ARTISTS TALKING

# 81 [11 September 2008]

Seeing the photograph I posted yesterday made me realise that I really should try washing all those little plaster relics again to try to remove more of the clay that's staining them. So I filled a tray with water, grabbed my toothbrush (it's OK, I've bought a new one!) and set to work this morning.

Then the moment of truth when I opened the "new improved" modrock moulds to reveal the fully-cast relics in all their three dimensional glory, and ... what a disappointment! Hardly any of them are much good at all. Still, as usual I'm able to tell myself that I can make them work conceptually, if I think about it hard enough(!) 

And the opened-out moulds were an unexpected bonus. They've gone all floppy where I've been picking the plaster off the outside, and I'm sure I could do something with them.

This afternoon I was free, so went into Norwich to pick up various strange items to assist in the mounting of the exhibition. Last night Trevor kindly designed a poster for me, and I was able to distribute a few copies around Norwich. So it really has got to happen. Hanging day is just two weeks away now.

www.world-tree.co.uk/festial 

# 82 [12 September 2008]

A frantically busy day today. This morning's Fourth Year class went OK, but was completely chaotic, with twigs and brown paper bags and ink and paint all over the place. It took me the whole of the first lesson to set things up, then the class happened, and then I spent the whole of the third lesson clearing everything up! Luckily the room wasn't needed before or after the session ... I think the students had fun, though.

After a rejuvenating coffee I spent some more time with my increasingly-beloved modrock moulds, cleaning off the vaseline with lighter fluid. Interesting fumes!  More casting, more washing - will it ever end? None of the casts are dry enough yet to file down or sand, and I wonder whether they ever will be if I will insist on fussing over them like the proprietor of a dog grooming establishment.

Later on I put soft-ground onto seven plates in order to carry out an idea for a series of etchings, using spirals of candle wick measured to the length of various parts of my body. I explained this to a few of the students, who looked slightly worried. I will have to finish this after the weekend, but so far I'm quite excited about how the plates might look. 

# 83 [15 September 2008]

Another Monday, and a lot of plaster dust. I filed and sanded what seemed like dozens of plaster relics, and I can't help feeling that all that dust can't exactly be health-enhancing. Never mind; it's basically all done now. What with the fumes of white spirit and oil paint as the Lower Sixth beavered away on their metre-square self portraits all around me, by 7.45 pm I was quite ready to get home.

The relics do look better though.

My Year 13 lesson went well, too. I showed the students how to take stills from the video they shot at Cley church last Monday, and they all chose the frames they wanted to work with. Some of the images they've captured are really exciting. Made me want to go back and shoot video at Cley church myself - but there's no time for anything like that!

Later, I made the sad discovery that my etching plates haven't actually etched - there's nothing on them! Start again tomorrow ... 

# 84 [16 September 2008]

A hectic morning. I gritted my teeth and cleaned up my eight sticky etching plates. Took over an hour to get them back to the state they were in before I actually started doing anything with them ... but we won't dwell on that.

The rest of the time was spent rubbing the plaster relics with semi-skimmed milk. I remembered being told that milk smooths and soften the edges of plaster, making it a bit bone-like. Say no more - I was there.   And the technique does work pretty well. Practically all the relics are finished, but I was frantically sloshing milk onto plaster (and onto various other surfaces that weren't intended to receive it) right until the last student had left and Emma was gently rattling the keys to the department. 

On a less glamorous note, there is a terrible sickness bug going round the school, and the teachers are going down fast. All the art teachers have succumbed to some degree - poor Charley had to go home during the morning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and washing my hands frequently. I haven't got time to be ill now!

# 85 [17 September 2008]

Aargh! The sickness bug is getting a real grip on the school now. Teachers, cleaners, students, everyone. Environmental Health closed the school down this afternoon, so there was no late evening and no life drawing. I'm feeling fine, myself, but it's the kind of thing that leads you to keep asking yourself whether you're actually starting to feel a little bit ill ...

Nonetheless, it was a good day. My Fouth Form lesson first thing this morning went well. I got the students to draw their poppyheads in the form of archaeological diagrams: well, might as well use the resources you have at hand, and I do have an archaeologist as a husband! The students were bemused but soon caught on and did a great job.

The big achievement of the day was getting a metre-square stretcher made by the kind man in Design & Technology, stretching and priming a canvas, and dividing it into 16 squares, numbered in charcoal. Then I attached it to the wall upside down and there I had it - the basic structure that will enable me to have a go at making my first oil painting. I've been watching the Lower Sixth all around me working on their self portraits using exactly this starting point, so I thought I'd jump in and have a go too. Not a self portrait, I hasten to add. It'll be something Festial related, needless to say. Now I just have to decide on an image and cut it into 16 little squares to copy. Easy - maybe!

# 86 [18 September 2008]

Less talk of the dreaded bug today - but I did overhear a student telling a group of friends that it wasn't worth him going into the dining room for lunch as he would just throw it up ... hmm, so much for staying away from school for 72 hours after the last of the symptoms has departed.

Trying not to think about the possibility of having picked this thing up, I had a busy morning. My larger etching plate that hadn't really etched properly has now been rescued with the aid of sugar lift and several hours in a tank of acid. Sounds like a recipe for a great pick-me-up in itself!!

Also, I spent some time happily chopping up a photograph of one of the relics into 16 little squares and sticking them to 16 larger cardboard squares. Anything to avoid the scary moment of actually starting to apply paint to the canvas. But after asking Charley's advice on such basic things as what sort of size brush to use, how to darken colours and even which colours to put on my palette (what kind of an artist am I???!) I can report that I have now completed one square, under the watchful eye of the Skeleton.

# 87 [19 September 2008]

This weekend is a 'home weekend', so school finished a bit early and a buoyant mood prevailed. I got the long-suffering Fourth Form to turn their poppyheads into maps. I wonder whether they're counting off the days until they can have ordinary lessons again. Things like copying Leonardo drawings.

The single square I've completed of my canvas didn't look as bad as I'd feared on seeing it afresh this morning, but still I didn't quite get around to doing any more painting. It was my own fault for putting it off until halfway through the afternoon, only to discover that it was time to go home as no-one had told me about the early finish. I wonder whether it's really possible to finish it in three more working days? It may be a crazy idea, especially for someone who has never painted before and isn't getting any tuition except for hanging around trying to hear Charley's advice to the Lower Sixth as they work away on their self portraits.

Meanwhile, I remade those seven ruined plates using the new candle wick purchased yesterday afternoon on a special mission (50 minutes drive from the school). Just how crazy can things get?

I discovered today that 1200 parents are expected to descend on the school on the evening of the private view. No, not specially to attend the exhibition ... one of the biggest musical events of the year has been scheduled for the same evening. And they all have to pass the gallery on the way to the Sports Hall where the musical event takes place. Charley reckons that if we place a sandwich board strategically, indicating the presence of free wine, we should get a large crowd. Strange days.

# 88 [22 September 2008]

It was inevitable that the schedule would reach the point where you have to laugh or else you'd cry. Well, I'm not crying yet, but I'm not sure that it's possible to do all the things I've valiantly written on my 'to do' list before the exhibition goes up on Thursday. Well, not if I want to spend some time with my beloved or to sleep, that is.

Today I took the decision to stop painting. It had seemed a good idea to learn to use oil paint along with the Lower Sixth, but they have the luxury of devoting lesson after lesson to filling in their 16 squares, and they only have to wheedle "Mr Openshaw! Sirrrr ...." for Charley to saunter across in his laid-back way and impart some vital tidbit of advice. My time is running out and I'll have to learn to paint on my own, later.

When I got into school this morning I retrieved my seven little etching plates from the acid where they'd been languishing for the whole weekend, and at last they showed signs of having something on them that might print. That acid must be very weak! Anyway, I spent most of the day inking up and making print after print, and it was great. Quite meditative, in fact. I was able to think about various aspects of the schedule while I was working, and before I went home at 7.45 made yet another list!

Earlier, my Year 13 double lesson had gone OK. It was nice to see the video stills from Cley church being transformed into evocative black and white imagery by the students.

# 89 [23 September 2008]

Tuesday today, so home after lunch, having spent much of the morning gold-leafing the edges of those modrock moulds that the relics were cast in.  Plenty to do at home, though! So much still to take care of before the exhibition opens on Friday. It's hard combining the residency with making my own stuff at home and being my own curator, publicist, gallery-preparer and hanging-person (if that's the right term). Having said that, Trevor is being fantastic: passing critical comment when I'm dithering, doing a lot of the work behind the scenes (technical and domestic!) and he'll be working beside me on the installation.

Something we did together over the weekend was to put together another issue of Kalender. We finished it and got it emailed to the printer this afternoon, and I'm happy with how it's looking. Very similar to the old Kalenders really, but less chaotic as it's a kind of catalogue, and with an interview between Katherine Bulwer and the artist running through the whole thing as a thread. Katherine Bulwer, for those who haven't been following this rambling blog closely for some reason(!) died in 1487 and lies under a brass in Wood Dalling church. All I know about her is that she donated £10 in 1486 towards the repainting of the rood screen. So I can legitimately describe her as a keen patron of the arts ...

www.world-tree.co.uk/festial

# 90 [5 November 2008]

Just when I was feeling a sense of achievement from having updated this blog daily while on the three- week Gresham's residency, it all went horribly wrong! A couple of days before the private view the preparation became so utterly manic that I didn't get a chance to write anything. Then the private view happened, and I gave myself the weekend off to pick myself off the floor.

Then our internet service went off for over three weeks. And then, I had problems accessing this site.

As you can imagine, this has served to slow momentum on the recording of the exhibition, and in particular the promotional stuff I'd hoped to do elsewhere on the net.

Now, the setting up and private view seem too distant to describe in detail, except to say that Trevor and I worked madly to paint the space, find and paint plinths, make labels, make a list of works, collect the Ex Voto edition of Kalender from the printer (on the morning of the PV - nothing like cutting it fine, is there?) and hanging everything using sticky pads, nails, pins, screws, hazard tape and goodness knows what else. I missed part of the PV as I was still typing and printing out the list of works. It was nice to stop for a glass of wine, and nice to see the family and friends who attended, but the House Music Evening did play havoc with overall visitor numbers.

So I thought I'd round things off by posting a few photographs each day for maybe a week or so, just for the record.

All the pictures were taken by Trevor Ashwin. And there will be a major website overhaul with loads of new images over the next couple of days (hopefully).

www.world-tree.co.uk/festial