Darts - open studios in Derby

Darts - open studios in Derby

Darts - open studios in Derbyshire will be running for the first time over the bank holiday weekends during May and June. Only 70 odd artists participating - but it is the first year. Really suprised that only a couple of artists from Banks' Mill Studios are taking part. I would have thought that the whole space would have been opened. In fact only about 4 of us in total from the city centre! Hopefully it will become an annual event and more artists will get involved next year.

testing u*blog software

testing u*blog software

I've just downloaded this software to see if it will help me to post more. Should be able to write on palm and upload. Saves cutting and pasting!

Bit of a rant!

We have a new arts centre in progress in Derby which is really a combination of Metro cinema, Q gallery (concentrates on 'new' media/ technology/ lens based etc.) and Q community arts. (Q gallery is currently the only major gallery space in Derby outside of the Derby Museum and Art Gallery). Really disapointed to learn it's unlikely to contain a traditional print space and so spoke to someone in creative industries about potential spaces for setting one up. Although he tried to be helpful, I got the distinct impression that he felt there was no demand and that future funding was aimed at 'cutting edge' which incorporated only technology/ ICT based art etc. Why can't people see that in order for Derby to be taken seriously as a creative city, (and it has a very long way to go) they have to be prepared to represent all areas of creativity and not just those fashionable at the moment. Of course it's really important that film, video etc. are promoted and encouraged, but not to the exclusion of other, more traditional forms of expression - which are still being used in new and exciting ways!!. By segregating funding and opportunities, there is inevitably a narrowing of accessibility not expansion. It also sends a distinct message that media can and should be seperated and I do feel really strongly that this is a limited view - surely the point is that artists can, and do, use a wide range of media within any given work, and that it doesn't necessarily always involve 'new' media . Derby needs to embrace all types of creative expression before attempting to specialise in a selected few - there need to be more spaces that encourage proposals for exhibition that do not dictate what media should be used.

Underscan coming to Derby

Underscan will be in Derby at the end of this month. I'll be going behind the scenes on the 25th - can't wait. Find out more at this website

temporary exhibition in Cambridge

Pae White exhibition at Milton Keynes Gallery

Pae White exhibition at Milton Keynes gallery until 22 January 2006 which I really want to see. Particularly interested in her hanging pieces (above) in relation to my own threaded space pieces (below right). May get some ideas for attaching/ hanging?.

Given up on Epson printers!

I have finally decided to give up on Epson. I've always used their printers as (when working properly) the quality can be great. After yet again wasting ink trying to clear banding problems and unsuccesfully trying to get a nozzle check to print properly (despite the fact I installed new ink cartridges before the old ones ran out - again!) I have finally given up and ordered a Canon. I like the idea of a replaceable print head and individual ink cartridges should make the whole process much more economical.

Rome highlights

Rome was very grand - saw the usual: trevi fountain, collasseum, spanish steps and sistine chapel - but highlights for me were papyrus room at the Vatican Museum and Burri exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale ( luckily it opened yesterday which meant we were able to visit before flying home). Still prefer Florence - Rome is monumental but Florence much more intimate, somehow look at Rome but feel a part of Florence. Off to Perpignan tomorrow for a week to meet friends who we would have seen getting married this weekend in Cancun, (cancelled because of hurricane).

Rome, here I come

Finished #10 pencil print (4H) - detail above. Residues are, as usual, probably the most interesting and important part. Usually I keep all pencil sharpenings in a big jar together but this time I just kept the ones just from this drawing. 60+ hours of drawing = 2 small dishes of lead and shavings. Print from them when back from holidays......

Silence, sound and subway drawings (part two)

Couldn't resist flicking through John Cage book (not on holiday for another week). Couple of quotes jumped out:
'Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.' (p.3) and 'There is no such thing as silence. Something is always happening that makes a sound.' (p.191)
I found this really interesting as much of the time I work in my studio with some sort of 'background noise' - t.v., radio, music but recently I have been working in silence. It really is fascinating how many small noises you hear when really listening - water gurgling through pipes, floorboards creaking, traffic swooshing along roads in the distance, footsteps - clicking, padding and pattering along roads and floors. There is a real sense of layering of noise - each distinct but also part of a whole. A couple of months ago I did a sound recording of the noise of pencil drawing on paper. I'd crumpled paper partially and had become aware of the different noises the pencil made on the smooth surface of the paper and the crumpled surface - ranging from a smooth, gentle, even rhythm to an almost violent stabbing sound. The noise varied depending on the type of surface e.g. tracing paper, bond paper, tissue paper and the grade of pencil. I'm still not sure whether it is noise or rhythm that interests me - or how this fits in with my main interest in gesture, mark,residue/echo but love this stage when really small thoughts begin to make you aware of huge areas of potential exploration.
Another quote from Cage: 'There are no answers. Then of course, there are answers but the final answer makes the questions seem absurd whereas the questions up until then seem more intelligent than the answers.' (p.177)

Silence, sound and subway drawings (part one)

I've been making myself read for at least half an hour a day over the last week and have started with 'Drawing is another kind of language, Recent American Drawings from a New York Private Collection' ed. P.Lee....(ISBN 0-916724-96-4). It's a catalogue I had on my wish list for a long while until recently tracking a copy down. Looking through it, I came across a subway drawing by William Anastasi (above) - a series I had heard about but hadn't seen an example of before. Marks would be dictated by the rhythms of the subway train he was riding on - often on the way to visit John Cage. By coincidence my holiday reading arrived today - 'Silence: Lectures and Writings' by John Cage (ISBN 0-8195-6028-6).
Sound is something I have been thinking about lately in relation to my own work - or maybe rhythm - or time - or movement - or the relationship between all four, not really sure how it all fits together yet as I'm still contemplating possibilities and potential dead-ends. It started a couple of years ago whilst at Tate Modern; looking at Bill Viola's Five Angels from the Millenium I became aware that it was the sound accompanying the images which made the viewer turn towards each projection. I had also been thinking about the visual rhythm' of a video of the gesture of drawing I had made (no soundtrack) and how a pencil mark could whisper or shout (at it's simplest: a 9H will whisper - a 9B shout?). A few of the questions this has led to are: can a visual mark equate to a sound? do rhythmic marks give a sense of sound? how do sound, movement, mark and rhythm work together? when drawing from sound how does the delay between hearing and mark making fit and how can a sound and mark which relate be executed simultaneously? Absolutely no idea what the answers are.....

enough said!

Drawing and Print

Drawing and print have always been core in my work - find the relationship between the two really interesting - particularly the intimate, physical engagement between mark and surface.
Watched 'The Secret of Drawing' on BBC2 tonight. Good to see drawing becoming a focus of attention on mainstream t.v.

studio situation getting worse

The decision has been made - my old studio is to become our new bedroom. (after new roof, electrics, plumbing ...) which probably means it will be Christmas before our old bedroom becomes my new studio. When I was thinking of a name for this blog it wasn't intended to be taken literally! Lack of a studio isn't so much of a problem in terms of making as I can work elsewhere temporarily - it's more to do with the fact that all my books, materials etc. are piled in the front room and I find it really difficult to organise my thoughts in the middle of so much chaos. Have finished cutting a stencil though and started a pencil print.
Also did a test - 'flamenco stamp' for some new drawings I'm thinking about doing relating to gesture and mark.

sketchblog?

For a while now I've been trying to keep a sketchbook on line with limited success. Thought a sketchblog might be the answer? As my studio currently looks like this this and I'm working in the basement, I may not have much to share for a while.