ARTISTS TALKING

# 8 [23 June 2008]

The building closes at 5pm

and there's a man shouting in the street. Yesterday

I got sunburn taking breakfast in the garden -

but that was Sunday and today it's sunny

and my head is not quite empty although empty

of good ideas. This evening when I'm home early

I will make cheesecake.  

# 7 [20 June 2008]

My footsteps on tarmac, Islington, the street,

Golden Lane, through the front door, stone,

the staircase, the corridor, parquet, the staircase,

through the door of my studio, carpet. The staircase,

worn down by shoes - by footsteps in shoes -

goes up three floors, goes down three floors. 

# 6 [25 May 2008]

Another six months to come up with A Good Idea.

# 5 [20 February 2008]

Cordwainers  

Make safe long hair and any loose clothing.

Use wrinkle chase rollers for leather only.   

Welt stitcher, welt beater, dust extractor,

roughing and scouring machine. Insole press,

sole activator, leather-stitching machine. 

Wrinkle chase. Tack-side laster.

Men’s sequential heel-attacher.

Eclipse nails. Buttress nails. Blue, waxed tacks.  

Diana wedge sole, Diana mule sock,

Desert boot, insole block. Helen, welted.

Harry sole. Diana full sock, Diana sock. 

Forepart toe laster, backpart flanger.

Skiving machine (for stiffeners only).

Outsole stitcher. Sole attacher. 

Sole press, sole profiler, backpart moulder.

HVA heat-setter, backpart activator.

Sole-splitting machine. 

Leather-sole splitter, auto edge-trimmer.

Skeleton, one size. Grannie, one size.

Sanding machine, upper conditioner. 

Clicking and closing. Bottom stain.

Blondie insole. Forward only.

Joyce sole. Jimmy sole. Moccasin, size 8.

# 4 [18 February 2008]

So many stairs to climb! I trip across

the rooftop to the door of my studio. On a good day

I love art and today the sky is clear and my tights

aren't damp. I have an envelope in my bag

with copies of paper patterns – cycling skirts,

capes, horse-riding coats. Blue sky over Barbican!

I will cut shapes and think in three dimensions

and start to fold paper like fabric like paper

until it looks like something I hadn’t imagined before.

Frank O’Hara’s fingers on his typewriter –

he made making things up seem so effortless.

My fingers are cautious with the scissors.

# 3 [15 February 2008]

Not enough time in the studio this week, but a bit of time for taking photographs. Consequently, LCF has been edited to a series of images in my head...

# 2 [6 February 2008]

It is still raining and I am almost level

with the single edgeless cloud that spreads its debt

over Barbican. It looks bored without any wind

to shift it on. The computer works, it is the only other

living thing, and the fan heater. I put on my damp jacket,

my red mittens, and the heater at my ankles. I am just like

my grandfather in the fifties (they say Winter’s getting warmer,

but I’m sure that studios have a different climate) except,

lacking his inspiration, I may get still colder

and colder still before I can come up with an idea that moves me

away from the window. I could wear a raincoat

when I walk from Holloway in the mornings?

But that’s where forward-planning comes from! Weather

from the North drawing me into contemplation like a needle

pulling cotton. This is not predictable, being art,

and not insignificant, since I, amongst others, am waiting

to see what I do. Downstairs, students are stitching

shoes and bags and I hear nothing of it from here. Across

the roof the sky takes up residence in the puddles, as ever;

I will see what marks it makes.

# 1 [1 February 2008]

'I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world'

- Walt Whitman, Song of Myself