Diving in the Desert

I hate the damp weather, it gets into your bones and keeps you cold till the spring.
I have always understood that Englishmans need to escape and go live in the desert. That need to experience the emptiness of the deserts, thousands of miles away from the green and lush lands of England. I am always amazed at the daredevil/heroic attitudes of those Victorian explorers, that devil-my-care attitude.
I have just re-read the book "Desert Divers" by Sven Lindqist, about people who drown in the wells of the Sahara, how do you compute that ? drowning in the desert were water is impossibly scarce, it is unbelievable.

Diligence and Obsessions.

I have been working diligently on some new ideas, I seem to be in an odd maelstrom of completely incompatible starting points. I am currently thinking about 70's patterns, the Twin Towers, airplanes, space missions, soap operas, dancing by myself and metallics. I have no idea how or why or when any of these ideas will conglomerate together or wether they will just coagulate like off milk. I also want to some how shoe-horn in my other peripheral obsessions for sleeping, eating marmite on toast and bears. Maybe these should stay on the periphery, all of these things may prove to much and over-indulgence might occur.
My life reflects this mixed bag of ideas, I have absolute obsessions that are all consuming for, in some cases, years and most likely months and then I have these bolt on ideas that consume me for hours or days that extinguish themselves really quickly and then I move on.

Beautiful paintings and Ewan McGregor

In London today I had two encounters with beauty, the first was at the National Gallery, I am always awed by the immensity of the wonderousness of those galleries. The second was Ewan McGregor being filmed under the OXO tower, he was looking very beautiful in a dapper suit.
A day of beauty in all its forms.

Tableau Tales

A bit like the Canterbury Tales, but not.
All of this week we have been recreating a variety of images, using nothing more than cardboard, sheeting, gaffer tape, pins, paint and a selection of charity shop finds. The results are nothing short of miraculous, they are exciting, interesting, innovative and very silly.
The participants, who only met each other 3 days ago have bonded over some poster paint, some very odd costume choices and a lot of laughs.
So today I have seen; a cross dressing Samson and Delila, a floating head Medusa, some very odd use of dark brown tights, The Charge of the Light Brigade in white leggings and martingales, a very cute Snow White (thanks A.P.), a lot of yellow body paint and some very brief red speedo's.
A great day overall. Thanks everyone.

Silver/Silver/Silver

Silver is great, it is shiny and dull and mirrored and subtle and kitsch and has inherent stories woven around it. I love the way that all silvers are different, some are almost golden, some are pewter like, some are grey, some look leaden, there are a myriad, a plethora of possibilities. Some silver is heavy, dense and weighty, it can be fragile and feather-like, woven into shimmering fabrics, it can be sturdy and strong, it can be made into the most delicate of jewelry.
Silver is seen as somehow lesser in the hierarchical precious metal charts. I am always looking to support the underdog, to champion the lesser cause. So by using silver I feel I am somehow doing that, pushing it to the cusp of beauty, teetering on the edge of greatness.
All-over silverness is mirror-like, reflecting the viewer in a distorted plane, so it its hard to see who is looking and at what.

Damp weather

I really dislike damp weather, why can't it make its mind up ?
Too hot for winter, too cold for summer, too damp for sandals, too warm for boots, impossible.

Anyway , I am working on Diana and some wallpaper ideas now, upping the scale of my works. I saw a show in Porto years ago now with my great friend N.B. of Andy Warhol's work and also Takahashi Murakami's show at the Serpentine, these shows featured art on matching wallpapers. I like the idea of the full immersion show, the all-overness that this entails.

The Tip and coffee

Today has consisted of; the removal of a large overgrown Honeysuckle, via a Temple of Doom style, spider infested, side snicket to the municipal tip. Of course making sure no spiders or snails where harmed in this moving process. At the tip, as we cannot resist , we rescued a very usable, but slightly Heath Robinson-esque, rake for our new endevours in the garden.
This was then followed by the drinking of coffee in a town centre emporium with AD and AP.
I now might draw.

Leamington and Dr.Who and my sister

I have been sending my sister text instructions this morning, as we are convinced they are filming Dr.Who in Leamington Spa today.
I have made her stand in Clarendon Park Square in the rain getting soggy and she assures me that there is not a sniff of a Dalek to be had. She says that the only things around are a pile of grit and some vintage cars, my partner is slightly disappointed and my sister is slightly damp.
You can see from the picture that there seem to be no aliens, time machines or even a BBC catering van in sight.

Fabulous Felixstowe

We have just spent a few glorious hours in Felixstowe, drinking coffee, eating chips on the promenade, paddling in the sea, collecting memorabilia , buying cheap postcards, hunting for an elusive book on bees, cycling up Convalescent Hill (AP did, no-one else), buying blackout fabric, eating olives, sending blank postcards, drawing on day-glo stickers, picking up driftwood, drinking diet coke and not going onto the pier, as its still closed.
It doesn't get any better, and the sun shone.

Thinking.

I am thinking about my new collages for tomorrow. H and A went to look for still-life objects and brought me a book called Man-made Wonders of the world from the early 80's. I am re-working the images, and adding a bit of royal blingness on top of all of it. The glitter may have to come out.
I am trying to break free of the boundaries imposed by the postcard and then challenging the conventions of the image and the imagery, using conventional college techniques.