First day of ROCK 2.
I bring lots of stuff and start a new sketchbook.
I write a list of ways forward: research into floor mosaics, floor patterns, tiles which were made usually of local earths. The ground beneath our feet, again, the ground of our being.
Take photos of local shop entrances, the library floor mosaic, church floors. Check out the symbolism.
More time and space to think and look, experiment and expand.
CHARLES LAMB: Nothing puzzles me more than time and space; and yet nothing troubles me less, as I never think about them.
Floor designs: bringing down the stars, filling the void, holding on, making certain, pushing away doubt to make way for certainty, solidity.
I looked on my shelves for books to bring with me and found:
‘APPLIED ART’ by Pedro J Lemos, an American book bought by my father who signed it in 14 9 38. He taught art in the 1940s
“Originality and personal inventiveness are important factors in the progress of art study, and should be encouraged.”
DESIGN p. 143 “…decorate their public buildings and churches with many wonderful and exquisite designs worked out from interlacing of circles, square and other mechanical forms.”
I will be starting my new Residency in Rock House Art School on Monday 27 April. I will be the first artist in residence in this new place.
I am looking forward to continuing and developing the ideas from working in the Church including using the soil and rock samples, making geometric shapes with my large pair of compasses and protractor, researching symbols used on church floors, villas, temples, country houses. I wonder if this could be combined with some of the ideas from the Readings on Silence. What is silence? Is it an experience that cannot be described in words? Is it a presence rather than an absence?
There will be an Open Evening at the end of May.
OPEN AFTERNOON IN THE CHURCH
The afternoon went well. 15 people came to each of the Readings on Silence sessions and other people visited between times. As promised I will list the four books from which I read extracts:
The Spirit of Silence by John Lane
A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland
In Pursuit of Silence by George Prochnik
Art Objects (Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery) by Jeanette Winterson
I have completed this two month Residency with food for thought and ideas for development. In the Saturday Guardian there is a review for Alex Bellos’s book on mathematics: Alex through the Looking Glass. This is a follow up to Alex in Numberland. Never did it cross my mind that I might be interested in numbers and geometry but working in the Church for two months has thrown up unexpected and exciting new directions.
