The studio was full today, as it will be for the next 5 weeks with graphic design students doing their printmaking module. It's a bit weird going from almost deserted each week to inundated, but i prefer to work in a busy space as a i like it when the banter gets going.

I haven' t been in for a couple of weeks due to work comitments so i was busting to get going. I think i'll have to moderate my plans a bit for the next five weeks though as it was a touch crowded.

I've been thinking about how the make the full length figures slightly more animated, as the drawn outline can flatten and make the figure seem static. I made a cock of registering one of the sections a few weeks ago and the sheets didn't align properly, but wabi sabi (happy accident - i think) intevened and i liked the way the form broke across the sheets. So I though I'd do it deliberatley this time and I think it works well with the diving figure.

I'll be away again next week, so so you in two.

Sometimes you make work and you are pleased with it. That's it. Sometimes you make work and others like it. That's great. Sometimes, I think, we need that validation. Well this piece has been validated. And had i not been on the AA2A I may never have made it due to the lack of opportunity. This piece is currently, as i write, in the Houses of Parliament, in an exhibition to commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act. After this it will be taken into the government collection.

I was really impressed with this font. I know i have done a few prints on a theme but the font had been lying unloved and untouched just gathering dust.

I am constantly frustrated by incomplete fonts. In this case no upper case W. I like this embossing due to the total lack of meat.

I guess that's what this whole experience is about - putting meat on the bones. And i have. Not as much as i would have liked, but i have. I came across this unusual font - chisel - and i rather like it.

I had been doing fine with the 1 colour screen printing process. I was confident enough to try more than one colour. I had been watching Lydia work very effectively on the screens in multi colours. It was inspiring. Like a one woman production line. No time to talk - screens to do - the ink dries - etc. Good on her for not being distracted and for being sooooo focussed. I could do well for a bit of focussing. 

Printing always takes longer than you think. Oh this'll just be a few minutes, i'll just knock this out...wrong. There's always drying, taping, filing, mixing, developing etc to do and each step takes its' own time. That's partly the charm of printing for me. I like that it's so hands on. So antiquated. it's the perfect antithesis for the digital age. Don't get me wrong i love my digital manipulations - but that's for it's own time and place.

Things i know i have to do are work faster before the ink thinks about drying. Get organised. And if i am screen printing then screen print and don't wander off to the letterpress.  One thing at a time. Enjoy and be IN the process. 

So i did all the registration stuff but what i didn't think about was i make all my paper random sizes so the registration doesn't really work, especially when i move the screens to and alter their positions for each separation. Doh!!!

Overall though, i am happy with the progress i made moving into multi colours. But it's still early early days

trundling along making funny little tiles to test things out on seems a bit dull really?

but actually I have discovered one or two lovely things and several things that definately don't work.

I fiddled around for ages with bits of photocopied images which I got to fire onto my little tiles and they worked brilliantly, however once glazed they dissolve into nothing, so ended up with a load of blank tiles, how strange!

off to textiles on wednesday to have a play with the sewing machines!!

If  you  get  the  chance  to  inhabit  an  empty  shop  it  is  worth  doing  it.  Through  Eden  Arts  who  paid,  I  had  a  shop  for  2  weeks.  It  was  cold  as  I  had  the  door  open  all  the  time  but  lots  of  people  came  in  especially  after  an  article  in  the  local  paper.  It  was  strange  to  work  there  as  so  much  of  what  I  do  is  hidden  and  only  comes  out  when  finished.

I  asked  visitors  for  their  positive  commments  about  Penrith  as  at  the  moment  the  council  are  involved  in  a  big  planning  crisis  which  has  left  an  empty  hole  and  bomb  site  in  the  centre  of  this  lovely  working   edge  of Lakeland  town.  I  put  thier  thoughts  on  to  bricks  I  made  in  the  shop  and  then  decayed  the  brick  on  the  other  side  as  a  warning  of  what  could  happen  if the  right  decisions  are  not  made.

It  was  an  odd  experience  to  be  in  a  shop  window  and  on show  the  whole  time.  Luckily  next  door  was  fellow  artist  Janis    working  with  glass  so  I  did  not feel  too  lonely!

Arcade  Arts  is  using  "my"  shop  and  others  from  6th  march  for  3  weeks  for  other  artists.  Work  will also  be  on  show  in  the  Lowther  arcade  in  Carlisle,  a  link  between  the  two  towns  in  Cumbria.  Lots  of  people  are  involved (see  exhibitions  on  this  website)

PS  I  think  my  10  minutes  on  Radio  Cumbria  went  OK,  no one  heard  it  ( not  that  I've  heard  so  that's  good!

The process of making sculpture for this project has inspired another parallel body of work in 2d in my studio in Ireland. I have made a series of paintings on the white boards from the dismantled shelving units of the disused pharmacy where I did a residency in Sligo last year. They are quite crude and look like they have had a tough life. They also have a vaguely comedic feel to them - like the sculptures. I am interested in the way that people might at first laugh, and then be prompted to ask why they are laughing....