show your working out

Bear with small head.

My boyf gives me dirty looks when I’m cutting up cute teddy bears… it’s OK, they’re not real!

I have a stash of furry teddy bears rescued from the dump: most of my materials are second hand, unwanted things. Usually I’m checking out the local charity establishments and it’s pot luck as to what I might find.

It got me thinking, who would want to get rid of teddy bears, some of them are brand new still with the tags on.

There’s no planning what you want, no shopping list, it’s down to serendipity. And I have to make my mind up there and then as to whether something has potential, because sod’s law it won’t be there the next day.

A lesson learned there. I found a genuine 80’s pink Care Bear but ummmed and ahhhed about it, needless to say it wasn’t there the next day. Massively annoying as it wasn’t till the day after that, that I discovered Stephen Fry in Heat mag papped wearing a pink Care Bear head. A lesson learned.

(Hello ‘List of Work’, I love you!)

Projects, edited…

A recent comment has made me think that I should go some way to explaining these ideas.

* Cloud Models:models of clouds in toy stuffing, scaled from photos to my eye view scale. With GPS.

* Hair Shadows: life-size tracings of people after they have told me something. Also now developing into objects of importance shadow tracings.

* Stephen Fry Teddy Bear Head: recent pap of S.F from Heat magazine (not my magazine by the way) with pink care bear costume on his head. Re-enactment with 2nd rate bear head.

* House Faces: photos of ‘faces’ found within my house, i.e. on brickwork.

* Mouths: smiling mouths cut out from magazines taken from the doctor’s surgery. Flummoxed as to what to do with them as yet.

* Venn Diagram: painted over seven days.

* Clock Tracing: 24 hour tracing of bell alarm clock on the hour, every hour as the alarm sounds. Endurance. Got ear plugs.

* Sewn Soldiers: miniature toy soldiers sewn into man’s white work shirt. Have begun this, more later.

* Toblerone Photos:images of a floating Toblerone in an expanse of sky, existential musings ‘what if the only thing that existed was this Toblerone’. Have begun taking photos.

* ATM Family Portraits: FP in front of ATMs. Not sure if this is legal.

* Envelope Drawings: sketches of my house or sender’s house onto received envelopes.

* Celeb Photo Lurkers: collection of CL, photo montages with re-enactments.

* Front Page Newspaper Paintings: images taken from newspapers rendered into paint by numbers format.

* Useless Diagrams, Painted:diagrams devised to be useless. Pretty and in watercolour.

Am I full of **** or do I have some good ideas?????

The Meeting # (bit more resolved)

The Meeting is now beginning to resolve to some sort of conclusion that isn’t the bin.

Playing around has granted me new perspective – I can see some potential. In the top photo image (1) I’ve used fluorescent plastic overlay to exaggerate the participant’s facial interactions. Next I will print out the series proper.

The yellow house paint in image 2 adds a tastey painterly quality but hides the environment which in retrospect is important to the scene. A thinner paint application would be an option.

I’ve blacked out the figures in marker here (3); although their identities are hidden, their body language is clear.

The bottom photo collage pleases me (4). I’ve toyed with the idea of creating three new larger pieces with just the heads alone; one in a bubble shape, another in chronological order and finally one in the form of a picture chart.

You can see how much I’ve skirted around the original issue. I completely forgot what I had intended to do in the first place, I lost clarity on my own subject.

It’s taking time to decide what works and what doesn’t: – A blog grants a little distance to the work. The images get a fresh pair of eyes, a new perspective.

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The Meeting# = (unresolved, ongoing, seemingly never ending project, slightly bewildering, faff)

Way back in April an image of an artist’s meeting in a_n inspired me. I was fascinated by the participant’s facial interactions.

For a long time I’ve been interested in re-enactments. Taking this to it’s logical conclusion I requested a meeting out the back by the garages.

Four non-artists, (haters, actually), an Ikea table from the dump, a Dictaphone and me taking photos. I asked them to discuss contemporary art and they obliged. The following transcript kills me every time. But I love them for it. This is what they really think.

The Meeting = 16 photos, a transcript and an Ikea table.

Since May I’ve faffed with these components endlessly without reaching any conclusion. I can’t decide whether what I have already is enough.

I’ve broken up the table with the intention of creating a monument and want to incorporate the transcript into the wood somehow.

I’m continuing to faff with the images; drawing and annotating them in an attempt to link back with the office and flag up the interaction.

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Aha!…so it does take a blog post to make you realise what was under your nose all along!

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It all starts with an idea.

I have so many ideas. Really, I don’t know what to do with them.

Right now, I’m managing ideas. I have a serious collection stashed in a book. It doesn’t matter what time it is, or where I am, I’ll get that idea down.

Worst case scenario: great idea, but what was it?????

Typically, I’ll work on a few ideas at once. I envy anyone who can focus on one idea at a time.

Flitting from one idea to another and back again. Shame, as some great ideas fall by the wayside, they get old and abandoned. Goodbye old idea, I’ll just get on with another one…

Check out my ongoing project list. It might make you smile ;)