ARTISTS TALKING

# 37 [2 May 2011]

One week left until the Open Day and I am praying that the weather stays so great. 

There are butterflies in abundance at the park this week, it's too early for a lot of them but the sun has brought them out regardless.

If it's cold or rainy next week we wont see a single one....however there will be a lot of new artworks to see.

Carolyn Shepherd has installed her piece of work, it looks great already though will grow with the park and will look even better over the course of the summer when the nettles at the back have grown up more. The work will then blend into its surroundings more.

Julie Dodd has begun the install of her plastic bottle butterflies, the shadows through the plastic onto the container are beautiful - more realistic than the butterflies themselves, though their simplicity is a vital part of the piece, the shadows seem to tell a different story.

Roy Lewis work is next to go in, a sundial made entirely from old motorbike parts. It's stunning but Roy is an ex motorbike mechanic he doesn't class himself as an artist at all, after seeing the piece I beg to differ.

Terry Hayes is having trouble with his resin casts, he assures me all will be well and will install Friday. Fingers crossed.

Leandra Holder + Chris Turrell-Watts will install Saturday, this piece is certainly more craft based than contemporary art but I'm sure once the sun catches the light on the recycled glass butterflies hanging in a tree the effect will be quite lovely.

Will the addition of craft into the trail make it a provincial art show? I'd like to think not, I think though we are a small nature reserve in an off the road Urban Wirral setting we seriously could stand up against some of the more well known contemporary art trails. I worry about the 'craft' effect but then I think there is something for everyone at least. The Open Day will have a small village fete kind of feel I hope but will nonetheless contain some very credible artworks.

The Mobile Allotment is growing well, I've only had to transplant one parsley plant and that was simply because I'd forgotten to put drainage holes in the bottom of a teapot.

The Caravan Visitor Centre is on something of a tight schedule.

SO much work has had to go into refurbishment that though all my plans are done I've yet to start making it into a visitor centre.

Presently it is rot free and has had a respray. The lepidoptera drawers are made, most of the art books are made , the posters, photo's flyers, brochures etc are all done.

My husband/art technician has worked ridiculously hard just to get it in a road worthy condition, walls are going in finally today + tomorrow. I will be painting on Thursday and then have one day left to actually put everything in place before install on Saturday. 

There will be very little sleep happening this week.

# 36 [20 April 2011]

Flyers going out this week but for now I'm off to the park for a picnic with the kids to have a few hours relaxing for a change!

# 35 [19 April 2011]

My (non existant) sign writing skills came into play this week, I hand painted a sign onto the allotment - it took me all day!! 

I'd have much preferred to have a real butterfly painted on the side, the comma, which seems to have become our 'logo' but I had to use specific wood paint and we had no black or orange to I had to use a bit of artistic licence on the butterfly front.

I'm not sure what the scientific types will think of that but it looks ok to me.

Planted on the Mobile Allotment are:

Sorrel, when young can be eaten as a salad leaf and is a larval plant for the small copper.

Marjoram, thyme and mint are good nectar sources for several butterflies.

Cabbages for the whites is also great.

Nettles for comma, red admiral, small tortoiseshell and peacock.

Garlic chives
fennel
lavender (edible in small quantities as flavouring)
pot marigold (Calendula sp.), which has edible flowers

Most of the herb bed is attractive to bees and butterflies when in flower:
Particularly marjoram (especially the perennial, sometimes called pot marjoram)
And thyme.

Then borage, sage + rosemary (all for bees)

All the bean family (broad, French and runner beans and peas) are attractive to bees, indeed bumbles are essential to pollinate runner beans as honey bees are too light to open the flowers.

Courgettes too are bee pollinated.

Wild strawberries attract butterflies + bees but are also loved by birds (of which we have may at the park).

Concentrating on the caravan now until the opening + then i can start planning out a wee tour with allotment I hope.

# 34 [14 April 2011]

Two days spent at the local school, the first making butterflies, sandwich bag ones, splat painting ones and some beautiful drawings. Today was spent planting up the mobile allotment, each child choosing a plant, given them the task of finding out which particular butterfly is attracted to their specific plants.

Great day though, the kids were all part of the school eco council and were just so keen. A few haven't got gardens and were delighted by the idea of planting in teapots + shoes etc. They were going home to tell their Mums they can have herbs growing in tin cans on the wondow ledges :)

I had to get the planting done before thetrailer is fully finished or the plants might have died so now I have to spend some time painting the trailer with the park name and some butterflies probably.

An A-frame detatchable roof will have to be made after that too, once the plants get much taller I wouldn't be able to tow the trailer far without them breaking. I didin't want a 'glasshouse' type roof in the end,the plants are all specifically chosen to attract butterflies and bees, it seems daft to then trap them in a greenhouse. They need to be in the open air in order to do their job. So the roof will just be put on when we're out and about travelling.

The caravan is coming along, more damp found so we've had to basically strip all the internal walls out and treat it, waiting for it all to dry out now and then we're back in putting new walls in soon. Can't have the Lepidoptera drawersI originally wanted as they won't fir through the caravan door haha, never thought of that!!!

Decided instead to keep some of the old cupboard carcasses and will make drawers to fit, much narrower but it was only ever meant to reference an actual museum, it's not like the butterflies in them will be real so it should be ok.

It's an artwork at the end of the day,a working visitor centre yes but it will be more than that really.

# 33 [7 April 2011]

I can't quite believe that its only a month until the Open Day.

Sunday 8th MAY

So much to do yet, panic is starting to set in. The Caravan Visitor Centre actually has no floor at the moment as it was so rotten it fell through but I have every faith in my amazing husband/technician who is the worker of miracles.

The Butterfly Park has a work day tommorrow with 20+ volunteer workers coming from UniLever to help out, this is great and means that I can get some help with some of the projects. I have a whole day workshop making butterflies with schoolchildren Friday so can't be there but my husband has taken the day off work and is going to supervise 2 volunteers to fix and fill the twigwam as it has some storm damage and 2 other volunteers will help him finish off the partition in the mobile allotment and make a roof cover so that I will actually be able to transport the trailer without the plants blowing away. I'll be poppong to the park in the school lunch break just to make sure it's all going well.

The only downside of Friday's activities is that I'm missing the Opening of the Jaume Plensa exhibit at Yorkshire Sculpture Park AND the opening of Rebecca Chesney's work there too, I was really looking forward to both, gutted that the date clashes.

I will be going up next week but would have loved to attend the open day, have my ticket ans everything :(

On another note, I really need a lesson in how to reverse with a trailer on the back of the car too, I'm all over the show at the moment.

# 32 [25 March 2011]

I did a talk at a primary school assembly this week for the whole school, that was a bit daunting but actually went very well. Lovely kids and a really good reaction to the project.

I presented them with a buddleia plant for them to put in their school garden so that butterflies will be attracted to it when in flower. Then in April I have a full day of making butterflies with them and a further half day of them assisting me in planting up the mobile allotment.

I have an old wooden trailer and when I say old I mean truly knackered, it fell apart when delivered! So it needed a total rebuild but is now looking pretty fabulous, ready to have an A-frame fitted (primarily to protect any plants when in transit) 

It will contain edible plants that attract butterflies and bees and will be used as an educational tool to tour local schools and community groups to show how easy it could be to plant in any small space and have butterflies and bees come to visit.

Will be planted with Marjoram, Thyme, Mint, Sage, Garlic, Chives, Oregano, Sorrel, Cabbage, Courgette, Runner Beans, Fennel, Strawberries and Lavender. I have local people growing seedlings at the moment.

Part of the trailer will be partitioned off with  small self under which I can store small gardening tools/gloves/watering can and sat on top if the shelf will be planted items such as an old tin kettle, a boot (think Wall-E) and some pots/cans to prove to people that this can be done.

People can grow their own food and be at least partially self sustainable in any environment.

I had to give a presentation about the project as a whole last week as a trial for a much larger presentation this week and so did some research into other mobile allotments. There is some really great work going on out there.

Nils Norman's 'Geocruiser' I have long admired. It's a mobile greenhouse and educational resource centre, I think this was probably where my ideas first originated for both the visitor centre and the mobile allotment. Since I heard about Geocruiser in about 2006 I wanted to work on a project that had similar ideals.

http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/artists_stori...

Kim Holleman's 'Trailer Park' an amazing public park INSIDE a caravan that includes a park bench and a waterfall!

http://kimholleman.com/home.html

Lisa Cheung's mobile allotment is another.   http://www.mobileallotment.blogspot.com/and

Also there are plans for a mobile garden in Chicago (on a train) this has a particular resonance to me as the Butterfly Park was once an old railway sidings and is still situated right next to Bebington Train Station.

http://www.themobilegarden.org/mobilegarden/welcom...

I had so many other fantastic projects I wanted to talk about in the presentation but will do so for my Contextual Report that accompanies the project as part of my MA.

# 31 [16 March 2011]

Still not well so no more work done but Butterfly Bunting for the van arrived today, thought I'd post a cheerful pic.

# 30 [14 March 2011]

i posted all this in my MA blog rather than this one by accident so for the sake of continuity I'm reposting it.

I keep referring back to this blog for my course work and don't want to miss bits out, apologies for anyone who read it twice but I'll add a nice photo of the sparkling clean caravan too. My fabulous (tall) husband managed to reach up top and clean the roof, it took him all afternoon!!

RPT:

Best laid plans got scuppered due to vile illness , been off work and off working for this project all week. 

I officially hate being ill. 

I do not do it well, my creative thinking vanished! 

In the midst of this, just as I began to feel 'slightly'  human I had to take a group of school children on a tour of the park, pre arranged ages ago so had to go.

It went really well, the kids were all so polite and very interested, they followed me around listening intently and asking lots of questions. We talked a bit about the visitor centre that they will be making work for. I go into their school on 24th to do an assembly and discuss all this in detail with the rest of the kids.

Then because I'd been out in the rain, I got ill again :(

I did however manage to speak with my old lecturer at Wirral Met college and they've agreed to loan me one of their old plan chests for the duration of the summer. I'll re-furb it into a lepidoptera cabinet for the visitor centre saving a small fortune not having to actually buy one, major bonus staying friends with other creatives.

The entries are in for the Butterfly Art trail, some really interesting ones amongst them. I'll be presenting to the team this week (pending my feeling better) and looking for a decision on who to invite to join with us this year. Very excited.

# 29 [1 March 2011]

I spent the best part of a full day jet washing and who knew - the caravan is indeed white!!

I'm now at the stage of wondering whether to paint it a jolly eyecatching colour or leave it white, theres a strip down the side perfect to put a vinyl sign with the Butterfly park name on and I could get vinyl's of my drawings to go onto the white van which might be more inkeeping.

I've won quite a few old butterfly books on ebay now, really do need to get to more charity shops though. As I'm self funding everything I have a limit of £3 each on books but I do seem to have found some real beauties within that price range. 

These will all be used as part of the little library within the centre, some to make into artists books for display purposes and some to use as part of the mini reference library itself.

I'm going to Liverpool Community college in the next 2 weeks to give a presentation to the tourism students who will be designing paraphernalia and re-branding the butterfly park as a centre for tourism. I'm really quite excited to see what we can all come up with to be honest and hoping it will be something that is ultimately useable and not just project based for the benefit of the course.

# 28 [21 February 2011]

I have finally taken possession of the caravan!! I am so excited, can't actually believe I'm so excited over an algae covered 1960's 2berth caravan but there you have it.

I'll be spending the back end of this week with a jet washer.

It is very cute, bijou I believe the right word is and it's a beautiful shape, curvy with lumps and bumps, I like that :)

I know I'm going to strip the inside clean but at the moment It has some lovely original features, as they say on Homes Under the Hammer.

A real gas lamp!!!

A lovely little glass cabinet, might try to salvage that.

The tiniest toilet cubicle, I think you could have only used it of you were 5'5" on a bucket. They made this for small people, now bear in mind that my lovely husband who will doing most of the hard labour is 6'5" and I myself am 5'10" this is going to be a challenge!

Did I say I was excited?