My work, reasons behind it and what happens to it.

It took a long time to adapt, but I’m getting more and more into the studio routine now.

I’m finding that even if I only spend 3 ½ hours in the studio, its 3 ½ hours of solid work – more than twice as much as I would achieve at home.  Not having the distractions helps enormously.

It is starting to get bitterly cold in there now though, so it would be hard to spend all day working.  There is heating, but that’s additional to the studio rent, so we’re all trying to last out as long as possible.

I’ve been thinking a lot about housing and its insecurities in my work recently. It’s on the news, it’s around people I know….  it’s a worry to many.  The title of  ‘While I move away’  (see image above) was taken from the Killers song, I don’t know if they intended the lyrics to be read in the way I saw them, but I thought they were quite poignant.

‘ Last time I said I was in control
I had 25 debts and we both know
When you come back now, you’ll see my face
I said 25 debts and we both pray

While I move away, hard times don’t come until tomorrow
These eyes don’t see, take your skin off when you’re listen to me
Move away, hard times don’t come until….’

Although my work is predominately about the life cycle of materials, I do keep jumping back to this security of housing for some reason. Not just the financial aspect of it all, but the seemingly increased environmental threat.

I like the idea of a’ safe house’ and I’m exploring the ideas of either being able to shift housing easily to another location OR to make it part of the environment.

I’m having a few wooden houses made for me (as mentioned in my last blog) but am also making smaller ones myself from reused card and paper.

I’m not working towards any exhibition at the moment, but hoping to have something completed for our open studio weekend (dates to be decided – but hopefully it’ll be next month)

I’ve set up a facebook page about the studio in preparation:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alternator-Studios-and-Project-Space-at-The-Old-Bakery/741308269275460?ref=bookmarks

Although I did send in a proposal for something recently ( which I don’t think I got as I haven’t heard anything back) I think I’m going to have to put a hold on applying for stuff for a bit, so that I can catch up with work.

Yesterday, I spent almost the entire day delivering work to one exhibition and then picking up work from another.  All in all, I travelled around 100 miles, but that also included a visit to ‘The Manchester Contemporary’. It wasn’t on the plan, but as I was in that area anyway, I thought I might as well make the most of being out, rather than use up another day.

I wasn’t even going to apply for the Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival ( yesterday’s delivery)  It was very last minute (last hour in fact) and then it was only because I panicked over not applying for anything all summer. It’s a decent exhibition considering it’s an open, but last year when I had work in, a child squashed the paper house I exhibited. (a-n’s Susan Jones helped me considerably over claiming compensation for this) I suppose then, it was also a bit like getting back on the horse, rather than saying ‘Never Again’.  But it’s done and delivered now…and yes, it’s another paper house :/

After popping in to see the Manchester Contemporary. Really good – though I hid behind a false wall to take a photo of Bill Drummond. He was inviting people to be interviewed by him. I couldn’t do it.  What if he asked me an intellectual question like what day is it or something?  I wouldn’t have a clue. My head is mush with not resting it :-(

After that, it was over to Macclesfield to finally pick up my paper boots from the Barnaby Festival. I had arranged with Crown bedrooms ( where they were shown) to store them for me until I had the time to go across. I was so thankful that they had the patience  (and space!) to keep them for a while.  It’s good to have them back.

So today, I’m hoping to spend a few hours back in the studio. I was there on Monday and feel like I’m on a bit of a roll (finally!) with ideas. I had months and months of nothing coming at all, which was really worrying. I think it helped to go out to see some exhibitions though – it triggered the small spark of ideas that were there subconsciously.

I know my studio visits aren’t as frequent as I’d hoped, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been working. I’m lucky enough to work with art handlers who are the experts in installing, and I went to them in the week for advice. Between us, we were able to figure out some stands/supports I need for this recent work.  Next week though I think I will be cheeky and ask if they will actually make them if I pay them. It might as well be done properly!

So tired today with all the walking and travelling I did yesterday.  Oh to have a gallery represent me so I don’t have to do all this running around

This week has very much been a visiting exhibitions week.

On my last day off (Wednesday) I walked up the steep hill to the Bridewell to see ‘Searching: Unexpected Treasures’: http://culture.org.uk/2014/09/searching-unexpected-treasures-exhibition/

I missed the PV last week, but to be honest, I much prefer to see an exhibition when it’s quiet.  Although I do say it myself (I have a book in it – shown on the exhibition poster) it really is a stunning exhibition. It was one of those rare occasions when I’ve been in a group show and thought, ‘Yes – I’m really pleased to be part of this one’. The other artists had not only produced good work, but had ‘track records’, so it felt like all were specially picked .  The curation was excellent.

I had other things to do that day, so I mainly worked at home, rather than going to the studio.  I’ve got a few things brewing in my head that I wanted to try to work out on paper before I started the work.  If the idea works out though, they will definitely be studio pieces, as they will be kind of large.

Anyway…back to work Thursday and after work last night I went up to see a whopping THREE opening nights.

First was the John Moore’s prize winner announcement at the Walker art gallery. I hadn’t even seen the exhibition before last night, so when a friend said she had tickets for the opening, I jumped at the chance.  Having not seen round before, I didn’t have a winner in my head, but I’d already heard that Rose Wylie was the favourite. I liked her work, but would need a second visit to compare it with others.

Still, I do like the idea that an older woman was a winner.  I’ve getting a bit sick of the ‘under 30 age restriction’ thing on these ‘Open’ exhibitions ;-/

Next stop was the New Contemporaries at the World museum. A really unusual place to show the exhibition (in that as far as I know, they don’t usually show ‘Art’ exhibitions)  but I thought it worked much better than in 2012 when the NC was held in the old post office building.

I think its great that the Biennial find these old, disused venues, but I couldn’t remember a single work from last time as I was so distracted by the building.

Yes, in my opinion, a very good exhibition – well worth seeing.

Funnily enough, the visitors to the two exhibitions seemed to be a ‘who’s who’ in the local art world. As I said, I can’t be bothered with all this networking nonsense, so it was quite funny to see so many people I knew, just sort of hanging round as it were  :-)

Lastly, it was over to the Central Library to see the work of Japanese artist Aiko Miyanaga: http://www.artinliverpool.com/?p=51028

Again, it was another exhibition I hadn’t seen before, so I don’t know how it would have looked in the daytime.  In this special evening event though, with the lights turned down, the work looked absolutely stunning.

Seeing the three very impressive exhibitions has put my faith back in the art world after a disappointing run round the Biennial last month.

VERY tired in work today though….. :-(

Tea Blog by Ellie Harrison.. http://teablog.net/   just one of the many brilliant blogs Emily Speed suggested at the ‘On the road’ event organised by Axisweb last Wednesday.

I’m trying to get through them all, but the last 5 days seemed to be playing on fast forward as I took leave from work to spend time as an artist.

Backtrack…Wednesday… yes… erm… We (I, a former work colleague – Naomi, who now works at Mostyn and another artist) headed over to Llandudno for the event.   It was a bit of a trek over there and I think if it wasn’t for Naomi (who didn’t actually attend the event, but went to work as normal) I might have had second thoughts about going.  I’m glad I did though as it was so useful in so many ways. (…and such a beautiful day for sitting on the prom to eat ice-cream. It was like being on holiday!)

Mostyn Gallery is not what I expected. A Victorian fronted building, but with a super modern interior. It’s tempting to step outside again to check out the facade to make sure the outside and inside are indeed the same building. Spooky. A bit tardis like.

Apart from Emily, James Smith founder of ‘This is Tomorrow’ spoke about how curators and artists are using the web for their work. Both really gave me loads to think about.   I was introduced to people and made a mental note of their names to follow up later.

Thursday, I went to the studio and spent most of the day there. I needed to make it ‘mine’ in a way and spent a few hours painting the walls and sorting more stuff, getting things in order. Brigitte Jurack (sculptor) was there working away downstairs.  She works relentlessly, which puts me to shame.

Friday, back to the studio to continue with work I started the day before, and make use of a plaster board I was given. Using it a pin board that is. It was really helpful to pin things on that were of interest to me – items I’d collected, an old drawing, teabags that I’d started gluing together to make giant pages and other bits and pieces. It helped put my thoughts in order.

Saturday, I only headed to the studio briefly. I needed to catch up with house stuff and other things before getting back to work. I did call into the Williamson Art gallery though to see the Wirral Society of Arts exhibition. It was an open call exhibition and as with many of these things, there were far too many artworks (in my opinion) it would have looked a million times better if only a third had been selected. But hey – who am I to say?   I no longer enter these types of exhibitions for that reason.

So today, I went back to work. Yes, a Sunday. I had to be up at 6.45 to get there before 9am, and was really fed up to find that the local trains were off and they replaced them with a bus that did the journey at a snail’s pace.  I was 5 mins late.

Still, I got to see the Markmakers exhibition Cabinets of Curiosity, briefly on my lunch break.

So much stimuli in these last five days. It’s been good.