Plans afoot for the end of residency exhibition. Decisions to be made on what to show- large paper pieces both as yet unfinished, frame up some of the earlier drawings, how to use the laser cut glass pieces?

Check out the space...plenty of it!!!...and glass top box tables like shallow vitrines....interesting.

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No info apparent around the dept re my talk next wednesday...what does that mean? Nobody will be there I irritatedly suspect... 

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I get to my large paper on the wall...it brings a smile to my face..imagine it 10 times bigger..it would be wonderful to work on a trully vast scale...but for now...

A luscious, thick, agitated band of raw umber and a wetter looser one of the same across the bottom.

The wonderous joy of applying paint to paper; watching the marks form and dissolve in the veils and layers of colour. Tones emerge and jossle the surface back and forth. Miniature landscapes escape across the surface...fractals  of the landscape which is their origin.

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I go to find the framer in Unit 10 Flowers Industrial Estate...he is a delightful, interesting man who allows me an absolute age to discuss,question and deliberate the possibilities for which and how to frame  pieces.

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Danielle in the office assures me that all will be well for Wednesday and she kindly emails Hannah to ask for confirmation...no word yet!!!

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It has been a good day...will come again on Monday to meet with Abi to discussplans for exhibition and to paint....can't wait.

Suddenly there is loads on. Hooray...

Thoughts for work...

ACCUMULATE

Layers of accumulation...unearthing the past...archeology...the story  of the lives of others.

Building on what has gone before.

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From the radio..." The flimsy architecture of refugee existence".

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Laser -cutting with Nadia.

The image appearing is a million miles from my drawing.

The laser sharp image mapped out on to the glass...an archipelago of tiny marks. The electronic sound of image making, the random "sung " notes of the cutter.

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A talk with Kezia about a title for the exhibition...Reference to maps...the specifics of being in Luton... Luton grid reference?

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...And finally the bliss of making a colour and painting...this time.

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As I'm leaving a useful conversation with Rebecca and Slawa.

At last some insight into the extraordinary absence of students...and the different and unfamiliar approach to studying art of students.

It crosses my mind after that maybe in the days when we were blessed with grants it was the students who were answerable to "money's worth" questions. Now, as it is the students "paying" the establishment the tables are turned. 

Today Gemma Marmalade talked to the students...it was great to hear her enthuse about her projects with intelligence, humour and passion...

I painted my paper white.

Lots of new drawing behind the scenes. The way a printer/laser cutter make their marks...backwards forwards, line by line.

Boundaries...field boundaries, edges...OK who was it said painting is all about the edges? Colour by colour.

So some new bands overlaid.

The making of the painting like the experience of the landscape- unexpected, unpredictable, surprising, changing. The light, the solidity, the air, the movement through, changing perspectives.

Things I expected to acheive

Things I have yet to acheive

Things I no longer expect to acheive

Things I have unexpectedly acheived

Life-hey.

The end of the day ...a new paper pasted up and ready to go

Not much to say today...Thanks to Abiola and Nadia for their help with the laser cutting...that went well.

But I went to paint and my work has been cut down from the wall...I feel sick

Day abandoned

An interesting few minutes listening to fellow AA2A artist Kezia talking about her project ideas and a brief reflection on the transience for all our endeavours.                                                              Just what takes an artist from that business of making to organising,facilitating, incorporating,encouraging others?

Making something tangible, physical, from our experience... our response to the physical world- what's that all about?

The thought which came this morning (from talk of robots on the radio)- humans can only make and form from what already exists...we reconstruct and reinvent but we can't actually add to what has always existed...only in our imaginings can we conjure up what has yet to be.( and i'm not even sure about that).

Imagination is our way into other. Something from nothing...or maybe nothing from nothing.

Creativity is what lifts us from from the purely functional...but maybe only at the point at which it is still a thought...then begins our compulsion to to make the physical...using resources already there.

he was an atomist, believing that the fundamental constituents of the world were indivisible little bits of matter (atoms, Greek atomos, indivisible) flying through empty space (kenos). Everything that occurs is the result of the atoms colliding, rebounding, and becoming entangled with one another, with no purpose or plan behind their motions. (Compare this with the modern study of particle physics.) His theory differs from the earlier atomism of Democritus because he admits that atoms do not always follow straight lines but their direction of motion may occasionally exhibit a 'swerve' (clinamen). This allowed him to avoid the determinism implicit in the earlier atomism and to affirm free will.

30.01.13

This is hard today... the words are written in my sketch book from yesterday...but today someone asked me who I am writing this blog for.... and how badly my blogging reads.

Any way...hey ho here goes. 

The white field awaits...terrifying.

I settle

The possibilities begin to become apparent and realise I  have to make at least 4 pieces.

Words come...lines, furrowed, ploughed, multihorizons, bands, torn fractured, mapformations, NAVIGATION, lines of travel, direction, longitude, latitude, grid reference, geological map...

The first lines are made. they are enough for now.

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I will collect my ID card and make my way to the library in search of maps.

There are no maps... and no geological books for this area.

But there is a wonderful book with colour plates of chrystal formations in rock minerals.

These microscope images  reminiscent of the satelitte images of the earth.

(Today on Material World  a scientist talks of quantum biology and the wonderful way patterns and forms are replicated across minute and vast scales of time as well as structure).

real anticipation...can't wait to get back to my white paper...it is stretched to perfection...beautiful.

Dilemma ..can't wait to plunge in...can't bear to make the first mark.

There are possibilities...do I pre -ordain or see what comes?

Can't start... 

Porcrastinate with the taking of useful photographs. (See new photo album)

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OK there is a bit of a plan emerging... how about taking the monoprints I made before and cutting them onto metal sheet, glass or even slate with the laser... a reversal of the traditional printing method. From the print to the plate..I like that idea.

Also on the go... the field drawings...a drawerful.

And at home the slow methodical oil paintings.It is good to have all these posssibilities and varieties bouncing off each other.

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Mo suggests I borrow a tripod for my cameraand introduces me to Abi the 3-D technician.

He talks me through the possibilities of laser cutting - Glass, metal, slate! Yes!!!

Progress...

Need to work out the proceedure from drawing, to Illustrator, to cut plate... this feels exciting.

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Great to spend time with Abi at her studio space...chat about life and art...

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She looks through my drawings with me. It helps me  decide what to do with my white field...but I've left it too late in the day to begin...it remains immaculate...

...and I have a good reason to rush back to Luton asap.

...RATHER THAN DECLARED. (Tim Scott on Callum Innes). Don't you love it when you read something that just brings it all home.

17.01.13 My daughter's birthday.

Ha Ha Ha... feels good to be back in Luton.

A brutally cold day -3c. But fantastically beautiful.

Bands of steely greys, white glowing pink,purple, yellow. Green black, palest earth colours, paths and furrows marked out in deep white, glimpses of turquoise sky break through, cool sunlight. I feel nourished.

In town I begin my search for masking tape and carrot cake. Success in first part of mission.

In the department I meet with Danielle and Mo...my roll of paper has arrived...the day just got better.

And there is an empty wall..better still...

The rest of the morning is spent attaching large sheet of paper to wall. 

Note to self...stop buying cheap tape...false economy.

Seek out good old fashioned solid head brass drawing pins from local materials supplier.

So I have the wonderous, terrifying, glorious challenge of a blank sheet 150x200cm prepared and ready to work on... 

Meeting with the other AA2A artists...good to find out what the plans are... Think I may be able to revise etching plate plans to make use of laser cutter. Also thoughts on presentation to/ contact with students...

Excited for next week.

12th December. 

The pieces taped to the wall have fallen to the floor and lie untouched.

It is a glorious day... -3c but the sun is out and the hoar frost shimmers.

No one in the MA space...some quiet sessions up and down the corridor.

Good,  I am in a state of not knowing...wondering...questioning...this is what life is. When we know the answer that is when we stop exploring..stop growing.

Actually why not go back to those pieces from the very beginning...revisit them knowing what I know now...mmmmm 

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Immediate gratification

Can't be bothered

Not now

Immediacy

spontenaeity

Here and now

No patience

Scratching the surface

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It's nice to be up in the sky

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Just get on with it

Why wait

Why bother

Direct response

Methodology

Thought through

resolved

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Approximate

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In response to

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"They remind me of industrial landscape"...I hesitate to agree...landscape..yes...industrial?

But I reflect on the comment and of course she is right... our landscape is that of  agricultural industry