ARTISTS TALKING

# 10 [25 October 2009]

The blogger interview was well worth taking part in. It is interesting to be pushed to approach your art practice from a different perspective. My aim this week is to bury myself in work. Why do I always feel like this when kids holidays loom? Went to the woods on friday, my last day of freedom before the holidays. Now I am in my final year I am finding it difficult to relax and experiment so much. Need to resolve this mental boundary.

# 9 [15 October 2009]

College has started in earnest again, so I'm back to my usual tired mode from too much travelling and sleeping on a friend's floor. I have been doing quite a bit of research in the library though, and come up with some interesting books. Always a dilemma as to the balance of reading v work, sometimes the ideas can seem so seductive. I'm interested in the research/practice debate beginning in Carolyn Shepherd's profile interview. I must remember not to overlook the value of learning through making. I like it when the making processes echo the concepts explored in the reading and academic research. My previous work was purely intuitive, and it was hard to develop this way. I think to make thoughtful art the conceptual base needs strengthening too. Maybe debates in the blog will help me to be more reflective. I need to continue drawing as research, a thread that was started as a college seminar and which I need to remember to practice. Richard Taylor's blog is great for looking at drawing as research.

the image is my first pinhole image from a can camera left in the woods. More on this later....

# 8 [15 October 2009]

College has started in earnest again, so I'm back to my ususal tired mode from too much travelling and sleeping on a friend's floor. I have been doing quite a bit of research in the library though, and come up with some interesting books. Always a dilema as to the balance of reading v work, sometimes the ideas can seem so interesting. I'm interested in the research/practice debate beginning in Carolyn Sheppherd's profile interview.  

# 7 [30 September 2009]

I love this quote by Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth

"People say what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive..."

These words struck me. With my artwork I am exploring this experience of being fully attentive to the everyday experience of What Is. This reflects my interest in meditation and Taoism. I have begun the practice of making Chinese ink drawings in the woods of boundaries, paths, the marginal and in between. I think this could be a rich area for me to cultivate. I'd like to make 52 drawings!

I am making the drawings on site then re making them in the studio adding colour. This is an experiment in memory and mark. By re-making the drawings am I adding to them in any way? What is added and what is lost?

# 6 [17 September 2009]

Can't believe I haven't blogged for so long! Just returned from a camping, seminar weekend near Zennor Cornwall, organised by Bos Arts at NT Treveal Farm. Great fun and food for thought. My interim college show work reponded to the site too.

 My "Making the Bed" work  sprang from conversations with Jon Brookes (country side manager at NT Treveal Farm). He spoke to me about the reintroduction of grazing to the coastal cliffs, which allows light to the soil, bringing biodiversity and wildflowers to the clifftops. However the issue has polarised local residents who share the landscape.

 Making work on site was an interesting take on a college show, bringing its own particular practical and emotional stresses. The main one being I was relying on other people to help make the piece happen, and it all had to happen at the last minute. A farmer friend near home was called upon to come up with friends near Zennor who could provide the small bales that can be lifted by hand, and the National Trust provided help with the trailer etc.

It all worked out beautifully on the day and the weekend was glorious which meant I could site the work in the milking yard where I wanted it. If it had been a bad forecast it would have been in a barn, or the bales would have been ruined and the calves would have gone hungry! The joys of a rural practice!

# 5 [13 July 2009]

I feel happy to be back in the woods and creating work. I feel the work is developing a connective thread and a direction. Reflecting my interest in making site responsive work, I've started making "forest letters". It came out of the whole logging experience, I needed to voice my thoughts, and observations. The letters are paper scrolls that are visual or written resposes to being in the place at that moment. The scrolls are then rolled into bark cases, which are all over the forest since the logging took place. these are left in the woods for people to come across in the nature of  a message in a bottle, or chance encounter. I like this way of presenting the work, although over time they are nibbled and weathered. College is taking a back seat at the moment with no lectures etc. this is a good thing, as I am able to get down to some work. There is a window before the kids Summer holidays start. We have an evaluation point soon, which does wonders for motivation!

# 4 [1 June 2009]

Just spent a few days with fellow MA students at Appledore Festival. Our contribution was a fire and fury ritual, where the public was asked to deposit their anger on our anger posts, followed by a ritual burning of said anger on the beach with a bowl of Chilli thrown in! An interesting learning experience. I was surprised at how many people turned up at the Far Beach the next day (yes it was far from the town and hard to find) and felt a commitment to completing the clensing process. The tides were even working in our favour, coming in later on to put out the flames.

# 3 [19 May 2009]

They are logging the forest! My first thoughts were, oh no that wrecks my project then. But after meeting Dave from the  Forestry commission and Nick one of the logging contractors. I hope to use their knowledge in the artwork I do. People and their management of the trees are an integral part of the forest. Still hard to see it changed though. Funny studying something that is always transforming and shifting, never fixed. I like working outside in the environment rather than being in a studio too much, there is always change and interaction.  

# 2 [30 April 2009]

Went to an interesting talk by an Isreali artist at the Centre for Contemporary Art in the Natural world at Haldon Forest. The artist is Shai Zakai, she's into initiating dialogues about ecological issues. I hope to take part in her show there in October which will consist of black shoeboxes filled with natural material to create her forest tunes library, showing damaged nature or nature with a personal story. I have to fill my box in some way, maybe I'll fill it with shadows! I like having a project that is easily achievable (maybe). My life is so full at the moment with kids and life organisation that filling a shoebox is a nice easy thing to fit in, just need to find a box.......

# 1 [6 April 2009]

I am juggling children this week as it is the Easter school holidays. I did manage to get to the forest though, which was great. I try to get there at least once a week for a day or I feel I am loosing touch with the real subject of my work.

I went with my 2 children Coral(8) and Stefan(11) and a friend Christine. When we arrived I was reminded not all my trips to the forest are a pleasant experience and nature contains fear aswell as beauty. There was a notice on the gate about "10 horrific deaths" of sheep by uncontrolled dogs. This made us all uneasy, but is as much a part of the experience as the unfurling leaves we saw on the beach trees and the lizard in the sun.

I made sound recordings in 5 spots in the forest with different atmospheres. This time there is talking in with the forest sounds.