Setting up 18 studios, Long Eaton, Nottingham

Places we saw and things we did in Chicago: The Garfield Park Conservatory – built 100yrs before the Eden Project and an unexpected oasis just 10 mins on the green line from Down Town Chicago. (Me and Alison got our sketchbooks out)http://www.garfield-conservatory.org/ Arcade Fire In The Suburbs at the UIC Pavillion. Wow! Visually compelling and the music was quite good too.http://www.uicpavilion.com/ The Cultural Centre with its magnificent Tiffany Glass dome and amazing mozaics. Awesome. We visited a couple of times including on Monday during a recital. Millenium Park2 works of public art stole the show in Millenium Park – Anish Kapoor’s ‘bean’ and Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa. Cloud Gate (the bean) is a huge masterpiece reflecting a moving salad of people and skyscape. It is pure genious reminding me of those crazy fairground mirrors bringing out the child in everyone from 1 – 100. It’s also refreshing to see digital public art on a 50ft scale in ‘Crown Fountain’ See http://explorechicago.org/city/en/millennium/art.html MCA on Tuesday is free and we spent a good part of the day there. Saw a major show by Jim Nutt, a Chicago based artist and someone I wasn’t familiar with. His work is totally bonkers and v engaging. The colours are delicious. I didn’t get to see the Turner prize 2010 so it was good to see Susan Phillipsz ‘We Shall Be All’ commissioned by the MCA. Haunting and thought provoking. http://www.mcachicago.org/index.php