Thursday 25 November 2010

⎐ treasure trek

after many many charity shop trawls:
nothing floating my boat:
coming home empty handed:
till the last shop ....
these glass beauties for 10p each:
welcome additions to my dwindling collection
& replacements for those, that in the past
haven't survived dog or children:
and two bone crochet hooks
for 50p:
they were meant to be mine:

Wednesday 24 November 2010

꒽ intertwined

a new exhibition at the CoExist Galleries
curated by Amy McKenny
sees two artists exhibiting together, yet apart:
pieces by Annabel Dover
set objects with paintings:
delicious colour and strokes:
like sweets in a shop window:
lighting can't subdue the bright:
rendered mineral specimens from a
readers digest book:
past relics to the present:
her personal memory shared:
as the metronome finger wags and ticks:
she imagines herself running alongside
a tumbleweed:
the moment passed/past:

discovering that Peter Cushing lived in
Whitstable, Alex Pearl began to write
a vampire novel called
The Pearlfisher:

an account of a visit to Whitstable and 
the making of a work for the Biennale 2010:
notes, letters & thoughts from his blog
transcribed into a book:
Spaceman is a haunting yet amusing film
re-cycled from the 70's tv show UFO:
nostalgic childhood viewing:
both artists toy with our ideas of the past:
how we link object with memory:
a small glimpse into their personal worlds:
they are {as we are} uncannily similar:

Monday 22 November 2010

ꃆ forty three years later


this is a photo of Michael and me:
I don't remember it being taken:
as you can see I was small then:
it's been quite some time since that day:
so he came for a cup of tea with his
lovely lady:
to meet with Libbie and me:

Sunday 21 November 2010

ᄆᄆᄆmagentacyanyellowblack

a few months ago, at the push>process
exhibition {blogged here}
there were hints of new workshops
being held at the CoExist Gallery:
yesterday I was lucky to have a place at a
tempera workshop with Alex Chater:
he pre-prepared our images into negatives
for contact printing each process colour:
magenta, cyan, yellow & black:
the tempera process uses egg:
ammonium dichromate +
a little matt medium:
this produces the standard emulsion mix or 'stem':
the 'stem' base is mixed with magenta pigment:
this is evenly rolled onto a polypropylene
plastic paper and dried:
carefully, we placed our magenta negative
surface to surface onto the paper,
using clips to complete the registration:
placed into a contact frame and under
an ultra violet light:
exposure for my piece was 3 minutes:
after rinsing into a clearing bath for
three minutes to wash away the residual dichromate,
we used soapy rollers to clean off
the unexposed areas:
using other sponge pads {even mister muscle!} 
to remove parts of the coat until 
we were happy:
a final rinse in clean water then
dry completely:
with a magenta layer completed,
start again using a cyan coating:
at this stage I repeated both the magenta and cyan
making four layers:
rolling directly onto the dried paper:
it seemed quite scary at first,
worrying about applied pressure and
a danger of damaging the previous layers:
yellow x 2:
black x 2:
happy with the luminosity and subtle colours 
of my final print, it was cleaned of any residuals:
then soaked in white vinegar for ten minutes
and thoroughly rinsed under running water:
carefully dried:
silence
tempera print:
1/1:

{original}

Saturday 13 November 2010

ꉺꉺ spin sounds

saturdays are made for thumbing through vinyl:
select phono:
33, 45 rpm:
knowing crackles:
a sides, b sides:
sleeve notes:
instant nostalgia to days spent in bedrooms,
in bars, at discos, at gigs, with friends:
I'd forgotten how good that is:
now sharing with my 15 year old:
revolutions per minute:

♫ play to win:

{long players on the turntable today....

boys don't cry ~ the cure:
17 seconds ~ the cure
travelogue ~ the human league
fireside favourites ~ fad gadget
rattus norvegicus ~ the stranglers
penthouse & pavement ~ heaven 17
porcupine ~ echo & the bunnymen
blue bell knoll ~ the cocteau twins
inbetween days *12" ~ the cure
substance *sides 3+4 ~ new order}

Monday 1 November 2010

ᚖ the last of the line

the latest brave artist to open her home
 to the public as part of showflat ~ Heidi Wigmore:
transforming her private space into the
Von Heil Haus:
'Everything is not always what it seems behind the closed doors of a stately home'
invited to peep behind doors:
listen to sounds:
an unguided tour:
unpick the story:
clues left by historic artefacts:
items enshrouded:
ordered:
abandoned: unchanged:
not quite black and white:
edgy: unnerving:
innocence lost:

imagined or alter ego:
dark tale or half truth:


'she spent her life proud, furious,
selfish and unfeeling ....'

click here for a tour with the artist from Michaela Freeman: