winnowing

so, the installation is finally set up in fife. of course it wouldn’t have been part fo the joy had it not had its mishaps. having prepped everything i needed my drill failed within about ten minutes. cue a dash back into st andrews and a shiny new drill. hint to self – good tools cost money because they work!

anyway, the thing itself was made around the notion of moby dick and that last bit in the odyssey where odysseus reveals to penelope that despite the fact he’s just back, he’s going to be off on his travels again on the say so of teirsias. the piece consists of six oars mounted into branches. the tallest oar, at the front is pasted with pages from moby dick. the remaining five oars are covered in leaves, painted and have both greek and english text from (samuel butler’s translation) of the odyssey as well as some more text from moby dick. for me making it i was thinking about the notion of male obsession and folly. so far, it appears i’m the only one thinking about it!

at the end of the day tho i find myself fairly pleased with it. it looks good and, esp over the last week of making, was well worth all the faff that went into the initial work on it. it’s on site from today until the march sometime. after that, assuming it hasn’t been damaged, it’ll most likely be in the studio. here’s a couple of pics (bad photography alert!!!)

upcoming and top tips!

and, finally, after much glueing, small frustrations and whatnot i’ll be off to cambo in fife on wednesday to get my installation set up. the evidence that it’s been all a bit last minute can be seen around the house in the form of leaves,chunks of wool,  brushes, bits of polystyrene and today, not least, most of the bathroom being occupied by one of t’s giant felt sculptures (she’s off elsewhere being stressed but that’s another story!).

tips for making stuff to a deadline -

- give yourself a timeline. allow a certain amount of time and then add 50%, particularly if you’re trying out ‘new techniques’. plus, for the procrastinators amongst it allows for that ever so valuable thinking time

- if you must use metal do not assume, just because you’re too lazy to go to the shop, that gesso will make do as a substitute for metal primer.

- good kit for holding the work is totally worth the manufacture (there’s a reason painterly types use easels – they’re great). as i was using oars for this, making something to hold them upright rather than leaning them against the wall mad a massive difference.

- remember that paint/glue etc has to dry. if you’re working in a studio (like i am) whose ambient temperature is just above freezing it’ll take twice as long as well as messing with how your media work. frustrating? oh yes!

and many others! as is usual every day was a learning day and i’ve still the set up to do which will have it s own problems. that said, sitting putting the finishing touches on i found myself thinking about what comes next, whether it’s the drawing, the painting, the writing or just a bit of reading (this last a bit more likely in the immediate short term as i’m feeling a bit burst!). it’s amazing what you can get done in the absence of drinking or tv (or, as has been pointed out, the absence of any form of social life)!

i do think tho, that however it might manifest itself having a big chunk of creative time in your life is, without getting too claire tomalin about it, an implicitly healthy thing. the room where i’ve been working – full of books, paper, pens, paint and a guitar. what more could you need!?

brushes and whatnot

the lovely painting continues, well okay maybe it’s not so lovely but one thing that has made it lovelier is the acquiring of new brushes. back in the day i was quite the man for my brushes. in the interim i seem to have lost that instinct. cheap but functional you might say if only they had been that functional. true, i kind of like that trail of shed hair to give some insight into my production but for this last i definitely didn’t want that. and off to the brush shop.

what a revelation. or maybe it is only to someone who perhaps ‘isn’t the brightest’. when it comes to housepainting i hate a cheap brush – one of the things i like about that activity is getting the brushes out and putting on some decent paint (i.e. not from b&q). and, strangely enough it’s the same with painty paint brushes! so, getting used this week have been a peachy new 2 inch brush (surely the verticoli of my brush box), a textile fan and fine brush, and another sable fine (both size 0). that brush geek enough!?

anyway, other stuff i’m learning. after a howler last year when i got asked to make another picture similar to one i’d already done and realising i couldn’t actually remember how i done it i’ve been much more conscientious about making notes as i’m working. aside from avoiding obvious fits of the stupids it does avoid the above and the repetition of the same mistakes. notebooks are also great for sketches, ideas and.. notes. i like my notebooks big time (note:  moleskin = wrong)

what else have i learned. one i should have picked up from an acquaintance who knows better than me is be well cautious about making work for someone’s exhibition, preferably only use what you’ve got. it may be, if you’re from poetryland, that place cyril connolly described as ‘jackals snarling over an empty well’ (i’m paraphrasing) you might have the idea that artyworld is somehow better organised what with all those galleries and stuff. sadly not so. in artyworld just because someone says they’ll do a thing that doesn’t mean it’ll be getting done and if it does it most certainly won’t be on time. never be in a position where these people owe you money. i’m just saying….

talking of which i had a bit of an outburst today when t informed me of a gallery who were charging 60% commission and still expecting the artists to pay the vat! you’d be as well selling on the street. but of course artyworld doesn’t operate like that… which is a shame as when i was by the studio today i met christy in a state of near hypothermia. people with that sort of commitment don’t need a gouging from a gallery on top of the rest.

anyway, me i’ve got a pristine new canvas hanging in the (now leaf free) studio. it looks great and, once it gets warmer, i’m going to do two more in the same series. the drawing pieces continue. i write some poetry. i do some writing. still haven’t sorted out distances tho

lazy, lazy, lazy

world of leaf

it’s not like i’m not writing at the moment just that it’s taken a back seat to other things. i was back at it this last couple of days and finding it really quite soothing tho at the same reminding myself that it’s not entirely without a deadline component.

that deadline component is much more prevalent with what the writing has taken a back seat to. i’ve got a painting thing i have to get finished by the middle of next month. sure i thought, that’ll be no problem and it wasn’t, at least until i decided i’d be using a bigger canvas than normal. it’s not so much that i’m having to use a different technique, tho i kind of am. more that there’s just more….

but that’s more or less going swimmingly. the next deadline is for an installation piece at the beginning of february. i’ll not say much about that beyond that it involves leaves and glueing them to metal which is why i’m just after arriving back home after yet another frustrating swear fest at the studio. if anyone knows a decent way to get leaves to bond to metal i’d love to hear it. currently all my glue options are failing, i’m unconvinced my primer is forming a decent key and i’ve also discovered that the frustration with 3m spraymount continues as i discover that while it may be utterly useless for sticking things it does dissolve car paint!

and did i get the paypal thing sorted for distances? no i did not. beginning of the week, honest….

the moral of the story being that it’s not good to take on too many things, esp at the time of year when your day job is most likely to be at its most busy

a slight change of direction

after my brief festival outing – very enjoyable and a couple of very unexpected surprises! – getting myself back down to work. it’s true i haven’t been super active in poetry land this year which doesn’t mean i haven’t been writing but more getting back to my default position of doing nothing with it! there are reasons for all of that but they’re really quite dull. i am (still) supposed to be finishing some prose work and, while i have done some of that, i remain in the process of finishing some prose work!

so far so procastinatory! what i have been doing is getting involved in conversations about having some paintings for sale next year. actual paintings by me for sale by someone else to someone else! and i’ve more or less agreed! very odd. but in that way that life will often give a hint of the direction you should go in i’ve fallen into taking possession of a studio so i should really use it!

i find it all quite exciting to be honest. quite what i’ll be doing there i have no idea but with any luck it’ll encourage me to get the things done i need to sell and the space to experiment with some new work.  and i’ll be open to visitors! so, if you’re passing by and fancy a look at what i’ve been up to, leave me a comment here