Walking down country lanes and across fields on a sunny day is my idea of great research for my installation.
With a treasure hunt map scribbled on paper, unable to print off the website, I followed best I could across a farmers field (sorry for climbing over your fence!) to find indentations in the ground, which were left by 1944 Liberator air crash.
Even 70 years later, I was hoping to find a scrap of metal, or some remnant of what had happened. Everything had been stripped years ago though.
I took lots of photographs and studied map symbols and thought a lot about what had happened.
With a weekend off and fairly good weather forecast, I’ve got a stack of things to get on with now.
….This includes going off on a tangent and making a pile of paper boots for the Barnaby Festival later in the year. I had a call in the week from the organisors, asking for images of the work so that they can add them to the website.
hmmm..I hadn’t actually started them yet :/
33 days till I travel to New York State and now Debra (our host) is posting us pictures of the heavy snow there. I’m going to have to rethink my choice of clothes.
That’s probably a stupid thing to be worrying about given that I still have a lot of work to do of my own, but what I can fit into my suitcase is a major factor.
I’ve had more of a second wind since my day off on Thursday, managing to plan ahead by taking paper into work to cut out on my breaks. That has saved a couple of hours in the evenings.
I’ve also been corresponding with an aviation historian about the aircraft crash that my installation is based on. He’s been sending me other links that he’s written. I think I might just make up a file, or a scrapbook of sorts with all of the documentation in, so that people can read though. It will also be an easier way to make sure that he is credited. That idea needs more thought on the presentation I think.
I really hope we get the funding though. We can do all of the basics with the money we have raised so far through Kickstarter, zine sales and of course Elena Thomas’ fantastic ‘sponsor a seed’ idea, but the extra cash will let other artists take part in all of the collaborations that Debra has worked so hard in setting up.
My day started with my laptop resting on the bed covers as I caught up with the overnight postings.
My heart sunk as I read an account on facebook by an artist having 3 different jobs (in the arts) and having the humiliation of not being able to pay for food in a supermarket and having many other debts. I was shocked because my aim was to be like this person – to be self employed, have more freedom and a more varied and interesting art career. She is always so busy, so why is there not enough money coming in?
I don’t want to see this. Artists earn £200 a day and things are getting better all the time. I’m told this constantly.
I closed my laptop and looked at the weather. It was forecast sun early on and rain later. So I was out early walking the dogs in the sun and feeling my cheeks actually tingling with the fresh air and exercise for the first time in ages. Then I hung some washing out and sat in the sun reading. I feel guilty sometimes, thinking I should be working harder, doing more, but with working 5 days a week under harsh artificial lights and breathing stale air conditioned air, 8 hours a day, I just need to stop and breathe occasionally.
I need to read articles on why we are doing this, but instead I came across Dan Thompson’s account of being paid: http://mrdanthompson.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/who-pays/
A good article…. but slightly depressing. Yep, nobody pays but us.
So now it’s almost One O’clock in the afternoon and I’m only just making a start on my own work. I only have today and yet I’m time wasting.
Focus! I need to use what hours of natural day light I have left to finish of my work, shut up moaning about having a job and just be grateful that I can pay my bills.
Images shown are work in progress.
Email from the Arts Council today…..Thank you for making an application to Artists’ International Development fund.
We have completed our eligibility check and can confirm that your application is eligible to be considered for funding through AIDF. We will aim to let you know our decision by Friday 14 March 2014.
I sent it on the deadline date of 7 February and have only just got this reply. This either means (I assume) that they have had a huge amount of applications OR they just don’t have enough staff to review them all. (Or Both)
The original guidelines said I would know the outcome by the end of February, but adding another two weeks on is prolonging the agony further.
I know I should be feeling more cheerful about this as at least we now know we are on the right track and the application actually made sense …. But….
Then of course … ‘There is a high demand for our grants and we cannot fund all the eligible applications we receive. As a result, we advise you to think about what you will do if we cannot fund your activity.’
Today I have finger nails, but by mid March I won’t :-(
Two consecutive days off has given me the chance to get stuck into some ideas for additional work in the Colonize exhibition.
I want the work to sit comfortably with the large installation in the exhibition, so I’ve been experimenting with paper and maps to make smaller works.
Did I explain what the large installation was of? So much is happening in my life at the moment that I often jump from one scenario to another, not really thinking about whether it all makes sense to anyone but myself!
Briefly…. There are several large rape seed fields close to where I live and as you drive down the main road leading to my house, you can see the vast expanse of yellow ahead in the summer months. It really is lovely, but I’ve never thought of it as anything more than a field of yellow flowers.
One day, I took a wrong turning as I went to pick up a parcel from the industrial estate in the area, and came across a memorial. It was for 24 American servicemen that had lost their lives in 1944 as their Liberator aircraft virtually fell from the sky in the nearby fields.
Even after all of this time, engine parts still lie in the fields, ploughed around by the current owner.
I’m so saddened by what had happened, particularly as I hadn’t known about it – despite having lived in the area for so long.
Without making it sound so trivial, my installation is a memorial, made up of a ‘field’ of yellow flowers. I’m hoping to show all sorts of notes and documentation with the work so that people can understand that although the aircraft is a long way from ‘home’ , it is still treated with the upmost respect.
