Wirral Metropolitan College

Monday 4th may

BYU response to Starting the project

Laura Barlow – BYU

I overheard a conversation as I sat sketching in the cold air at the base of Calf Creek Falls.

“This sort of stuff; they’re mostly just for fun. They help me clear my head. I like to do more conceptual pieces”.

Caroline, from Liverpool, just asked my professor, Joe Ostraff about his artwork. I found myself wanting to blurt out my own responses, in place of his modesty: “The fact that you are here is proof of Joe’s art work!” (I said it out loud, only to the friend seated beside me.)

I can’t think of a better way to put it. I consider Joe to be more of an organiser of people than a painter. His projects mostly involve placing people in situations where they can share their own stories and listen to those of others. I esteem his art with the highest respect. If only he had a website I could link you to here; I regret that he doesn’t have one.

I believe that the best art is educational, it helps you question your own beliefs and way of life, it leads you to consider the beliefs and lives of others, and / or helps you further appreciate the beauty of the most basic things around you.

I have experienced all of this during the Liverpool exchange. The red rock cliffs, my ease with breathing at high altitudes, my body’s natural adjustment to the desert heat, the religion I practice on a daily basis, and the accent with which I speak my native language all began to feel exotic in the company of my British camping companions.

Having never travelled to England, it’s been educational to see others celebrate their own places of origin and to discuss and imagine their own trajectories. Exploring both our similarities and differences helped me to see outside myself and remember that millions of others share this world in their own, very real experiences.

Monday 4th May

Starting work on the project

Michelle

We began today with a meeting to draw everyone together and focus on the work we have to do for the project deadline of Thursday lunchtime. The exhibition of the work is on Thursday evening in the exhibition space in the Harris Fine Arts Centre, its a great space and we have lots of technical help to install it. The gallery is just off the atrium space pictured.

At the meeting we discussed and finalised the collaborative text piece and Louise and Meredith have now processed it an we will print it up on the letter press tomorrow.

We made a group decision to start another collaborative litho plate as we thought the one we started on the camping trip, although fun to do, did not really reflect the content of the text piece and we wanted them to be parner pieces.

We were all on edge today, trying to get things started, trying to learn how to access various facilites at BYU and generally worrying about the quality of our ideas. But we have all made a good start and we have been very well supported by the staff and students here.

Cath and Louise have begun a litho plate each, something they have never done before, we are using Macs which are also unfamiliar. Julie has been introduced to Illustrator to help speed up her process of applying text to image.

All of these obstacles are a challenge, but we are rising to them and adapting as we go. Amy has once again been a huge help with her great patience, knowledge and thoughtful organisation.

It was also Cath's birthday today and we made sure we celebrated this evening to let off steam and we surprised her with a spontaneous get together with cake and candles late this evening.

Sunday

Day of sleeping in, rest and reflection

Michelle Rowley

Last night we returned from our camping trip tired, dirty and very happy to have survived the wilds of Utah and to have had the opportunity to experience such an incredible environment. The camping in tents bit, which initially worried everyone for all sorts of reasons, was absolutely fine. No scorpions, no snakes, no bears – what we did see were chukkas, chipmunks, hares, deer, antelope, lizards (assorted sizes), crickets, beetles, massive crows, a water snake, and we caught trout at the waterfall and saw elk on the mountain road home. No casualties and no bites! I carried the EV8 forms all the way up the canyon, in the 85 degree heat, for nothing!

For the first time this Sunday morning we all slept past the 5 am internal alarm clock that has been waking us up all this week. This morning has been a time of reflection and planning for all of us in Amy and Tali’s house. We started by compiling all our individual text elements into a composed piece, which we will show the BYU students on Monday morning when we next all meet up.

The text piece originally came about as an idea to accompany the group litho that we began on Saturday night after our hike at Calf Creek, and we intended to use the letterpress facility at BYU to produce it. This has now changed after a suggestion from Meredith at BYU who is now going to help Louise edit the text with Illustrator and then expose on to a litho plate for speed and economy. Tomorrow we will collect the rest of the text from the BYU group to complete the piece, which we intend will be an impressionistic text portrait of the landscapes we have visited.

After an outing this afternoon to Salt Lake City and a really lovely meal at Joe’s sister-in-laws home, we all returned to ‘our place’ to share our book ideas. We discussed our various approaches and made paper models to try to make tangible some of the practicalities involved in working in an unfamiliar print department.

We think most of us are set to begin tomorrow, I think I am going to find my own ability to work alongside everyone else quite a challenge as I am leading the project and advising everyone, so it will be interesting how much time I can keep for myself.

Keeping the blog updated with posts from a range of participants is also proving to be a full time job, but we have computer access at ‘home’ to help us. With the time difference, we are 6 hours behind the UK, some of our posts stretch into the next day UK time, so if things seem out of sync this is probably why.

Saturday 2 May

Packing up the camp, the Petrified Forest and Devils Garden and homeward bound through the mountains

Joe Ostraff, BYU tutor

Travelers consider all sorts of things, time destination, exposure to new foods, new germs, a strange bed and meeting others. Others are those people heard of, but unknown. For those that will receive the travelers there are concerns of service, will it be enough and will the traveller feel welcomed. After the initial shock of all this and more and the first meeting, comes the time together. In this case it has meant long van rides to distant and hostile lands, heat more like an oven, sleeping on sandy ground, eating strange combinations of foods, walking like a pioneer, and thinking about the project that must come to be in less than four days. The exchange of ideas has been unbeliveable. The Wirralites have performed brilliantly! They have brought with them a fresh eye for the land and the BYU people are being challenged to rise to the occasion.

Friday 1 May

Calf Creek Canyon Hike

Paul Bearman, WMC Staff

The students were invited to take part in an informal drawing session, on the 5 mile hike up Calf Creek box canyon, to record their perceptions of this unusual place.

This approach, of observing the landscape using traditional drawing materials, proved to be a successful and engaging experience evidenced by the varied interpretations which were shared at the end of a physically tiring day.

Bryan Hutchison BYU student

We came to map the Southwest of Utah. On our hike today we were encouraged to draw, to make rubbings, to interact with the land through mark marking. Explorers and settlers make maps – a sort of document symbolizing their conquering an unforgiving land, or a document of ownership. I wanted my friends from Liverpool to conquer this land, to own it, to be a part of it, and bring a piece of it back with them.

We created a sort of relation with the landscape, perhaps even connected to a sense of past peoples connection to a land that gave and took life, and we bring a piece of it to the world.

Max BYU Student

I have never seen this land before. Talking with the Liverpudlians about their landscape has helped me realize how unique the land we are visting is. They helped me realize the absolute control water has in shaping the land and dictating what lives or dies. Having never visited England I can only imagine how opposite the landscapes really are.