ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [27 July 2009]

Writing a blog has become a part of my practice in a completely unexpected way: it has become a work in itself.

I made my first ever tentative attempts at writing a blog here, on Artists Talking. I have a problem, though. Generally speaking I tend to prefer not talk about my work whilst it is in progress, in fact it is not unusual for me to hide work in progress even from my family. As a consequence I didn't exactly embrace blogging.

I'm away from my studio at the moment. It is a regular thing, 3 or 4 months of the year, working in France. I find it a very productive time creatively, mainly because I don't have the usual distractions: I have the opportunity to concentrate on ideas for my notebook, usually in the evening, and develop them once I get back to the studio. This year I have another way to realise some ideas. 

Recently, having received a few invitations to join (but always putting it off) I finally joined Facebook. Once in (but still not entirely convinced) I became fascinated by the viral element of the network - it reminds me of the theory that everyone is connected to everyone else by friends, family, acquaintances. Next, for some time I have also been working with the idea of a work of art existing only on the internet. I had previously created several pieces of work using only the computer and small sections of internet images, and I was absorbed by the idea that these works had no physical existence until they were actually output. Lastly, I had been kicking around the vague notion of Colin d'Alaska for a year or more.

These ideas suddenly converged. Colin of Alaska was born, and he is writing a blog.