studio number three - this time its for keeps

Move day into the new studio,,was amazing the lack of space that I had in the previous studio.

quick update

I have applied for the one of two posts at Blackburn College doing the AA2A program. Hopefully I'll be making assemblages and bricolage again and interacting with students. Also, I'd love to put a show on of the work that I'll be doing there if the application is successful.

A friend has given up his studio in the same building as me and I am planning on moving in today and tomorrow. It is a bigger room with a lockable door and is a little quieter thane the one I am using at the moment. It has bigger wall space so I'll be able to utilize this.

I have started experimentation with a new project that involves my weekly medication/blister pack management trays. These trays contain most of my 23 meds that I need to take and I am quite interested in the breakdown of structure each compartment that holds my meds. I plan to make casts out of Plaster of Paris and to potentially show these at same stage.

The vintage/art stall went successfully and I made same money. I sold some of my clothes and some artworks as well, which was good.


Vintage/Art Stall


Experiment using Patching Plaster

AA2A and Vintage Market

I have been made aware of the scheme to get artists into college/universities to work alongside students and to further their own practise. Blackburn College has joined this scheme and I am contemplating applying for one of the only four places available. I normally work with assemblage and hard edged collage/bricolage and this had to be shelved as I haven't got wood working tools sufficient for the job.

One of the stipulations of the AA2A course is to give 4 lectures on art practise and to help students when needed and I think I'll relish that. I want to go into a PGCE but don't feel right to do it at the moment and this may be the incentive I need.

Also..I have enter the world of vintage market and craft stalls. My second vintage stall in St Mary's Centre in Clitheroe and is part of the Crafty/Vintage group. I'll be selling menswear, records and framed artworks, cards and polaroids.

Preston:Bolton

two altogether different photograbs for two altogether different cities


Preston


Bolton

Harris Art Gallery and NEO:Art Gallery

Both sculptures at the Harris Art Gallery in Preston










Various work from NEO:artists in the shopping centre at Bolton

After a whistle-stop tour of Preston in order to find some cheap books at their Oxfam bookshop and to have a look in the Art Gallery/Museum im Preston and finding the ma
in gallery in changeover at the minute, we decided to fly over to Bolton as qwe had some business to attend in the area.

When we parked on the multi-level, we preceeded on down to the pedestrian area and caught a glimpse of a pop-up gallery by Bolton based NEO:artists. I was quite taken aback by the work on show and they had some very nice text work by Denis Whiteside. I noticed and remembered his work from when I exhibited at the Didsbury Priory awhile back.

I managed to have a little chat to Jason Simpson who had some interesting plaster and spray paint work in the gallery and remebered that we follow each other on twitter. It's always a little strange when you bump into somebody who you don't really know but 'follow' on twitter in real life situations. There's always that slighty deja-vu..metaphysical aspect to it.

All in all, I was glad that we came to Bolton in order to see some contemporary work set in a non-place such as the Market Hall in Bolton.

Queer Art Show 4

Last week, I applied to be part of the Queer Art Show 4 which was situated within the Penthouse NQ on Hilton Street in Hilton House. The show is a protest against the commercialisation and change of etchic of Manchester Pride and as the title suggests, it is now in it's four year. Originally the show was set within Kraak Gallery and last year ir was taken to the streets near Sackville Street. I always wanted to be involved with the show being a gay artist and being gay and being an artist and this year I thought I had work strong enough to show.

The work that I decided to show was the triptych of Corporate Succinct Poetry which I have been working on. I had to source the frames from charity shops, respray them with lacquer and then rejigg the callages so they world look good. I then sought out the venue that was on the cusp off the Northern Quarter and Piccadilly.

I hadn't been down that way before and quite like the medley of old buildings and corporate towers. The Hilton House is a disused 1960s office blockand looks like it has been kept in aspic on the inside, which isn't a bad thing but quite a change really. The stairs from the top floor down are quite amazing with blue and white tiled pool at the bottom which looks like they had a fish pond at one point. I then proceeded to the elevator which was ramshackle but had a really up to date buttoning system. This place has character unlike my disused office block/studio which is all clean and corporate.

When I finally reached the top floor I had a breathtaking vista of the Northern Quarter/Ancoats and a small area of Piccadilly Gardens. I was meet by Roseanne and her little dog and had a pleasant chat about the space and the logistics of the up and coming exhibition/event. I had to leave quite quickly as being my anniversary and my partner organising a meal, I needed to exit.

I love the building though, very much modernist but quite personable. I'd love to get up on the roof though and have a barbeque or something..

After working in the studio from 11am and the time ticking to 6pm, I had to get the event pretty sharpish. It is only a 20 minute walk over so I didn't get there too late. Sadly, I was on a punch card system again on the night as I had a train to catch but I spent a few hours hanging around the Penthouse. I liked some of the work on show, most specifically Debbie Sharp's Framed assemblage, Sian Williams' Is Your Gate Clean triptych of video work that contained two film based (8mm I think, I may be wrong) with projectors and a piece of work that was on the wall but was unnamed. I love assemblage and being the core element to my own work, I felt drawn to Sharp's work and just thought Williams' work was serene.

Jez Dolan's wreath-like screenprint was very spectral and HOMO_CULT was gaudy as ever but quite fun. I did a show a few years ago with these guys and quite liked their work then as well. Andrew Adshead's work was very kitch and strange but very yeah but I missed the Gary Fisher/Roseanne Robertson sound work that I looking forward to as I had to get my train. Stirred Poetry was interesting that started the nights proceedings. Some of the poetry/prose was really er..stirring. I am sorry but two friends arrived and as we hadn't seen each other for awhile, we talked a little animately. I got some good news that night and had to celebrate.

Other than that, I had quite a good experience at the event and am priviliged to have been part of it. I will certainly visit the Penthouse again as a viewer and hopefully as an exhibitor.


Stairwell in Hilton House


Stairwell in Hilton House


My work and a bit of Andrew Adshead


Corridor and No Smoking sign


View towards Piccadilly


Unnamed PCB work


Debbie 'Elvis' Sharp


Unnamed PCB work


HOMO-CULT


HOMO-CULT


New Graff in the Northern Quarter

BDP architecture being ripped apart

The BDP architecture group designed the Market Halls of Blackburn and the Preston Bus Station and Car Park in the sixties. The Preston Bus Station has a lot of press and admires but the Blackburn Markets has been left out in the cold..which I find frankly offensive and bewildering. The same constructs and company but the whiff of snobbishness is suffocating. It is basically scariligious.

It was a beautiful cavernous building, very modern in a sixties way and a huge conch shell styled roofing that had to be bespoke built. I will miss this building and I think many still miss the Thwaites Arcade that was demolished to be intergrated into the now defunct and 'modernised' shopping precient.



The last bit standing as of 12 August 2013 at 8pm.