On Sunday I was allowed into the quarry on my own for the first time. It was a gloriously sunny day with crisp white snow underfoot. Magical. I got to wander around and just look and think for an hour […]
Just had the hard copy of Call for Enteries 2011 from Mall Galleries. I Can’t find any explanation as to why I should, as an artist over 35, pay twice as much per work as an artist under 35? I […]
Launching a national sculpture competition for student and emerging artists to design large-scale outdoor temporary sculptures using sustainable materials (reclaimed, recycled, raw) is an exciting affair. As artist-in-residence for belvoir Castle & Estate I have this opportunity to think big, […]
While I was neck-deep in dissertation stress, my Dad told me a tale about a man, an axe and a river. For the last, mad weeks of my Masters, the story was a lifebuoy, calmly bobbing in my mind while […]
So its the depths of deepest December and the dark nights are closing in early. So much has happened since my last post before my degree show. I recieved a 2:1 in the end, although fustratingly close to the First […]
Creating a network of rural sculpture trails using RECLAIMED, RECYCLED, RAW (i.e sustainable, environmentally-friendly) sculpture materials is my goal. I have just started planning / organizing the first of these, the Belvoir “3Rs – Reclaimed, Recycled, Raw” Sculpture Trail. Launching […]
It feels like ages since I’ve posted here. I loved it when I was making myself post something every day – structure and a sense of accomplishment, even if the ‘accomplishment’ was really only a making ready, a setting the […]
Today I received confirmation that my debut solo exhibition will be held at the Dock Museum in Barrow in Furness in Jan / Feb 2012. Exact dates are to be confirmed in the New Year, but am very excited to […]
Marking out the ghost For the past two days I have been making my second video with a little help from my friend artist Andrea Cotton. I just felt at ease and happy to have someone assisting me who gets […]
Studio 22 Good news! I heard yesterday that I have Studio 22 at Art Space for the next few months. This is perfect timing, not least because I need space to make some of the larger pieces I will be […]
This is a new collaborative piece by Tracey Sweeney and Don Braisby. We have decided that Tracey provides the urban edge and I provide the rural idyl to our images. As Tracey lives in Stockholm and I live in North […]
I just got an e-mail from the Mall Galleries for the Royal Society of British Artist Exhibition. The fee per work is £6.00 if you are under 35years of age and £12.00 if you are over that age? Not sure […]
new work http://fireant.itaiwan.net/gettext.php
Battles in a bedroom studio. My search for a comfortable way to paint in my small Italian bedroom has had me sprawled across the floor, utilising hairbrushes and playing cards as make shift easels and even dismantling my desk and […]
Like elsewhere, a Baltic flavour seeps into my favourite reading matter, the London Review of Books. It must be the cold. A quote from ‘I curse the river of time’, a novel by Per Petterson. The main character of is […]
?Start with something organic!?said my tutor in Glasgow School of Art’s portfolio class. I thought of that this morning when I photographed this spider made during my second year at college as part of my first public art project (disastrous […]
The project has ended. We took the totems down in freezing conditions – the ground was so solid that we had to leave some cables underground as they would not come out. Have packed them all up – some were […]
well the 2nd lot of slides from france were just spot on. denmark, spain, ireland, belgium, germany, greece & nederland are wonderful too. i was a bit worried about italy as he was busy doing other important stuff and not […]
