encourage wildlife back into the woods again. The policy seems as if 'cruel to be kind' is what is happening. The pine trees were too close together and not enough light reached the ground. Its a long term project and I'm very interested to see the changes. The pine was I believe planted as a crop and fenced off. Now, it looks like Nagasaki. So it is a change of use, from produce for industry to leisure.

# 14 [19 March 2009]

My chidren are growing up. GCSE'S and 16th birthadays. They seem happy though. Life was just getting really good for me at that age.

My kids seem sharper than I was, I was a bit confused before I was 16. I never really got the point of anything. They seem great to me and dont speak Chav. (well, only a little)

I have just been offered a residency in a beach hut in the autumn. I am really glad about this, as I can focus on the wind farm I see walking with Cosmo every day.

Cosmo has a very tender foot, that claw on the side and up a bit. Dew Jew claw something like that, a dog thumb. I think he's bent it back.

My hand is developing many calouses from the mosaic nippers. It is turning into a dogs foot.

And why do driving instructors wear Hi Viz vests? 

My wifes new car will be Manitoba Grey. Great name Manitoba I would like to go there, near Hudson Bay in Canada.  I live in Herne Bay, which is fine and I am very happy.

# 13 [3 March 2009]

Tommorrow Cosmo is having his hair cut! 10am.

Some weeks ago I recieved a letter from a student wanting a work placement position with me. She outlined her graphics/computer and web skills and explained she liked working with groups and was a kind team player and wanted to focus on teaching GCSE after her degree studies.

I did not reply. She emailed me asking why had I not replied?

So I explained that I thought she could find a more relevant artist to suit  her interests as my practice was practical, hands on, with a craft skills base. I work alone (no team) and am workshop based with no real interest or experience in teaching GCSE level art.

I feel slightly bad not offering. Would it have been a waste of time? I could offer work placements, but to someone with the right type of starting points. How bad could it be, after all I do work with animals and children.

No I think the real reason was, I do want to work with someone, but more with an apprenticeship model in mind. Am  I allowed to say that? Are they good things or just exploitation. I can not tell anymore. The world is too deconstructed and people have forgotten how to piece it back together in the right order. The rules are lost and the lines rubbed away.

# 12 [25 February 2009]

Almost totally unaware of cosmo on todays walk. I was totaly zoned into my own little world of worry and mild panic.

There is a phrase which says something like 'doing nothing while Rome burns' Well is that a description of me at the moment? Not quite, but I am unable to get a number of projects  underway, very fustrating, which I know will create a bottle neck latter.  I want the work spread evenly over a longer period of time or I wont be able to cope with it all at once.

All of my projects have gone on hold or been delayed or just move amazingly slowly. But the deadlines at the other end dont slide along the time scheduling in proportion with the delays...oh no...they are chisled into your contract made of granite and bassalt.

I did explain this to Cosmo and told him things were just beginning to open up a little and asked him how good were my diplomatic skills when explaining to clients I might be unable to reach their deadlines?

He is in his dog world, a high priority for him is: well just legging it after foxes as fast as he can and then having a drink of rain water collected in a square hole for the rudder of an upturned boat.

marvellous.

# 11 [15 February 2009]

Our most frequent walk is the one along the sea front. For the whole of this walk the wind farm is visable 5 or something miles out to sea. I see it every day and it makes you wonder about the future?

Are the iconic motifs of the turbines on the horizon a symbol of a sustainable future with hybrid cars, renewable energy infustructures completed, effective recycled waste management and different attitudes to conspicuous consumerism.

May be conspicuous consumerism is the cause of the credit crunch and the downturn. Is this the opportunity to rethink our attitudes to the society and communities we live in?

or

Is global warming and climate change a media hype. Doom to replace the cold war and the nuclear threat with. Somthing to fan the flames of worry to serve their their own ends for profit. The goverment has seen an opportunity to use Green and Eco issues as stick to beat the populus with. Make us feel bad and tax us on our guilt?

# 10 [10 February 2009]

I dont have a letter for todays walk, we just went to the woods. I read a sign on a tree explaining that exstensive work was being carried out to fell the many fir/pine type trees and replace them with native ones.

The fir trees are planted very close together and is not so good for wild life and is very dark.

This tall pine tree type landscape brought us to N.America and I was hoping to meet some indians (not ones from the plains, but canadian ones like the Tlingit). They make totem poles from the fir trees. I was a lone character (like Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves) roaming the forests and wanted to 'Turn In'jun'.

Totems eh....not spirits for religous worship ...more the quite protector.

See now Rachels got mice and I think they may have been used as totems, cos they are like the spider for Robert the Bruce. They persevere and would provide a good totem for any artist.

Anyway I didnt meet any Indians, only an old woman who had a Jack Russel, who kept quoting Rudyard Kipling works a little too often for my liking.

# 9 [10 February 2009]

Very late walk tonight because of the weather. But we went and missed most of the rain.

I look at cosmo and he chills out most of the day. Laying around. He does often lay across internal door ways. One of his favourite places to lay and watch is the porch, he can see everthing from in there.  He really is guarding the threashold of the inside from the outside. If any activity happens in the road he likes to run up to the next threshold which is the garden gate and find out what's occuring. At night he sleeps either on the back door mat or against the front door. This notion of watching and guarding the transition from one world to another has been reinforced in my mind by Cosmo's behaviour patterns.

# 8 [5 February 2009]

I have been away alot in Jan, and missed a fair number of dog walks this month. 

Today I found a paragraph explaining that dogs are watchful, and guard the transition from one world to another.

They are................ and they do.

They are gate keepers and know exactly whats around. If there is anything going on, Cosmo knows about it 24-7.

I have been working on the Isle of Wight in a glass workshop. This was also watched over by a rwotwiler/alsation cross. He guarded a truly amazing world and I worked there with an very interesting guy. It was a world of magic that I enjoyed very much.

I came away thinking that being an artist is actually the best job in the world.