ARTISTS TALKING

# 38 [23 April 2010]

My New York flight has been rescheduled rather annoyingly for the week I am installing the show at Backlit. I had also planned visits to Manchester and Liverpool, so they have been pushed to one side in order for me to take the trip to the US. Now I have instead this feeling of mild panic in my stomach that I have to give over the control of installing to the technicians and curators at Backlit, whom I trust implicitly to make those deciding factors to how it will look overall. This also means that I will miss the PV, which is a disappointment. I have had to remove the complex lighting show planned in order for the show to become simpler, but hopefully I will be able to install this somewhere on later in the year if it fits.

So, I will spend the next couple of days finishing off the large sculptural pieces which will either arrive in a van complete or in parts depending on transport issues, the rest is manageable...

# 37 [18 April 2010]

OK, so I was expecting to be in New York tomorrow, but due to the current ash crisis, I will not be. Fortunately now, in lieu of being away, I have managed to catch up with a few things outstanding. Work for Gloria's crew is done, work bought has been sent, my talk is over and the work for the show in Nottingham is ahead of schedule. I have the small pieces framed, the large pieces  to work on a little and the sculptures are 2/3 of the way finished. I am going to work on a sound piece this week  collating all of my ideas as well as finishing off the sculptures, so if I am clever with my time, I may take full advantage of the 3D room at work over the next few days to get stuff done. I am actually looking forward to finishing off the sculptures more than anything and for another project, I am working on a new costume. So lots of things in the making with a little space in sight to work on things that don't have a show to go to. I am very excited...

# 36 [12 April 2010]

Finally, after almost a weeks install, the artist collective C-O-L-L-I-D-E-R and other regional (Eastern) artists collectives got together for the show 'Wysing Arts Contemporary Presents', in Cambridge. Our collective, C-O-L-L-I-D-E-R was ambitious in terms of making two structures interlinked by blue piping to act as outlets for our collaborative and then later our singular visions of work for an art fair.

That done, I am now working on a piece for 'Glorias crew', a show at The Vaults in Birmingham as part of ARC. I am likely to let them have older selected pieces also, but am enjoying making a new piece for it.

Then onto the solo show at Backlit called 'To taste molten diamonds. Some work is at the framers, others about to go to the printers, with structures to be made over the next couple of days and a bit of lighting to be bought and a poster to design.

Tomorrow night, I will be attempting to talk for 3 minutes with 10 slides of my work alongside other artists and creatives at TAP in Southend as part of the 3 minute wonder programme set up by Metal.

# 35 [16 March 2010]

I am very excited, in fact so excited I justified a new spend on an iphone...oh well. I have been granted a Grants for the Arts application with the lovely curator Catherine Hemelryk from Bury St Edmunds Gallery to travel up and down the country responding to stately home collections. I am really excited particularly that I will be working alongside writers that will really throw my work hopefully into turmoil along the journey, creating articles and new writings that can only add to the mix of responses. Gavin Wade will be Catherine's mentor on this one, which will I am sure create new ideas for her too. I am, as a result, going to be traveling up and down the country for the next 18 months creating new shows to new and existing audiences. The venues and writers will be revealed shortly.
I have a number of shorter other projects that are happening and I will post anything to do with soon.

# 34 [10 March 2010]

I am finding the lack of time to work frustrating. Juggling my teaching, proposal submissions, group commitments and the like have become overwhelming although it is hard to complain as I should consider myself lucky in the current climate. Having shows to work towards gives me a direction but it does leave you constantly feeling unsure about whether your work stands up to constructive self critique let alone critique from any other directive.

I have to prepare a talk to students for next week too. Time and time again I find the idea of a talk quite daunting with little else other than powerpoint to direct the visuals and I always have that feeling of despair rushing through my bones when I see the images through this mode of transport. However, I have signed up for a scheme titled 3 minute wonders in April in Southend which will give me the discipline of talking through 10 slides in 3 minutes. This will, I am sure, be quite a challenge although too late to well prepare me with this one.

# 33 [9 March 2010]

New drawings are being shaped and I am seeking a good sized workshop to create new sculptures. I am devising ways of making new sound works too, so I feel overwhelmed by the starting of new works before finishing others. Still, the back - stories being told somehow appear to be holding it all together in some way, which is rather reassuring in itself.

Whilst working on these new works I have become infatuated with Ludwig II of Bavaria. I wish sometimes that my head would stop, although I understand that for some, ideas are sometimes long coming, so I should feel blessed. Sleep patterns are becoming erratic, black circles are becoming more evident. Am I in my own way following the path of Ludwig's so - called insanity? Time will no doubt tell. I am also reading the Count of Monte Cristo again, so perhaps the two are becoming intertwined?

# 32 [7 March 2010]

Oh dear, its now 2010 and I have been lapse with my blog. I will attempt now to keep it running again, with a little more time at present to allow this to happen. I have been busy accumulating artists and work for 'post' a travelling show that had its first port of call at TROVE in Birmingham. We are close to the next deadline for works to move forward to TAP, Southend and in the meantime, I am working on new pieces for a solo at Backlit in Nottingham.

I moved into a new studio at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridge in January and have been asked to be part of an art fair there as 1 member of the arts collective C-O-L-L-I-D-E-R. This has in the main part been good with hearing recently that the collective has had approval from the arts council for a research bid that we have applied for just before Christmas.

So, with a steady trickle of shows in front of me work appears to be less rushed, which can only be a good thing with where I am now, but with a lot of potential work just around the corner, I had better keep my head down.

My stories are growing steadily in haste with current work being made alongside. I only hope that it all makes sense for the future.

# 31 [5 November 2009]

Almost completed the commissioned work, just need to pin down a bit of time, then off to the framers I go. I am starting to formulate ideas for a series of works for the show in St Ives. I feel that it will be extremely symbolic in content based around the idea of imagined portraiture to date.

Time is not necessarily on my side with a lot to attempt to achieve over the next month. Alongside that formulating a group proposal to the Arts Council and part collecting a show of works from possibly 40 artists over the Christmas period is looming, as well as pinning down a proposal with a writer/curator is on the near horizon. i just want to get to the state of having time to collect ideas and ponder for a bit. i have a questionnaire to collate to inform new ideas alongside my findings from Venice as well as discussing with the photographer/filmmaker how we are going to progress with a  short film idea. Arrgh, is it achievable? I always seem to be wrestling with that idea.

# 30 [1 November 2009]

I have just returned from a research trip to Venice with a number of artists. This has proved to be a visually and culturally enriching experience with the added entertainment of seeing how a group can grow. We knew liitle of each other at the start, I feel we know much more about each other now.

Visiting the biennale was also part of our trip, which I have to say I enjoyed more in terms of getting away from the main arenas ( a bit of a disappointment in my opinion), choosing to languish in the more incidental shows dotted around the city. Favourite representations  I particularly enjoyed were Northern Ireland, Russia and Singapore though saturation point happened on numerous occasions throughout my stay.

On my return, little has changed. Work is backing up and I am exhausted. I must now work on finishing the commissions, picking up work from shows and start to work on ideas for the show in St Ives in December.

# 29 [26 October 2009]

Five guineas

Twelve Pearls

Twelve diamonds

One Folly

Twelve Noon

Ten girls

Two Widows

One fiddler

Three Trustees