What is the importance of history ?

I think one of the most influencial moments of my artistic life that has really shaped me, happened while working from art depicting and documenting history. Also for me it was rather an embarressing one!

I was still a student, and we had to go out on these drawing trips once a week! This one was to the British Museum and I was looking at those Assyrian wall friezes depicting lion hunts, chariot battles' all sorts of exiciting stuff. These stone friezes would have been on the outside of the city walls.

Now, I liked these scenes and sat down to draw. After about 10 – 15 minutes the Tutor woman whose name I forget came up to me and said, 'Are you taking the piss'?

surprised I replied 'er……..no'.

She said, ' Of all the amazing things from the whole museum collection, displaying art from the whole world, over a period of 1000's of years, the only interesting thing you can find to draw is a piece of POLYFILER'!

I looked down at what I had drawn, looked up at the section of frieze I was working from and realised she was absolutley right!

Now, I was not drawing polyfiler, I was in some kind of landscape thing, the outline of a horses back were the hills, this was a bit absract I'll give her that. An unknown landscape, and I was very happily drawing there.

But I had drawn the polyfilla, the bit that was missing and filled in with a stained badley repaired nondescript bit. How did I not see this when I was drawing it. Was I inventing something for the obvious flaw in the composition. The bit with no story?

She did make me feel silly, and I had to go off a bit bewildered and find something more meaningfull to draw?……..like a statue with only a bit of its head left, or a leather belt.

I am unable to exactly say what that taught me. There is a wide gulf between interpretations of the same thing, something about this is very relevant to working in the Public Realm.

In one of the earlier posts on this blog I remarked that the developer wanted the specification data about the tiles I was going to use. I knew this document was half in English and half in French as it has been requested before for other projects?

They have come back to me saying it is next to useless…. understandably. So they have asked me to produce a document detailing all I know about the repair histories to all my previous floor mosaics. This is to find out how durable they really are, and what kind of maintenance/repair contract should be agreed upon.

This is actually asking me to highlight all the bad things that have happened to me put them in a document so they know all the mishaps I have encountered over a 15 year history of making them.

Fair enough, I have told them. I also put forward theories as to why the failures happened and tried to be really objective about the whole thing. It is actually quite useful information, rather specialist and of annorac type leanings, they have not said anything, so no news is good news.

They were very complimentary about how 'its coming along'. Which is nice.

'Its Coming along' is a euphomism in my world for stopped completely. Which is exactly what has happened on this job. I have to focus on other things now and I am so bored of making mosaics.

To keep me going on this marathon mosaic I have been listening to sea shanties and work songs to motivate me!

As I have now reached the half way stage completing the 'Blanket Hall' a promenant building in the town, I would like to sing you a few verses of my favourite sea shanty as way of celebration at reaching this significant point.

Oh Santy Ana gained the day hoo-ray, Santy Ana ooh

Oh Santy Ana gained the day all on the plains of Mexico

Oh Mexico Oh Mexico hoo-ray Santy Ana ooh

Ooh Mexico Mexico where I must go

All on the plains of Mexico

Oh Them Liverpool girls aint got no comb hoo-ray Santy Ana ooh

they comb their hair with a kipper backbone hoo-ray ooh

all on the plains of Mexico

Times is hard and the wages low hoo-ray Santy Ana ooh

It's time for us to row and go Santy Ana ooh

Oh all on the plains of Mexico.

Now as it turns out according to the CD sleeve notes, this capstan shanty suggests Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana, far from gaining the day was defeated by General Taylor at Buena Vista in Feb 1847, in one of the decisive battles in the war between Mexico and the US. Many British sailors deserted their ships to to join Santa Ana's army. The shanty singers have reversed the run of history in their songs.

This mosaic slowly moves along and today I thought I would show you what a stonking good days work looks like. This includes a late evening session after the dog walk, because I really wanted to finish the loom.

So the days work: The front of a non-descript building, someone weaving (who has only one leg) and 3/4 of a loom.

Now Andrew Bryant was asking about WHY do people blog? I finish cracking rocks hard labour at 11pm ish and my wife is asleep, my two daughters are asleep and my son is watching 24 or Monk or some DVD or he is asleep. Cosmo he's snoring and manages to roll over so I can rub his belly. So I aint got no one to talk to: Exept unknown artists out there, anyone who can be bothered to listen while I kind of wind down relax talk rubbish about the woods or totem poles or something. I also have blogs of other peoples I read. These are my replacements for Coronation St. and Emmerdale, I missed those because I was out walking with Cosmo. So may be then its a lonely in a wide world thing.

It is also a the diary/journal thing and according to tradition I have in the last year documented alot of my projects as they unfold. For posterity or history, as when the years have rolled by and you re-read what happened to you, a warm glow of satisfaction comes over you.

Now, if others interect along the way thats Dandy as well. I do think this is developing as an online community and Andrew is right to encourage commenting on peoples blogs as its nice to know youre not alone and someone is actually taking an interest and making constructive suggestions to aid research or provide usefull information.

So I would like to thank my right honourable friend for his comments and recomend his policies to this house.

I have been working on this mosaic very hard lately. I have got 32 sections to complete and have done about 10.

My mind has usually imploded by now on these large mosaics, but this one is different.

Because:

It's composition is such that it moves from one scene to another. I get bored but there are always new things just ahead. This has worked really well. I am currently doing a spinning wheel and the next bit is the loom, then after that it is the weavers guild building which is just shy of half way. This 'next thing' anticipation has been a god send.

The worst thing I can remember was the leaf boarder on the Ridgeway Map Mosaic, it looked fab, but after about half a dozen leaves I was pulling my hair out, there was probably over sixty in total.

The Indian will be the very last thing I make, I have done the shephard and he came out fine, the sheep were much better than I expected. Tommorow, 3 spokes on the spinning wheel and the spaces behind, the shadow of the building, and some sky. Lesser people would have lost the will to live by now.

Do you remember that film I think with Charlton Heston as Michaelangelo called 'The Agony and the Ecstasy', well that is about right.