talking in church and cardigan arts triangle news...

my everyday working life is quiet solitary, and most of my thinking is internalised - i don't really have to explain myself much, or think on my feet. most of the time here it's just me and the pencils and the coffee pot and 6music or itunes.
so whilst getting out occasionally to talk about what i do is undoubtedly averygoodthing, it's also a bit daunting...

my 'leeds resurrection' pics have been on display in a local church recently, and so the other sunday i was invited along to be interviewed about them, and it was great. sue was there, and she told me that i didn't make a fool of myself, which is always a relief [and, from sue, very high praise indeed...]
people seemed interested in the work, and there were some good questions; and it's always a good thing to be made to think about your work.
it was nice to see those images again, to be challenged about aspects of them and to be excited by them again.

then last sunday i took part in the annual cardigan arts triangle day. it's an afternoon in a small area of headingley when local residents open up their houses and invite artists to display their work in there. i was invited to show my stuff at the tapper's home, and apart from a couple of incidents of blu-tac theft, they were the perfect hosts :-)
like an idiot i didn't take any photos, but here's a couple of pics that i stole from lee jackson's twitter feed...


[the figure lurking in the background is lynne tapper]
after a slow start, we had good numbers showing up; some really good conversations, a few very complimentary remarks, and some sales. it was a great thing to have been a part of and i'll definitely be doing it again next year [if invited!]

the bus trips project seemed to grab people's imaginations, and i got asked a few times what my next project was going to be.

and i've been thinking about that - it's been nice this year not to have the background noise of the printing project going on, but i am starting to miss it, if i'm honest.

so - as a memo to myself as anything - here's a few ideas that i'm toying with...

1. a leeds alphabet. i'll spend some time in and around the city drawing letters and bits of nice font-age that i can find [there's some amazing little bits of architectural stuff going on in leeds if you look for it] and compile an alphabet of individual linoprinted letters from those observations.

2. i'm 45. it always bugged me that i didn't do anything specific to celebrate my 33-and-a-third birthday, and i don't want to have to wait till my 78th [if i make it that far] so this seems like a good year to celebrate my collection of vinyl... i'm thinking of dusting off my old collection of 7 inch singles and selecting the top 40 to immortalise in print form. again, typography may well figure quite heavily.

3. something stupidly ambitious, and - again- music related, along the lines of seth's dominion city work or anthony green's 'resurrection' sculptural painting... only a bit quirkier, with more papier mache [and not as great as either of those things]...

on the greenbelt blog...

our wild thing prints are on the greenbelt blog...

thank you, david dark :-)

so the talk at st edmunds went ok last night. i don't think that i said anything too dumb, so that counts as a big result in my book :-)

in prep for the service though, i skimmed back through the opening chapter of david dark's 'everyday apocalypse' [i thought that a question of Christian Art vs. art made by christians might have come up, and dark has some good things to say about that.]

anyway, just re-reading the bits in the book that i'd underlined was kind-of-thrilling - i'd forgotten just what a great book it is, and how important it had been to me the first time i'd read it...

here's a selection -

"We were made for something better than we're getting and whatever it is we're settling for..."

"The present work concerns itself with all manner of media that highlights, exposes or lampoons the moral bankruptcy of our imaginations while teasing us toward a better way of looking at, and dwelling within, the world..."

"i'm grateful for and in dire need of whatever art can keep me awake and alive to the mystery, whatever keeps me paying attention, whatever reminds me that none of us (and no ideology) are possessors of the final say..."

"to reimagine the now is our work and our pleasure. look hard. it is at hand..."

people of leeds: a date for your diaries...

i'll be interviewed about art and stuff in the service at st edmunds church in roundhay this sunday evening, KO 6.30pm.
they have my leeds resurrection pics on display in there at the mo...
can't guarantee that i'll make much sense, but david the vicar there is great, so even if my answers are rubbish, at least you know that the questions will be interesting :-)

and i think that there'll be a Q&A time, so you'll get the chance to ask me what my favourite colour is, and where i get my ideas from... :-)

the gang

just realised i never posted it, but i made and took these little wild things figures to Greenbelt to help decorate the Hub info desk.
originally they were going to be part of an animation project we were going to run, but that never came to pass.

at the end of the weekend the various members of the gang were all re-homed, each one going away with a deserving someone who'd put in a shift on the visual arts side of things this year...

luke leighfield and jose vanders

this is a rather lovely version of a great tune and you can have it for free.

go grab a copy...

finished print

the finished versions of the blue mary m print from that last post.

i feel like i've somewhat belatedly hit on something with the lino printing - whereas before i was often transcribing the line of my pencil drawings onto the block, in the past few prints i'm using shapes and solid areas of colour to build the images.

this print is of course available to purchase in my etsy store.
you can still use the code LEEDSBUS66 there to get a 10% discount on anything in my shop...

more lino-printing work in process pics...

three-colour blue Mary M print, with the two blue layers drying, and one sample printing of the final black layer just to try it out...

my desk is a mess. needs tidying, badly :-)

harry baker as max, beginning the wild rumpus at GB11