On making transportation arrangements, musing about my next work and impatience about a ballot box.
I’m waiting for a response from an art courier about transporting my painting over to Manchester in March. I will feel twitchy until I know I have it all organised. It’s bad enough thinking about driving into central Manchester with other sundry bits of equipment, without the worry of whether the painting will arrive.
I’m down to London for a few days over this weekend to see some shows; Klee and Hannah Hock are up there and a visit to the V&A to see some calligraphy among other things. Once back I’m in the studio to make a right proper start on my next investigations into my theme. I know what I am going to do in terms of process; manipulate and layer collagraph, mono, screen and lino print making techniques. How my imagery, surfaces and gestures combine and produce pieces of work is the unknown. But I like it like that; if a piece doesn’t speak well enough about my concerns when I have finished it, I add more layers until it either works or gets consigned to the collage material pile. I am fascinated by the layering of marks and gesture to create a surface; sometimes it can be easy to “read” and at other times the “meaning” is just outside my or the viewer’s grasp. I enjoy the enigmatic element in my work, and dislike anything that is too obvious both in terms of imagery and meaning.
Still no word from our Creative Economies Officer at the council about when we can get our hands on the de-commissioned ballot boxes. The council are replacing the metal ones with some made of lighter materials and our officer hit on the idea of offering the old ones to artists in the region to make a piece of work with. They are all going to be exhibited some time in the summer in the only good gallery space in the area, namely Ryedale Folk Museum.
I am itching to get hold of mine: I have an idea of what I want to do, but I need to have the ballot box so I can work with its dimensions. Meanwhile, I have a small series of notes and drawings in a tiny sketch book so I don’t forget any of my thoughts.
I spent a long weekend away on the borders of Somerset and Wiltshire. It was the opening of the Frome part of the touring Sketch show and I went; partly because I was intrigued to see how the exhibition would be displayed in another venue and also because it was a good excuse to meet up with my youngest sister and have a good catch up.
The exhibition is at the Black Swan Arts Centre in Frome, until Feb. 8th. and looks good. The PV was well attended too; Meryll was surprised and pleased to see me, knowing I live in North Yorkshire, which made me smile. One of the drawbacks of living in the sticks is that everywhere takes a journey to get to and I decided a while ago that, if I intend to participate more in the art world as a re-emerging artist, being prepared to drive to places is a pre-requisite. It also means I am careful about which opportunities I select to apply to. No bad thing, especially since I have determined not to apply to that many this year and to concentrate on making more work.
I took the opportunity to read the individual pages prepared by each artist and collated together into a folder by Merryl. The information was not included in the catalogue and I didn’t have time to look at it in Marlborough last year when the show opened. They proved very interesting; the artists in the show express thoughts on their approach to using sketchbooks in a variety of ways, the idea of a sketchbook being as varied as the work that was enclosed within them. I would have very much liked to have had a copy of this information as one of the participating artists.
After the PV on Friday: a couple of fun days trawling the vintage shops in Frome and around streets in Shaftsbury, plus lots of chatting and giggling.
It’s back to work now with meetings for Ryedale ArtWorks, a trip to MIMA to meet William Tillyer, who is going to show us round his show and of course, my own work in the studio, if I can brave the cold.
Apart from the w0budong exhibition in Manchester in March I have nothing in my diary until June’s open studios, so I figure that there should be plenty of time for developing some new works. It is time for me to take stock to see if I need to order any materials; there is nothing so frustrating as wanting to crack on with some work only to be held up because you’ve run out of something you need. I know this from bitter experience, although sometimes it can lead to interesting alternatives if you improvise with stuff that you have in the studio rather than wait for an order to materialise. . . .
Happy new year!
I actually made it to the studio on Monday. It was not too cold, the doors had swollen with all the rain we have had and I couldn’t get them closed at the end of the day without opening both doors and then jamming them together hard so the padlock would just about work. Apart from that, along with my trusty Calor heater to keep the chill off, it was a good day. I made 3 small postcard pieces for The International Postcard Show at Surface Gallery, Nottingham, just in time to get them in the post for the deadline. Do other artists leave stuff as late as this? I expect so. I am not usually quite so late with my preparations but the builders didn’t depart my house until just before Christmas and there simply was not the time to make work. I am now frantically finishing my sketch book for The Sketchbook Project so I can get it in the post to USA.
Working so quickly on these pieces is turning out to be a positive thing; it proves I can produce things fast when I need to and stops me over thinking and fussing my process and ideas. Keeping my overall concerns in my head and allowing things to flow, working small and quickly, I am noticing small diversions and convergings of images and ideas I have been building on for the last twelve months. It is going to be interesting to work out if I can incorporate all of the ideas in some other pieces, or if I will need to produce some works using the imagery and symbols seperately but that work together as a whole body. Either way; it will keep me busy for the rest of the year.
With the building work (this phase anyway), coming to a close at home, my priority for this year is to be in the studio as much as possible. My work for Ryedale ArtWorks last year threatened to overwhelm me so I need to prioritise my time more efficiently. I am passionate about helping to develop the group into a force to be reckoned with, but my own work has suffered as a result.
If you are interested in seeing some images of the work I have discussed, please see my latest blog: www.suegough.blogspot.co.uk I also discuss making the work in a little more detail.
(I have trouble uploading images on here because they are always too big and I do not yet have photoshop with which to reduce them).
