ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [7 July 2010]

I've had my health and safety induction, I've got my hard hat, I'm almost ready to go...

I'm really excited at the prospect of the next 12 months.  My studio - the electricians workshop - is on the edge of the quarry, for obvious reasons, but next to the loading depot where the mountains of stone scalpings ebb and flow as the lorries collect and deposit. They drive close past the windows on their way to the weigh bridge.  The dust is contained through plumes of water being sprayed out and wheels driving through water troughs.  It's the size and scale of the whole process that hits you first.

Tomorrow I'm going to watch my first blasting at the quarry. 

# 2 [8 July 2010]

The best laid plans etc...No blasting today, it's been rescheduled for tomorrow.  So I stayed all tucked up in the studio just drawing, reading and thinking.  

I'm looking forward to spending time in the quarry but as I have to be accompanied it's trying to fit it in with the active working of the quarry itself.  Until I've been out and about I feel as if I'm working in isolation. There's no connection yet.     

# 3 [10 July 2010]

A friend emailed and said 'the quarry blast must be a terrible and beautiful experience'.  

It was.  A sharp crack and then the rock fell away. The earth reverberated beneath our feet.  Dust the colour of dusk light, peachy and rumbling.  An awesome experience when energy releases over 40,000 tons of rock.

# 4 [19 July 2010]

Last week was full of research and meetings. Some useful some not.  I still have hopes of an exhibition to mark the end of the residency and talks with a curator look positive.  I like the idea of inviting other artists to respond to the quarry landscape.  All these dreams and ambitions and in the midst ideas start creeping in for new work.  How do you reveal your thought process whilst you're still trying to come to terms with how and why you are creating work?  Any thoughts?  Also is anybody else working in a heavy industry field or has done?

# 5 [28 July 2010]

I have to admit that I've not been at the quarry apart from to meet the team who work there.  I find these meet and greet things daunting.  One thing that struck me though was that I was some how more accepted or understood because I'm a sculptor rather than a painter.  Maybe it's because I work with my hands.  When I was studying, my grandfather, asked me when I was going to get a proper job.  If you didn't work with your hands, you weren't a worker and by default lazy.  One of the team also wanted to make sure I wasn't doing work just for myself.

At the moment, I'm not doing any work - there's no water at the studio yet.  Trying to be polite about not getting in the way of the quarry's work BUT I need to get in and start working with my hands!

# 6 [2 August 2010]

This is the water container from the quarry for the studio...

# 7 [10 August 2010]

I am in France at the moment so away from my quarry. However, where I am staying has its own quarry!  A little down the hill a small hamlet was built to house the quarry workers. Now, disused, the quarry has become a lake. I couldn't resist climbing over to see what lay behind the corrugated gates....

# 8 [14 August 2010]

Thank you Nicola Naismith for the Edward Burtynsky link. I clicked on to see the video you spoke of and found a whole world of, as Burtynsky says, 'places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.'  This dichotomy is what draws me to make work and why I am drawn to a quarry residency.  As Susan Francis has also just commented about wallpapering over rough walls - there is a direct relation between what lies beneath the surface and the veneer we see.  

Please check out the Burtynsky website, to see the scale he evokes in his work.  

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/

# 9 [23 August 2010]

First time back in the studio since getting back from France.  It's good to get back and touch base, all the insecurities you feel as an artist come to the surface if your not working (I'm following all the blogs dealing with issues of identity with real interest). It's a brief time here though as I'm off to Liverpool tomorrow for a few days, calling at Glasplies in Southport to get some latex for a new experiment (though the rubber matting I asked for hasn't appeared).  I do feel that to the quarrymen I'm either something that is an irritant or I terrify the life out of them because I'm a woman.  There is a work in this...

# 10 [27 August 2010]

A good meeting this morning with a Tarmac man.  It is starting to turn towards autumn and I couldn't figure out how to put the heating on in the studio, so the meeting was held with coats still on!! However, everything was positive, little irritations will be ironed out and the bigger ideas such as legacy pieces and exhibitions were agreed in principle.  A further meeting at the end of October to take things forward and the project gains strength.