Think, Question, Print

Over the weekend I posted a brief round up of my time in Colne last Friday and today I want to go into a little bit more detail about how the day went and how I felt about it. As I explained in the previous post I entered into the experience believing that I would end my day with a big pile of drawings, extensive written documentation and hundreds of photos capturing my time in the town and the tasks that I set for myself.

Leading up to the day I made a number of random trails tracing onto a map of the town centre and then creating directions to aid my journey through the streets and provide a modicum of structure to my wandering. I also created a list of ‘tasks’ to follow throughout the day for example:

‘Follow a trail looking only at the ground’

‘Document only using drawing for one hour’

‘Spend 1 minutes only drawing figures’

The list was quite extensive and on the train journey from Manchester to Colne I divided up the day and made a more solid itinerary. However when I arrived in Colne and began to explore the town I soon realised (reluctantly) that this preparation had been mostly in vain. A combination of chilly, windy weather and self-consciousness meant that I found it incredibly difficult to stick to my list of activities. On the journey and during my first hour in Colne I made some sketches, mainly of people, encountering some strange looks which I found quite off putting. This might have been because I was on my own or it might have been simply because I’m not used to working in such a public way (most likely a combination of the two). My usual working process involves sitting at a desk or table and (unfortunately) mostly drawing from photographs either researched online/in books or taken by myself and I’m not accustomed to responding directly from life.

After a few attempts at sketching I walked further into the town taking photos and making notes constantly keeping an eye out for anything interesting. It felt unnatural and forced to walk around in this way; I felt like I was having to try really hard to find things that I actually wanted to record and unfortunately this feeling didn’t really dissipate throughout the day.

After wandering without any structure I decided to follow one of the trails that I’d mapped out. I attempted to do this only recording in written form which worked for a while however it was difficult to write and walk and also to interpret some of the things that I came across. A couple of times I broke the rules and photographed places because it was just a lot more practical.

The rest of the day continued in a similar vain; I followed 2 or 3 more trails but I found it a struggle to continue with any of the documentation tasks or rules that I had set out for myself prior to arriving in Colne. I could tell that my concentration was waning towards the afternoon and I only really made a note of/photographed anything that was particularly unusual or striking.

The most comfortable moments were those spent away from the town when my trails led me to open spaces overlooking a reservoir or a hillside and I felt less self-conscious. Even in these moments though I wasn’t as enthusiastic about drawing as I expected to be and I think this was due to a lack of interest in the subject matter. I was convinced that placing myself in new surroundings and giving myself the time and space to work from life and experiment with drawing and mark-making would inspire me but it just felt a bit flat. I don’t really want to produce a series of landscapes or views of the town and although part of me feels that it would have been useful to document everything that I saw to gather a full picture of my ‘trip’ another part of me knew that making a series of sketches of the typical sights could easily influence my final output and lead to a series of uninspiring and safe pieces of print.

As I mentioned in my previous post the outcome from the day came as quite a surprise and even initially a disappointment. I left Colne feeling deflated and and unhappy with myself and my efforts. On reflection though I feel that the exercise was still a success and I was being too rigid with my expectations. The aim was to go to an area of the North West that was new to me, experience it for a day, build a personal impression of the place, document this and create some work inspired by this experience. Although my day in Colne wasn’t the most fascinating or enlightening I have come out of it with a series of images and written insights and a perception of the area. Over the next week or so I’ll be doing some further research into the locale looking more into the history with a particular focus on folklore/myths surrounding both Colne, Nelson and wider Lancashire. I don’t intend to create work responding directly to existing stories as I’m keen to invent some new folklore in response to my visit to Colne. This new folklore will be a reaction to my impression of the town as quite boring and ordinary; the folklore or myths created will serve to generate new interest or intrigue making the mundane more appealing.

My work is not intended to patronise the town or it’s residents – I’m not suggesting that Colne needs an artist to step in and make it more attractive or interesting to outsiders. This is completely a personal response based on my own expectations, tastes, experience etc. the area is my starting point and the work has to honestly reflect how I feel about it.

My residency day in Colne took place on Friday and it was a mixed experience for me. For the past year I’ve had my heart set on a residency believing it to be the key to finding out where my career was headed and making some new work. I wanted to relocate for a short period and immerse myself in a new location to be inspired, scared and creatively energised. So far my applications for residencies have pretty much fallen flat however this self-development bursary gave me the opportunity to set my own self-directed residency and this was an exciting prospect for me. I understand that a one day (not even staying over night) residency is not really the same as what I was originally seeking. The time and space is very limited and really has to be shoe-horned into my existing schedule much like my current working practice however as I was labelling it a residency and changing location for the day that excitement still remained. I may have been carried away by the romanticism of travelling somewhere and spending the day drawing, photographing, writing and recording. Don’t get me wrong I did enjoy the process however as it was the first time that I’d done it probably ever I was pretty terrible at sticking to my plans and this disappointed me.

I have a bad habit of putting a lot of pressure on myself to make the best of everything and this trait can sometimes make it difficult to take a step back and stop thinking. I convinced myself that my day in Colne was going to be hugely productive and experimental; I had plans for all types of documentation and pictured myself at the end of the day with a stack of research and hundreds of photographs to work with. This was naive of me – Colne is just not that interesting and I am just not that good at documentation.

Throughout the day the tasks felt very forced and the actions of looking and recording were not coming naturally to me. I have a feeling that there may have been a number of factors to blame for my lacklustre efforts but mainly it was my indifference towards Colne and my natural tendency towards only making work if I believe it to be useable or useful in the long run. For example the majority of Colne is residential streets – some of these are very pretty terraced houses and some are quite ugly houses, there are some nice streets and some not so nice streets and once I’d taken a few photos I didn’t really see much point in continuing to meticulously document each new street I came across. Initially I saw this as a failure on my part to engage with the residency protocol (or what I believed was the residency protocol – I don’t think this is something that exists) and I was irritated with myself for being lazy – I did some drawings but I didn’t feel inspired to draw everything and anything and even sometimes lost interest mid drawing because I just didn’t see the point. After some time at home to think however I have decided that there is nothing wrong with what I did in Colne. It is absolutely fine that I found the town quite boring and uninspiring (no offence to the people of Colne, this is not an attack) and that was in fact just my experience of the place and my first impressions which was actually the entire point of the exercise anyway. The photographs that I’ve taken (about 130) the few sketches made and the words scrawled out every few steps will be used in some way and my visit will inspire new work which was also one of the main aims of the trip and the project.

Next week (most likely Tuesday) I’ll post some of my research from the day and update further on the next stage of the project.

This week I’ve finally made some progress with Think, Question, Print and I’m hurtling towards my first residency day in Colne, Lancashire.

I haven’t been completely neglecting the project over the past few weeks though; I’ve been making plans for the exploration during residency days and I’ve also been in contact with In-Situ in Pendle. I mentioned the In-Situ in June after coming across their work while looking further into Nelson and Colne as potential locations for my one day residencies. Based in Brierfield (just next door to Nelson) the artist-led organisation runs a number of projects in the local area with a keen focus on social engagement and the aim of injecting arts and culture into everyday life. The nature of these projects and the underlying ethos of In-Situ really struck me and I planned to make contact with them in the hopes that they would be able to offer some form of feedback or support for Think, Question, Print. My intention was to contact the organisation after I had started producing work however an opportunity came up sooner in the form of an open call for artists to exhibit at The Shop in Nelson a creative space run by In-Situ. I received an enthusiastic response and today made a trip up to Nelson to meet with Elly Langlois to discuss the project a bit more.

It was a short meeting but a positive one and I feel confident that In-Situ will be supportive throughout the project. They’ve offered me a space to work from in The Shop when I’m in Nelson which is fantastic as will hopefully create opportunities to meet some local people and gather some feedback about the project and the work that I’m making. It feels good to have the support of an established organisation and this relationship will hopefully create further links with artists and the public and aid in my professional development.

At the moment it’s difficult to discuss the project at length as so much of the outcome is dependent on the residency days in Colne and Nelson. This way of working feels very new to me and at times a little bit daunting; I’m so used to working on briefs or commissions with a very distinct theme or aim at the end of them so having this much freedom is a little disconcerting. Mostly I work at a desk at home or in a communal studio environment so actually drawing and documenting on the street will be a bit of a shock to the system. I think it’ll be in a good way and despite my fears I’m still looking forward to shaking up to my traditional way of working.

My first residency day will be this Friday (12th August) and I’ll be wandering around Colne for the entire day recording my findings and building up a body of research to then respond to. I’ve planned out random trails and written up a set of instructions to follow throughout the day which I’ll photograph and post up tomorrow.

After settling on a location for my self-directed residency I need to begin thinking about what I want to achieve during this time. The main aim for the research day(s) in Colne, Nelson and (possibly) Brierfield is to immerse myself in a location that is unfamiliar for an entire day.

This doesn’t sound like much time and ideally I’d like to stay somewhere for a longer period of time in order to familiarise myself and monitor how I adapt artistically, socially and practically however this ‘one day residency’ will be a step towards future (longer) residencies and hopefully will provide some experience and insight in order to boost future applications.

My interest in choosing a location as the starting point stemmed from a research trip to Penrith in November last year. I was actually there to research a place slightly out of the town but I spent a few hours in Penrith in between trains and buses just wandering around. I was alone in the town and although I spend a lot of time travelling solo between home and work, home and town or home and Hot Bed Press I don’t think I ever spend time on my own in somewhere that is unfamiliar to me. This sounds like I live a very sheltered existence and I suppose in some ways I do – I’ve never lived anywhere but Warrington (my hometown) and Manchester, I’ve only ever travelled out of the UK with family, friends or my partner and when I’m in the UK on trips away or days out I’m almost always with someone I know well.

Being alone in Penrith for those few hours felt strangely exhilarating and I felt inspired by the sights and sounds around the town. It’s a small town and I wandered up and down the same streets a number of times during the 2-3 hours I was there and this exploration and aimless wandering felt like something that I wanted to pursue further. After this experience I applied for a number of residencies feeling quite desperate to remove myself from my familiar haunts of Manchester and Warrington.

These applications were unsuccessful possibly due to the unclear motives and themes in my work – up to 2015 I identified myself as an illustrator however that role doesn’t seem to fit so well anymore. There’s a yearning within me to work without that label – I have no desire to stop taking on illustration commissions but I feel that being categorised in that role places limitations on what I can apply for and how my work is understood. Applying for residencies helped to realise that my work is erratic and lacks a distinct voice – as I mentioned in the first blog post I feel like I want to find out what it is I want to say as an artist and this self-directed residency is my first step.

Placing myself in an unknown town for a day will give me an opportunity to make a first impression. I’m keen to document this from the moment I arrive to the moment I leave, concentrating on my feelings and thoughts every hour in order to gather information that can be compared once I return home. This micro-residency will force me to stay in the town for around 10 hours (trains permitting) giving me time to develop an opinion and hopefully explore the area thoroughly.

I want to use the experience to assess a few things:

1. My tendency to look down on small towns and villages and where this stems from/how will effect my experience
2. What qualities make a place (un)attractive or (un)appealing
3. The physical qualities of the town – the architecture, green spaces, graffiti, weather etc.
4. My personal feelings – do I feel welcome, scared, invisible, alien, at home etc. – will this change throughout the day, do I feel self-conscious or silly wandering around and around
5. What are the people like – is there a sense of community, are people approachable, are there distinct groupings
6. What do people do in this town – industry, culture, sport etc.

During the day I want to set myself a number of tasks to focus my exploration – these will be things like:

1. Making trails using mono-print lines overlaid on maps
2. Setting a series of directions (made up)
3. Stopping at certain times and staying in one place for a set period (while documenting)
4. Walking through the streets concentrating on one detail – the tops of buildings, windows, signage
5. Walking only looking in one direction and then repeating with a change or direction/street
6. Walking without my glasses
7. Only turning in one direction

Above are some ideas – these may change or develop and can be quite fluid but I want to have some structure to work to on the day.

The aims and points to assess are also an element of the project that may change – the experience is an opportunity to try working in a new way and responding to a new (and more personally led) subject matter.

The weeks are flying by and I need to make a choice about the location for my ‘residency’. At the moment I’m keen to use one whole day for exploration and observation – during this time I don’t want to interact too much with anyone from the chosen place..I want to build up my own impression of the place first and will only record or acknowledge interaction that happens naturally rather than seeking out anyone to interview or chat to.

Once I’ve created a response to this part of the project then I’ll be seeking out connections and I’ll return to the area to visit anyone who is willing to meet with me!

My initial idea was to choose somewhere at random; shut my eyes and point my finger at a map. Then over the last couple of weeks I began to think about linking the project to the current political turmoil and choosing somewhere where there was a major divide (with a majority for the Leave vote) during the EU referendum. This is still something that I want to weave into the project in some way, most likely through discussion with arts organisations or creative practitioners that I come across during my exploration of the area.

I want the project to be based around the north west of England as this is where I grew up and currently live and work. I’ve looked a little further north however and have decided to focus on the area around Colne, Nelson and Brierfield in Pendle. After an initial Google search of Colne and Nelson I found very little cultural activity and really struggled to find any visual artists or art organisations beyond a private art gallery and framers. However after a bit more digging (and so far I’ve only spent an hour or so looking) I discovered In Situ, an artist led organisation that holds residencies, workshops, discussions and projects and focuses on injecting arts and culture into the Pendle area through community engagement. This was a really exciting discovery and I’ll definitely be contacting them about ‘Think, Question, Print’.

Right now I need to set aside some time to plan my research day (or perhaps research days – one in each town) and work out exactly what I’ll be doing, what equipment to take etc. and then take it further once I’ve gathered my initial body of research.