Wirral Metropolitan College

Finally made it! Show was amazing; very well attended. The week leading up to it was extremely hectic, however, the setting up went smoothly. It was fairly straight forward for me to put up my paintings, the most difficult part is selecting which paintings to leave in and which to take out. The only other job for me was setting up the books in a glass case to stop them from being touched. Some people however, like Julie and Carol, had quite a job setting up their installations. Everyone has rallied around to create a wonderful show. All that is left to do now is gather all the written and supporting work together for the assessments tomorrow. I have to stop off at the library in the morning to get a copy of May’s edition of the an Magazine with my image on the front cover of the Degree Unedited 2009 suppliment because mine went missing last week from 121. Life never runs as smoothly as we want.

I feel on the whole, my paintings have been resolved this week. My worry towards the end of the week was that I could have overworked them and that would have led to a loss of quality held within them. My books are all finished, the book from Utah has been returned. However we are not able to display the Utah books for the degree show due to them being displayed at The Liverpool Book Fair before the degree show is finished. This is a great disappointment to me because the book tied in with my core work. Not to worry though as it will be on display for the assessment. Going back to my paintings, I feel they have a moody quality to them. The colours have become darker and darker during the painting and layering process, but this is deliberate to make use of the light captured within them. The paper lithograph figure of my daughter Amelia have blended in well with the oil and I hope they will be dry tomorrow for hanging. Towards the end of the week I gave Caz and Julie a hand to get their work finished. We had a great time woking together. Everyone has been so supportive of each other. It's going to be hard getting back to normal after these intense last few months.

I feel so exhausted. Pressure is unbearable, but I'm sure I'm not alone. I have finished printing all the images I need for my canvases. My book 'Fragile Form' is finished. I just need to stitch the book together to give it some secure bonding. I am satisfied with the way it looks. The eight images I have paper lithographed for the book have been carefully sequenced. It starts off with the images upright and strong. Towards the end of the book, the images become more fragile and vulnerable. They have a quality to them which I have searched for in my work. The colour for the cover of the book is also important to me. It is a soft blue which ties in with the fragility held within. There is no writing or imagery on the front and back covers of the book. This is also deliberate. Tomorrow I plan to go to my studio in Birkenhead to start to resolve the paintings which tie into the concept of the fragility of the form. The paper lithographs which have dried over the weekend will be stuck to the canvases and sealed with varnish. On Tuesday I will be able to paint more around them. I hope the weather stays warm enough for everything to dry. The cold weather recently has hampered the drying process and has been unexpected. Fingers crossed everything will go according to plan this week. My journal is up to date and so is my careers folder.

Deadline is looming and the nightmares have begun. Last night's nightmare was, I got to the Williamson Gallery and there wasn't a single space for me to hang my paintings! I must pull myself together. My worries are mainly that the paintings(oils) aren't drying as quickly as I had hoped. This is partly due to the weather not being as warm as I had expected for this time of year. I am also surprised as I have been working with thin washes of paint mixed with white sprit which usually dry in a couple of days. I have now started to apply the paint more thickly aswell. The next step is to glue the paper lithographs onto the canvas. This is going to be impossible if the paint doesn't dry, so I am going to leave them until after the weekend. Meanwhile I am working at my Llandudno studio on the paper litho prints for the paintings. These I have found incredibly time consuming as I have to size the images first on my PC. These then have to be taken to Staples to be photocopied onto good quality paper. I then take them to my studio for printing. The first and second ink-ups of the image don't provide enough detail, so it's usually third time lucky. I just hope I can manage to get it all done in time. I also have to piece my book 'Fragile Form' together and make another mapping book to go with the other two I made for Utah. I also need to put together my journal ready for presentation. Mmm, plenty to be getting on with.

Got back from Utah on Saturday. Feeling very jetlagged, but work must go on! The trip was amazing and challenging. Enjoyed working with American students very much and have forged some new freindships and contacts. Worked with a student called Dan who did one to one tutorial with me on photopolymer etching. The times for the light box were different to Twelve Quays so needed him to do light exposures on plates. The hike through the desert was a complete shock. We trecked 6 miles accross rough terraine. We were only expecting treck to be a couple of miles. The heat and high altitude were awful. Between 35 and 40 degrees at 8000 feet. We were exhausted, but it gave me a feel for the mapping project 'Mapping the West', and what the early settlers must have experienced when they were forging pathways through the desert. When we got back from the three day camping trip it was a tight schedule to get our books made for the gallery opening on the Thursday evening. We had three days. The first morning I spent printing off photos of the trip to prepare for gum arabic transfer and photopolymer etching. This wasn't easy as we were using Apple Macs and I'm used to a PC. The following day and a half were a complete disaster! I couldn't get any gum arabic transfers to work because the inks seemed different and the dry heat was also affecting the process. I felt hopeless and thought I wouldn't have a book ready. I kept on going. We worked long hours and by Wedneday morning I had managed to get some reuslts by using Lithograph ink instead of etching ink. It was a race for time and by Wednesday night I had printed off all my images and made the covers for my book. Meanwhile I had to scrap the etching plates I had done because the images weren't strong enough. We also had to source and buy all our materials from the University campus. I walked miles collecting ribbon, photocopies, end papers etc. Thurdsay morning we got in early and I finished my book a little after the deadline at 12 noon. The opening night went extremely well and it was sad to say our goodbyes. Now home it's back to the grindstone and thoughts are now turning back to degree show and planning my time.