Festial

Today was the day I intended to 'quickly' put the little finishing details to the Palm Sunday Kalender – but my, what a long time those little details take! The problem was that there were still a few pages to resolve and I felt that the remaining unused images were a bit staid and repetitive of what had gone before.

So I've been making collages! Real collages with scissors and pritt stick and I've really enjoyed doing it. I think I'll continue with this technique as a way of exploring the material from Kalender once my medieval year is over. And that won't be all that long now.

Sometimes it does feel difficult to keep up my initial enthusiasm for the project over such a long period of time. I admit I haven't retained the resolve to keep pushing away at promotion and trying to keep the project in the public eye, especially locally where I really haven't encountered very much interest in what I'm doing (with the exception, I must quickly say, of my lovely new friend Kay from Wood Dalling who is a fantastic source of support and encouragement).

But I'm managing to keep focussed on producing Kalender, and I'm starting work on a proposal for the solo exhibition within the Eastern Region that I need to secure as one of the conditions under which I received my Grants for the Art award. Indeed, the funding won't be forthcoming until I receive the offer of such an exhibition, so I'd better get on with it!

I realise I haven't recorded the fact that Easter 'happened'! It was always going to be a challenge to work with two festivals that were only a week apart, but Easter was so huge in the medieval mindset that it seemed to be a must from the very beginning.

In fact, as a festival to interpret in my own way it wasn't as easy as I had imagined. Yes, my research confirms that there would have been a lot of weird (to our eyes) stuff going on at St Andrew's and emotions would certainly have been running high, but I didn't want to get caught up in the Christian devotional frenzy as such. Nor did I feel it was enough to go with the Spring equinox pagan festival thing – a bit obvious, maybe. So????

Well, all I did on the day (Saturday 5 April by the Julian calendar) was to have one of my 'seeing what happens' sessions up at the church. But I did take some eggs with me… I think that whatever theme or feeling is going to emerge will (hopefully) become apparent as I start to put Kalender together.

But right now I'm still finishing off the Palm Sunday edition … nearly there though!

Typical! I was determined (but evidently not determined enough) to write something here on 3 April 2008, as that was the date in 2007 that I started this blog. I can hardly believe it. And now it's the 8th….

Anyway, on Thursday, which happened to be 3 April, I was out having a look at a new art space in King's Lynn: Greyfriars Art Space. Set up as a not-for-profit organisation by two West Norfolk 2007 Fine Art graduates it looks good and its presence is a welcome boost to the Eastern area, which is somewhat impoverished when it comes to non-commercial galleries. Greyfriars consists of studios and a gallery, with the idea that studio rental will cover the cost of running the building so that shows don't have to be *commercial* but can be selected on other criteria. That's what we like to hear! Clare and Jill, co-founders of Greyfrairs, have really done their homework and the frontage has the restrained appearance of a good, small London gallery.

Clare had phoned initially to ask whether I'd like to show some work in a group show there in June and suggested I go and take a look at the space. I'm looking forward to participating. The show comes a month after the formal part of Festial comes to an end – finishing, as it began, with Rogationtide in May – and will be a good way of ensuring I actually start making some work afterwards.

On Saturday it was Palm Sunday. Well, Julian calendar style, that is. For a change, I'd had a chance to get some ideas together beforehand, but still on the day wanted to spend some time up at the church alone 'seeing what happened'.

It was a beautiful morning, which made me far too blase about getting up to the church while the sun was still shining. By the time I got up there with my camera it was nearly lunchtime and the sun wasn't quite what it had been a few hours before. Still, I had a wander and a think and took some photographs. It was getting colder by the minute, so I photographed the raucous rooks circling their nests and went home.

Shortly afterwards, I returned to St Andrew's with Trevor who had agreed to act as documentary-maker and camera man. Among other things, we bore with us a video camera on a very long stick. Quick, get round the side of the church before anyone thinks we're doing something weird, I said, before realising that this wasn't exactly in the spirit of inclusive artistic performance.

By now, the wind was pretty strong, and buffeted the camera as I 'processed' three times around the churchyard with it. There was no way of telling what was being captured, but the lack of control was intentional. Then I processed again inside the church with my camera-on-a-stick, covering the nave and aisles in both directions. This time I didn't have the excuse that the wind was nearly blowing me over, but things were still quite wobbly, and again, I didn't know what I was getting. I hoped there would be a closer view of the strange stone creatures, but unfortunately my stick wasn't long enough.

Then, I did a performance, filmed by Trevor, in which I made an equal-armed cross of willow, and wound wool around to make an amulet during three repetitions of a piece of music on a flute of willow wood. It was an incredibly meditative undertaking, and meditative was also the word Trevor used to describe how it felt to video the performance.

What was it all about? It's always difficult to know how much to explain! But it was all based on research into the ways that medieval people may well have marked Palm Sunday in that very space. A meditation on that.

I got the residency I applied for!

Three weeks in the art department of a renowned public school about 12 miles away (unlike the pupils I won't be 'living in') followed by a solo exhibition in the school's gallery, 'The Nicholson Gallery'.

I visited the department today, and it's a real art department, messy and smelling of oil paint. Daunting but I'm up for it, definitely. And won't the mentors be pleased! I've said I'd like to spend time experimenting with printmaking using ideas and imagery generated by my Festial project, and specifically the twelve issues (if all goes to plan) of Kalender.

The students' work around the place was truly impressive, but based mainly around traditional painting and drawing. Before I left, having been offered the post, I felt I needed to confirm with the Head of Art that it was OK that painting and drawing are hardly strengths of mine. It's ideas that I get excited by. Luckily, he reassured me that it would be counterproductive if the artist in residence was just like the other art staff there.

So that's all right, then.