RED SOCKS and RUBBER BANDS

Out of the Shadows

At the Venice Biennale - Mexico. 

The Biennale was more disappointing than in 2005 but a few highlights were Mexico, Scotland (wonderful collage and drawing), Australia (what sculpture is all about), Russia (a compelling animated film) and New Zealand (mesmerizing).  The collateral events prove the most exciting, discovering hidden parts of Venice and being able to go inside some very beautiful spaces.  Misses: Transcendental Realism, and Wales - it is too depressing.

After a long summer of moving house and seeing a lot of art it is time to emerge from the shadows and spend time in the studio working on collage, drawings and cut-outs.  My work continues at The Institute for the Future of the Mind.  I am investigating the place of drawing in the workplace with the scientists and have created an experimental workspace for them to explore their thoughts through drawing over the next six months.

taking time to dance

SO WHAT IS STOPPING YOU? can you dance with wildness and let ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning to be careful, realistic or remember the limitations of being human?
   

                                                                           

I have been progressing my work through drawing, becoming more conscious of the thoughts that get in the way of beginning a piece of work or hindering work in progress.  Judgements and voices questioning the validity of the activity, the work, the outcome.  Learning to let go and deal with the issues about intention and outcome that constantly get in the way.

Listening to music allows words and images to suggest themselves, taking you both into and out of yourself to make a response. My other strategy is to make marks without any thought (as far as is possible), without looking, and use these as the starting point for something to emerge. To let the unconscious do something.

I will be spending this year exploring these ideas further as part of an artist in residency at the  Institute for the Future of the Mind
 

Objectives

• To develop my approaches to drawing in order to more fully explore ideas around ‘letting go’ of conscious thought and connecting with the unconscious

• To achieve a greater awareness of the states of mind involved in drawing and how these may differ between traditional and digital drawing practices

• To find ways of articulating why drawing matters in a world increasingly dominated by technology

                        Drawing in the state of existence in the twilight of imagination
                                    and just on the vestibule of consciousness
                                                             Coleridge

into the trees

out with the birds

discovering the joy of caravans

 The Caravan Gallery  a wonderful idea, I highly recommend you go there.  Being free to travel wherever you choose.  To take art and make art on the move.  Something very refreshing about not being bound to a place, to be on the move. 

I love this because caravaning was a significant part of my childhood.  Every weekend away to a new place, to discover a new field, a new set of ditches, new trees to climb.  The journey to the field was always full of excitement, seeking out small orange triangles in the landscape, pointing you towards an exciting and unknown destination.  To arrive was a treat, always a challenge.  Projects for the kids, making something from nothing.  We never had anything, that was the point.  each time the organisers would outwit you.  everytime you thought you might be prepared for what was to come, they came up with something different.  you had to be creative.  Sometimes a drawing on a large scale, sometimes dressing up, other times constructing something.  a scrap heap challenge type of thing, without much of a scrap heap.  Why the ramble.  because if you don't get mywork this might help explain why I do what I do (funny how a caravan can remind you of who you were), why I enjoy the contingency of the everyday, the unknown, the adventure, the simple joy of nothingness, of empty fields, of birds and trees.  to make something out of nothing.  such joy.  And so, back to the caravan gallery - I can't think of anything more perfect than going on an adventure in a caravan and making art - thank you for reminding me of the joy of caravaning.

in the park

'to choose between this or that is at the same time to affirm the value of that which is chosen' - Jean-Paul Satre

(trippingrepeattrippingrepeat)

(trippingrepeattrippingrepeat) tripping with robbie williams 35 times before lunch - all is wonderful in this life - beans on toast.  when you think we are lost we are exploring

out and about

working on a self portrait