What I have been working on:

Over the last year I have been working on a new digital artwork which is just back from the printers and ready to be installed for unveiling on Monday, 10th November 2014.

Here is a little teaser:

A detail from the Artwork named "EXCEPTIONAL CHANGES", which celebrates the numerous  changes which have happened at York St John university, under the leadership of Prof Fleming over the relatively short period of the past 5 years.

 It especially commemorates the handing over of the old student Association of the Colleges of Ripon and York St John, created in the 1890's to the alumni society created in 2008.

I will post full images after the unveiling.

Monthly Map Books

Folding Map (cover not yet present - this is a work in progress)

I am making Monthly Map books for the artist book  genre exhibition 'HOME' at 153 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds that is curated by Louise Atkinson to coincide with the International Artists book Fair in Leeds.  The Exhibition opens on the 11th of March and will be open until the 18th in a large Victorian House opening on  Friday 11th of  March 2011.


A lot of my work is related to intimate and domestic objects so it seems appropriate for this exhibition.   I am working on Monthly Maps.  These books will be based on source material gathered for a daily colour project in 2008 and 2009, where  washing was colour coordinated when hung to dry and photographed.  The source material covers august 2008 to April 2009.  All months haven't been processed yet, but I anticipate making Monthly maps for August, September, November, December and April, with an edition of at least two so one could be on display in the exhibition and others for sale at the fair.  They can be completely opened out and framed if wished.

Detail of sewn pages

Here is August Monthly Map, the first month of the project which started on the 15th of August 2008.

August Monthly Map 

 

Lace effect of sewn pages 

First Layer of the Portrait of a Sculptress

Working on Heritage Project

Recently I have been concentrating on the heritage project for York St John University.  This is a project which looks at the history of the colleges of Ripon and St John from their emergence in 1841 to the present day University Status 2010.  The resource has been the Archives of both Ripon and St John with a concentration on all the student photographs which documented many of those students who studied and graduated.  Students in abundance.

The name of the work is:  Alumni abundantes, 1841 - 2010.  This is based on the University Motto: Ut Vitam Habeant et Abundantius.  (That they may have live and in abundance).   Abundantes is a present participle used as an adjective form the verb abundare, meaning very approriately: overflowing, plentiful, abounding, and of plants shooting up with abundance. The last reference to plants is a nice connection to the Logo of the university which is a leaf and bud.

These layered photoworks will be printed on anodised aluminium and installed in the entrance corridor to the Quad, a corridor affectionately known as Windy Passage.  I hope the image will offer a glimps of the Wind of change and the Passage of time which has happened over the past 159 years. 

6 Panels, each 1000 x 750 mm, will form a 6 metre long display (that is 18 feet for all the imperials out there.)  Installation should be complete by 26th of March.

Patchworks in progress

I have started to produce the final layout for the daily colours project. The toned down selected photographs for each day have been printed on Khadi paper, paper made from cotton cut-offs from the t-shirt industry in India. Handmade with a lovely deckle edging.

I have laid out the images for the months of August 08 and September 08, the first two months in which I consistently recorded this daily discreet art performance and practice. Dates will be embossed on each piece of paper; some pieces will be completely blank following the layout of the western calendar system. The pieces are intended to be sewn together in the fashion of a patchwork quilt.

The images record whether the washing was dried inside or outside according to the weather and seasonal changes. The number of wet days in August are a strong reminder of the climat change which is affecting us globally and locally.



August 08
September 08

I would love at this stage for my fellow blog artist to provide some feedback about the presentation of this work in progress.

New Drawing from Hungate Dig

spout of a roman mortarium, 75x75cm, watercolour pencil on paper. first draft.

During the summer I have been escaping and volunteering one day a week at an archaeological dig in York. The area is called Hungate and being developed over the next few years. You can find information on http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/hungate/abouthungate/about1.htm I have found it fascinating, taking a glimpse at how archaeology works, how to read the soil, about finds, about context and about the people who work and volunteer in a very interesting community.
Last week we found a piece of a mortarium, an roman food processor bowl, like a pestle and mortar, and it was so interesting that I had a strong urge to draw it, follow the curves of the spout and rim we found, the colours and markings of age, but the incredible strenght and its cool pottery feel that survived 2 millenia. It is broken, so it was rubbish to the romans because unusable and found in an infill trench, but it is a treasure to me. So this is the first draft after the first day drawing and it feels absolutely wonderful to be drawing again. Slept the best in ages.