ARTISTS TALKING

# 99 [8 April 2008]

COMPLETED SERIES OF PRINTS

Green did not work and I went back to brown.  Had to work on an unfamiliar table and the 'snap' was all wrong.  After a time of things going wrong, I began to get a rhythm again and completed the series of 'allotment sewings'. 

# 98 [7 April 2008]

BACK AT THE UNIVERSITY RESIDENCY

Today I went back to finish my prints for the Residency at the University of Brighton.  Did a complete screen from start to finish.   Cleaning off, coating, exposing, washing out, drying, onto the screen table, printing each of the stitches onto the vegetable names I printed in February, washed the screen off.

These sowings/sewings are in black and brown.  Tomorrow I hope to do another screen using green on black.

Jiggered. 

# 97 [3 April 2008]

TALK ABOUT THE WORK

We had a meeting to start planning our talk for Talk About the Work at Claremont Studios, Hastings later in April.

We will focus on our collaborative partnership in Breaking Ground and see if we can widen our understanding of the way we work together/alongside and take this forwards into Stage 2 of the project.  We will invite the audience to collaborate with us for the evening and open a conversation about the work and the partnership and artistic collaboration.

We have had a break while concentrating on other projects and it will be interesting to see where we stand in relation to the allotment and taking the work indoors to develop in Project Rooms.  

It is sunny today and I will go to the allotment and take an April picture for this blog. 

# 96 [16 March 2008]

PRESENT

I have been absent for a month.  Now back in the world of the well. I have prints to finish, thoughts and threads to pick up - time to start sewing/sowing again.  

Broad bean and runner bean seeds are sprouting.  Seed potatoes and onion sets are waiting for a sunny day to be planted.  

I have to arrange a couple of days to complete my residency at the University, do some tutorials and a presentation.     

Talking to a visitor at our Open Studios about the emphasis in our culture on the visual, made me think about listening to the allotment.  Traffic noise, the occasional squawk from a crow, the wind blowing dried stems, fork against chalk.  What is the language for sound?  Onomatopoeic, metaphor, synonym... squawk, whistle, whisper, clink, hum....  Can listening open us to a wider experience of a place, a different feel.

# 95 [25 February 2008]

THINKING THROUGH PRINTING

I am finding thinking through printing an interesting process, and one which perhaps I should do more of. Its benefits are something to do with the combination of decision-making which has to be done in order to get anything on to paper at all, and the changes which occur through the printing process.

Been  thinking broadly today about how Roz & I can tackle this idea of a constructed "Space for Two Artists". We'll have to use simple, low-tech methods, because neither of us are particularly technically minded. Ray was talking about Japanese paper making today, and the Japanese use of architectural paper screens...food for thought.

# 94 [22 February 2008]

PUBLIC SPACE, PRIVATE SPACE, SHARED SPACE

After the earlier frustrations of foot-print-making this week I decided to leave that line of enquiry for a little while & focus on something new. For some time now we have been thinking about developing our ideas around the notion of building a shelter, somewhere which can be "A Space For Two Artists" during the next phase of our Breaking Ground project. I decided to think about this by drawing & started to make lots of little images around this idea. Next week I'll try printing them & see what happens.

# 93 [22 February 2008]

In some ways it has been a frustrating week. Haven't really managed to get into a rythm. Couldn't get in to the Uni versity for three continuous days due to other commitments, and my focus and train of thought has been fragmented - and it shows. On Monday I was keen to develop my ideas for footprint tracks and trails, but that didn't seem as fruitful as I'd hoped. The image of my inky screen seems the most interesting thing I've produced!

# 92 [21 February 2008]

ABSCESS

Been away, absent, from the University Residency with a tooth abscess.  I looked abscess up: from the latin for going away, separating.  Absent is also from latin but from a dfferent root: to be away, not present.

Looked up the latin for the vegetable names:  tomato is Solanum lycopersicum; leek is Allium porrum; pea is Pisum sativum.  

All this reminds me of school again, roots of words, latin lessons; and of The School for Artists that we constructed on the Allotment Residency. School has framed my life- born in a school, can't seem to leave school, always want to learn more.

# 91 [19 February 2008]

SEED NAMES

Been fascinated with the names given to vegetable seeds - they speak of close relationships with growing, of history, of handing on and handing down, of people and their experience on allotments over generations.  The names are so different from the plain name, the official name, the latin botanical name. 

Have screenprinted selected seed names for tomatoes, peas, broad beans, leeks, dwarf runner beans, climbing French beans, carrots.  

# 90 [15 February 2008]

MORE BACKGROUNDS

Spent ages setting up to print more backgrounds.  Still getting small smears in the ink but some of them are ok.  Want to finish some of these first ideas in a day or two and spend the last week trying out something new.