ARTISTS TALKING

# 1 [19 July 2010]

Water is the best of all things.

PINDAR

# 2 [19 July 2010]

My residency begins on the 1st August 2010. Even though, I've lived in Tynemouth now for over a year and have skirted around the place, this will be the first 'official' time I will be in residency. I'm not nervous but I hope I'm not being complacent either. As I want this time to be spent looking at the place with new eyes.

I am unsure where to begin. Although I have a rough timeline and outline for the project I'm not sure whether to hit the ground running and continue my current photographic work or to begin formally and follow the research and planning route.

I've been taking early morning walks with a manual camera and literally just shooting fromthe hip. Once I've got some developed I'll post some here.

The beginning of the project will be here before I know it so I'll just see how things pan out. I think a few visits to the local library, the museum and the priory will start to get the ideas flowing. I've never been into the grounds of the priory yet, so that is something to look forward to.

My only concern is my interaction with the public and local community. Tynemouth is weird in the summer. Give us a sunny day and we are unindatewd with people. It becomes difficult to tell who's native and who's just visiting. I suppose I'll find out when I talk to them.

I should work out a timetable to see how much time I can devote to this project.

# 3 [29 July 2010]

I've been working on a small scale. 3inch squares. Making black marks on coloured squares. I'm not sure where I'm going with these but they put me in mind of tadpoles and lichen. I just put my pen on the paper and let it wander.

Once I've got my scanner working I'll post some examples here.

But apart from that things are moving slowly because of time and space. I haven't got a space to work in yet so I've got to keep getting things out and then store them back. So it puts me off doing anything. I think that's why I'm working on the small scale at the moment, as it's easier.

# 4 [10 August 2010]

I do the work and complete the project. I go back and fill in the sketch book. The desire to mess up my working template has stemmed from a series of observations I am currently recording and remixing.

# 5 [11 August 2010]

Still messing up the way I work. I've been collecting images, quotes, snippets of film inrelation to the sea and just leaving them. I'll be posting them up here hoping that through the process that not only do the ideas keep flowing but that they start to connect.

I find writing artists' statements and proposals difficult but useful. How do you formalise all the ideas and formulations flowing through your head into a linear, straight forward form that others would understand? Luckily, I didn't have to create anything formal for this residency. I've got a blank slate. But in a way all the freedom can be limiting also. 

I write things down with arrows connecting all the various strands, complete 'to-do' list here and there.  So basically, I'm seeing this as a way of getting those conversations I'm having with myself out of my notebooks and into an arena where they might help me, never mind anyone else at the moment, to have a clearer idea of what I'm doing. And my doing that, I'll be getting my thoughts more organised, and maybe some direction for this residency.

But I'll keep messing things up!

# 6 [11 August 2010]

Dusk

# 7 [11 August 2010]

# 8 [12 August 2010]

# 9 [12 August 2010]

# 10 [16 August 2010]